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Daydream fund challenge part 4

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  • choille
    choille Posts: 9,710
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    Maggie - Hope it goes well. What a stress & worry for you.

    Alfie Hope Mum makes a speedy recovery, poor thing.

    Just been listing stuff but ebay is slow at the mo, but you have to try eh?

    Lovely day here but got little done as I feel a bit sluggish with the cough cough.
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741
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    Hope Mum is comfortable now, alfie. It's a worry, and the panic button always seems to be in the wrong place. HW would keep switching hers off, but regardless, it wasn't reachable when she fell. I couldn't get my Dad one either, because I knew he'd mess about with it, like he did with everything else....:(

    How many pages, maggie? Is anyone going to read all that?:eek: I thought I was getting verbose when I sent 3 pages to the GGF, although I have plenty more if they want it. We may hear something about the conservatory from them by next week; they say a fortnight. We can't get the floor done inside until our builder comes back from Oz, so it makes little difference now.:undecided

    Yesterday, I put my shoulder out, trying to mend the cloakroom toilet, which the builder helpfully boxed-in too well. It's a long story, but the seat nut came undone, so every time someone put the soft-close lid down, it would suddenly shoot sideways at the end of its travel, making folk think they'd broken it. :o

    Anyway, I tried to tighten it up, but because of the daft angle, I dropped the special nut, which disappeared, and there was no way I'd get it back without taking the pan out. Going on-line, I discovered to my horror that a new set of fixing bolts were......£33! How can they justify that? :mad:

    So..... armed with spanners, washers and and different a shake-proof nut stolen from shelving in the van, I managed to get into the 9" gap between the toilet pan and the wall and put them onto the offending bolt. But could I get out again? Only with DW pulling my legs! At some point the shoulder went, but it doesn't feel so bad this morning.

    Living room floor duly concreted :p, I can go outside again today, when it promises to be sunny till late afternoon.:j
  • ukmaggie45
    ukmaggie45 Posts: 2,968
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    Oh Alfie, what a worry for you. Hope your Mum is getting more comfortable and that she's well looked after in hospital.

    Choille, how long have you had that cough? Anything that goes on over about 2 weeks is worrying. Might be worth seeing your GP? Only mention since I've recently been diagnosed with asthma - check up for over 65s at GP practice last year as part of Liverpool's Healthy Lung campaign (we're the UK capital for lung cancer). Part of it was spirometry, that huffy thing you blow into, which showed I had poor lungs. Had chest CT which was clear, and full spirometry at local walk in clinic (though it was appt not walk in) where they found I reacted positively to ventolin. I was really surprised, as haven't been getting breathless as am too knackered to do anything energetic enough to get breathless! :o
    Davesnave wrote: »
    How many pages, maggie? Is anyone going to read all that?:eek:

    The PIP form itself is around 40 pages, then there's the result of it. Then my Mandatory Reconsideration letter (8 pages plus letter of evidence from neighbour), GP and Councillor's letters as requested by ATOS after my MR request, and the result of that. Then the forms I had to fill in for the Tribunal Service. It soon mounts up!

    But most of it (over 100 pages) is all my available med records from GP practice since I became ill back in 1992! A lot of that isn't relevant, but my advocate said it was best to send it all, that way the Tribunal can't accuse me of cherry picking the med records for stuff to back up my claim. Oh, and there's the 3 photos of the ramp we had built at caravan to make it accessible for me - side shot, then one looking up it and one looking down it. We have steps to back door and front door, ramp leads onto decking that wraps around front of caravan to the front door. I feel very unsafe on the steps. :( Then there's my complaint to ATOS and their email reply to my MP and the letter they sent me. :rotfl:
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741
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    Gone quiet in here again. Is it my turn to put a shilling in the meter?:D

    The good weather we're having here hasn't quite turned into great progress. Yesterday, just after I'd lit the second huge pyre of stuff from hedging, the wind switched direction and then died altogether half an hour later. So, my fire ended up in the wrong bit of the heap and there was no roaring furnace effect, vital when burning green wood. Most of the heap is still there. :(:o

    Today, we managed to switch hen houses, so that the land they've been on can be rested for a year, or maybe for ever if we relocate things when renewing fences. I also got all the nest boxes, perches etc Creocoted, and the hen orchard cut, but then a gentleman with a set of drain rods arrived in the garden.....:huh:

    He explained that our the neighbour had " a bit of a drain issue" and could he get at their septic tank? Well, yes, he could, but as soon as I looked into the first inspection chamber, I knew he'd be with us for a while. I think they must have been down to just one flush a day next door! :eek:

    As predicted, the nice man was with us for ages. I learned a lot about drain cleaning. When the final obstruction cleared it was like.....well, the word 'tsunami' and the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" come to mind.:rotfl:

    Anyway, that was my afternoon gone. :o

    How's Mum, alfie?
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 16,073
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    Hoping that all those going through tough times are coping and improving.

    Dave - the light on our sewage treatment system has been flashing for the last 24 hours (or possibly longer - it can only really be seen at night if I happen to go into the utility room). A neighbour 'manages' the system, so hopefully the engineers will turn up before there is a problem (we've tried the 'switch it off/switch it on again' approach a couple of times in case it was a power surge, which is often the case). I'm hoping I don't have to get too involved...

    I'm off work at the moment after a minor op last week. While I've been feeling feeble I've finally got round to ordering trees just in time to get them as bare root and they should be arriving next week (along with other plants I've ordered that I don't yet have space to plant...). I'm just wondering how big the holes need to be as I may need to pace myself ... I've got 7 1.5m trees (flowering cherry/quince/crab apple) arriving so any advice would be much appreciated! I still have a little time to plan...
  • DaftyDuck
    DaftyDuck Posts: 4,609
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    I haven't dared light my string of bonfires yet! They are huge. HUGE!! :D The combination of a wife with a digger, and my stormy "Mistress" Doris means plenty of tidying up for me. I haven't had anything like the time I wanted for doing it, and I still have four wheelie bins packed out with hedging plants, and another pallet on the way for the weekend. I got another 80 plants in late afternoon, a mix of hawthorn, a few blackthorn, some hazel, a few crab apples and wild pear, and a sweet chestnut (well back into the woodland!). However, that leaves around 450 left to go before the next lot arrive, and the weather is too warm and sunny for planting. Oh well, most should take. Or not...

    My advice for Greenbee would be plant the trees in holes big enough for the roots to be well spread, but not too deep. I make sure I break the soil up well below the planting depth. Fill in lightly with soil, giving a light lift & shake to the tree to help roots settle and spread into the soil, then add more soil. Firm down well with a boot, leaving a slight dimple. Bare-root plants at this time of year need plenty of water, as they may well take off almost immediately. If time allows, fill the hole with water before planting, and allow it all to drain away, then plant as above. Once planted, more water, and keep watering throughout the first year's summer, as the roots may well not be able to support the tree yet. I leave a slight dimple, to help collect any rainwater, but some say this restricts root spread...

    A stake helps stop rock in the wind, but attach it low, so the tree can still move the upper stem and branches.

    Now, Dave can tell me what I'm doing wrong, and I'll go and redo all my hedging :o Not that I've been able to treat all my hedging so well; some has just had to be rammed in, partly as it's infilling gaps in the existing hawthorn and blackthorn hedges. Ouch! :o I do find it difficult to prune the plants back as one should once they are planted... It just feels so defeatist, even if I know it helps good growth later. Oh well!

    Anyway, early night, hope my back feels better for another plantathon tomorrow. I should do a couple of hours early, and a couple more late... I am well behind schedule as it is!

    Sheep and lambs are doing well. We share a trestle picnic table with them, and they do boing about rather while we're sitting there.

    Best wishes to all, hoping for wellth for those at illth, and wealth to any who need it. ZZZzzzzz
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 16,073
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    Thanks Dafty :)

    Water isn't a problem here - the soil is pretty soggy and the chances are that any hole I dig will be close to the water table!

    I planted my hedging plants a couple of weeks ago and like you find it hard to cut them back as much as I should do. Getting anything into the gaps to fill in was challenging due to the existing roots so I'm just going to have to hope they take. Thankfully it's rained quite a bit in this part of the world, although if it stays dry I guess I should give them some extra - good thing the outside tap is fixed. I need to make the most of my sick leave...

    Hope the boinging of the lambs helps with the backache from the planting...
  • DaftyDuck
    DaftyDuck Posts: 4,609
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    Hope the boinging of the lambs helps with the backache from the planting...

    Nope, it doesn't :mad:
    ....

    'Cos the likkle lambs like to jump on me for frolics and cuddles... and they now weigh up to 20kg! :D:D:D

    Still, nothing beats a combined hug from a flock of enthusiastic lambs !

    I may well come to regret this in a few months time, especially as the Norfolk Horns have... well ... huge horns! :D
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 16,073
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    DaftyDuck wrote: »
    Nope, it doesn't :mad:
    ....

    'Cos the likkle lambs like to jump on me for frolics and cuddles... and they now weigh up to 20kg! :D:D:D

    Still, nothing beats a combined hug from a flock of enthusiastic lambs !

    I may well come to regret this in a few months time, especially as the Norfolk Horns have... well ... huge horns! :D

    Well I guess the point at which you can't cope with them jumping all over you might be the point at which they move into the freezer :cool:
  • DaftyDuck
    DaftyDuck Posts: 4,609
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    greenbee wrote: »
    Well I guess the point at which you can't cope with them jumping all over you might be the point at which they move into the freezer :cool:

    I suspect the only use of the freezer where this lot are concerned is for the ice cubes for their water, come summer heatwaves. This lot are pets.... The next lot, that’s up for negotiation!
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