The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: waterbuffalofarmer on May 09, 2016, 09:15:32 pm
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if you had your own desert island to retreat to what would do on it and most importantly what would you take there? let us say desert island discs in real life :)
I would take a deck chair, a cocktail bar and a nice swimsuit and straw hat, I would be able to sit with my feet in the water gazing out to sea as the sun dissapeared into the waves, dreamy I know ;D. Please feel free to comment below, but think carefully. you can take whatever you want.
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I would take a drum kit and learn to play! Loudly! No neighbour's to disturb, it would be excellent. I have always had a dream of being a rock and roll drummer.
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I know what I wouldn't take - the phone or computer!!!!
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Bug spray, worm medication, darned good health insurance and a private jet a gatling gun and lots of ammo... there's lots of nasties in paradise and lots of pirates in the carribean.
I probably mentioned before that I was close to buying a plantation in Jamaica before coming to wales.. had the agreement in one hand and pen in the other. The worries that stopped me was the issue of cost of good healthcare (airfares to Miami and fees), the beaurocratic obstacles and bribe culture to deal with their intervention buying and lacking trust in the care of my dogs through their quarantine system. Paradoxically I wasn't at all worried about the crime culture.. not so much of an issue in a rural community with commonsense prevention and a good jamaican built house is to Cat5 hurricane codes.
WBF - I spent a lot of holidays in Jamaica.. the sunset over Negril beach with a red stripe in one hand.... superb:
(http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t361/Peter_Knapp/IMG_0832_zpsexjdefls.jpg)
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Bug spray, worm medication, darned good health insurance and a private jet a gatling gun and lots of ammo... there's lots of nasties in paradise and lots of pirates in the carribean.
I probably mentioned before that I was close to buying a plantation in Jamaica before coming to wales.. had the agreement in one hand and pen in the other. The worries that stopped me was the issue of cost of good healthcare (airfares to Miami and fees), the beaurocratic obstacles and bribe culture to deal with their intervention buying and lacking trust in the care of my dogs through their quarantine system. Paradoxically I wasn't at all worried about the crime culture.. not so much of an issue in a rural community with commonsense prevention and a good jamaican built house is to Cat5 hurricane codes.
WBF - I spent a lot of holidays in Jamaica.. the sunset over Negril beach with a red stripe in one hand....
[member=16228]pgkevet[/member] it looks superb, feeling rather jealous now! Nice suggestions guys, keep em coming!
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I would take a drum kit and learn to play! Loudly! No neighbour's to disturb, it would be excellent. I have always had a dream of being a rock and roll drummer.
And I would take my bagpipes. I can't play them well but how lovely to practise without upsetting somebody. Also it would keep the pirates away!
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I would have to be active because I get bored easily.
I would need a fast boat and a slow boat depending on what mood I was in. I need someone ( a normal human being) to talk to but definitely nobody who has been on the telly - ever!
I would take a dog or three and the biggest, widest grin I have.
.....oh and some tea bags!
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Desert island? Hot one? No way - I'd hate it. I need trees :tree: and rain :raining: and greenery and plenty of space and animals :dog: :dog: :sheep: :sheep: :chook: :chook: and a veggie garden :garden: and.......well, Scotland :idea:
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[member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] desert island can me any isand you choose it to be, desert meaning deserted ;D
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[member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] desert island can me any isand you choose it to be, desert meaning deserted ;D
I'd still hate it :roflanim:
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I'd take all my tools (excluding the electric ones obviously). And my dog :).
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Today I'd just take myself!!
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My goats to start with. And then more animals. My best friend and I decided a while ago that if we ever get fed up with our husbands we would get a smallholding together so it could easily be on a desert island. We would need hens and ducks and she wants geese. We'd need a goat shed and sheds for the other livestock and plenty of feed for them and us. A house for us as well, that is big enough for our children and grandchildren to visit - occasionally. And lots of sunshine with rain at night to help our crops grow.
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without a shadow of doubt I would make it an island for turtles to breed on, with me being shall we say soul protector of them? A safe haven for turtles, one of my favourite animals in the whole world, I have yet to mert one though ::)
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Just Juke :)
Oh and Milly.
And a knife
And a cigarette lighter
Hmm quite a few things actually!
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without a shadow of doubt I would make it an island for turtles to breed on, with me being shall we say soul protector of them? A safe haven for turtles, one of my favourite animals in the whole world, I have yet to mert one though ::)
Someone needs a holiday :)
https://blog.virgin-atlantic.com/t5/Our-Places/Caribbean-Conservation-Sea-Turtles-in-Jamaica/ba-p/10574#.VzOIK75xKR4 (https://blog.virgin-atlantic.com/t5/Our-Places/Caribbean-Conservation-Sea-Turtles-in-Jamaica/ba-p/10574#.VzOIK75xKR4)
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And I would take my bagpipes. I can't play them well but how lovely to practise without upsetting somebody. Also it would keep the pirates away!
Well if it was a Johnny Depp as a pirate he'd be welcome on my island ;D
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I would be building a raft to escape. my list of things needed to keep animals for food and grow my veg and fruit would be massive. Then I would need my tools. Rather stay at home and just shelter here when it gets too hot.
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I would be building a raft to escape. my list of things needed to keep animals for food and grow my veg and fruit would be massive. Then I would need my tools. Rather stay at home and just shelter here when it gets too hot.
You lack imagination.. or youth. Given the youth and energy of times past, a nice tropical island with coconut, breadfruit, mango, lychee etc and importantly a good stand of large bamboo and you start to get going.. find a heap of shells or limestone and you make your own cement, gunpowder..no problem, specially if you have a bat cave or enough time to fill a few barrels of urine. A nice waterfall for power.. Some steel and basic tools would be nice 'cos that does get harder to DIY..
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Well if it was a Johnny Depp as a pirate he'd be welcome on my island ;D
Only if he comes in character. I stayed up to see him on Graham Norton last night, and I wish I hadn't bothered. I know the man can articulate; he does it in all his film roles. On the chat show however he was almost incoherent. Not sexy, not one bit.
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Well if it was a Johnny Depp as a pirate he'd be welcome on my island ;D
Only if he comes in character. I stayed up to see him on Graham Norton last night, and I wish I hadn't bothered. I know the man can articulate; he does it in all his film roles. On the chat show however he was almost incoherent. Not sexy, not one bit.
Thing is I have noticed that he is actually very shy in real life, he just plays hilarious sexy characters but he isn't exactly quite like that in real life. We expect to see them all like they are in the films which they star in, but in reality they're nothing like what we're expecting, hence the term good actor, i thought he was rather sensible, maybe also very tired too and I noticed he hated it when Graham norton hit the chair button.
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Thanks for the reply Pgkevet.
I don't think that I lack imagination or have lost my youth. I gave up a lucrative professional life, sold up and moved to France to live a very activate and simple life. I use all that I have access to , be it sand that I dig from the lake shore in the summer, stone I gather or the timber that I fell for fuel nod building.
Given our climate is probably warmer than yours and we do not have to flee 24/7 shopping or the intense nod persistent pressures of urban or rural life in the Uk I have no need to live on a desert island.
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Sorry if i sounded at all insulting - that i didn't mean. But your suggestion that a tropical isle would need more resources just tickled me. I looked up where you are and for sure warmer and earlier seasons and more growing options. Personally I'd love a climate where I could harvest tropical stuff - just the beaurocracy and conflict that goes with it when one gets really tropical is sad.
I'm sure you can grow better figs and likely some citrus where you are but bananas, mango, breadfruit, coconut need warmer still.
We also tend to forget how innovative our forebears were... when it was normal to hand-hew stone and timber and DIY mortar and a village would get together to smelt ore and any scrap iron would be re-forged and re-purposed 'cos it was so expensive or hard work to make.
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A newcomer in our next hamlet has made his forge and accepts eggs veg even bread in multiple payments for his work. Not sure that he has heard of tropical fruit but he has moved 400 km to live alone in what he tells me is his idyllic life.
Days when you can not gather food or work because of the heat get a bit tiresome and a few hours on the beach or around a pool can also be a challenge when hot.
That said I can understand why some want to move to a desert island.
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A newcomer in our next hamlet has made his forge and accepts eggs veg even bread in multiple payments for his work. Not sure that he has heard of tropical fruit but he has moved 400 km to live alone in what he tells me is his idyllic life.
Days when you can not gather food or work because of the heat get a bit tiresome and a few hours on the beach or around a pool can also be a challenge when hot.
That said I can understand why some want to move to a desert island.
Not move merely stay there a few times in a year, an escape point. Where I live its about fitting into the local community which I may have done, but I get rather tired of other people poking noses into my business.
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Granted that high summer in jamaica can get periods of temps in the 30's and oppressive during the day but islands usually get sea and land breezes to cool things morning and evening. The trick being to pick those times for work and either noon siestas or go spear fishing. Of course a desert island with aircon solves that ;D .
Given time i could probably conjure up the plans for a tall chimney for the draught and some evaporative cooling for the inflow from my handy waterfall....or have day quarters in a limestone cavern: just not the Windsor caves with several thousand species of mosquito and feet thick guano. If memory serves the town of Falmouth (jamaica) had running water before Washington (and is also home to luminescent algae in it's waters. If you dive in at night you get trails of blue-green phosphorescence at your hands as you swim above the bottom layer - 'cos I've done it)