The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Wee Eck on June 06, 2013, 08:43:03 am
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Good Morning :wave:
Not so sunny in Glasgow this morning but supposed to brighten up around mid-day so we will see.
A pretty quiet day in prospect at Highlander House so will probably be on this site loads today .
To all the members heading to the meet up in Carmarthen ..I hope you have a safe journey there and back, have a lot of fun but most of all behave yourselves.... :roflanim:
Eck
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:wave: , morning, I forgot to ask my better half what building was his office in, he used to smoke and on the top, that was before he packed in and the boss, who owned a lot of the tower blocks, sometimes put on a bar be que....... ???
Its dull here too at the moment but the sun will come out, one of my chickens gets into our main garden and comes to the back door most morings, its funny how my dogs tend to avoid her but she follows them around looking for bits!! :thumbsup:
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Hi there happygolucky
Ha ha ..our 2 dogs and our 3 cats ALL give our chickens a wide berth as they can be a bit handy with their beaks !!. Our Speckaldy (Fiddler ) used to be quie an escape artist but a couple of months ago she injured one of her legs in the process,and, although she is fine now she never tries to get out anymore.
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Hello to Wee Eck from the borders, nice to have you here, you should let us all know what you've got - we're all nosey on TAS and like to know what you're in to. Welcome :wave:
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Hello to Wee Eck from the borders, nice to have you here, you should let us all know what you've got - we're all nosey on TAS and like to know what you're in to. Welcome :wave:
Hi there
As far as ground goes we don't have that much but what we have we use to full extent.
We are a corner semi - detatched. so our back garden is huge and is split down the middle that gives our 14 hens ( we did have 17 at one stage ) an area roughly 7m x 16m to play ( Trash ) around in.
The other half of the garden has a lawned area 5m x3m and the rest is taken up by raised beds and borders in which we grow small ammounts of vegetables and fruit. This side of the garden is roughly about the same size as the chickens area and although we would like a bit more ground, if truth be told , the age Annie & I are reaching it is probably enough for us to cope with.
We have 2 dogs ( oldies like ourselves ) :dog:
Emily is a Lab / Staffie cross ( with a little bit of pig thrown in !!! ) who we have had since she was a puppy and is the sweetest natured dog I have ever had. Emily is now 12 ( we got her from the Dog's Trust.
Kiri is a black Staffie who we rescued from the Dogs Trust in January of last year , she is another lovely natured dog who is now 14. The name Kiri was given to her as she has the most beautiful singing voice like Dame Kiri te Kanawa
We have 3 cats :cat:
Libby ..She is a ginger moggy and a very gentle natured girl. who lives between the garden and our bedroom !!!!!
Thai & Lottie are our 2 Siamese monsters who are as wild as hell.....(Hence the reason Libby lives in our bedroom....she is terrified of them !!) We have had these two thugs since they were kittens and although they are not brother & sister ( there is 3 weeks age difference with Thai being the eldest) we got them from the same breeder. Everything and anything in our house is fair game for these 2 little horrors but the chickens keep them in line outside.
We have 4 fish ( 3 Shubunkins & a Hong Kong Plec) The Shubunkins are called Haggis , Neeps & Tatties (and why not !!) and the Plec is called Glayva. ( Which goes very nicely with Haggis, Neeps & Tatties :yum:)
So as you can see we do like to be surrounded by animals.
I hope this is enough information for you :roflanim:
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Hello to Wee Eck from the borders, nice to have you here, you should let us all know what you've got - we're all nosey on TAS and like to know what you're in to. Welcome :wave:
Hi there
As far as ground goes we don't have that much but what we have we use to full extent.
We are a corner semi - detatched. so our back garden is huge and is split down the middle that gives our 14 hens ( we did have 17 at one stage ) an area roughly 7m x 16m to play ( Trash ) around in.
The other half of the garden has a lawned area 5m x3m and the rest is taken up by raised beds and borders in which we grow small ammounts of vegetables and fruit. This side of the garden is roughly about the same size as the chickens area and although we would like a bit more ground, if truth be told , the age Annie & I are reaching it is probably enough for us to cope with.
We have 2 dogs ( oldies like ourselves ) :dog:
Emily is a Lab / Staffie cross ( with a little bit of pig thrown in !!! ) who we have had since she was a puppy and is the sweetest natured dog I have ever had. Emily is now 12 ( we got her from the Dog's Trust.
Kiri is a black Staffie who we rescued from the Dogs Trust in January of last year , she is another lovely natured dog who is now 14. The name Kiri was given to her as she has the most beautiful singing voice like Dame Kiri te Kanawa
We have 3 cats :cat:
Libby ..She is a ginger moggy and a very gentle natured girl. who lives between the garden and our bedroom !!!!!
Thai & Lottie are our 2 Siamese monsters who are as wild as hell.....(Hence the reason Libby lives in our bedroom....she is terrified of them !!) We have had these two thugs since they were kittens and although they are not brother & sister ( there is 3 weeks age difference with Thai being the eldest) we got them from the same breeder. Everything and anything in our house is fair game for these 2 little horrors but the chickens keep them in line outside.
We have 4 fish ( 3 Shubunkins & a Hong Kong Plec) The Shubunkins are called Haggis , Neeps & Tatties (and why not !!) and the Plec is called Glayva. ( Which goes very nicely with Haggis, Neeps & Tatties :yum:)
So as you can see we do like to be surrounded by animals.
I hope this is enough information for you :roflanim:
PS...Nothing wrong with being nosey.....not much happens in our Cul-De-Sac without me seeing it :roflanim:
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And she's not joking. :roflanim:
I'm another back garden smallholder but I don't have anywhere near the amount of garden you appear to have. Most of the front is concreted over (not by us) with small square beds containing rose bushes and fuschia and, since we've lived here, a jostaberry bush and two fruit trees (apple and plum). In the back I have another apple tree, another plum, a pear tree (3 varieties on on trunk) and a cherry. I turned the lawn into a raised bed area. The beds have now been taken out so that tall ones can be built as I am now less mobile and want to be able to garden from a sitting position. I also have a greenhouse and four other beds for fruit (strawberries and blueberries so far).
Then, of course, there is the goat yard and shed. Two goats: Pom (real name Snowdrift) and Snowcloud (Cloud). I milk Pom and am making cheese at the moment. Lots of cheese.
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SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......don't tell Annie you have goats as shehas always wanted goats :innocent:
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We are really lucky with the size of our back garden as it is huge but have to be honest and say that the are we have as lawn now is.......................synthetic . When we first got our hens we opened up our whole garden to them as we used to love the way some of them came up to our lounge windows and looked in at us. Being so inexperienced we didn't realise that the rest of the gang were stripping our garden bare as we were being kept amused at our windows. So now we have half the garden and the "Mad Squad " have the other half. We got the our side returfed but, as you know with dogs it doesn't take long for the new grass to become scorched and discoloured. So this year we put down the artificial grass and I wish we had done it years ago, it looks great , hose it down once or twice a week and brush it ...hey presto it looks as good as new. ( you can even make nice patterns with the brush... ;D)
Well driving to work in brilliant sunshine and according to Radio Scotland it's supposed to be wall to wall sunshine all weekend so :fc:
Hope you all have a great weekend
Eck.
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I love the sound of artificial grass!!
Ou garden is seperated off into sections so we keep our hens in the top part, its not huge but big enough for a number of hens and its weed free, we only have fruit trees and some shrubs and other wise its stone chippings with a soil boarder and it works very very well, its always dry and always very clean, and the chickens can scratch around in the boarders, not many flowers survive but the shrubs do, although they do take the lower down apples off the tree, we also have one rouge hen that gets over the fence into our part and comes to the back door and wandes around with the dogs.
When we move, if some one does not keep chickens in that part of the garden, the weeds will appear, they are great gardeners!! :innocent:
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Hi Sandy
The artificial grass was more expensive but at least we wont have to keep replacing it all the time because of the scorch marks stains caused by the dogs weeing. I love my dogs and wouldn't be without them but they do ruin the grass. I will post some pictures of the grass and our set up over the weekend. we are quite fortunate that we have managed to locate a couple of tree surgeons who supply us with woodchips ( a ton at a time ) so thats what we use in our chicken side of the garden. They let us have the woodchips for free as our council would charge them to dump them so it's a bargain for us ....a dozen eggs for a ton of woodchips and it always smells great when the new lot goes down (last time it was beech and they smell wonderful ......until the girls trash them ???)
It would be great if the chickens only ate the weeds ...it would make our job in the garden a lot easier.
If any of our 2 dogs see a chicken close by they do a runner as they are scared stiff of them :roflanim:
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My dogs are scared of the chickens too, well they keep an eye on them as the dogs clean up the bit they do like about the chickens,,,thier poo!!!
Ours would eat flowers too but they cleared the lot in that part of the garden......I had a fall last year due to the one that gets out, scratching at the tulips my husband lovelingly planted and moaned about if the dogs went near, I went to grab the chicken as it was about to scratch out the tulip and tripped over the garden edging strip....it was not funny but one of my guests thought it was!! I saved the tulip :relief:
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Hi Sandy
Well done you for saving the Tulip :innocent:
If we don't keep an eye on our 2 dogs they will clear up all the chicken poo that's available....YEUCH !!!!!!!!!!
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Evenin'All,
Just to put right one or two memory lapses that Wee Eck had (bless), our shubunkins are Orandas but he has only had them for 3 weeks or so. The siamese cats are 3 days apart not 3 weeks, they were brought up as 1 litter with 2 Mums sharing the work, maybe why ours are so close apart from when they have their bedtime fight, every night, outside our bedroom door, bump, bang, crash !
I am the gardener, Eck is the builder and cutter down of trees/branches and digger up of roots that I can't manage.
He has built the 2 hen runs and roofed them, divided the garden in half with fencing and made raised beds. His biggest project this year was the artificial turf, which is pretty good.
Did he say we have a greenhouse too, its not big 6 x 8 and just has tomato and cucumber plants in this year, the rest is full of things that need sorting. Does anybody elses greenhouse end up a dumping ground over the winter? Grrrr
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H aaha, put him right, men see things differently..here, I do it all, my husband loves anything like sweeping or hoovering or chopping or cutting.......I bought some fruits trees and really they need moving but as we are trying to sell up, I dare not move them just yet, 2 were presents so before anyone says they should be left for the next people, they are very special to me.......they have not produced much just yet as the hens can jump and reach the apples!! naughty hens......
I would love to grow more herbs, I currently only grow what I need and seem to outpick stuff, most of the time I gather wild stuff, food for free!!
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Here we bloomin well go......................I have only been on this forum a few days and Already Annie has the women ganging up on me :'(
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:roflanim: , We all need some one to balance our life out, you must love each other othewise you woud not be still together.......!!
My husband has selective hearing so I have to repeat everything several times and he can never find anything, even stuff he has put away...we need each other although I cannot remember why I need him??? :innocent:
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Ha...Annie reckons I have selective hearing too....AND one of my biggest faults ( to which I have to admit is true.. ???) is that I tend to put stuff away in a safe place but can never find them again :roflanim:
Yes Annie and I are very happy together......( Annie told me to say that :eyelashes:)
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Well done, Annie. Anyone who likes/wants goats is alright in my book. Pity you're not nearer. You could have come for a visit. My girls love visitors to tell them they are gorgeous.
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arhhhhhhhhhh.....we went for a walk where no one else goes, I saw a pile of bits of wood and said to my husband "did you do that?" he said "I don't know, maybe I did" it was only the second day we had been there and he was looking at all t he little round off cuts so it had to be him......he also always askes where something is, I tell him then he leaves it out,.....so I put it away and he says "you are always moving stuff! I cannot win..if he lived alone he would be stumped ...we love each other too!! nice int tit?
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What a lovely spell of weather we are having, did a bit of weeding this morning and will go out again this evening but for the rest of the day just taking it easy and enjoying the sun. As I type I have just caught the 1st whiff of the next door neighbours bbq , think they use 2 stroke fuel to light it - always gives off a bit of a pong different to anyone elses : ::) Enjoy your day(s) each and all
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Nice outside but a bit hot and I have ALL the bedooms to do and wash the dogs beds as its easier to dry when the weather is like this...unusual :eyelashes:
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Good Morning Again !!!
Not been on for a few days, but weather has been so nice I was making the most of it. This week I am working in our Atlantic Quay building ( the old Broomielaw !!) and it's by far the busiest of our three buildings. Also we are quite short staffed at the moment due to annual leave & people off ill.............so Eck is having to do some work >:(
Still must try to find some time to get on here for some light entertainment
Hope you all have a pleasant day weather forecast for the rest of the week here is not good :huff:
Eck :wave:
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:wave: , hi its nice here.....have fun :thumbsup:
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Hi Sandy :wave:
Nice here at the moment too but according to Radio Scotland this morning we are supposed to get heavy rain mid afternoon :raining:
I will try however to have some fun :roflanim: Hope you do too
Eck :thumbsup:
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Worcestershire has 'enjoyed' about 18 hours of rain >:( not impressed!! I will mainly be making soap today then....
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Not nice going back to rain after such a lovely weekend
Eck :gloomy:
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I know! we were getting sun burnt at our village fair saturday, this morning my 6 year old has put her gloves and winter hat on :roflanim: bit OTT our Scarlett bless her!!
Oh well, on the plus side the goats are less likely to try to escape in the rain - always look on the bright side....
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Glad I got the washing all up to date then.......it still looks sunny, myhusband is in Dundee and its often colder there...when I worked in Glasgow we often had rain.......here, its most often dull and cold, funny as we do not get too extream weather, its been nice to be warm for a change though..off to have some fun!! :wave:
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Yep it was great at the week end Annie & I were out in the garden all the time. We are off to the Garden Party at Holyrood on 2nd july and I will be going in Highland dress .............but I have milk bottle white legs so I was trying to get them at least slightly pink. Failing that Annie wants me to use the dreaded fake tan :-[
Eck. :-*
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:roflanim: We all need a bit of Fake tan up here...surely if your skirts long enough and your socks high enough, you will only get a flash of white!! How wondeful to be going to Holyrood house....make soem lovely photos too :thumbsup: errrr and you could use gravey browing, the old fashioned method, that way, if it rains there will be a nice puddle of gravey! :innocent:
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Good morning my Darling - I am being extra nice to Wee Eck as he is on early shift and is up shortly after 5am so he is lucky to get a grunt and a peck on the cheek from me at that time of the morning :roflanim:
Just to keep you informed it will rain at 3pm sharp - just as the schools come out - always does without fail, I am inseperable from my large waterproof lollipop lady coat !
I was chatting to a man I see quite often when we are both out with our respective dogs and the conversation twisted and turned as they do until he revealed to me that he was in fact married to the area line manager for us lolly ladies and gents, oo er , now I am wondering what secrets I may have revealed in past conversations ::)
Goats surely they come in pygmy size, can't understand why Eck thinks we haven't room for any.
Well better get on I suppose, hope the weather predictions are wrong and we can enjoy another pleasant day
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Now Now Sandy ..... :huff:...It's a kilt not a skirt and no way I can use gravy browning... I would spend the whole day thinking about steak pie :innocent:
Eck :wave:
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The main reason I got married and live up here is a man looks so sexy in a kilt....most men.....and I love it and have ancestors and relations here...suits me loads
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I always just seem to look like Harry Lauder :-[
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Wee Eck,
I'm taking my mum to the garden party at Holyrood on 2 July as well. Maybe see you there. Will look for a Harry Lauder look alike in a kilt. hope it doesn't rain!
lilfeeb
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I love men in kilts too. And doesn't a toga go well with them too? This is the St Andrews tartan my son wears - his Graduation NSC(Hons) at Paisley University - with me, a very proud Mum.
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Thats a lovely photo Anne :thumbsup:
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Thanks, Sandy, his Dad would have been very proud, and his step dad certainly was. That was almost 20 years ago now but Donald still wears that kilt at functions, weddings, balls etc. They last a long time.
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Wee Eck,
I'm taking my mum to the garden party at Holyrood on 2 July as well. Maybe see you there. Will look for a Harry Lauder look alike in a kilt. hope it doesn't rain!
lilfeeb
Hi
It would be great if we could meet up at Holyrood ....all you need to do is look for a wee fat baldy man in a kilt with milk bottle legs in between the kilt and socks. My Son was there last year ( He works in St Andrews House) and he enjoyed his day. Fingers crossed for the weather though :fc: :fc:
Eck :thumbsup:
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Good Morning all :wave:
In Europa Building this week so shouldn't be as crazy as last week ( Is that tempting fate I wonder .... :-J ) I hope to be spending a bit more time on TAS this week ( Hardly had time for a pee at Atlantic Quay last week :innocent:)
Speak later
Eck :thumbsup:
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Annie, that's a lovely photo of you and your son. My son will be wearing a kilt for his wedding next week. He does look good in one. Never seen his brother in one but I'm sure he'll look good too.
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Good Morning :wave:
Very clammy here in Glasgow this morning but looks like :raining:
This is it ...today is the day when Annie & I do our first rehoming duties so :fc:. Finish work at 3pm then off home, changed , through to Stenhousemuir to collect 28 girls going to new homes and then back home to wait for their new parents to arrive to take them home. Annie & I quite :excited: by it all AND of course we are having 4 of them for our own. Looking forward to meeting Ionahenatlast tonight (she was the very first person who arranged to have some new girls from us....so :hug: :hug: to her )
Eck
PS....No problem getting to sleep tonight for us :roflanim: