What have you been doing today?

[Mottie]

The dog of course!

 

[Mottie]

Today I’ve been dismantling and moving a greenhouse. I snagged it for nothing on Freegle. 8’x6’ and it came with a plumbed in water butt and stand. Automatic temperature controlled vent too! Was literally down the road from my allotment so no distance at all. Took me about three hours to remove the glass, dismantle the frame and transport it. Should be fun to reassemble! It’s going on my plot over the allotment. The old fella didn’t have any use for it anymore and was just glad to get it removed for free. I took the glass over first and only broke 3 panes but he had also gave me a dozen spare ones so no problem there. When I went back for the frame, I took him and his wife a veggie box from my plot - onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweetcorn, beetroot and runner beans. Everyone was happy. This is it with the glass removed:

 

[Deleted member 18243]

We had a company round to advise on this. We would have really preferred to keep it. £140 to trim it up but they said it’s never going to grow on our side of the fence again. £300 to completely remove it and grind the stump. They're coming first thing tomorrow to remove it. 40 years of growth and a couple of hours to get rid of it. A bit sad really.

Any suggestions on what to replace it with? Looking for something that gives colour all year round. We'll probably buy the biggest sapling we can find so something with a good few years growth already.

The yew is an attractive, evergreen tree. It eventually becomes massive, but that takes decades, it would keep quite manageable in your lifetime Mottie. A damson tree grows very easily and gives tons of beautiful fruit, It can be kept to a manageable size. Not very attractive though. I don't know if the yew and the damson would be classed as native, but they are certainly abundant in this country, especially up north.

Magnolias and cherries are very ornamental in a garden when they flower, pretty boring the rest of the year though.

 

[Deleted member 18243]

Called at wholesaler this morning, was stood behind a young fella who had tatts all over his neck , head & face, later this afternoon picked up some stuff at Morrisons , similar fella at checkout with tatts up his neck & over head, then car parked next to me, driver had similar arrangement sat with engine running eating a takeaway. What's going on?

Tattoos are part of prison culture. When someone goes into prison they have to fit in, or else there is trouble in store for him; and so the criminal gets himself tattooed. The fact that tattoos are now so prevalent outside of prisons is due to the breakdown of law and order, which has lead to there being an abundance of un-apprehended criminals at large in all parts of the country. When the criminals don't fear the police, the general public fear the criminals, and so more and of the general public will get tattooed in order to not be noticed by the criminals.

We are living in one giant open-air prison Crystal Balls. Sad that it has reached your quiet corner.

 

[Mottie]

The yew is an attractive, evergreen tree. It eventually becomes massive, but that takes decades, it would keep quite manageable in your lifetime Mottie. A damson tree grows very easily and gives tons of beautiful fruit, It can be kept to a manageable size. Not very attractive though. I don't know if the yew and the damson would be classed as native, but they are certainly abundant in this country, especially up north.

Magnolias and cherries are very ornamental in a garden when they flower, pretty boring the rest of the year though.

Thanks but I forgot one more criteria - it mustn’t be poisonous to dogs, so that’s Yew and Damson out! Mrs Mottie is currently favouring a Himalayan birch as it has a nice bark all year round.

 

[Mottie]

Went for my usual dog walk this morning, got there a bit early, needed a pîss so went into the woods and as I was pîssing and looking over my shoulder in case anyone came along, my dog decided to walk under my stream of pîss! Anyway, I had forgotten about it until we were walking later and I grabbed hold of her collar when a horse came along and felt it. I told the story to my friend who I was walking with, she laughed and said I’d better wash her off before I went home. Anyway, when I got back to the car, I gave her a good blast around the neck and collar with my Karcher before putting her in the crate. I hadn’t been in 5 minutes when Mrs Mottie came up to me and said "Has that dog rolled in anything?" Of course, I fessed up, laughing about it and she went and got the dog collar out of the drawer, smelled it and chucked it and the dog out the garden, washed her hands, gave me a bottle of dog shampoo and sent me out to wash her properly. At no point did she see the funny side of it. She's got a great sense of smell but no sense of humour sometimes!

 

[mattylad]

Hey Mottie, well done on the Greenhouse via Freegle. If your upto it I know they would appreciate some good feedback on your experience, it always helps the media volunteers to have something to put in the facebook posts.

Today I build a gate for the shared pathway at the back of the house.
Next door is always letting her 2 little ****typoo's out and my wife is worried about our GSD wanting to eat them when they come to say hello as she is coming back in from the washing line.
So I dug out lots of old floorboards, put some posts up, made a gate & painted it.

All I need now is a latch and a little fettling and I can relax without earache again.

 

[noseall]

Gluttony on our last night in Barmouth...

 

[noseall]

Tattoos are part of prison culture. When someone goes into prison they have to fit in, or else there is trouble in store for him; and so the criminal gets himself tattooed. The fact that tattoos are now so prevalent outside of prisons is due to the breakdown of law and order, which has lead to there being an abundance of un-apprehended criminals at large in all parts of the country. When the criminals don't fear the police, the general public fear the criminals, and so more and of the general public will get tattooed in order to not be noticed by the criminals.

We are living in one giant open-air prison Crystal Balls. Sad that it has reached your quiet corner.

Some stuff you post is just downright nonsense. The above transcends words.

 

[Deleted member 18243]

Some stuff you post is just downright nonsense. The above transcends words.

To quote Bob Dylan: Don't criticise what you can't understand.

 

[mattylad]

So... I'm not very good with wood, however I did manage to throw together some rotten old floorboards (cut the rot off).
Now we have a little protection from the little dogs next door and they are safe from my big dogs

Before you say it, yes the top does need cutting straight with a batten across it.
I'm also gonna get another hinge.

All it has cost me this weekend is about £45, the stainless steel screws, wood, hinges etc. I already had.
I only bought the vertical posts, the post stands, the paint and the latch.
May be rough but it does the job

 

[Mottie]

Someone has given up their half plot over the allotment (they still have another full plot) and he told me I could help myself to anything off of it. He had gravel paths and the gravel will come in handy for the floor of my greenhouse when I put it together. I’d taken about a dozen or so barrow loads and stashed them in an empty bed on my plot for now but a puncture on the barrow put a stop to it. Not my barrow, it’s a community one so I went home, got my bike puncture kit and repaired it.

I must have a dozen or more butternut squash's, all the size of a brick and just look at the amount of apples I have on a tree that is no more than 4’ high.



Has a bit of a disaster just now when I tried a bit of DIY chiropody - again. Sliced my toe - again! It’s took best part of an hour to stop bleeding. I’m determined to get it right one day!

 

[conny]

Drove up to Chesterfield for one of my grandkids birthday celebrations. That M1 is a bitch of a motorway! Sunday morning and we thought we had joined the Wacky Races! It was the same coming back late afternoon and was glad to get back on the A14 where things were a little bit calmer.
A round trip of 337 miles but it was good to see the boys and have a kick about with them.

 

[Mottie]

Did a bit more harvesting over the lotty today. Cucumbers and three different types of tomatoes. I’ve grown far too many and I dropped some off round my sisters and gave three neighbours some.

Helped my neighbour move his greenhouse from one plot to another and did a bit more scavenging from his plot - another 8 barrowlosds of gravel to use for a base on my greenhouse, a compost bin and a water butt.

Found a few leopard slugs and moved them to my plot. Apparently they grow to a fair old size and actually eat other slugs!

The bloke a few plots down has 4 beehives. He collected some honey the other day and gave me a jar of it. Can’t get more fresher or local than that!

 

[conny]

Don't know how you can let a slimy slug crawl across your hand. YUK!!!