Hello From Wiltshire

[Driftwood]

Just found this place and looks to be a wealth of information, hope I will be able to add as much as i take away from it.

Cheers

Tone

[ina]

Hi Tone

Welcome to the site! Everybody contributes - I'm sure you will. Sometimes it's somebody's questions that I can learn from more than anything else.

What do you do - do you have a garden or an allotment - or a broad windowsill ?

Ina

[Driftwood]

Hi Ina

Have a decent size garden , but live next to a farm so have potential to expand a bit if the farmer has a spare plot for rent.

Just growing fruit and veg at the moment but getting the chickens in the spring and hopefully a goat in the summer.
which should prove interesting

What about yourself? What sort of area are you interested in?


Tone

[ina]

That actually sounds quite familiar... I have two goats, ambitions to get hens and ducks next year (bird flu permitting), have a garden that's large enough for myself, and live more or less on a farm (farm worker's cottage)! I'm trying to think of a way to persuade the farm manager to let me have a bit of land behind my house, too... I'd love to breed my goats, but the garden is just not large enough.

Yes, goats are definitely interesting! I have an electric fence around the plots they are not supposed to get to, but it needs four strands of wire. They still manage to get at stuff that doesn't need pruning, but hey, they are good fun, too. I think there is a picture of them on a thread on the livestock forum, some way back.

Ina

[shiney]

Hi Tone and welcome,

I haven't been here for a week or two or maybe three and am catching up with the new posts.

Where in Wilts are you?

[hedgewitch]

Hello Tone and welcome to the forum.
Wiltshire is a BEAUTIFUL place

[Driftwood]

Hi shiney, am not too far from you, in the Wylye Valley just outside Salisbury.

Sounds like Ina and I have a similar sort of set up, although I think that i'm lagging behind at the minute.

Cheers everyone.

[Millymollymandy]

Hello from me too. I have veggies and fruit and already got the hens, but I decided against goats! Now wishing I had space for a horse as I've started riding a horse of my neighbours. Oh well, we should always have something to dream about.

[ina]

Sounds like Ina and I have a similar sort of set up, although I think that i'm lagging behind at the minute.

Don't worry, Tone, you'll overtake me in no time... I've been in that house now for two years and still haven't got the living room curtains up. And it's not as if I was worried that folk could see what I get up to (it's only the farm manager who lives past my house, and he's got better things to do than peep into my window), it's that my house is b*** cold in winter and I have a huge window which lets out any amount of heat, so I really should get my act together... Oh well, over the Christmas holidays.

And the hens were supposed to start laying for me last spring, too. Plus I meant to dig out that pond for frogs and ducks to keep my slugs in check. So you see, I'm often better at planning than carrying out! On the other hand, the cat and the goats just kind of happened to come along, and then I had to fix something up for them. If somebody gave me a few hens for Christmas, that would force me into action!!!

Ina

[Millymollymandy]

... I've been in that house now for two years and still haven't got the living room curtains up. And it's not as if I was worried that folk could see what I get up to (it's only the farm manager who lives past my house, and he's got better things to do than peep into my window), it's that my house is b*** cold in winter and I have a huge window which lets out any amount of heat, so I really should get my act together...

Ina

Neither have we (only 15 months in the house though)! We have got the curtain rails up so we could get as far as measuring up..........

[Driftwood]

lol, well i must admit that i do have curtains, but only by default.
I seriously mis judged how much wood i would need this winter and am spending every spare moment attacking the fallen trees around the farm in a vague attempt to keep the house warm so its perhaps just as well that i do have the curtains , if the house lost any more heat i'd be better off sleeping outside.

Mind you after a couple of hours cutting wood, i'm so hot and knackered i don't want top light the fire anyway

ah well it's all good fun,

[ina]

And if it's really nice and cold, that's always a good excuse for a hot toddy... Internal heating. At lunchtime that's porridge, and in the evening alcohol.

If only I had wood heating - it's all "modern" in my place, and electricity is not exactly cheap for keeping a house warm! Plus, in the (fortunately rare) event of a powercut, there'll be not heat at all, not even a hot-water-bottle or a cup of tea. Very shortsighted of those guys who planned/built these cottages.

Ina

[Millymollymandy]

I'd never want to be without my bottled gas hob for exactly that reason (as well as the fact that it's miles cheaper).

Get yourself a camping gas burner Ina - just in case! You can at least have a hotty-botty. Where I'm sitting typing there is no heating so I have a hot water bottle on my lap and put blankets over me and I'm nice and toasty warm even though it is just under 15C (minus 4.5C outside at the moment ). My biggest moan in life is that no-one has invented a heated mouse! Or maybe I should just get a life away from the computer!

[Andy Hamilton]

Hi tone and welcome mate.

[Driftwood]

it's a shame you don't have a range Ina, I swear by it as its basically free heating and hot water. Maybe I pipe some up to Scotland for you.

A heated mouse is a fantastic idea, if you could invent one you'd make your fortune