Had A Good Day Today

Bought a hogget today.

Just finished jointing it, had to give some away, too much for freezer as I also bought 2 biggish boneless rib of beef joints which I cut up,, prefer bones left in but beggars can't be choozuz.

Also found a book of first class stamps.

Also had a NEW circular saw blade given to me for my bench saw.

Good day.

What's a hogget?

It's been snowing here today....first fall, I reckon we are in for a cold long winter.

Hello Syl.

A sheep of either sex which is about 6 months older than a lamb, I think.

Syl wrote:What's a hogget?

It's been snowing here today....first fall, I reckon we are in for a cold long winter.

I seen it on the news, looks nice but not for me.

Major wrote:
Hello Syl.

A sheep of either sex which is about 6 months older than a lamb, I think.

Evening Major.. I have never heard of it before.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/live-thundersnow-wintry-showers-hit-12194287

It was like that this morning /\....then it turned to freezing slush, not a nice day really. I was glad to get home.

Had a lovely afternoon.
Some posters who live in the NW may know a little village called Uppermill. It's one of those quaint little places packed with tearooms and little designer shops where people drive out to for a nice day out in the summer.

We went for a very late lunch, sat outside under powerful heaters, so though it was freezing cold it was cosy and warm. Surrounded by fairy lights and in the distance snow covered hills.
It made me feel all Christmassy.

We never get much snow in the SE.

Syl wrote:Had a lovely afternoon.
Some posters who live in the NW may know a little village called Uppermill. It's one of those quaint little places packed with tearooms and little designer shops where people drive out to for a nice day out in the summer.

We went for a very  late lunch, sat outside under powerful heaters, so though it was freezing cold it was cosy and warm. Surrounded by fairy lights and in the distance snow covered hills.
It made me feel all Christmassy.

Sounds lovely. We haven't had a lot of snow, lots of hail though.

eddie wrote:We never get much snow in the SE.

Not now - global warming - but when I was a kid in Berkshire the snow lay crisp and even.

Miffs2 wrote:

Syl wrote:Had a lovely afternoon.
Some posters who live in the NW may know a little village called Uppermill. It's one of those quaint little places packed with tearooms and little designer shops where people drive out to for a nice day out in the summer.

We went for a very  late lunch, sat outside under powerful heaters, so though it was freezing cold it was cosy and warm. Surrounded by fairy lights and in the distance snow covered hills.
It made me feel all Christmassy.

Sounds lovely. We haven't had a lot of snow, lots of hail though.

Hail hurts.
We haven't had much here Miffs...the other day was our first snowfall and it turned to slush by the afternoon.
Up in the hills it still looks lovely and white though.

Syl wrote:

Miffs2 wrote:

Sounds lovely. We haven't had a lot of snow, lots of hail though.

Hail hurts.
We haven't had much here Miffs...the other day was our first snowfall and it turned to slush by the afternoon.
Up in the hills it still looks lovely and white though.

We don't usually get much here being in the lee of the Welsh hills

Not rained here all day, not vert cold either but in the night musta been a good wind as trees had send loads of leaves

Miffs2 wrote:

Syl wrote:

Hail hurts.
We haven't had much here Miffs...the other day was our first snowfall and it turned to slush by the afternoon.
Up in the hills it still looks lovely and white though.

We don't usually get much here being in the lee of the Welsh hills

Wales is beautiful. We have a static in Barmouth and go there a lot in summer....I love that place.

Syl wrote:

Miffs2 wrote:

We don't usually get much here being in the lee of the Welsh hills

Wales is beautiful. We have a static in Barmouth and go there a lot in summer....I love that place.

We can be in Wales in half hour, I do like Wales.
Went to Conwy the other week, after we had been to look at Bangor uni. Lovely round there.

glad to have my 3 1/3 rd acre of wales in powys

handy size to own.

have you ever been over it with a metal detector and water defining wires

Major wrote:handy size to own.

have you ever been over it with a metal detector and water defining wires

not yet Major...

dont really need the water wires...there is a spring and a small burn down one edge....and its good loam on top of clay so digging a couple of feet or so down and yu are into water bearing soil...., especially at the lower end....

mixed woodland , mainly pole stage beech, birch and hazel coppice, with a mix of other more mature trees, spruce, oak, field maple and beech.

just starting to sort the hazel coppice out...its been neglected for some years but is retreivable. Some good walking sticks to be had, and the thicker stuff is useable for fuel wood.....Will be nice to get the coppice cycle restarted, with the accompanying increase in wild life.....

small hebaceous plants noted so far ...bluebell, dogs mercury, scarlet pimpenel, the usual assortment of grasses, very little bracken , a LOT of ferns, a wide variety of mushrooms/toadstools, at least 5 species of mosses (yet to be identified). wild garlic

a couple of huge but nice blackberry tangles, dog roses, some ivy...yeuk,,,

will be taking the identifying books up with us next spring to catalogue the whole job...

I get hazel from our crematorium with permission

Seems fair...they get the place kept tidy, and you get some nice hazel sticks....win win

just had a guy up at the weekend to quote us for a hard standing and turning area for our van...(which is being (slowly) converted into a camper van.....

will take about 50 tonne of stone and 2 days of work leveling the area, removing stumps and laying the stone

Ya don't wanna get bogged down, winter is here.

When he gives you the quote say these immortal words, "how much" then pause, take a deep breath and say "what is the least you will REALLY do it for", it workz most times for me.

I cant argue with the quote he gave me, It was shall we say...VERY reasonable for the amount of work to be done, especially when you consider its a bit remote and he's got to haul all his machinery and staff up there.....He's got one eye on future work...the access track will need improving, amd maintaining etc ...so if he sees me right now...where am I going to go for future work?

Some of the hazel coppice....





edited...sent wrong image first time

Projects of this nature are so self satisfyying, I luv the land but as age creeps on ya have to pass it on along with other treasures to your kids hoping they will give it the same luve as you did, luckily our kidz are countryfied so to speak, doubt if the littlunz will be though, they do not go outdoors like we did.

I used to come home on leave and just sit in the woods having smoke, don't smoke now though.

Vic, any sign of Rabbits there?

Yup Nicko...Its full of em, the end sloping to the burn is in fact a brocken ankle hazard with the holes...

once we start staying up there overnight they will get severely thinned...(and fill me freezer)

also although the squizzers were shot out when the wood was sorted for sale, I have noticed some are returning so its gonna be squirrel bashing next year....they have casued considerable damage previously

I also have permission to take what game I want from the surrounding fields; the landowner is a stockman and he and his son only shoot to reduce pests, he reckons the more the merrier...just have to let him know where and when

The river in the bottom of the vally (300m away) is good for salmon and trout and the rights ownwer has indicated that he would be willing to allow me n the missus to fish on there FOC. In return for dealing with pests on HIS land....  

so 2 lots of shooting and a set of fishing           to the tune of about 400 acres and 500+ meters on both banks of the river

It PAYS to make friends with and pay your due respects to your neighbouring landowners.

it also helps a lot when your neighbouring land owners become confident that you are "country folk" wise to the ways of the land and stock

As part of the conversion to our camper the van already has had a concealed 7 gun security cabinet fitted and through bolted to the chassis, is alarmed and tracker fitted. this cannot be jammed by any conventional phone jammer, nor can it be disabled by jamming the satnav signal, as if THAT happens it uses a much older but still operational private system, which while not as accurate as satnav will still locate it to about 200m, whence it can be accurately located with a handheld reciever.