To Kick These People Out #3 - the countdown begins

[FuckYouChrisAndThatHorse]

The Beginning

The Middle

The end?

So... Long story short... There are horses, soon there should not be (I'm not good at summaries, they make me sound unreasonable).

We have a date! This Saturday! The horses should be taken away to pastures new, so we can roam the meadow in gingham dresses (dh looks good in a gingham dress) and we can have FuckYouFestivals to our heart's content.

There will be choirs and drums and bands and weapons and stackable goats and so much more!

Anyone who's read the threads knows I love a lurker. I can you see you out there. Go on, jump in while the thread's all new and shiny. You know you want to

Oh, I'm excellent at growing weeds, nettles are my speciality

MrsNutella I'll join you in the goat free section.

Chris you sound like me, all enthusiastic at the beginning but then lose interest after a while. My biggest problem with gardening is that it doesn't occupy my mind so I get bored before too long.

Forget the idea of a veg garden unless you are a serious gardener (and don't go on holiday all summer )

BUT embrace the idea of fruit, plum trees, apple trees, pear trees, raspberry canes along a wall, wild strawberries (or even normal ones) underneath, or in a raised bed. Gooseberry bushes (give them space) blackcurrants etc etc . most of these are - plant, leave, return to pick and eat. Rhubarb is good too. Peach trees if you are warm enough or have a sheltered corner.

You may need to remember to prune at some point, but if you only do it every 2-3 years they are pretty forgiving. Chuck some manure (horse manure?? ) or compost at them when you remember, and enjoy.

Just be organised about buying, so if you do tend to be on holiday in August, buy a plum tree that normally fruits in September, not August. Nearly everything has an early or late variety.

Much more stress free than real veg.

(proud emoticon - I have just given gardening advice, as if I knew what I was talking about....)

Raspberries are pretty easy and its delicious having fresh ones out of the garden. I've got a blackcurrant and some red currants - I have some lovely strawberries - both alpine and normal - and will bring you a couple of each when I'm down in your direction. One veg I've found not too bad is runner beans - courgettes can sometimes go well too. Garlic, planted in the autumn is a really easy thing to grow and we can supply ourselves with much of our garlic requirement from the garden. We have an early apple - our cooker is currently dying and we're going to replace it with a Howgate Wonder which can be cooked with but later on after being stored for a bit is delicious enough to be an eater too. I have a HUGE slug problem - slugs will strip a new thyme plant and a chive plant in my garden - so anything that has coped with this is pretty hardy!

I became a bit more ambitious as a gardener last year. Before that, I'd been a plant killer, one look was enough (except for the mandatory proliferation of aloe vera)!

I have a load of things in pots like one raspberry cane, a gooseberry bush. These seem to be dying, but it may be the weather? If we get a good summer this year, dh may get the bottom of the garden cleared enough that I can plant them properly.

And then I'll get chickens!!

I only have a courtyard with a couple of raised beds to garden in . However I am having excellent results with elder, couch grass, brambles, and cat poo!

I'd meant to relay a funny story DP told me about goats and reenactors. Don't remember if they were actual Vikings, or generally dark-age.

Dark Age Guy bought a load of goatskins for to make a sleeping bag for himself and his good lady. He was delighted with the very good price at which they were offered.

some of you have probably guessed the rest

they decide, at its premier event, to cristen it in the time-honoured tradition, and get down to it.

now, I don't know all the biology of this, but apparently the scent glands of the BILLY goat react very interestingly to this sort of thing. suffice to say, nobody would come within 20 feet of the couple for the rest of the weekend, and they had to drive home with the windows open.

Rough day. Broke my chainsaw. Will respond when I've come to terms with the loss.

mourning the chainsaw

Jux :( she was a trooper. Think she might need a transplant. But I reckon she'll plum through.

Plum?! Pull through.

MrsN I love the idea of attaching goats to dcs. This could become the day's main entertainment.

Kelper, you're in! Ds's digging skills will be very useful, and Viennese fingers eh? Dh's favourite. Join me at the wine tent :)

Deja, I think that's it. I need stimulation. Gardening with a chainsaw, not faffy little pruners.

Steppe that is all excellent advice! I shall look into tailoring my needs by timings. This thought had not occurred to me.

Mistle, raspberries and runner beans are two of my favourite things. The fact that I might succeed with them makes me love them even more.

Jux, I want to get rescue chickens and make them happy.

Alpaca you can have an allotment in my field if you'd like :)

Pedant, love the story of the stinky goat people! Talk about everyone knowing your shame

Just checking in! and I hate feeling left out ... Is it wrong that I may actually buy a horsey scarf and wear it to work? I'm not a scarfy sort of person but I'm trying to turn more into a girl this year. I'm experimenting with necklaces!

Also thought I should mention that I have expanded my cake repertoire - I made an excellence carrot cake at the weekend and I also make rather good Baileys Fudge...

AlpacaPicnic, do it. I love my horsey scarf; even wore it to parents' evening. But no one has recognised it. I always wonder if someone will and get a bit disappointed when they don't.

I imagine someone calling me Chris with a knowing smile.

Carrot cake is the epitome of healthy. Parsnip and ginger cake even more so.

I can't sleep. Stoopid insomnia.

Someone answered my 'Mary Berry' question and sent me the recipe I was after which was garden cake I had it at a NT property and it was lovely and moist...

Ooh mistle that looks gorgeous, I've got all the ingredients except the ricotta... Is there anything I could use instead?!

Chris one day you will see a fellow horsey scarf wearer and the circle will be complete!

I love carrot cake. It's what DH requests as his birthday cake. I say its healthy, he isn't convinced but then it is extra good smothered in cream cheese icing.

The mention of ginger in a cake reminds me of the funniest thing I have ever seen. Younger SIL is also a keen baker. Older SIL is stick thin and will only eat slices of cake that are see through. Dniece and Dnephew are very picky (like their mum) but of course they are relatively normal and get very excited about chocolate cake.
Younger SIL had baked a moist sticky V gingery ginger cake and covered it in chocolate icing. The DNs were very excited by the look of this cake and they happily grabbed the first slice and started on it. Poor nephew's face as he realised it wasn't chocolate cake was hilarious. I had to leave the room (he was 10). The poor things will probably never eat ginger again.
I was pregnant with DS so I had two slices, obviously.

MrsN - I also have picky nieces. They each ate one pig in blanket for their main course Christmas dinner. DS ate turkey, goose, sprouts, carrots, parsnips, a potato (small) some red cabbage and some cranberry sauce... He also asked for 2nds of christmas pudding (homemade) that they had turned their nose up to...

FYC... what have you got that might, at a stretch, substitute for ricotta? spreading cream cheese would be my first port of call.. Clearly nothing 'cheesy' in flavour though...

Oh my GOSH I've not been on here for a couple of weeks because of work (don't ask) and the thread's in Classics of all places!

I must go back and catch up!

Right, I've got as far as the scarves and as you've all gone and bought the nice colours, I've had to nab the last green one I don't normally do green but it'll go nice with my wax jacket, doncha know.

Wing! You've been missed! We're very disorganised without you!

Mistle, I have nothing. Suitable. Milk or cheddar are clearly not ideal :) dh is going to bring some home with him, and I'm going to get grating! Grate Great!

MrsN, at the ginger cake. Sounds delicious! Crazy children. I would have laughed very hard.

One day I'll see a scarf wearer. Maybe.

Seems like a lot of you are down in the southwest. Maybe I should go and visit some family and visit every town centre I can find.

FYChris! I had a tear in my eye when I read of the horses' departure (in a good way - I'm obviously not sad to see them go!)

I've not updated the spreadsheet but have screenshotted it (is that even a verb?!). I don't seem to be able to add photos on this thread but I can on your chat thread (wossthatallaboutthen?) so will upload them there...

Far too many brackets in that post.

Do we have sacks? I am imagining a kind of sack race for the children, but they'll be tethered to goats as well, so a kind of sack-three-legged race. Could the goats be in sacks too, or do you think that would be too much? Perhaps they could have spoons in their mouths with eggs, instead?

On reflection, that may be overdoing it.

Jux, I think it should be called the 5 legged race (one sack and one goat). It would be extremely entertaining. :)

Wing, Tis a leetle teeny

So pleased you're back Wing was getting a bit daunted by the thought of helping to organise FYF without you .

Since there are now only 99 posts left to fill on this one I think we'll soon be back in Chat for Part 4 - and able to add photos again!

Chris I'd love an allotment... but looking after it from Wiltshire might be a tad difficult. So I think I'll stick to posh turdises and rock'n'roll.