I would just like to say

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Brown said:
Yes, goats need quite a lot of supervision in my experience. They seem much more attracted to garden plants, trees and bushes than grass. Even when tethered, they need looking after because ours used to get tangled up. It looked like they were practicing Japanese Shibari rope bondage sometimes. I think they did it on purpose so we'd come out and untangle them, so they got a bit of attention. They need a rather higher and more robustly constructed fence than sheep too. But they're so friendly and sociable it's difficult to be cross with them for long.
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Except for billies, who can be fearsome!!!
 
Brown said:
Yes, that's the problem with poly tunnels - they're very vulnerable to weather. They're usually OK for the first few years when all the plastic is fairly new and supple and then once it's gone off a bit in the sunlight it gets ripped to shreds in a high wind. Happens a lot in Wales. One day I'll build myself a proper greenhouse.
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As we have huge winds and very hot sun over here we sank each pole in a 50kg bags wuff of concrete and put the most expensive and sun resistant poly on. Still standing and doing its job years later.
Only problem is vandals had a go at it a few years back and the mended holes don't look too purdy!
So I'd still go for a polytunnel as opposed to a green house. In the UK in the middle of a very normal estate without the winds etc, we still seem to be regularly replacing panes of glass.:(
 
Brown said:
Ah, so the plastic sheeting held up. In my many years of watching the demise of polytunnels it's usually the sheeting that rips. I think they're attractive because it looks like you're getting a lot of greenhouse for your money at the point of sale, but they're not going to be a friend for life. The first few winters seem OK and their owners are cock-a-hoop - 'It's holding up really well, they've changed the composition of the sheeting so it's UV stable', and so on. Sooner or later the ageing sheeting, as well as the plastic connectors that hold the metal tubes together give up in a gale and they're back to square one.
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Plastic connectors?
Jeez!
Ours all bolt together, and they have special storm strengthening triangulation to hold them against the wind.
Busy today but I can put pics up later.
But digging the holes and putting the base metal tubes in then filling each of the ten with concrete made sure they couldn't go anywhere.
If wifey can easily find the make I'll put it up.;)
 
Stanleysteamer said:
Except for billies, who can be fearsome!!!
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I've always had good relationship with billy goats. If you treat their shenanigans as robust jovial horseplay you can play with them for ages. I push them backwards and then let them push me, and so on. They seem to enjoy it a great deal. It's very like their own social life with other goats. After a while they settle down and enjoy being stroked and patted. I've never met a goat that didn't like this sort of play and companionship. People tell me I have a way with animals, or maybe I've just been lucky.
 
DevonGuy said:
Agreed! This was only 3x2 metres but had ripstop sheet and galv tubing with swaged joints and spring clips - I actually had no complaint about the thing itself, it held together well but was totally FUBAR'd by the wind which twisted it. I think if I'd been able to get a similar tunnel with a door at each end then I would have opened both doors when the storm was forecast and likely it would have survived. Lesson learned!
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We have doors on each end of ours but they have partial netting which lets a bit of the wind through. And although we have the massive Vent D'Autan blowing regularly we tried to put it up East-West, so in one direction it is sheltered by the house, and in the others by trees, although at some distance.
TBH I don't know if having wind blowing through it would be better or not. But certainly having wind blowing into it just one end would be well dodgy.
Sympathies , mate as it would break Wifey's heart if similar happened to hers.:(:(:(
 
Brown said:
I've always had good relationship with billy goats. If you treat their shenanigans as robust jovial horseplay you can play with them for ages. I push them backwards and then let them push me, and so on. They seem to enjoy it a great deal. It's very like their own social life with other goats. After a while they settle down and enjoy being stroked and patted. I've never met a goat that didn't like this sort of play and companionship. People tell me I have a way with animals, or maybe I've just been lucky.
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I've only met them when I took some of the members of my car club on a trip to Normandy and visited a goat farm. Twas extremely full of goats and the billies were enormous with huge horns which they spent their time bashing into the woodwork.
I don't think they got played with much!!;)
 
Stanleysteamer said:
Plastic connectors?
Jeez!
Ours all bolt together, and they have special storm strengthening triangulation to hold them against the wind.
Busy today but I can put pics up later.
But digging the holes and putting the base metal tubes in then filling each of the ten with concrete made sure they couldn't go anywhere.
If wifey can easily find the make I'll put it up.;)
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I've never bought a polytunnel myself as I am far too vain to have one. I'd prefer a Victorian greenhouse with elaborate crank and pushrod arrangements for opening the windows. But I've assisted friends with theirs, all the way from installation to clearing up the tattered remains a few years later, in some cases. The better ones have metal clamps to join the frame together but I've come across a few (not the cheapest either) with plastic blocks where you slot the metal tubes into holes. They look quite chunky and strong when they're fresh out of the box but tend to get brittle a few years later. Because people know I enjoy manual work and have tools, if I get to know people it is only a matter of time before somebody says ' Can you come and help us with xxxxxx and we'll take you out for a curry'. Thousands of Brown hours have been wasted on other people's home and garden projects over the last five decades. I'm being really selfish these days and am just doing my own!
 
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Stanleysteamer said:
We have doors on each end of ours but they have partial netting which lets a bit of the wind through. And although we have the massive Vent D'Autan blowing regularly we tried to put it up East-West, so in one direction it is sheltered by the house, and in the others by trees, although at some distance.
TBH I don't know if having wind blowing through it would be better or not. But certainly having wind blowing into it just one end would be well dodgy.
Sympathies , mate as it would break Wifey's heart if similar happened to hers.:(:(:(
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My goodness me yes. There's a whole tsunami of grief when the polytunnel is finally reduced to a few bits of bent metal tube and shreds of plastic flapping in the hedge. Women who've carefully crafted identities for themselves in the earth goddess or hedge witch idiom and who spend their time potting in the 100% plastic polytunnel undergo a sort of bereavement process when nature eventually takes its course. I often say that the weather is just as much a part of nature as the cutesy bits, but that doesn't go down well.
 
Brown said:
My goodness me yes. There's a whole tsunami of grief when the polytunnel is finally reduced to a few bits of bent metal tube and shreds of plastic flapping in the hedge. Women who've carefully crafted identities for themselves in the earth goddess or hedge witch idiom and who spend their time potting in the 100% plastic polytunnel undergo a sort of bereavement process when nature eventually takes its course. I often say that the weather is just as much a part of nature as the cutesy bits, but that doesn't go down well.
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If anyone is interested the owner of a web-community forum I belong to is a self-sufficiency fan and lives on a smallholding in Canada. Here are some of the things he sells construction plans for.
A portable Poultry run (I think he raises Turkeys), an electric cargo hauler and a poly-tunnel look-alike. The web address is www.atomiczombie.com/plans/
upload_2022-4-24_11-42-3.png
 
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DanClarke said:
If anyone is interested the owner of a web-community forum I belong to is a self-sufficiency fan and lives on a smallholding in Canada. Here are some of the things he sells construction plans for.
A portable Poultry run (I think he raises Turkeys), an electric cargo hauler and a poly-tunnel look-alike.
View attachment 263688
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That electric trike looks quite tempting. I could charge one off my solar panels and the running costs would be very reasonable. I'd like a quad bike but one that's suitable for agricultural use would tend to be quite expensive, so something like that would be a good DIY alternative.
 
Brown said:
That electric trike looks quite tempting. I could charge one off my solar panels and the running costs would be very reasonable. I'd like a quad bike but one that's suitable for agricultural use would tend to be quite expensive, so something like that would be a good DIY alternative.
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And the quad bike would walk before you could say "knife", sadly.:(:(:(
 
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