Today's Posts

I have an extremely helpful suggestion, use a single piece of plastic to skin the tunnel. I have been doing the plastic on commercial size tunnels all my life, I know a bit about them. Anything other than a single piece will not work, it is a waste of time and money and will look a complete bollocks within no time at all. I think the most we put up in one year was 5 acres, have nothing like that now and just my own tunnel that is 18 x 64 feet. I do that one on my own usually although my son did help last time as I wasn't up to it at the time. One of the most important parts of the job is stretching the plastic lengthways, that is the first bit you do. How you are going to do that is a mystery. @AHPPI know you say you have already bought the plastic etc and I understand you feel there is no turning back but you really do need to rethink.

For small one-handed work Id also consider the tiny pruning saws. I have the makita one and its great. I really only chose it because I have the batteries already. But I have used the similar Stihl and Husqvarna ones and they are pretty similar. You can use all of its 6 inch bar in a cut. I've taken the guard off to allow undercuts.

Wordle 1,403 3/6 🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Red Kites are moving or enlarging their range. We saw one in Worcestershire for the first time at the weekend. Tussling with a Buzzard. Magnificent birds close up.

I'd take her over two tier any day if the week.

Morning all, Away until tomorrow then just two days to work in the week, then a full day Saturday.

Its quite open land (in Lincolnshire) so I'd need to check that

If there is a zero missing then maybe 3 tons makes more sense? 60mm and "large" along with 3 tons seems that there is something wrong somewhere.

I am afraid you not good enough,or from a wrong background,how old are you?

Decent mix of texture and heat!

Coal mining is hard dirty dangerous work. It used to be said that when you retired, at 65, you came home and sat on the step and waited to die: there was not enough left of you to do anything else. ^Bloke in pic above is done for at 45. No working man should EVER want to see the coal mines opened up again.

It’s Tyndrum so might be too far!

lets just put this up here .... the best way of going green is to go backwards...

Thanks for the advice. I was reading about bird vandalism earlier. Also, my mum was thrilled a couple of years ago when she noticed that she had a woodpecker as a frequent visitor to the garden. Until she realised that it was only coming to peck the grubs out of the bee box! I've had a couple of other boxes for years now and they've never suffered the same fate oddly. I'm primed to deploy some netting if any birds ever get any designs though. Got the Salvias, Nasturtiums and Marigolds covered already.

If you want to, you can go back through the years in street view and watch the trees change https://www.google.com/maps/@51.707,-2.2005779,3a,75y,74.89h,70.05t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sgK5t4RWFXAGQP2HZ_YiLjw!2e0!5s20190301T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D19.95281725573716%26panoid%3DgK5t4RWFXAGQP2HZ_YiLjw%26yaw%3D74.89463267935798!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQxNi4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D Ps what a town name!

John Scott "With inclusive trends. I'm thinking there's a good chance the next Pope might be a Protestant. A Dr Who type switcheroo."

Ok brilliant is he able to message me on here at all or I can message him

Hi Toberwine, thank-you very much for taking the time to write such a useful and comprehensive reply. I can hardly believe two years have passed since I started this thread! You are correct that the deer numbers are definitely a factor in the increasing dominance of the pendulous sedge. I think in our case by browsing out competitive plant species, I think in our case mainly bramble. We have huge herds of Fallow in the area, it's not uncommon to see groups of does between 80 and 100 on surrounding farmland. Muntjac also are increasingly present and their increasing numbers seem to be resulting in making them less territorial. In an area where 5 years ago there would only be a single pair there now can be 2 or 3 pairs. In the last two years however progress has been made in starting to control deer numbers as my immediate neighbouring farmer has brought in a professional stalker and between us approximately 130 does were culled in the first season and this past season I think nearly 100. I have to admit my contribution was only in single digits. So overall deer numbers are down but still too early to see any environmental impact. My other finding echoes what you say about cutting back being beneficial. We have an area that would once have been part of the outer reaches of the estate gardens which had been heavily planted with daffodils. These were becoming badly suppressed by the sedge and so about five years ago I started mowing this area in the autumn with a large pedestrian mower/brush cutter. I've been convinced this winter/spring that the sedge in this area is starting to reduce. The sedge plants don't seem to become mature enough to produce flowers and I'm sure this will have a long term effect as well as just general debulking and exhausting the sedge resources. Interestingly in this area another plant is becoming more dominant. Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum), another plant that the deer won't browse. This year for the first time I can recollect the deer have eaten off all the daffodil flowers, not just in that area but over the whole estate. I'm thinking of extending my mowing experiment in other areas, probably by getting in a flail for the tractor or possibly for the excavator although I think it's probably a bit too light and old to cope with the high demands of a hydraulic flail. Regarding glyphosate, we have not had much success with it in our garden, adjacent to the woodland. I think where it might be of value is in controlling seedling sedge plants early in the year possibly after mowing in the previous autumn. To be honest the invasive plant control has been put on a back burner for now as I'm up to my eyes dealing with Ash die back and its consequences. Thanks again for your reply. All the best Alan

Plum or pear would be my guess. Edging towards plum though.

The bark looks a bit like beech but the annual rings are too big for beech. I reckon a poplar of sorts is a good shout.

I've been past there a few times.

The engine detune is a generational change forced on us all for the environment, we all have accept what is a available. Our 25hp 150 has been a top seller in Europe for a long time! The 165 was developed knowing we had the new infeed rules, the relaxation of the sub 750 rules and the engine changes. The 165 has a heavy rotor and correct gearing to chip well!

As above, check the tuning. Keep that old hayter going, I have one and its built well and the only issues have been fuel / carb related and easily solved.