Quickthorn

I'd have thought it would be building regulations.

This is the thing that angers me. I'm not sure about how ROCs work, but the feed in tariffs are definitely subsidised or paid for by a surcharge on electricity bills. I couldn't think of a more regressive way to do this - so typical of the UK these days. Get the poor to subsidise those rich enough to invest in this sort of technology. I'd be interested to know how much money could be saved by scrapping all these subsidies and (best of all) sacking all the bureaucrats who shuffle all the paper around to make this sort of stuff happen.

If you've got any fat to go with it, you could make your own soap...

The story's (supposedly) been written by Richard & Judy. Since when were they authorities on H&S or railway operating procedures ? Like treequip, I doubt if they'd have sacked him unless he'd done something seriously wrong which he should have known about, or he'd had warnings on his record.

I look at it this way: each tree in the hedge has dug into its stored reserves to provide the energy it needed to put on this year's growth, so these stored reserves will probably be at their lowest around this time of year. Any operation that removes large amounts of the plant will remove foliage etc that would have started to replenish these reserves; also, and maybe more importantly, the plant will try to replace lost material with new shoots, which will dig in again to stored energy reserves at a time when they are at their lowest. As far as hedgelaying goes, I think Rover has given the best answer: in spring, the cambium becomes jelly-like, and so the bark can buckle and come away from the stem as you try to lay each pleacher. If that happens, there's a good chance that the pleacher will die.

I don't think that's a law, it's a cross compliance requirement that farmers have to abide by if they want their full sfp payment. Last time I looked, requirements for tractor cutting and laying were different: tractor cutting has to be done by 1st March, but laying can go on later if that's unavoidable. I'd say the nesting birds situation is enough on its own for someone to turn down this job - you're bound to find something nesting at this time of year. It is probably about the worst time to do it from the plant health point of view, made worse by the lack of rain we've had over the last month of so.

I think they did something similar to trucking..and probably every other trade they've got involved with.

I'm guessing the first one is Lonicera tatarica.? The next one..I really am guessing now, but some sort of Viburnum?

I've never used an electric planer, but I'd guess a good hand plane would do a better job. However, I think you'd be lucky to get anything decent for £20, because people now collect these, and that has pushed prices up. Anything at that price often needs an awful lot of work to make it usable, and probably would have been low quality fresh out of the box. I've had quite good results jointing boards with my Stanley No.7 jointer. It cost £80 from a bloke based just outside of Horncastle, who refurbishes old tools. This one dates back to the 1920s, I believe. I've put in a thicker iron as well, and it can easily take consistent shavings of a few thousandths of an inch. In short, it's a joy to use. You can compare it with a No.5 plane - the one in front in this shot. The No.5 shown is not so good for jointing, as it's a bit shorter, plus it's a lower quality plane. It probably dates from the 70's, and the quality of hand planes in general went downhill after the war as manufacturers sought to cut costs.

Totally agree. Some of the scenes from the US reminded me of news footage of anti-west protests/celebrations you'd see from Iraq or Libya which, we're told, are bad.

If you're accurate and apply at 4l/ha, you'll use 2.4 l product for 1m sq spots. If you use the stuff charlie suggests at £25/l, the chemical will cost 1p per tree, which would leave you with £240 for the job. Doesn't sound much to me, but of course it all depends on how many you expect to do per day, which in turn depends on the state of the site, how the trees are protected, etc.

I'm suspicious. It seemed very rushed. They say it's to fit in with Islamic custom, but it would be a first if that's true, and a bit late in the day to start.

and what was the green thing you found by the logs?

Same in North Notts. there's about 5 or 6 near me, and one in my garden..all dead now.

Good posts, onetruth, thanks for that. Do you have any idea what the success rate is for getting what's owed once you've got a judgement in your favour? It seems to me that there are a lot more stories where the debtors get away with it compared to actions that get the creditor paid.

I've got an Astra van that's just passed its MOT, but probably won't get through another one without major welding work. I'm planning to scrap it in September, when the tax and insurance run out. The problem is that the spare tyre won't stay up, despite having several repairs. The last one was a leak around the rim, but the repair has only lasted a few months - I'm starting to think it will need a new tyre and wheel to fix it properly, which seems a waste when the vehicle will be scrapped in 5 months time. The alternative is to forget the spare and carry a can of this Tyre weld, which I've got already, just to get me home if I do have a puncture. I've never seen this stuff in action, so does anyone know whether it works?

I've always lived in towns, apart from a few years at the edge of a village. I think I've got the perfect spot here, like Steve, on the edge of a small town: hills, hedges and trees one way, shops, pubs and chippies 5 mins walk the other way. To be honest, I wouldn't want to live in most of the villages around here (not that I could afford it). There's not many "working" villages left, they're all full of middle class commuters and retirees who've turned the places into a sort of sub-suburbia. Few have any pubs or shops left. Besides, I find it quieter living in town: when I did live in the country, it was just constant bird bangers, tractors and jet fighters on afterburner. What a racket

This is a very good point. It's not always a great idea to scale down rules of thumb that apply to big business. Having said that, here's a rule of thumb I use Quickbooks for my accounts, and they have a few decision tools, one of them being something that will calculate debt to equity ratio (ratio of what's on finance to what's actually owned by the proprietor). In the notes that come with it, they say that a debt:equity ratio of 2:1 is often considered reasonable (but cover themselves by saying that it varies between industries, consult your accountant etc.) I'm sure lenders now take a long and hard look at anyone before handing out a loan; they're looking more to make sure that they can get their money back in the event of a default more than anything. If it's for a machine or something, they might come out to inspect what you're planning to buy, just to make sure there'll be enough residual value in it to cover the loan throughout its term. Finance companies prefer it if you have a lot of assets already, as that's all stuff they can claim on if things go bad. Strange as it seems, being a limited liability company in some circumstances can go against you if you are looking for finance: if you're not limited, they can go for everything you own.

This is the way I'd look at it. 40 acres is about 16 hectares. Conifer yield classes could typically be in the range 10-15 cubic metres per hectare per year - so you'd expect your 16 ha woodland to gain 160-240 cu. m per year - about the same in tons.

Sorry to hear all that. What was the problem with paying the storage till sold - was that more than the value of the goods or something? I think I'd have gone down that route as a last resort, even if it raised no money, simply to deprive her of her stuff.

Same here..so much so that I thought it was the norm..

Out of interest, were any of these 3 employed, and if so, did you consider an attachment of earnings order?

Do you still have these? It looks like they pretty much accepted your invoice when they acknowledged receipt and when the MD emailed you. If they've knowingly had it all this time and haven't contested it until now, I'd have thought that would be in your favour.

Almost everything on telly annoyed me - that's why I threw it out a few years ago.

£3 / hft works out at about £80 / cu. m - that's expensive firewood. Where I used to live, they'd get up to £8 / hft, but these would be at least 3 ft diameter + and 1st grade.