Ty Korrigan

How can there be less unless the xylem walls either shrink or empty and fill with air? In Spring wood appears wetter due to the hygroscopic pressure of sap rising thus creating the illusion of wetter wood.

I always thought that in Winter, the sap stops flowing but it is still there. The xylem doesn't close up nor fill with air. Therefore, the wood weight remains the same Summer or Winter. Happy to be proven wrong because then I would learn the facts. A quick glance at readily available info on Google only mentions cut wood and changes due to hygroscopic nature of cut lumber. Nothing about living wood.

Why would the wood have different weights depending on the season? (excluding leaf) I thought the moisture content remained stable Summer or Winter.

Well, now that is a project for me ..

Belay that question! I just found them at chainsawbars.co.uk

Hello, I have a question for the wise ones. Are any of the Stihl or Husqvarna bars compatible with the Echo 2511? SpeedCut Nano WWW.KOX24.FR cat_childs

Just got back from a month away. Opened the compost heap to throw in the contents of the fridge veg box and saw the level had dropped enormously. Obviously all the micro flora and fauna doing their stuff. Added some more egg boxes and cereal boxes and next week I'll add some grass, something I don't often do. Then fork it over.

David Hill is worth talking too. I forget his name on here. I'll message him.

Word is that back home in Liffré France our local Tabac had their storeroom raided to the tune of €40k. I wonder if at that sum their scratch cards went too.

The Co-op cheese thieves were just a comedy side show compared to my previous work before retraining. I was a manager of an outdoor retailer in a past life until 30 years old. Our performance related bonus was also aligned to shrinkage. We made daily stock checks on lines susceptible to theft but at times 1:3 people through the door could be shoplifters. Stock was put out in patterns of 3 or 5, easy to count or check visually. Often only the extreme sizes on display, harder to resell for thieves. Especially problematic was my own day off. I was studying the RHS certificate at Lackham so these days needed to be regular. The thieves worked out that when I was absent my staff were inattentive and so it was open season. I got blamed for this of course and bonus reduced. I abandoned my studies and suffered anxiety if absent from my store that became so bad I just didn't take my day off which contributed to further anxiety and depression. Not worth it for the miserable salary and fragile bonus conditions that the company would always find an excuse not to pay in full. Some thieves I caught, junkies all. Some I stopped at the door though this confrontational approach was dangerous. Junkies easily recognised by their smell, teeth, fingers and new clothes often married to shitty shoes. Can't easily steal a pair of shoes now can you? Junkies that entered the store I would follow and serve myself. Often they'd get the message and leave peacefully enough. We got 'steamed' a few times by gangs of thieves, again usually on my day off. Roma the police warned us not to try apprehending and certainly don't touch the woman! If cornered they would put their hands 'between their legs' and grab the hands or worse the face of the person who cornered them. Then once (if) arrested the Roma women would make a counter complaint of sexual assault which of course the police would be required to investigate. Not worth the trouble. Junkies too. I remember attending a line up at Bath police station. Half of those there I recognised apart from my particular junkie, the one I chased from my store into a restaurant back door by the Avon and who got caught by the kitchen staff. I couldn't pick the guy out of the lineup! 3 more months on remand, detoxed, clean shaven, well fed, nice clothes, unrecognisable...FFS! One particular pair of thieves were very professional. Not junkies but well dressed and spoken. It was several years before they were apprehended by chance in a store in Stratford upon Avon equipped with better cameras and store to store radios having been recognised by a staff member who was transferred and remembered serving the pair. Stuart

When I was waiting on my Merrist Wood course to start I worked evenings mostly as a supervisor at a local CO-OP. They have a non-interference policy that I just couldn't stick to. Once, a local junkie rocked up on a bike carrying a large stripey laundry bag and proceeded to empty all the cheese shelves. I watched until he dragged the bag out of the door before challenging him. He was so skinny and unfit he couldn't lift the bag he'd filled and was at a loss. I grabbed the bag and had 'To me to you' tussle before it split and he dropped it in the middle of the road blocking traffic. He ran for his bike, I grabbed his coat which slid off his underfed frame and coatless he rode off. Locals helped clear up the cheese and nothing more was done. Even when I caught staff stealing the Co-op's HR LGBTQ creature quizzed me and told me that before I arrived there was none of this trouble and I should not interfere as that was for security not a supervisor. Incensed, I ****************ed them over with a series of petty micro sabotage before leaving but that is best recounted over a beer. Stuart

Also, this hourly rate nonsense. Take two similarly equipped gardeners. Gardener A. Asks for £20 per hour and takes 8 hours to cut a hedge because he told the client it might take a day and besides he is being paid by the hour, bags himself £160 Gardener B. 'Quotes' £160 for a similar hedge, smashes it out in a morning, does another similar hedge in the afternoon and takes £320 for a day's work. This is because working to a quote is an incentive for productivity whilst a low hourly rate is merely a halfway step between being salaried and self employed.

That is not how it works, not at all. Imagine, you decide to be a taxi driver but only three times a week. Are you going to add a supplement to your fare because your taxi is idle the rest of the week and the finance and insurance needs paying?

And so it begins... I'm on holiday until the end of August and assume every other self respecting Frenchman is also on holiday too. Yet I just opened my Gmail to see 2 enquiries for hedge cutting to add to the SMS I received. No tree work though. I'm going to be strict with myself and turn down most hedges for all but my regular clients. I've no wish to fill my books with aching shoulders and days of seemingly endless raking up when there are always trees to be cut. Or to chew through a back log of 5 months worth of potential hedge clients caused by a misinterpretation of regulations aimed at farmers and annoying social media Eco-Karens punting their agenda whilst their cats continue to decimate the song bird population.

Why do people put "chipper £120/150? 6" machines cost very little to run per hour and often do under an hour per day on domestic work. I assume a 6" as it's the most common. Putting in £120 for what I assume is your own chipper would mean that over 180 days you'd be charging £21'600 Seems rather excessive Talking about knowing your costs here not about gross profit margins.