Ty Korrigan

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.

This misrepresentation of regulations is rife in France on both French and English speaking Facebook groups. Trying to discuss the subject produces angry responses and endless links to blogs and articles that just echo misinformation. Result has been that I have cut almost no hedges since March and then experienced an unwelcome rush of enquiries which I could not cater for before the 'cut off date' This also impacted heavily on enquiries for tree work resulting in an almost empty agenda by the time I stopped for the Summer in June 30th The jobs that WERE accepted being mostly for October onwards. I can bend with the wind as I don't generally work July and August anyway but to lose April, May, June in the event of future legislation would require some serious diversification or another income stream.

Sadly Ukraine just lost another HIMARS to an Russian Iskander. Despite the crew practicing shoot and scoot, it was being tracked by an observation drone.

I've seen worse looking wives TBH...

I never get my phone out in time so here is an image I lifted from another Moroccan's FB page. A regular sight on the roads here. Stuart

Looks like a Crockpot vegan stew.on the go...

Only having a wee 'jardinette' out back and needing space for the kids trampoline and general plastic McF*ck, I only decided to put a composter in a corner in 2022. The effect on deciding to compost our kitchen waste has had a huge effect on the number of times our household bin needs emptying. I bury fish scraps in a border and flush softer cooked waste down the loo. Being Summer, bones I take to the bin by the bus stop opposite as we only need our bin emptying once every 3/4 weeks. Recycling bin, every two weeks. I compost some cereal boxes and most egg boxes. I chuck in a spade of soil and a bucket of water from time to time as well small cuttings from the garden. No smell, zillions of wee flies when the lid is opened and plenty of slugs doing their job. Wish I'd done it earlier, it is a small hobby in it's own way. Yeh yeh, I've chip piles but a composter is something else. Oh, my chip pile at my plot of land is being turned over by badgers searching for large white grubs. Marvelous !

One of my subby climbers only uses SRT and prefers to isolate a branch from the ground where possible, rarely using a basal anchor unless the crown is too bordelique' to isolate a suitable branch or the unions are too tight. He then changes his anchor once aloft. At Merrist Wood, for basal anchors, I was shown to install the rope so it's weight was carried on several branches not just one. How does that work out for the loading equation? Much as using multiple redirect pulleys for routing your rigging rope for a dismantle I imagine? Stuart

So, the West sues for peace, Ukraine is divided, new lines are drawn and Russia rebuilds it's forces. Then a few years into the future it makes moves on the Baltic states, Romania, Finland and beyond. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Are they not the same truck under different brands? I've been trying to obtain a price for a 5/6 ton of either make only to be ghosted by the dealers or told no longer imported into E.U despite being on the websites.

I was thinking there is no way I can continue working until 67 feeling this tired everyday. I do have a tendency to overcook it whilst running the ground but I've not felt the same since the COVID vaccination and COVID itself. Now I need to focus on removing some stress in my life including moody subbies and clients who micro-manage or fuss.

Feck... I should be driving to Morocco. For a month now I have been struggling with fatigue. Monday I went to the doctor's, authorised a next day blood test after a 12 hour fast. Results next day by email to both doctor and I. Called back in for an urgent consultation as soon as doctor received results. Another blood test and next day ecography on my giblets. Good news, I don't have anything serious chewing on my liver or pancreas. I have however tested for Epstein Barr virus which has affected my liver function and caused this malaise. I did have glandular fever as a teenager which wiped me out for months. Now our Moroccan trip is on hold, likely not at all. I feel better being active without exertion. Stuart