sime42

Bugger! I've got at least one box with tits nesting in right now as well. Next question; any ideas of how I might dissuade the nasty sods from setting up home in nextdoor's tree? [emoji848][emoji50]

Uh oh, that doesn't sound so good. My pair must be exceptions then; they're far from shy! Always out there messing around. Pretty birds too, lots of different colours on them.

Jays. Anyone know much about jays? I've seen a couple in the garden quite often recently. It looks like they might be nesting in next doors tree, I was watching them whilst having lunch just now. Are they a pest? You hear a lot about their cousins, magpies, and their bad reputation. I've never heard much about jays though. They keep raiding our bird feeder for the peanuts but other than that they don't seem to be causing too much trouble.

Hope you didn't think I was being contradictory, I wasn't. Just trying to add some detail on wood ash. I agree with you about keeping an eye on the pH of the soil. Saying that though I've not tested mine around my fruit trees so no idea if I'm using too much! Each tree gets a dose about twice a year on average probably. Any idea of how much is too much?

As I understand it, the potash (potassium) in wood ash promotes flowering and fruiting, hence particularly good for fruit trees.

You really are a specialist. It is a real pain getting out of the bag, especially if it's a winter mission and you've got multiple bags, (I have a silk liner, a sleeping bag, an over-sleeping bag and then a bivvy when it's real cold). Don't think I'm ready to resort to a piss bottle just yet though! As long as you aren't "recycling" water in the pursuit of lightness!

You've obviously figured out the most efficient form of alcohol for traveling light!

[emoji23]

Gutted. They are one of my favourite outfitters. [emoji26] That's a shame. Quality stuff at an affordable price.

I just find pine a bit frustrating as firewood. It burns lovely and gives good heat, but doesn't last very long. You end up constantly reloading the fire if it's a cold night. I've burnt Scots Pine and Leylandii.

Good question. For me the best bit of Bushcraft kit is a big old cast iron cooking pot. They're not new, clever or lightweight, but they're damn tough! They'll take any amount of abuse; you can chuck them on a roaring fire or red hot coals and they don't even flinch. Great for cooking as well, because of the thick cast iron they have a nice even heat, no hot spots. Good for doing a big hearty stew in. Obviously not for the purist who likes to travel light, but if there's a few of you the weight is not an issue.

Wow. Impressive.

Nice. They look sturdy enough. Are you planning to apply any kind of timber treatment? It would be interesting to see how long it would last without.

Yep, a lot of people these days are simply not at a practical. What a shocking state of affairs.

This is turning out to be another varied and interesting thread. Arbtalk at its best. Speaking from bitter personal experience over the last twelve months I can say that the UK automotive engineering industry is pretty much screwed at the moment unfortunately. A combination of Brexit and then the Covid-19 fiasco. It was also struggling a bit before all this, as a result of the dirty diesel engines scandal a couple years back. My experience is primarily with JLR, Jaguar Landrover, but as tbey are sadly now one of the few remaining large car manufacturers in Britain i think its fairly indicative of the whole. There's program pauses or cancellations, job cuts and production volume reductions all over the place. The consensus is that it should only be a short-term dip, but the problem is no-one knows how long tbat short-term will last, it could be six months or six years. All the major car companies are now scrabbling to switch to electric power as quickly as possible. JLR have stated that they will electrify all their models by 2025 i think. Thats a massive amount of potential work. The worry is that much of the engineering and design work will be done abroad, global economics. India are now a major player in this. Long-term prospects for the automotive industry in Britain have not looked good for years now, its been in decline over the course of my lifetime at least.

It's very hard and heavy. Traditionally used for making mallets and such like.

Ray likes a bit of fishing so I wouldn't worry. [emoji12]

I know. Me included. Always good to see some diversity in everything.

I'm from Devon and also spent a lot of time in Cornwall, so anything from down that way always sucks me in.

Wow, this thread is developing some interesting twists and turns. How come you're on a Tree stuff forum, as a fisherman, do you do tree work as well? Maybe I missed something on another thread in the past. Just curious. I thought most of the Spider Crabs go abroad to Europe. Has that not been fcked by Brexit as well? I've been watching and enjoying This Fishing Life on BBC. Not sure how representative it is.

Poor Tamsin!

Yep, even worse than chickpeas and lentils. If Sophie Grigson said that then they must be bad!

They're shockingly gaseous! Wild garlic is a bit too in my experience but not a patch on Artichokes..

Sorry you couldn't read the original RM article, I didn't realise that. I could read it all when I originally posted the link to it. My brother did say something about it being free to read for one day only, but I took no notice at the time. I didn't know the Telegraph was a fascist rag either! Apologies for that too. I'm not a newspaper reader. The essence of the article from what I remember was an interview with Ray whilst they were out for a walk in a forest somewhere. Talking about what he's up to and thinking about these days. His point was that we should all be rewilding ourselves, as well as the landscape. There's not much point doing the latter if people don't appreciate the flora and fauna that benefit from rewilding the land. I agree. I'm with you on Grey Squirrels. I hate the little fckers! Something needs to be done to control them, they're causing so much largely unseen damage to various parts of the environment.

I'm slightly concerned that he may disappear from our screens sometime soon. After seeing him mention the white, middle-aged and male thing. It wouldn't be a surprise if he did get axed. Maybe as you say he is also in danger of having saturated his market. The mass market anyway. I reckon us diehard fans will keep following him wherever he ends up, maybe an obscure cable channel or just YouTube. It sounds like he still has a vast amount of knowledge to be imparted to anyone who's interested.