sime42

This is also true. I made it myself many years later and was underwhelmed by it. I thought maybe I'd not quite hit it at the right time as the sap tasted pretty much like water, a very slight sweetness. Still, the idea and process of making the wine is worth a go at least once. It might just be rose tinted memories but I found the whole experience pleasing.

This is possibly the best bit of advice so far. My grandfather used to make birch sap wine. I've found memories of going off into the woods with him armed with a brace and bit, a demijohn and a length of rubber tubing.

VID-20220902-WA0005.mp4

I don't think I can claim much glory actually. I thought you were intending to have the grain from side to side, having seen the bearers underneath, I just noticed that it wasn't aligned in that corner. I think your fix has worked; the retrofitted bearers make it look as if it was always part of the design. The brass bearers sound like a good idea, but I don't think they'll be required, it'll be perfectly strong enough as it is. I would leave it alone now, as it looks so nice already. Anyway, if a failure does occur it won't be a sudden split that would cause the user to fall. It'll be a gradual process so you'll get plenty of warning that the platform is not strong enough. I can tell that you're a structural engineer. I feel that you may be over-engineering the steps a tad! I mean no offense, no criticism, I'm the same!

Me too. Like half of us on here I reckon. It's only when Andrew narrowed it down to the top platform that the Eureka moment occured.

No. Just a nice bit of entertaining Friday night comedy. If you don't do humour I guess you wouldn't be a fan. Each to their own, no Biggie.

Cracking Have I Got News For You this evening. A tribute to Boris Johnson.

If you decide to give it a go, be prepared to be disappointed in a couple of years. Make sure the customer is too. Sorry but Silver Birch doesn't like being pruned at all. It tends to look a bit crap for ever afterwards. It over compensates with regrowth and/or the cut limbs rapidly die off and decay. Plus it won't stop it dropping all the seeds and twiggy stuff all the time. If you do do it it needs to be when the tree is dormant, so winter, after the leaves have dropped. They bleed copious sap when cut otherwise. Like a rapidly dripping tap, literally.

Ok, that's good to know. Thanks. Things have obviously moved on a lot. Do candidates get assessed on all those things too? We were shown SRT and use of throw lines and big shots for example but not tested on it at the end..

Yeah, the ones I'm thinking of seem to be larger than normal, as well as more abundant. I've also seen lots of premature Field Maple seeds on the ground. Guessing that's more down to drought stress.

I've noticed oaks are heavy with acorns round here, maybe another Mast Year on the way. The energy crisis aside, we could really do with real winter this time around.

Careful, you might end up boasting about being paid obscene money for eating lobster at work every day or having two brand new cars on the drive next!

Same round here, all sorts of fruit going to waste on the ground. People don't trust naturally occurring food anymore. Didn't you know? If it's not on a supermarket shelf, or not been delivered by Uber then it can't be safe, surely?!

Thinking about the sub-topic here; free or not as the case may be, firewood. I've noticed that a lot of construction timber gets thrown out during renovation work. Largely softwood, granted and likely to be contaminated by various things, but still, it would make good firewood. Free I'm sure for those willing to collect and process it. It'll save the builders on skip or tipping fees after all. It could also perhaps be a workable business model if people wanted to go around collecting it at scale, and then selling it on as cheap firewood

Fair enough. It's very low key in that case. It ought to be prioritised. Insulation has barely been mentioned recently in the context of rising energy costs. This isn't a short term issue, it'll be with us for years yet. It makes far more sense to reduce energy consumption with insulation, (and triple glazing, might as well leap frog double glazing), rather than subsidising households to keeping wasting it in leaky houses. Obviously that's a long term strategy, there's some people that will need support right now. I've no idea of the numbers but I'm guessing it'll be a bell curve type distribution. The vast majority of people will just have to do some belt tightening, a minority will legitimately really struggle to survive, another minority at the top will hardly notice the sharply rising costs, (and will actually profit from the situation in some cases). I believe that there's plenty enough money around to fix most of the mess, the challenge is in its redistribution.

And that is on top of already cancelling the Green Homes Grant scheme and other such home insulation programs in recent years.

Great. I thought you wouldn't be disappointed. The more modern friction hitches, (of which the Distel is but one, a fairly basic one at that), are vastly superior to the old timers like the Prussick or the Blake's. I'm not sure why they're still being taught on the courses. They were when I did mine 15 years or so ago anyway, maybe things have changed now. I guess it was because the Prussick for instance is very simple, so not easy to get wrong. I only use a Distel, on all my ropes including wire core flipline. Never had any issues.

Are you concerned about a potential weakness in the top platform, due to the grain direction of the wood? Front right corner, it looks to be diagonal there, not parallel with the rungs.

Bang on there with that point. Far too many people waste far too much energy, (money), overheating their houses. I'm not sure how it became "normal" to be dressed in shorts and t-shirt all year round, but it has. Going from hot houses to hot cars to hot workplaces to hot shopping centres, with minimal time outside in the real world where it can actually get a bit chilly in the winter. The opposite is rapidly becoming the norm in the summer too, with the overuse of air-conditioning all over the place. Since the precedent has already been set in this thread;- It'll be a massive blessing in disguise if everyone has to consume less of everything in future. Less domestic energy, less calories, less fuel for unnecessary car journeys, less water, less pointless plastic tat, less fast fashion etc etc. A recalibration of what's really important in life is long overdue. Need has become confused with want.

Most has already been said but here's a few more thoughts. Its definitely not going to be a hedge trimmer job. Even if the 5ft that you're taking off is all new growth, i.e. it was reduced to 10ft a year or two ago, you're still talking about cutting at least 1inch diameter stuff, too much for most hedge trimmers. At best it'll be Silky work, but more likely a top handle chainsaw as well. I really wouldn't bother with the Henchman ladder, unless you do a lot of hedge work, can already afford it and were going to buy it anyway. They're quality tools but a lot of money just for one job. Climbing inside the hedge for a reduction like this, with harness and lanyards, will be much easier. Tripod ladders are good for hedge trimming high hedges, but don't really help with wide hedges or hedge reductions. The species of tree makes a big difference. I'm guessing it'll be one of two from what you've said so far. Personally I'd rather it was a laurel hedge rather than crappy Leylandii. The latter will be dusty, spiky, awkward to get a decent work position most of the time and will take years, if ever to form a decent top surface . The former will be more benign and will heal up much quicker but will be slightly harder to get a good finished top line on the day. The waste will be a major component of this job. If you have a chipper or access to one you'll need it. If not you'll spend most of the time getting rid of the copious arisings.

I have the exact same combination of lanyard and friction cord. I never have a problem with grip. I believe that it's the choice of prussick knot and as has already been said, both ropes being new that's the issue. I use a Distal Hitch. It's so much better. I recommend that you give that a go. One nice thing is that you can easily vary the number of wraps to suit the situation. E.g. I use more if one or both ropes are new or I've just re-tied the hitch, less if it's wet and it keeps jamming.

As you specifically asked for recommendations. I got mine from Aldi about 5 years ago, it's still going strong. I can't remember exactly but it was < £30 I think. It doesn't seem to be available anymore but you could try a similarly low priced fan as a trial to decide whether they work or not. I know people with much more expensive examples but am still undecided as to their effectiveness!

Yeah, to an extent. They're still more balanced and factual than other news outlets. The BBC has certainly got worse since they started including all the overly sentimental Twitter bollocks in every article.

Looks like you may soon be joined by some of your neighbours. ........ Solar panel sales boom as energy bills soar WWW.BBC.CO.UK More people are turning to renewable energy as a way to cut energy costs.