Graham

Just had a look on their site. Certainly impressive. Around £650.

You need to try digging a hole around here. Ground is bone dry after virtually no rain in April, May and half of June! Bit better now though.

Driftwoodish/petrified wood/coal?

One that was going round at school: If you ate Parma violet sweets the smell would render girls helpless to your advances:001_smile: Never seen so many 15 yo lads eating them! Needless to say it didn't work.

I'd guess here in the UK it's pretty essential for G S and L S woodpeckers. Although they'll find other food sources their main invertabrate food source is from dead wood in the canopy.

Haven't been there for ages. Felled and milled a lot of the timber for them when it was set up. Take a look at the crucks in the barn. They describe them as oak but they're sweet chestnut:001_smile:

If Karl Leibscher's teaching then go on it. He's a good cutter.

Like some of the older members here I started with my Levi ballistics:001_smile:. Working with men who had started falling during the early post war period I heard many tales of 'accidents' and met a couple of blokes who'd damaged themselves. As soon as chaps and, later, trousers came onto the market I was in them. In that time they've stopped a couple of nicks and one major with a saw across my thigh. Hopefully I've been around long enough to have learned etc but slips can and will happen. Each to his own and sometimes in hot weather I long to be in light trousers but it ain't gonna happen. If you have the freedom to wear what you feel comfortable in then I'm fine with it....just don't want to be around when a nasty little accident happens.

Copied from an email I received. Wonder whether the origins are true? Where did "Piss Poor" come from? Interesting history. They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot and then once a day it was taken and sold to the tannery...if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor". But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...they "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low. The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperatureisn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!" Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold. (Getting quite an education, aren't you?) In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old".Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom; "of holding a wake". England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, "saved by the bell" or was "considered a dead ringer".

Looks like Inonotus to me.

Has the engine ever reached working temp?

He'll soon be exploiting a small four stroke to its limits. Maybe a proper 85cc crosser would be better. Easy to rebuild too. Depends how big he is too. My son at 14 was riding my 450 but was a bit of a handful:001_smile:

Curry was mentioned. That means they'll be after the cheapest possible price, cash only and will get 11 quotes before they don't have it done. If by some miracle it happens, photo EVERYTHiNG as the tiniest crack on a fence or shrub will get them talking of £250 discounts! We've all been there

Pyrus salicifolia. Reduced a few of those.

Tree looks like cornus but not sure which one:confused1:

The exit holes of EAB are D shaped.

Cork oaks are regularly pruned in Spain. About every 10 years between cork harvests so shouldn't be any problems.

In this instance the kit was in a tool locker built into the truck body. Apart from carrying all your kit onto the work site what can you do? I suppose there has to be an acceptance of 'if they want it they'll get it'. A big downer when they do!

But they're not taken into account when assessing a tree's potential for TPO...or are they?

A mate of mine had some saws etc stolen from his truck today. A passing motorist got a description of a guy loading saws into a car by his truck. Any info if you're offered saws would be appreciated. He's described as early 30s, stocky, dark/black hair and driving an old silver Escort saloon. Cheers.

I stayed in NY for just one night then travelled. Can recommend Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky etc. There's no great wow factor as in Grand Canyon type thing but it's America at its nicest. Nice people, nice places and a lot of it is off the tourist track.

One here from today on a willow that was supposed to be felled. The TO will have his say on Monday but I took a chance:001_smile: These shots are followed by a far superior fracture when the whole tree gave up trying to support a section lowered from an adjacent tree. I got a bit cocky.....oops:001 Cocked up order pics too! The tree that gave up

Who nailed the 'danger' sign up.

I had my old Hilux 'written off'. As the cost of repairing outweighed its value the NFU came up with a decent offer instead of being written off. I said I'd do the repairs myself...wing, bumper and the loss adjuster said 'in that case we'll give you £750 and no Cat D'. Took about a week to sort out.

Was going to say the same.