nepia

That's a shame; I'd say that not only would any hatchlings not stand a chance due to cold and lack of food but the parents would struggle trying to feed offspring to their own detriment. A lose, lose situation

Beat me by seconds!

What does the additive do; any idea?

I've been using rapeseed oil for years; no problem but then my biggest bar has been 30" - very occasionally. No problem on a regularly used 20" or any other on my 'expensive' saws, i.e. Stihl, Husky or Echo

plus 2 based on theoretical knowledge; not worth the risk of cutting it now I'd say

I do sell it in small quantities but as softwood, not hardwood. Horse Chestnut I don't touch!

Glad to hear it. Almost no wasps here this summer and I've only found a couple of hibernating queens so far. More generally I was thinking while driving home just now that I know it's the last day of October but it's 12C out there; where are the bugs? Not a moth to be seen in the headlights (though having recently had five species of bat identified as being active around the house could be a reason!)

I'd be more than happy to take on my local mile but not eight of them!

No cyanide in laurel once the wood's dry and the amount in it when green simply isn't an issue unless perhaps in a water course: I've cut and chipped loads and love the smell 🤪. Good firewood. I like Leyland too. Willow when dry burns fast and with acrid smoke but gives decent heat

Great advice on the minimalism. We had just two friends for dinner last night. Debs, the female guest, is a professional caterer and the wife spent literally all day preparing a meal for four!

JJ's another one I got on my Spotify and love listening to in the truck. Dangerous though - he's hypnotic

If you don't screw up a screwgate biner don't you massively reduce its strength? You're leaving yourself with an open ended oval, not a continuous ring of steel

Let the insects etc finish what they've started? 😊

Afternoon Jamie. How are things? Good luck with the search Jon (Graham's former token old man of the crew!)

I spy with my little eye shiny screwgate carabiners 👍

Looks great Mark. Love it. What are we looking at? 😂

Winter Banana may be another contender. I'm not an expert but just have knowledge of one of those

Not here! The forecast has Monday night into Tuesday morning as the only time in the next week when the temperature's expected to drop into single figures (8-9C)!

Looked into solar at the last house for hot water but was told it was technically very difficult with a sealed system. We have one here too so maybe one day. That day may come sooner than I thought actually. The estimates for the small extensions we wanted and applied for were so ridiculous we've withdrawn the application; even the prices for a Sussex barn are silly so perhaps solar could happen...

Like many I constantly face the turning up the heating vs putting on a fleece battle. Hundreds of millions for the govt to hand out thermal vests? Not that much surely; I've already got mine! Unless I've misunderstood there are many homes simply not suitable for heat pumps - ours for example. It's a 100-year old timber framed house so our underfloors need ventilation, not insulation - that alone is a fail n the heat pump front. Then I'd have to double the size of our rads; where the heck would I find the space? It's a 2-bed house! But I don't feel too bad; the walls are well insulated, we have decent x2 glazing, a blue flame oil-fired boiler outside the house and the thermostat sits at 17.5C. There's a logburner in the lounge that's a dinosaur of a horrible Charnley - nominal 8kW, capable of 11kW 🤪 but it sure warms that room. And it's fuelled by softwood arb arisings that from next year will have 0 carbon miles as I'll start scrapping all the horrible macrocarpa on the place. And all the countless thousands of flats - how on Earth do you heat them with heat pumps! Boris, you're making the usual amount of sense - at least you're consistent

Similarly I was actually paid to use two tanks of fuel in a 'day' cleaning up larger branches ready for the chipper that had come off a big Turkey Oak in Bromley. The grapple saw took its time and had the tree down to a 25' stump in 2.5 hours. Timber lorry then arrived, loaded the big stuff and we left site at 2pm after a 10am start (M25 closure had delayed the grapple saw). Almost felt like cheating but not quite. My back was heard to say 'I love that machine'

Absolutely. The fruit I've retrieved have gone in the household waste bin (for incineration)

If they're anything like the very similar 5-year old Husky Brushcutter trousers I'm wearing now they're barely light proof yet alone thorn proof so I'd say an emphatic no. The most padded part, the shin, is about half the thickness of the lightest chainsaw trouser I've ever worn; it would take the sting out of a strimmer line but Blackthorn would go straight through it - and that's just the shin remember. I actually wear these as summer non-chainsaw trousers for their light weight and coolness