Sutton

It's said that aspirin is derived from willow. As this is Ivy white-wash day: English Ivy – Natural Remedy For Cough, Bronchitis & Asthma - Healing Journeys b HEALINGJOURNEYSB.COM This one is a plant also that also goes by its Latin name Hedera Helix. This green plant can grow up to 30m high and...

Re subsidies and food prices. We rent grazing at peppercorn rates and the landowners of the fields we have the use of keep their subsidies. We obviously do pasture management which involves fertilizer and diesel. Both are 3x what they were last year. If we dont see a return corresponding to the same come market day in the autumn, then those up front costs will make us reconsider next year's plans. The 2000+ hectre farms will have huge outlays going into the ground now. If harvest and livestock prices don't match their expectations then they'll simply stop growing food. Subsidies are not just for City boys investing in land to bypass capital gains tax etc. They are future-protecting assurance. On a historical note, it was said that average residential rent back in 1950s-1960s was approx 10% of average national income. However, food costs were close to 50%. That's why everyone was skinny back then. We in the UK have been used to cheap food for a long time in contrast. Rent though has been creeping up to well over 50% of national average income.

North Country Mule? Our full mouthed ryland had quads just over a week ago and yours wins hands down! :)

All well and bottle feeding two, thanks for asking. As for my afterthought on intonation, I only meant it in an oblique rather than referential way. Though we all need a derail once in a while, dont we? Marcus's sand and custard remark typifies the celtic art of the poetic which I like.

I know it's late to respond but I've just seen this. We've been up all hours lambing here at the mo' - just had quads - what a tangled mess of legs that was to sort out and pull out one at a time - not grumbling as its my favourite time of year getting off the machines. The quads are all alive at the mo'. Anyway, I reread my half arsed bollox above and appreciate your lyrical reply. As usual I confused the dry, inhospitable, sandy place where nothing grows to banoffee pie with extra custard! Thank you for your little peeble's ripple in the pond. Over on the argument thread as @Macpherson called it, I see they're talking about Scottishness. I mention this because my englishness likes listening to their tones, whether its weegie harshness or highland lilt. You in NI have the same kind of intensity in the way you speak which appeals too - as someone uprooted from england's ex-industrial north to southern countryside namby pambyness can become a bit monotone, if you know what I mean.

Ever since 2008, following finance has been a hobby of mine. Only occassionally investing though. Rather than post a link to support yours quoting some dry economist saying what and how sanctions effect both parties in this war, we don't need to go far. Just got to like at the no fly zone map a few pages back. A country with no movement across or within its borders is like a dessert. Finance, like the trade winds or migatory birds, has to continually move to be viable. Brokers call it churn which means everything from petro-dollars to the horde of cash under your nan's bed has to be buying and selling i.e. working, if it is to keep up with market forces, inflation, etc. When the Russian banks were cut off from the rest of the world, when their assets were frozen, when the russian ruble couldn't trade on the currency markets, when all the mutually interdependent deals that make up Global Capitalism ceased dealing with Russia, that's when journalists start projecting consequences. "Trouble at mill" as they used to say where I come from. Yes, we've got to start thinking about the people on the streets. That's why Putin may have to use his troops against his own people. How that gets explained is anyone's choice but, as our ex-servicemen brothers-in-law here on Arbtalk keep saying, our sympathies should start with ours and our own.

Excellent. You have laid out a balanced analysis of western interference, sovereign nationhood and spiced it with little anti-media propaganda. We in the West know that ever since the soviet era, serves only to disrupt and demoralise the peoples in the West and why some of us here cannot get overly excited about MSM) . You have direct experience and contacts in both countries so please help answer a little question. Remembering the Ukraine is rich in resources, is there not more to this than the Ukraine really being a buffer between Russia and the EU? I ask this because in the trench warefare of WW1, nomansland was a dangerous wasteland. This means that both Putin and the EU/NATO want the Ukraine to remain largely unoccupied. Only world leaders can decide whether the Ukraine be annexed by either the EU or Russia or remain sovereign and independent. We little people have neither the information nor the political knowledge to know. But of course we can guess

Interesting. I'm tempted to dismiss her hoo-ha as promo for counter-espionage cyber-crime funding. Any journalist who goes from the Telegraph to the Observer is obviously a campaigner. In essence she says there is a problem and she can tell us about it. Only she knows! Why hasn't this Pulitzer winner written a piece in a formal publication or newspaper? Why no scoop? The answer is lack of facts, hearsay and threats of libel. She's just joining a lot of circumstantial dots to sell copy: Beware the Cult of Cadwalladr - Craig Murray I heard The Private Eye used to good at this sort of thing. And yes I'm referring to "true believers" who love doubling down when a sceptic says so what.

re chain catchers. I've had chain links "let go" on full throttle and thought it was the catcher that served to stop the chain whipping round and possibly injuring the user. That was only on a 24" bar though. Would a bigger cc and bigger bar and so a longer chain and thus a heavier chain mean a chain catcher is less important?

Thanks for posting up. Orwell is enigmatic: old etonian anti-sentimentalist lefty. He'll always have something good to say to every generation. I looked this quote up wondering what the source was: War Against a Foreign Country Only Happens When the Moneyed Classes Think They Are Going to Profit From It – Quote Investigator

Windbreak or screen for polytunnels?

I'm foolish so I'll bite. Outside the Israel, the middle east countries are mainly prime producers eg oil. Russia has gas and oil too. There the parallels end.

It was the thread started by a london arb girl asking advice.

Years ago I heard a radio interview of a guy who helped start the Help for Heroes charity. They borrowed office space, farmed out admin and general minimised all day to day running costs with a skeleton staff to ensure the most of the public's contributions actually went to where it was needed. I personally only give to one charity. If anyone asks me for contributions to others I respectfully refuse and quietly explain why. Most people asking for money might think I'm mean. But when you hear that many charities are not run by volunteers but burnt out city executives and wasteful middle managers, you'd be careful where you'd put your hard earnt cash. I will say one thing I was told by a cynical cancer researcher I knew in the early 1990s in Manchester. He said it is not in many's charities interests to actually solve the problems they are trying to alleviate.

Here's a very feeble christmas cracker joke: Why won't retired academic@CambridgeJC get the data he needs, because he's not an ivy leaguer!

No worries. I was jesting anyway. The open mouth in shock & wink emoji didn't work ;0

It's well known that baby boomers and GenX have all the cash and all the property. Millenials and GenY are living on the never-never and rent. I'll take your hypothetical a bit further. The main assets of the elderly in their twilight years end up going to the state in care fees etc and what happens next? The next generation have no houses to own and no cash inherited. That's when Kevin's Cornish Uprising happens. ;0

Get well soon

Mick, what's making you ill?

Indeed! The 1980 Act uses the term "comfort" for the footpath user.

I was just asking in case my unlawful efforts at protecting stock would be undone by some new illegality. Don't have much to concern after all. Thanks again.

Anyone remember the public info broadcasts in 1970s about countryside code such as the rubbishy cartoon characters drawn in the style of Rhubarb and Custard. I grew up in a city sized town but have spent over 25 years dealing with rural folk. The image of the angry farmer jumping up and down blowing his top off because a footpath user wouldn't close the gate is powerful. Viz's Farmer Palmer has had an adverse affect I reckon.

I've put temp fencing & hurdles up for lambing time so dog walkers etc do round a footpath. I've seen Highways Act 1980/1990. What's this new police act?

To my eye, he's a poor man's Prince William lookalike who's still recovering from his drink being spiked with LSD.

I understand self-sufficiency and been looking into batteries and they viability for domestic power either off-grid or FiT. Batteries have a finite lifespan and their management software determine how many recharge cycles they can usefully do over say a 5-10 year period. A bank of Li-Po leisure batteries doesn't seem to be the answer yet. @Dean Lofthouse says he's on lead acid. What have you got? I trust your technical grasp on investing in such a thing so I'm most likely missing something from my youtube researching. :)