Tony Croft aka hamadryad

looks like you been having a jolly to BB, havent been for ages, any losses in the recent damp high winds?

Guns dont kill people, people do, wether its a gun, a bottle of pills a knife whatever, those that are inclined to always will:thumbdown: never owned a gun, they dont scare me either, if somebody points one in my face they best be prepared to use it quick! As for the illegal gun trade, well its fed and supplied by those we entrust to stop the very thing!

This threads a happy thread, makes me smile. some nice posts, looking forward to everyones updates as the year unfolds. I strimmed the neglected lawn to stubs yesterday ready for the big dig, double dig back breaking but will go over to minimal digging after the initial layout and soil prepping. Im hoping to doa bee keeping course this summer and have a couple of bantams for fresh eggs. already started collecting logs for when the boiler/stove is bought this year. going to be a lot of fun homesteading

Gun crime has risen 40% since the ban, simple, crooks dont want the risk of taking on public that may be as well armed as they are! we in the U.K may have a low gun crime (30 odd cases per annum) but how many muggings do we have? would you mug a texan? If any of you lost a loved one to bombs dropped by a foreign government (50 nations bombed by U.K/U.S forces) you would all be screaming for a gun!

Agreed, planning on getting this under my belt as soon as poss, dont know till you know if you know what I mean!

thats a shame about the time thing, as for me planning, I am a very green fingered soul, used to feed half the close I used to live in off a plot 1/10th what ive got here:thumbup: and this time theres even going to be some fungi cultivation!

cool:001_cool: pics as progress! i think this is going to be a good thread after all!

same as that, broccoli and onions on the go, and recently got into sprouting seeds as a salad for my sarnies, high nutrition, add a little husked hemp and a drop of hemp oil and you get so much nutrition in two sandwiches you barely feel the need to eat in the evenings.

asparagus is my fave:thumbup1:

and that is to be highly commended glad to see theres a few out there, I shall keep this updated regular with photos as the project named "off grid sububan!" gets going:laugh1: so a new season, about to begin, share your stories wins and losses, and especially epic failures! and defo get the kids involved, get them some sunflower seed, got me hooked from day one. In fact I will give away a family day out ticket to the park of your kids choosing (U.K obviously!) for the most headed sunflower of the season:thumbup1: and no cheating or helping!

I have recently gotten back into growing my own, and this time I'm doing it not just for food but for biodiversity and seed conservation of old or obscure varieties that are being lost due to stupid legislation, poor farming practice and a general uniformity drive by supermarket chains. Just wondering if any of you lads or lasses do much growing yourselves either for food or pleasure, what you grow, what origin your seed came from, do you have an old family variety grown from seed for generations for example? or do you buy F1 hybrids from the local garden centre? There is something very earhty and satisfying raising food crops from seed, and i cant wait to actualy see this through to harvesting seed for myself. That has many advantages, as strains can be adapted through time to the location. Im reading an absolutely marvelous book at the moment called "Back garden seed saving" by Sue stickland and can thoroughly recomend it to anyone interested in the subject. Some great history in it and great stories of the seed saving project that saw many elderly folk sending in breeds of unkown crops that had been grow fo 180 years in some cases. I have fond memories as a child growing my first plants, and when actively gardening can never rsist the urge to plant some sunflowers, happiest plant on earth! not trees, not big saws or guns im afraid, so expecting this one to die rapidly but you never know.

Looking at the form of that tree it was a difficult reduction with few choices:thumbup1:

at my age i am entitled to ladders in any and all circumstances!

Its the gate between the grounds of kenwood House and Hampstead heath, its on David Humphries watch so maybe he will jump in with a discussion on his take of risk managment as a non QTRA practitioner? I think its said to have 7 million through its gates annualy. I just like it as a measure because it has one of the highest throughput's of uman footfalls that I know off and has many large and old trees on route

apart from that wispy bit out top to right:blushing:

A repeat cyclic prune of a beech, has been done at least 4-5 times over thirty years by my firm, this was my first go at her. took some of the heavy wood out this time round, lots of squirrel damage and far too woody, needed opening out a little o encourage more even spread of foliage as opposed to mostly outer periphery.

lol, that old chestnut, bet thats a well used one:lol:

You’re right that the general background risk from trees is extremely low at around 1/10,000,000 per annum, which is a really important point about ‘reasonable practicability’ and ‘gross disproportion’ that we may get onto. However, locally the risk can be much higher than 1/10,000. and it is very easy to see and know when locally the risks are high, I like to think of Kenwood gate on the heath for a great example, a funnel for millions of people per annum. I do think this inherently low risk generally from trees is always going to be a thorny issue. I would be very interested in your views on "the limitations of strength loss formula"

reduced 2 not long ago, shall see if I can find the photos, one might even be in my reductions thread. dont know what to expect from a response point of view yet but am certain they will do well. They shed branches so easily in old age, if you can call an English Welly old, just touch the back of a limb with a saw and easy to see why! not many people talk about reducing wellies so glad to see im not the only one!

Oh that made me chuckle, DNA splicing experiments gone wrong.

and not one "if your not fast your last" my fave old one from my G and T days!

this threads the first ive heard of this one so dont ask me:blushing:, I try to stick to stuff I have a reasonable amount of personal experience of, I think thats the ONLY way:001_rolleyes:

good, maybe comercialism will keep the NWO a distant pipe dream of the elite! I can see a lot of these getting sold in other countries and a lot of illegal logging being done with them!

Yep I gathered that but was expecting to see that part with thread title! was a cool video anyway, awesome in fact:thumbup1:

Nice, been doing a bit meself and want the mini mill now! Quarter sawn is the way to go, my slabs are cupping sadly, lesson learned