djbobbins

I've seen three trees down in the Warwick area since late last week - two which had blocked roads, and one in a piece of verge which had evidently been dead for a while and failed at ground level. Out of interest, do the police or highways people have a contract with an arb company in each area? I'm not trying to get in on the business, just curious.

I went to a village primary school in a farming area. Of the seven kids in my year, four had fathers that were farmers, one welder / fabricator, one car restorer and one postman / labourer. Looking back now, two of the four farmers have died, as has the welder. All three were just about 60. My own uncle, another farmer, died a few weeks after his 60th from lung cancer. At his funeral there were 200-odd people, predominantly farmers, and very few of those were "old" - like 75 years of age of more. I'm sure that in some cases there were other factors at play, but it strikes me that working in a dusty - in this case, farm - environment would seem not to be a good way to increase life expectancy.

But just to show that nature is a thing of many wonders, taxol (as extracted from yew trees) is used as a chemotherapy drug. Other common sources of carcinogen that might not immediately spring to mind are soot or used engine oil, and burned toast.

Doobin, thanks for that constructive response. For someone to come wading in with an off the handle reply when you know nothing about the circumstances in question was just what I was looking for! yourself...! FWIW I'm not "suing" anyone. I am trying to recover the excess that I had to pay out when the car was repaired. My insurance company has done whatever they do with Severn Trent and they've agreed that my wife wasn't at fault. Therefore, my insurers get their side of the repair costs back but as it stands, the same doesn't automatically happen to the money I paid out towards the repair bill. My wife would have been within her "rights" as the law stands to pursue damages for whiplash etc, as I would have been when someone ran into the back of me whilst I was stationary at a T-junction about 10 years ago. However, I don't agree with the concept of ambulance-chasing no-win-no-fee litigation and have never sought to gain from it. Seeing as the issue of "blame" isn't under discussion, I take it from the tone of your post you'd be happy that if someone ran into you, at no fault of your own, that you should have to pay the excess on any repairs? Or you perhaps also think that if a member of the public was driving irresponsibly and went through a fence e.g. into a Severn Trent pumping station, then ST wouldn't try to recover their costs from the car driver's insurance??

I was just wondering if anyone has got experience of recovering uninsured losses? My wife was involved in a no-fault accident last year - slid on black ice which was present on the road as a result of a burst water main. After a lot of chasing I managed to get a job code from Severn Trent for the burst, which seems to have helped in proving blame. My insurance company has got their money back from Severn Trent, and is now pursuing them for my £350 excess. I suspect it will turn up at some point but just wondered how painful I should expect this to be and how much chasing will be needed? Anyone got any experience of getting this sort of money out of utility companies?

Having in Macclesfield and commuted that route into Manchester daily for a period of time, I'd agree with you Lancstree - off the M60 and down the A34. The junction you need is the one that takes you off past the Sainsbury's (at the top of the long slight incline after you've got off the motorway and gone through the lights). At 8am you will be meeting peak time traffic, but hopefully most of it should be going into Manchester rather than out so you might be alright. That piece of road is a real PITA of a morning going towards "town".

What is it that you see when a badger walks away from you? Let me think, a badger's behind... I'm assuming you are leaving it in some kind of patrolled secure car park and not just parking in a residential area in Wythenshawe, 'cos if you're doing the latter you're a braver man than me.

20" open grate. Lit daytimes and evenings, eats logs and coal and is in real need of replacing but can't afford to have the whole fireplace and hearth changed at the moment... Have used about four cubes of seasoned euc, alder, ash and offcuts since mid October, plus about 8cwt of washed doubles, plus about 750 litres of heating oil in the boiler. Makes it sound a bit painful when listed like that but in reality got to do something about it when the 18 month old toddler's bedroom gets down to 12 degrees or so at night. Anyone recommend a builder in the Warwick area to sort my fireplace out and fit a stove??!!

BBC News - Man sentenced for sex act on horse at Devon stables Just how much booze do you have to drink - on more than one occasion by the way the story reads - to start to think "Mmmm, that Desert Orchid is a bit of a looker!"?

I've done about 20 alder recently with SBK (mix as recommended for stumps, with liquid paraffin). Anyone got any experience on whether it's likely to be effective or not? Before that though, I'd used a couple of the pieces I'd felled as props for an impromptu log store and - despite no roots, and damp but not wet soil - the "props" only went and started growing. I've experienced the same problems with re-growth on untreated alder, especially younger stuff (6 inch diameter or so at base). The good news is that if you fell them now it will be seasoned and make good firewood for next winter!

I thought I'd heard / read somewhere it was going to be sold in 5 acre blocks? I guess there will be a desire from the government to make this "attractive" to the small investor, so like the 80's privatisations there will be some kind of limit on amount any one individual or organisation can buy. Of course, unlike the 80's privatisations, what is being sold is heterogenous. a 5 acre block with road access and a waterway or lake is not the same as a chunk completely isolated and with no distinguishing features. It will be interesting to see how this is dealt with. Do some people just get lucky with what land their name is pulled out of the "interested bidders" hat for? I also think / hope that there some pretty robust covenants on future use - maintaining rights of way, restriction on building, felling limits etc.

Stobart are getting their fingers into all manner of lines of business now - even rail maintenance and the suchlike. Just hope they are doing it properly and not like Jarvis, where the experience appears to be - make a mess of rail work and it will pretty much finish the company off. FWIW according to their website, Stobart Biomass (itself a joint venture between Stobart and AW Jenkinsons) have bought AHS. They are also into port facilities, airports and container handling, amongst other things: Our History | Stobart Group

Pretty sure the National Trust do some logging work on their lands using horses (where vehicle access would be either too difficult or damage the ground).

Interesting; the reason that I asked the question is that I've done it (collecting deadwood from a roadside) twice in the past when desperate for firewood and I noticed something fallen and dead. On both occasions the police stopped and asked what I was up to. First copper was completely relaxed about it once I told him what I was up to - i.e. only taking already fallen stuff, happy to stop if if was a problem. Second copper was a lot more officious and told me I shouldn't really be doing what I was doing, so since then I have been a lot more wary. Fortunately I have secured a ready source of timber for the moment so not such a problem, but who knows in the future. Something did make me titter about the irony of the coppers not being very receptive about clearing fallen timber off the road. A few weeks after "second copper" incident above I saw a noddy car parked up and a plod with a silky trying to cut through something about 6" diameter...

Three of the four jobs I've had have been under collective, mass contracts and hence not negotiable but I honestly don't think a paid lunch break in an office job is the norm. Based on my experience, I completely agree that working late one day may get recognised another day in a more flexible approach to e.g. a need to finish a bit early, but that depends on the manager. Certainly in my current office job I am lucky to get a sit down, dedicated lunch session away from the desk or work-based meetings more than once a week. The grass is not greener! I fully acknowledge that I have chosen an office job, so nor am I saying that the grass is greener doing arb work full time. On a nice sunny day in summer I may look out of the window and wish I could be working outdoors, but when it's persisting down or brass monkeys, a warm dry workplace seems attractive. I don't know about retail - if shop staff get an hour off paid to chomp butties and drink coffee every lunchtime then perhaps I'm in the wrong game!

So, the test proves that a £800 Stihl saw is better made than a £100-odd Chinese one. I should hope so too! Okay, so this most likely means that the Stihl will last a lot longer in normal use, but again, only to be expected. What the test didn't prove for me was whether the cheap saw was fit for normal purpose - does "normal" pressure on the chain brake make it apply and stop the chain? Will it start and run reliably out of the box without overspeeding and hence releasing the centrifugal clutch by itself? Don't get me wrong, I absolutely disagree with counterfeit goods - deliberately trying to pass off a product as something that it isn't is out of order. But if someone can make and sell a saw which is useable, at a low price, and doesn't pretend to be something that it isn't, then why not? Arb pros might not buy them, as the adage goes - you pays your money and you takes your choice.

Yeah right, more like 8 til 6 with at best 10 minutes to buy a sandwich and eat it at my desk or in a meeting.... I have had a range of different office jobs and have never had a contract which included paid lunch break.

Don't know about the legality of it but a mate of mine from work, who lives on a canal barge just off the Trent, goes off to the river with a barrow and chainsaw to collect all the wood that washes up on the inside of a horseshoe bend. I can't see that it's doing any harm to anyone; I suspect the police would be willing to be practically-minded over it. As an aside - what does the law say about picking up deadwood from by the side of the road? Does this strictly belong to (a) the local authority or highways agency on whose land it is sitting; (b) the landowner whose tree the wood fell from (be it public or private land); © the first person that decides it would be useful and is willing to load it up??

Didn't someone cast an aspersion a while ago that they break transfer boxes for fun though?

... and the axe in the boot ... and the machete ... and the spade ... and the 880 just for good measure? All tools of the trade, obviously:001_unsure: Seriously though, interesting thread. I've had a few stressful months at work over the last few months and identified with some of the feelings mentioned. Fortunately things have now calmed down a bit but it's very good to reflect on the situation and think about how it was that I came to respond in the way I did.

There was a guy in court a while back who'd stolen a parked up tractor unit and curtainsider, which it turned out was loaded to the gunwhales with green shield stamps. From what I can remember he got six months detention and a hostess trolley...

I used to drive a LWB, high-roof 17 seater LDV minibus full of drunken students home around Manchester in the late 90's. Believe me, whatever anyone says about the manoevrability of them, when you have got half a busload of drunk students in the middle of an area that makes Moss Side look like leafy Surbiton, you can make an LWB LDV do a three point turn!!

That's mad... At uni me and a like-minded engineering mate made a gas powered spud gun out of tin cans and a chunk of 2" waste pipe; the "chamber" would have been about four litres and the barrel about 50cm. We only fired it a few times but gave it up after setting it off one time, obviously having got the fuel / air mix just right, and the explosion taking all the seams apart between the tin cans. Eeeh, them were the days...

It's Dutch, not German, but I'll let you off this time!! Good to see that VW roll out similarly cheesy adverts elsewhere in Europe too! Oh, and I wish my Mk 3 Golf had been anything like that robust - I spent over two grand in garage bills in about 15 months before deciding that enough was enough and flogging it on fleabay. Sod's law, saw the thing bumbling along down the road whilst I was out on business about a year later...

Wonder what the legal and insurance situation is on that? I've got the home insurance that covers me for any mishaps whilst I'm doing DIY, but I'd bet money that (a) there's some small print that excludes really major work like felling trees, and (b) it wouldn't cover public liability if I dropped a tree on someone's head. So assuming these people that are having the work done, and the fellers, are both uninsured for public liability, in the event of an accident who gets sued / jailed etc??