Big J

As they were the last one (and cheaper than I could find them elsewhere on the net), I ordered them. I shall see how they perform and come back to you all with a review

Can anyone recommend a good set of blue tooth communication ear defenders for machine operation? I would like a pair so that when I am forwarding that I can answer calls without stopping work. Also, being able to listen to various radio stations and other media is a big plus. Considering these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-Peltor-MRX21A2WS6-WS-Alert-XP-Headband-Headset-Black/202268137589?epid=15016976276&hash=item2f181ed875:g:lR4AAOSwDdlast1z

It was always the case that the MS880 was the favoured saw. You very rarely see 3120XPs chainsaw milling for some reason. However, the newer MS880s seem to be quite delicate, and that was my experience too. I had a 13 month old machine, which had not been worked hard at all, completely self destruct. I sent it back to FR Jones, who sent it to Stihl, who just sent me a brand new saw without attempting to repair the old one. Hard to recommend either to be honest. Perhaps if you can find an old but well looked after 088? I had two 088s and they were always perfect and they worked really hard.

Very close indeed. Less than 15 minutes. What is is called?

As an example:

I do quite agree. Having been starved of coarse fishing in Scotland for many years, the sight of so many carp feeding so vigorously was quite impressive. There is a town in the Harz Mountains in Germany called Clausthal-Zellerfeld that in it's distant history undertook a lot of mining. They used reservoirs as part of the process and there are 37 of these long redundant lakes around the town. All fairly small, from a few acres to perhaps 30. Loads of wild carp in them, averaging low to mid double and the ticket is £8 a day to fish all 37 lakes. I've yet to fish it, but having holidayed there, I'm desperate to go back with a rod and line. Saw fish to low twenties cruising. Incredible setting too, with these alpine lakes lying within deep forest.

One of the fisheries I popped into on Friday was chock full of 3-8lb carp with quite a few bonus doubles. I took a couple of kilos of 4mm expander pellets with me and just fed the fish. By the end of the bucket, I must have had 80 fish wolfing down the pellets infront of me, and catching them would have been verging on unsportingly easy!

Everything really. Enjoying stalking carp at the moment, but looking forward to mixed River coarse fishing too 😁 Fish much yourself?

I spent a while dotting around fisheries at the weekend in Devon and I think I'll find a lot of work there on site maintenance, peg reinstatement, winching trees out of lakes, timber extraction and the like. So many of these sites have tiny little paths that wind around the lakes, which are inaccessible to larger machines. And if I get a bit of free fishing out of it, excellent!

From what I hear, the weather is very local in Devon on account of the hills. West or south of Dartmoor and you get wet. We're going to be in the rain shadow of Dartmoor, so hopefully will remain a little drier. The climate data for Cullompton suggest about 15-20% less precipitation than here near Edinburgh and an average of 4 more dry days a month. And an annual temperature that is 3-4c warmer.

I'll take that! We've not had a summer up here since 2014!

Bloody miserable here today near Edinburgh. 11c, windy, showers, very overcast. Can't wait to move to Devon and leave this life sucking climate behind.

Another point to consider is that there is a lot more competition in the UK mill market than in times past. This has had the dual effect of lowering prices and increasing quality, or at least in my opinion.

Buy a new one if you can. Unless you know the history of the mill, it's worth remembering that it's very easy to do serious damage to a machine in seconds. Worth buying new if possible.

I'm in Exeter this weekend if anyone is around tomorrow or Sunday morning and wants to meet up to chat about forestry work, politics or the meaning of life 😁