Big J

Totally agree, but didn't we hear enough from so called experts in the run up to the Brexit referendum? I think it was in the news this week that the OBR stated that Brexit has caused a 15% reduction in export activity. Damn those experts - why didn't they warn us of this? Oh wait.....

To explain what I believe a cynical take on a rational position, I'll make a series of statements. Let me know if you disagree with any of them: The US political system is disfunctional, corrupt and anti-democratic It's also corrupted by undue and ridiculous religious influence Despite the clear and obvious differences between the candidates, there will be a continuation of the status quo (to a greater or lesser degree). Trump is an awful human being, by any measure. Harris is not an awful human being. I am not saying that this is how I feel. I believe that a Trump presidency presents a clear and obvious danger to the world, but I'm making the above list from a deeply cynical standpoint. Trump is awful. Harris is not. Any idiot can see that.

You don't really understand how the weather works, do you? Wonderful how you bring in some conspiracy theory into climate science too. Marvellous.

Human caused climate change? It's irrefutable. I have a good friend in Devon who is a deputy chief forecaster at the Metoffice. Sometimes he's the acting chief, depending on shift patterns. I chat to him a lot about climate and weather and the rate at which the climate is changing is horrifying. It's not gradual or something that's tied to any natural process. It's rapid, it's accelerating and it's something that's self evident even over our lifetimes. For reference, the last time that the world had the same CO2 levels as are found today (3 million years ago), it was 2-3c warmer than it is today. There is a lot of scope for it to get a lot warmer. With the advancing and accelerating melting of the ice caps, global sea rises will cause vast issues for tens of millions of people in low lying regions, resulting in mass migration. Similarly, advancing desertificiation in regions experiencing increasing temperatures and reduced rainfall will result in tens of millions of refugees. I would have thought that it would serve the white nationalist agenda of people like Trump to try to do all that is possible to keep the darkies in their own countries 😄 🤪

The UK system of first past the post is also a poor representation of democracy, but it's positively wonderful compared to the UK electoral college system. At least in the UK, Labour got the most votes and formed a government. In the US, it's perfectly possible to lose the popular vote (by millions) and still win the electoral college. As regards Biden's cognitive decline - yes, it's definitely happened and I think it happened quite quickly. I think that there was a culture of denialism within the Dems about that and they should have been more forthright and much sooner. I'm not defending that. But I'd far rather see a good man suffering the ill-effects of old age in the White House than a narcisistic scumbag with dementia. As regards how Trump is a fascist? John Kelly, Trumps former chief of staff has stated, on the record that he meets all the criteria of a fascist. His statement has been backed by 13 former Trump officials. It is noteable that virtually no one from Trump's former administration is backing him, and many have spoken out against him. I don't like the state of US politics at all. I don't especially like Harris and I wish the situation were different. The best politicians in US politics don't make it to the top due to the sheer weight of corporate interest in the system (Bernie Sanders being a case in point - a top bloke). The situation with next month's election cannot be overstated. If Trump is elected, there will be long lasted and catastrophic consequences for the world. People like to say that the previous four years weren't so bad but what they don't realise is that he never expected to win in 2016, and as such, he had no time to pick toadies and yes men to enact his will. During 2017-2021, most of his administration acted as a buffer, a restraint, a check on his impulses and desires. There were management strategies in place in the White House to distract and divert his attention away from his more extreme whims. In 2025, none of that would exist. The whole Project 2025 document outlines exactly how they'd dismantle the federal state, replacing apolitical positions with Trump loyalists. It's f**king frightening, and directly out of Hitler's (who Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for) playbook.

I do agree that the Dems have a habit of picking candidates who are suboptimal. I would have liked to have seen Pete Buttigieg, but there are too many people in the US who wouldn't elect a gay guy. And whilst I'm no huge fan of Harris, compared to the alternative, she's the obvious choice. The entire American political system is totally f**ked. It is completely dominated by money and inevitably doesn't serve the people. The electoral college system is anti-democratic and the country is so starkly divided along party lines that the notion of it being a United States of America is laughable. I read recently that congressmen/women spend fully 50% of their time fund raising. It's insane.

It's a depressing indictment of the state of the US that the election is on a knife edge between a former prosecutor/long time public servant and someone who is: A convicted felon, with many, many more court cases to come A fascist In cognitive decline Has no interest in serving anyone but himself Is genuinely the worst person that I can think of who has ever stained public life If he wins, I will incredible pity for the more than 50% of Americans who didn't vote for him. I can't imagine what it must be like to live in a country where Trump is the head of state. What a gigantic, unforgivable skidmark of a human being. Completely unrelated - why doesn't America have more talented would-be assassins?

Unusually warm here today at 16c. Quite grey, but it isn't usually this warm here in late October. Still decent chanterelle picking to be had too. My wife and I got over a kilo this morning.

I take your point, and I am much the same. Spent my childhood outside, fishing, cycling, climbing trees and such like. I'm not saying that it's impossible to be outside in all weathers in the UK, only that it's not very pleasant. And then when you're on a forestry job, a night of heavy rain is the difference between the work being a breeze or a total nightmare. Similar for many outdoor trades. But 4 years of forestry in Devon scarred me. It was really good fun when the weather went our way, but more often than not, it coincided with summer when all the lardy-da's wanted a complete stop because of nesting pigeons or other such nonsense. The weather still obviously affects things here as well, but really very rarely. Given that I largely work indoors now, my primary interaction with the outdoors is through cycling, and it's very rarely the kind of weather that makes you rethink whether to go out or not. Whereas I was in the UK for two weeks at Easter and it rained solidly for ten days, including two named storms. I fully realise that moaning about the weather is pointless. I should try to be more positive about it, so I will say that I greatly appreciate that we have defined seasons here, that it rarely rains, that it's often very sunny and that the sandy soil means that even if it does rain, it's not muddy

Haha! You have my sympathies. Very much the same issues there, albeit at least (I assume) that it's not filled with people who have retired there from London and who object to any kind of rural work!

Maybe, but it's a bit like growing up in a cage and thinking that's normal too. It's just objectively miserable. You don't quite realise how much it negatively affects your life until you get away from it. Being able to plan an outdoor activity without having to worry about rain and wind, or covering everything you own in mud. I know that I'm negative as f**k about the West Country, but it left a deep and lasting impression on me, and it wasn't a good one.

My four years there was a real eye opener. You think the weather is bad in Scotland, but just west of Edinburgh (where we lived for 13 years) it's a lot less severe than the SW. Summer was never guaranteed in Scotland though. You'd get to September sometimes and realise that you'd only had a handful of days over 20c. I swim outdoors a lot and recall one year where the lake temperatures didn't exceed 15c. We had 24c here this year at the end of May! Everyone lives for the summer in Devon. Those hot, balmy days that you invariably get where the county looks lush and everyone is happy. You then just spend the remaining 9 months of the year in wellies washing mud out of every orifice, counting the days until the rain stops, the wind settles down and being outside isn't some form of purgatory! 😄 I was out with the missus this afternoon on the gravel bikes. Had this lake to ourselves, and again saw a white tailed eagle. Saw one car in 1.5hrs.

There is so much forest here and so few people, I don't think it really matters about the guts. Additionally, there are large predators here that can deal with them - lynx, occasionally wolves, eagles etc. I don't miss working in the forest at all. I have been cycling 10-15hrs a week since moving here, so I see a lot of the forest and not having to make a living off it is a lot less stressful. I love working at the sawmill, but unfortunately they are having a raw materials issue (not enough timber in) so I am currently home (as of Tuesday). It seems that the timber industry is almost as unstable here as the UK. But it's not a big issue - I am a jack of all trades (master of none!) so I have other irons in the fire. I did do a day felling and stacking small trees on Tuesday and despite being quite ridiculously fit at the moment (aged 40, and fitter than I've ever been), it still bloody hurt the day after. It's amazing how specific forestry fitness is. I've been working physically at the sawmill for 1.5 years now, I train weights, cycle more than anyone reasonably needs to do and 4.5hrs of swinging around a 346xp and I feel like a newbie again! 😄

Within a month I'd expect. Autumn really has been bloody beautiful this year. Incredible colours and apart from a few isolated days with heavy rain, very sunny indeed. I was out this afternoon on the bike with a friend on the gravel roads. Saw three white tailed eagles (I've only seen three in total up to now, so to see them all together today was stunning). My friend reckoned that they were loitering because of the remains of a moose. The hunting season has started now, and the hunters tend to leave the entrails in the forest. Hence the eagles and also a lot of ravens. When I initially saw them, it was a pair flying along the track ahead of us. Their wingspan is close to 8ft, so almost as wide as the road. The photo is from the area where the eagles were, but my crappy camera didn't get a great photo of them.

I keep a close eye on the weather there through my friend's website/weather station. He's a deputy chief forecaster at the MetOffice, so the data is detailed. Starlings Roost Weather STARLINGSROOST.DDNS.NET It wasn't far into September before I concluded that I was incredibly grateful that I no longer to have to work in forestry in Devon this winter. When the rain hits that early, you're basically screwed for the next 6 months. We have had a lot of rain here in the last week (about 70mm), which is quite unusual. The soil is sandy though, so it disappears almost immediately. I was out for a 101km gravel cycle ride yesterday (almost entirely on gravel and dirt roads) and the bike is hardly mucky. A friend at work watches a lot of English football and he often remarks that it never seems to stop raining. The climate in the west of the UK is certainly not extreme like many parts of the world, but it is probably one of the most miserable in Europe. For context, in September here was 2.5c warmer than Cullompton (in Devon), had 35% of the rainfall and was 3 times sunnier. Photo is from a bike ride 10 days ago locally. We've had days with heavy rain, but the sunny days in between have outnumbered them and have been glorious.

Glaucescens is definitely more frost hardy. Nitens grows like a rocket, but struggles with frost - the issue is less the absolute temperature, but more the amount of time that it's exposed to it. So freezing days are really bad. The tree in the photo is in Cullompton, Devon. I planted a few around the town, and lots of hectares elsewhere on forestry sites. The issue with the one in the photo is that it's planted on compacted verge. Badly drained and competing grass at the start. The god-awful Devon clay means that the establishment phase was difficult - when it's dry it's like concrete and when it's wet it's swimming. But it did almost 2m in the first year and has continued on at that rate. On a forestry site near Chard, we had considerably quicker growth rates, but the only one I can get measurements from is this one in Cullompton as my friend lives nearby. I think it's close to 8m now and should be 15m within another 4 years. They really pick up the growth rate from year 5.

Eucalyptus nitens, planted February 2021 as a 25cm whip. Photo taken last week with a 2m rule for scale. 10cm dbh.

Dogs are a funny thing here in Sweden. The law is incredibly strict, in terms of the amount of time that they can be left alone, and they have to have access to the ourdoors if they are. Much stricter than the UK. But the dogs that are here are terribly socialised. Most are kept on leads when walked and are defensively aggressive. Also, dogs fall broadly into two distinct camps. Those that are used for hunting (working dogs and usually not very pleasant) and stupid little toy dogs that are yappy and pointless. There are exceptions, but those two camps cover 90% of dogs. Responsible ownership of pleasant dogs is something that I will say I miss from the UK. That you can walk through a public woodland in the knowledge that if you see a dog off-lead that it's 99% certain to be a loveable idiot. After losing our collie Katie 2.5 years ago, we've not had a dog. We looked after a friends pointless and stubborn Jack Russell for 5 months whilst they were away and it galvanised us into thinking that it's better to have no dog than a shit dog. Also, the way that our lives work now, it wouldn't be fair to a dog to have one. I cycle more than anyone reasonably needs to do, which isn't something I can do with a dog. I also no longer work in the forest. I'll leave you with my favourite photo of Katie. Working in Wiltshire, a few months before she died of heart failure, I was extracting timber to roadside in my forwarder. She was off-lead and doing her usual 'orbiting' of me and the machine. She would always make friends with any passing walkers and their dogs, if they had them. On this day, she found a tennis ball, and proceeded to entice passing walkers to play with her. This photo is of a mum with her young daughter taking the bait ☺️

Holy thread revival Batman! Could I check where the market is sitting at the moment for wholesale imported firewood? I'm in a slightly frustrating position at the moment where the contract work that I do for a large local sawmill is looking very insecure in the near future. I've been working there, more or less (but not quite) full time for 18 months on a self employed basis, running one particular machine line. There is a downturn in the demand for construction timber (80% of our production is exported, half of which is to the UK) and not being employed or part of the union, I'm unfortunately the first to have my hours cut. Despite being almost twice as fast as anyone else who has operated my particular machine in the 18 years it's been installed. Anyway, our part of Sweden is 70% forest, with a minority of that being birch. I want to formulate a plan to propose to my sawmill about entering firewood production and export. They already have all the infrastructure and procedures in place for export to the UK (about 400 cubic metres a day to the UK alone), several massive kilns and literally hectares of under-cover drying space. The climate is extremely good for firewood drying here. We have minimal rain, and sub 15% is easy outside without kilning. The kilning process would only be so as to kill insects and other pests (56c, 30 minutes is the Swedish board of agriculture standard). We have a local manufacturer of crates/pallets too, so all that would be required would be the machinery to actually process the timber. Where is the market at the moment in terms of dockside wholesale prices for stacked birch firewood crates? I am conscious that the price of logs has increased a lot since I left the UK, in part due to the increasingly stringent legislation regarding moisture content. The Swedish birch market is a bit different to that of the Baltic states and Finland. There isn't quite as much of it, because the primary use is mainly wood pulp and domestic firewood supply. But there is so, so much forest here that even a small percentage being birch is a hell of a lot of birch. Any thoughts or guidance from anyone who has imported firewood to the UK would be greatly appreciated.

Always makes me chuckle. It translates to 'final sprint'

Amazing weather here today for the equinox. 24c and sunny, barely a breath of wind. We went kayaking at a lake near the village this afternoon. Had the place to ourselves. Autumn starts to make itself felt by the end of next week though, by the looks of the forecast.

I love that song. Comedy genius 😄

I was quite taken by these fellas, tucked out behind one of the kilns at work. I've never seen them before. Spray can for scale