Big J

Not commenting on the lack of marches for other causes, Trump was elected according to the messed up electoral system the US has. He quite soundly lost the popular vote. He is however president. He's a moron with the intellectual capacity of a squashed apricot, but he is still the president. Oh how I miss Dubya!

There was a time when we aspired to have politicians who were accomplished and professional representatives, who exemplified the notion that in attempting to be universally representative of their electorate, they were universally respectful, even if they disagreed with others. Now, the electorate just seem to want one of the lads representing them. Someone who they'd have a pint or ten with and talk about tits and football. Whilst I understand the need for politicians to represent their electorate, I hold them to a higher standard and do not want louts like Trump or Farage representing me. I respect Farage's intellect but entirely disagree with his politics and lack of respect for the institutions of which he is a member. Trump is just an ass, and not a very bright one at that. And as I've stated before, I do not believe that universal democracy is the best way to govern a nation. There needs to be a modicum of qualification, and if there was I'm certain that morons like Trump would never be elected.

1m = 39.37 inches. 1 square metre = 39.37 x 39.37 - 1550 square inches. 1 square metre at 1.5 inches thick = 2325 cubic inches (which divided by 1728 equals 1.35 cubic feet) So 100 square metres of flooring will require 135 cubic feet of green oak, but that makes no allowance for wastage (cutting off the waney edges, undesirable knots, splits and shakes). I'd allow a minimum of 200 cubic foot, but probably a bit more. If you can only use 9" wide boards, there will be a lot of wastage in width. I can supply this if required.

I disagree entirely. Following on, here is a link to the transcript of Donald Trump's speech to the CIA. Watch Donald Trump give first CIA speech and his 1,000% backing - full transcript - Mirror Online I challenge you to read it out loud. I lasted about 3 minutes before losing the will to live. If a poorer public speaker has ever existed, I'd like to meet them. I feel that whilst his case is perhaps hopeless, it might be fixable: [ame] [/ame]

Obama has done a huge amount to revitalise the American car industry ($62 billion stimulus package). Refer to Marcus's post regarding the Unions. And the fact that until recently they made poor quality cars. Populism is a bad thing. What is best for the electorate isn't exactly what the electorate want. I want someone more intelligent than me representing me on a local, national and international level. I will pay attention to their policies, and choose my candidate accordingly. However I don't want a say regarding every aspect of governance, and I expect my politician to represent me fairly using the advice and guidance of respected experts. Populism is the opposite of this. A populist candidate like Trump is only capable of producing meaningless soundbites. He's scarcely able to complete a sentence - he makes George W Bush sound like Shakespeare. He espouses populist (thinly disguised prejudicial) policies whilst constantly deriding the views of people qualified in any field (what do the CIA know about intelligence? What do the press know about reporting? What does the EPA know about the environment? They are all obviously just out to get him). The next 4 years is going to be a disaster. It's not even like hoping that Trump has a heart attack will remedy the situation as Mike Pence is just as bad (though in an entirely different, and fundamentalist Christian kind of way). Hopefully this experiment with right wing populist politics (Trump and Brexit) doesn't last long. The only way to describe it is regressive. That being said, with the apparent rise of what can only be described as Idiocracy, I don't hold out much hope.

Trump isn't a politician, he's a populist. He says whatever he thinks will gain him more votes. Given that every vote is deemed equal, it's easier to garner the votes of idiots than people who have a broader life/world view. Interviews with Trump supporters are truly cringe worthy and I honestly can't stand to watch Trump speak for more than 20 seconds. He has all of the eloquence and grace of an Only way is Essex actor. Barrack Obama was sometimes criticised for being too 'Professorial'. That's like complaining your surgeon is too dextrous, your councilor too compassionate, your lawyer too diligent. You want an incredibly intelligent person who considers the ramifications of their words/actions in charge of the free world. The US unemployment rate is the lowest it's been for 9 years. Obama strengthened the economy, brought affordable healthcare to the masses, took major steps to protect the environment, brought Cuba back into the diplomatic fold, ensured a nuclear free Iran, legalised same sex marriage, cut the deficit and suffered no personal scandal (the first two term president since Dwight D Eisenhower). He did all of this whilst being likeable, professional and genuine. I fear for the next four years with Trump at the helm. He is the embodiment of what is wrong with America (and it's 1%ers) - the uneducated think that the Republican elite have their best interests at heart and vote them it. And each time, the Republicans crap on them from a great height.

Just wondering was anyone on here driving down the M6 yesterday in a Hilux with a western red cedar chainsaw carving yesterday? Saw them a couple of times, and they came off just south of Manchester. I couldn't quite make out what the carving was and I was just curious. I was the Silver Citroen Relay with rather too much sawn beech weighing down the back end!

Lovely stuff to mill isn't it? I don't really like milling anything else.

Very impressive.

Debating with you is an exercise in futility. We are diametrically opposite, politically speaking and I relate to none of your views. To embellish my early post a little, it horrifies me to see this atrocious excuse for a human being take the most powerful office on Earth. I cannot think of a western leader in the past 40 years as truly unpleasant as Trump. With more than a smidge of Schadenfruede I look forward to the next four years as he and his administration defecate on the uneducated white demographic that provided the core of the vote that got him (somehow, despite him getting nearly 3,000,000 fewer votes than Clinton) elected. Make no mistake, the only thing that Trump represents is himself. He cares only for himself. He serves only himself. This will become painfully apparent in the coming weeks, months and years.

Or they are just getting stupider, increasingly gullible and more bigoted.

I have the Kyocera KCS-701. It's tough, relatively good from a functionality point of view and doesn't look like a Tonka toy. I'd recommend it.

Cheap bars are a false economy Kim. Buy right and buy once!

The chap I referred to with the Mebor locally is Willie Dobie at Abbey Timber in Abbey St Bathans. He's a great chap and will be more than happy to chat to you about it. I do believe that he went to the factory in Slovenia as well.

I can't comment on the Forestor machines, but a local sawmill upgraded their set up to a Mebor mill and I believe that he is very happy with it. They produce some monstrous mills.

That's a very fair point. If it goes into stock, I stick a bit more on it. If it air dries, it goes up some more and if it gets kilned, some more again. Thankfully I don't deal with too many 'single board' customers these days, so timber is often priced on an approximate stack measure (roughly hoppus) but at a reduced rate. I just hate handling timber needlessly!

That's the best thing to do. Whether you need soon or not, kilning it that prematurely will result in a high degree of wastage.

That's effing nuts. Time for the idiot public to wake up and see the virtues of softwood. £35 a tonne delivered here for semi seasoned stock. Goes through the processor twice as quickly and dries in half the time too.

Too soon to kiln. Needs until at least April. You'll just wreck it kilning it now.

I'm anywhere from about £5 a cube upwards on hardwoods. There isn't really an upper limit as high end walnut and burr elm are worth as much as someone is prepared to pay for them. £5 a cube is for ugly beech/sycamore etc. £6 a cube is a bit steep Will! For regular customers, I'm £3 a cube to contract mill. On clean timber and assuming the blades are behaving themselves, the mill will do 50-80 cubic foot an hour.

I've really enjoyed my Citroen vans. My Relay is working it's tits off at the moment towing max capacity (and possibly then some) about 300 miles a week. Time will tell. We've a couple of years of warranty left and I wouldn't keep it much beyond that anyway.

Well the Landrover was fun, but given that we no longer need a 4x4 (not doing much, if any work requiring off road driving) we've traded it in for a 65 plate Citroen C4 Grand Picasso. Dad mobile extraordinaire, but it's top of the range so many toys (to go wrong, I expect). The Landrover had new tyres all round, timing belt and service, front wheel bearings and discs, new fuel sender unit (that one left us stranded when it went) and new brake lines. Probably not the most expensive LR ownership experience, but still a little sore. Proof of the pudding was taking it to the dealership at 24mpg and driving the new Citroen back at 56mpg! Low cost motoring, here we come

I'm a front wheel drive 2.0 160hp Relay tipper. Goes rather quickly and handles a lot of weight (whether towed, onboard or both) easily. I think rear wheel drive is on it's way out with vans.

All this talk of fuel tanks is irrelevant anyway as you'll break down long before getting to the end of the tank!

It's why the second half of a tank never seems to be anywhere near as capacious (accepting the volume of the filler spout).