Big J

I think any approach to discouraging under age pregnancy (and indeed unconsidered pregnancy) needs to have a two pronged approach. Firstly, improve education so that there is no grey area and that by a certain age, everything is understood. Secondly, more or less entirely remove the government funded social support structure for people who are unable to pay for their own children. If people understood that the consequences of pregnancy were that YOU (not the state) have to provide for your child, there would be far fewer people having children unthinkingly. It's infuriating that those of us for whom having a kid is a painstakingly considered decision have to pay for those for whom breeding is a career choice.

Generalisations can be unfortunate, but I think in this case are mostly warranted. My mother in law, prior to retirement, worked in a nursery and despaired at the level of parenting amongst many of the families hailing from a Northampton council estate. 7 kids wasn't uncommon, with as many different fathers, often all with names starting with the same letter. In addition to this, some kids (aged 3-4) made it to school without being toilet trained, yet able to operate the latest games console. It's a dire state of affairs. The problem is that historically, social support would not have been extended to those who recklessly reproduced without any regard as to how to provide for them. This kept this population demographic in check. Now, no such constraint exists and we have a situation where young girls actually aspire to a council flat and a string of illegitimate sprogs. With regards to whether it's a beautiful day or not, debating is a wonderful thing and every opportunity should be taken to flex the logic circuits!

Mathematical horrors, part one: The council estate effect: Two educated folk having two children by the age of 35. They in turn have two children aged 35, who in turn have two children aged 35. After 105 years, including the partners of the children, the population is 8. Two uneducated folk have five kids by age of 25. They in turn have 5 kids by the age of 25 and so on. After 100 years, you have 625 people, including the respective partners. This genuinely, honestly terrifies me. The prospect that we'll have a nation of OK magazine reading, Big Brother watching air heads expecting support from an increasing minority of people actually working is somewhat apocalyptic.

As much as it is a case of over expanding population, it's the changing population demographic that most worries me. Educated people wait until much later to have fewer children. Uneducated people breed sooner, have more children and are generally not self sufficient. Time to impose some breeding limits, withdraw excessive child support or just sterilize people of limited intellect! It's controversial, it's unpopular, but population control is the biggest issue of our times. David Attenborough is very vocal on the subject.

We stayed here Rich: http://www.wingfold.co.uk/blue_room.html It was incredibly cosy run by a lovely and very conscientious German lady. Every conceivable extra that you would ever need. Jonathan

If you are wanting to experience somewhere truly unique and breath-takingly beautiful, go to the north west. North of Ullapool all the way up the west coast to Durness is simply stunning. Deeside and Strathspey are both lovely, but quite crowded (by comparison) and the hills are a bit bland (I still want to live there, mind you). If I were you, get yourself up to Ullapool (can give you the details of a very sweet little self catering beach hut) and use that as a base for exploring. If you are flying up, you can go to Inverness. It's only 50 minutes from Inverness to Ullapool. From Ullapool, you can head north into the Coigach and Asynt Regional Park. The mountains there are known as 'Insel Bergen' (German for Island mountains). There is nowhere in Scotland with more stunning mountains - this is me sat upon an easy climb of a small mountain called Stac Pollaidh: You also have the Summer Isles that you can take boats out to. South of Ullapool you have Kinlochewe and Torridon and if you follow the coastal road further round, you can cross the second highest (and by far the most alpine) pass in Britain at Applecross: If you go all the way to Durness, which I would recommend, you have the best beaches in the UK, including my personal favourite called Ceannabeinne: Go north!

You lie Mr Dixon, you lie!!

Fair point. I suppose I tend to usually buy timber from relatively close by so haulage averages £8-12 a tonne.

Seems low. I would happily pay £50 a tonne delivered in for that kind of size, but then I'm bloody miles away!

No kids yet - I suspect the issues might have been caused at some point by windows being left ajar in the rain, but that's something that happens to all work trucks. I accept that I've been especially unlucky, but stand by my comment that they aren't well made. Nissan UK were always helpful until I started to head down the rejection path, at which point their communication became poor and their attitude unpleasant. Frustrating, which ever way you look at it.

Sadly too far for me I fear. Shame though as I really like sequoia and can always use elm.

I have a D40 Navara (11 plate) and it's been pretty disastrous. Into the garage on average every month of my tenure, three RAC recoveries and it's present faults include: * Terrible clunking/grinding from front right wheel area that the garage acknowledge is a problem, but can't find. * 4wd fault light on most of the time, and sometimes difficulty shifting between 2h and 4h. * Noisy front diff in 4wd. * Intermittent issues with electric window switches not working. Aside from the faults, one issue that I'd fully appreciated until the other day is relatively limited ground clearance. Don't get a Navara - they are OK for some towing and they are OK for builders who want a pimp mobile, but they cannot handle proper work. Both the farm managers of the two local estates have them and they are both unreliable. Another tree surgeon chap I know had one, and sold it due to reliability issues. In addition to this, Nissan UK are a bunch of (insert whatever expletive you want).

Just what I was thinking! Lovely job on the shed there Bob. Very professional.

Where abouts in Aberdeenshire?

Glad you are dismissing the Navara. Mine really is dropping to pieces. The clunking and grinding from the front right is downright comical. The garage can't find the issue, despite having had the technician wincing at the sound of it on a test drive. Also, permanent 4wd fault light on. Can't be bothered dealing with them anymore - the process for rejecting the truck has begun. Also, not much ground clearance compared to some rivals. My friend got a Hilux the month before me and has had no issues at all in 37000 miles now. Even got front ended by a Fedex van, had a bit of a rebuild and it's still fine. Interior space is slightly smaller than the Navara, but I can drive it reasonably comfortably and I'm 6ft 8. Jonathan

The joys of oversized timber, eh?! For pure, uncensored sawmilling porn, please check out the following Wimmer youtube video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC_Fe2YFlzk]Mobiles Sägewerk / Mobiler Lohnschnitt / sägeprofi / Wimmer BN 110 S / www.saegeprofi.at - YouTube[/ame] It's got every last imaginable extra and the cut rate is at least 2-3 times that of my Woodmizer.

Er, no! It would fit when halved though

Thanks for that Clive! If you feel so inclined, if you want to pop a photo or two online of the elm, that would be great. It really was quite special stuff, even by elm standards! Welsh Wood - the Serras have a great reputation, but the Wimmer just seems a little bit more solid to me. I did some resawing of timber cut by a Serra the other week and quite a bit of it was wavey cut. Either way, unless we win the lottery or get lucky with the grant applications, it's going to remain a fantasy for a bit!

Found the price - ouch! http://www.tecwood.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfdocs/pdf_SPECI/03-01-61-en.pdf I did think it was going to be around the £50k mark though. It's really not that bad considering your LT40 with similar options is over £35k and doesn't look to be a shade on this mill. Need to get the wife cracking on that grant application!

I don't even know how much it is yet, but it's definitely the mill I want. God bless those Germans for producing a mill so sexy it should have an 18 certificate! Wimmer Sawmills - Zenz Landtechnik GmbH And a youtube video to demonstrate: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx7Q_emphvc]Wimmersäge BN110 - YouTube[/ame] Just makes my LT40 look flimsy, slow and poorly constructed.

PM sent

Beautifully constructed and I like the design Only thing I might have done different is run it through a planer to address the sawing marks. Oak is a swine though for almost immediate discolouration upon contact with ferous metal.

I think burying it is unnecessary - just drag it half way down the slope and it should just sink, it's that wet!

BBC News - Fenland Black Oak: 5000-year-old tree found in Norfolk Looks like one hell of an interesting contract milling job - anyone on here know who did it? It's on a Lumbermate mill by the looks of things.

I think that I have about 25 hoppus foot of yew sitting in the round (3 logs). Can be milled to order and popped on a pallet. Jonathan