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Big J

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Everything posted by Big J

  1. You raise many valid points, but I really like being in communication with the outside world. Machine operating on a headset gives me much more time to sit and waffle my way through conversations with family and friends, near and far. I find telephoning without a physical distraction (like operating a forwarder, or driving a car) challenging sometimes. My compartmentalises tasks fairly well, and I can do a couple of things simultaneously without either task being affected. I sometimes get to the end of a story with the kids and have no recollection of what I've just read as I've been daydreaming! We also sometimes do get sites with absolutely no signal. Had one in August/September and the best you could hope for is a few messages might come through at the top of the site. That was it though.
  2. I live my life on a headset. It means that when people need to get in contact with me, they can. Also, when I'm machine operating it means I have access to the world of podcasts, Youtube and Radio 4. I'd get very bored indeed without the phone. The headset in question is a Peltor WS Alert XP. Also very highly recommended - I think mine is now getting on for 5 years old and works as well as the day I got it. They are expensive (£250-350, depending on how lucky you are on eBay), but well worth it.
  3. Regardless of which phone you go for, I really recommend something with a massive battery. I've had mine 4 or 5 months now and haven't once had to charge it whilst out and about. It's like having an electric car with a 1000 mile range. That anxiety is totally absent.
  4. I'm a great fan of wild swimming, but haven't had much of a chance to do that here. Forest walks (busmans holiday, I know) or fishing. I was so excited about the fishing when we moved down here, as (with me being a coarse angler) England is much better than Scotland, but sadly it wasn't as good as what I remembered as a kid in Derbyshire. There are the carp lakes, yes, but very few rivers worth fishing as they're all trout and salmon. Beyond that, I'd like to get back into cycling, which is unfortunately a suicidal endevour in Devon, especially as I'd like to take the kids too.
  5. I see what the problem is here. Isn't it obvious?
  6. I did say that my comments were general, and your shoot doesn't bear much relation to the estates on which I've worked with huge drives. I simply find the presence of pheasant pens in woodlands to be unsightly and with the associated issues highlighted above, I don't personally see the point. I can think of better ways to enjoy my Saturday than standing in the rain trying to blast some gormless bird out of the sky. Each to their own.
  7. I understand why you organise the shoot and enjoy it. I've eaten plenty of pheasant and have worked for shooting estates in the past in a forestry capacity. May I make a few general observations though? Firstly, from a forestry perspective, pheasant shoots are a nightmare. The infrastructure (pens) left in the woods puts metalwork everywhere, which compromises the value of the crop and makes harvesting awkward and unpleasant. Secondly, there is evidence to suggest that pheasant shoots support larger grey squirrel populations. Taken from Shootinguk.co.uk: "The possible link between the decline of woodland song birds and grey squirrel predation is now the subject of Game Conservancy research, particularly as it has been suggested woodlands where pheasants are fed may hold higher stocks of grey squirrels due to the abundance of food" Thirdly, from an aesthetic point of view, pheasant holding woodlands are hideous. The combination of the pens, unsympathetic woodland management (ie managed for the shoot as opposed to species diversity of timber quality) and profusion of idiot pheasants and scrounging grey squirrels just ruins any enjoyment anyone might derive from the place. I'm entirely supportive of rough shooting to control pest species (such as grey squirrels). Why is there a need to go to all the effort and destruction of a driven pheasant shoot. There is also the environmental impact of releasing 57 million non-native birds into our countryside each year....
  8. By paying working class lackeys £40 a day. By trampling across land that they don't own or have a right to access. By endangering the public by chasing (for instance) deer across public roads. Last year I almost hit a stag on the A396 that was being pursued by some twat in fancy dress on a horse.
  9. Of course there is a full spectrum of people involved. All in their class defined, predetermined roles. How many of the riders are working class? Yes, stuck here for the time being. Very much looking forward to the moment that I'm not.
  10. I'm in agreement with you. It was a major culture shock when I first moved down here seeing mounted hunts promenading down the lanes like they owned the place. It's hard to describe how much I detest all aspects of hunting with hounds whilst mounted on horses. It's got nothing to do with effective control of a species deemed to be a pest and everything to do with an anachronistic exercise in reasserting and reinforcing class distinctions whilst subjugating as many people as is humanly possible. Absolutely disgusting and no place for it in the 21st century.
  11. And covid restrictions are back. Apparently we now have to isolate until we've got a negative day 2 PCR test after international travel. And wear f*cking masks again in shops. Bollocks to that. I'm just not doing this anymore.
  12. Stormy as fook outside at the moment. I have a site visit that is unavoidable this morning too. By way of contrast, these photos are from yesterday in the town we're moving to in Sweden next year. I wish I was there!
  13. Wow, that is light. I was going to guess 370kg, which already made an allowance for it being a bit dead. Had it been fresh felled elm from Edinburgh, it would have been well over 400kg.
  14. Ulephone Armor 3W. I can't recommend it enough. It's a brick, but that's because it was a 10,000mah battery. I am on my headset all day. I listen to either Radio4 through the internet, or various podcasts of Youtube. I spend at least an hour a day on the phone. I can never managed to drain the battery in less than 48 hours. Under normal use (ie, not on a headset/on the phone all day) you get 4 days out of it. I reckon 6 days would be possible at a push. It just removes all anxiety about running out of battery as even when you're on 10%, you can usually make that last the rest of the day.
  15. I'd add that one of the greatest qualities that a main contractor or forestry manager looks for in a cutter is consistency and reliability. If I were to describe my ideal chainsaw operative they would be: Punctual and reliable. Phoning in sick first thing in the morning due to a hangover, or turning up to site half pissed and an hour late isn't acceptable. Steady and consistent. Knowing that you're going to get a constant work rate from a cutter is vital. There's no sense going hell for leather out the gate if you've burned yourself out at 11:00. Equally, I can't bear slackers. Well equipped and well skilled. Have the right equipment and know how to use it. Not be permanently skint. It's incredibly annoying being hounded for wages at 17:30 on a Friday evening. Polite. A bit of banter is OK, but excessive swearing, sexually explicit talk or talking bollocks is at best wearing and at worst wholly inappropriate. Flexibility. Knowing that you can ask a cutter to stay late very occasionally to finish something off is useful. There's more that I could add to that, but that's the bulk of it.
  16. You won't find better advice than this. Wallis knows his stuff, and he is actually glazed in sitka sap 😎
  17. As firewood, I'd choose the pine. Denser and a lower overall water content. It'll be sticky to process though. That said, almost my entire winter's fuel is sitka and it's great. I suppose all I'd say is that given the choice I'd take pine.
  18. Big J

    Jokes???

    A fox with the trots is how he got into this mess! 😀
  19. Very nice. How is the black bullet getting on?
  20. And here are a few shots from the thinning a block on the other side of the road. It was worked in early 2020. You cannot tell that we were there. No trace at all. Also one shot of a track we created within the eucalyptus block.
  21. Visited a site this afternoon which we replanted with eucalyptus (mostly nitens, but the very tallest are mostly denticulata) April 2020. This is what some of the tallest trees look like now. These may well be the fastest growing trees in the UK. The tallest one is 5.6m at 19 months old.
  22. You are correct. I think it was 1.75% on harvesters and 22% on forwarders.
  23. The prices seem a lot higher in Norway than Sweden. I know that the electricity prices spiked in Sweden in September, with the Swedes outraged at paying £0.138 per kwh. The 5 year average has been around about £0.05/kwh, though it was as low as £0.02/kwh in March and April 2020. It's settled back down to about £0.105/kwh now and is falling. We're bidding on a house this week in Sweden with a bergvarmepumpe (geothermal borehole heat pump) and with a 4.25 COP (coefficient of performance) you've got a very low actual cost for heating (2.6 pence/kwh at present prices, but half that normally). Is it just the very high electricity prices that are buggering up the economics of it for you at the moment Rich or is there something else in the mix? Is the weather that much more savage in Norway?
  24. Firewood isn't big business in Sweden. Most people just cut it from the birch/aspen that they aren't selling for pulp/sawlog (because it's not pine or spruce). I don't think that commercial log retailers exist in any great number - it's mostly just forest owners selling their own wood, for which they have paid nothing.
  25. But hang on a second - everyone has told me that Sweden is really expensive?! 😄

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