Squaredy

Thanks. Not made a final decision yet but maybe Hudson. Hud-Son Oscar 52 Slabber Sawmill Large Diameter Bandmill WWW.HUD-SON.COM The Oscar 52 Portable Sawmill has a 52" log capacity and an cut up to a 48" wide board, making it perfect for all those large logs. 23HP Electric Start I was going to go to the USA in July and I would have visited the factory and seen one in use. Sadly that trip is now off, so I may just order blind. No UK dealer sadly so will have to import it myself, but I know plenty of people who have done similar so hopefully this will be smooth.

If you can get them reading lots this is the way to sort English out. It is all about getting them off screens and loving books. We have Beano delivered every week (and have for years) and they love this - fun and reading practise.

In the case of our boys I think they are doing better than they would be in English medium education....I would home school them rather than send them to the local primary school or comp. But that is a reflection of our area - Newport.

Strange, I applied for one yesterday with my business bankers (Co-op) and unless I missed something it just said it must be used for the financial benefit of my company - it more or less said it can be used for anything that will help the company. So if I get it I will be investing in a super-wide bandsaw mill that I have needed for years. Not convinced I qualify though as I had to declare that as at the end of last year my business is classed by the EU s as in difficulty as the balance sheet (Ltd co) shows net liabilities.

Is this a wind up? Have you got some LIme leaves and a Cherry trunk to try and confuse us all???!!!

Yeah that is interesting. And reassuring, as what we all seem to be forgetting is that in the short to medium term the only real way out of this situation is for us to get herd immunity. In other words most of us need to get the virus and recover. For most of us we cannot dodge it forever. The most vulnerable perhaps should be shielded, but even this is debatable. My mum is 80 in three months, lives on her own and has had no proper contact with her two sons or two grandchildren (or indeed anyone) in 7 weeks. A vaccine could be years away. If we keep trying to shield her she could eventually die in a few years lonely and sad. She would rather take her chances and have a 90% chance of a normal life than stay locked down for an unknown period. As soon as the law allows, she will be visiting her family and I don't blame her. Remember, the scientists have said that it is possible we will never find a vaccine.

Check if you can claim a grant through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme - GOV.UK WWW.GOV.UK If you're self-employed or a member of a partnership and have been adversely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) find out if you can use this scheme to claim a grant.

Has anyone had success with the Self Employed grant? I also tried today and had the same message as Saul, but there was no problem with my return last year, I would have thought I was eligible. Maybe it is not live yet and rejects everyone???

Have you looked under the leaves for aphids? A pic of the tree in its tub might help.

So what a mess we have here in Wales now following BoJo's broadcast this evening. People living in England can (from Wednesday) drive to wherever they like, sunbathe, relax in the sun, presumably have a kick around with a football, or a cricket bat. Here in Wales, we are still locked down indefinitely. We can leave the house more than once, but not drive anywhere to walk or exercise. So people living in (for example) Ross-on-Wye can drive to Brighton beech, or the Lake district and have a lovely picnic, but if they head half a mile west and cross the border into Wales, they could be turned round and fined. I am going to ring my brother now for a chat - he lives in Bristol, so I guess he will be going back to playing golf weekly as long as it is in England.... I hope the leader of the Welsh Assembly (or whatever they call themselves these days) has the sense to align the rules urgently, or we are going to have a right confusing mess, and possibly much resentment. What is even more annoying is that BoJo seemed to set all the rules initially, even in Wales, and we all received our BoJo letter telling us what to do, yet now it appears he no longer has a say in Wales. I am not saying either message is wrong, I just think it would be sensible to be consistent!

Not sure I can help you with what is causing the leaf problem, but I think you need some soil in the pot as well. General purpose compost should be good up to a point but has no structure and should be mixed with soil. It is different for growing tomatoes or courgettes - they only need to live for a few months. A tree needs as large an area as possible with good soil and lots of nutrients. I trust is was not bare root by the way, as this is the wrong time of year to transplant bare root trees. If it had a good rootball it may be OK. Hope this may help a little.

There is no denying the logic of your argument, Spanish or French would be a far more useful language. But as has been pointed out local cultures are also important and of course in Wales there is a strong resentment to everything being anglicised due to hundreds of years of blatant repression from Westminster governments. This is why the Welsh language society has a lot of power. Is it really a good use of resources to put so much emphasis on Welsh language? Is it really money well spent to have reversing warnings on dustbin lorries in Welsh and then English in Cardiff (a largely English speaking area)? For an English only speaker they may have been run over by the time the warning gets to the English version! My wife and I sent our kids to a Welsh language school largely because they have a much better reputation and because they say it helps with learning generally to be bilingual at an early age.

Yeah we have had a nightmare with Hwb, finally got the hang of it, but so many conflicting instructions have been given it has been a pain. So now my wife uses it (and Twinkl which is much easier) and I just make up stuff that I know will be valuable and appropriate for them. In Dad Home School they have baked a cake, studied and written about Tyrannosaurus Rex (the 7 year old), the American Civil War (9 year old), done Uke lessons, researched how to play Chess, learned how to use a traditional encyclopedia, and much more. Much of the focus will be on writing over the coming weeks sadly for them!

Yeah my two are in a Welsh school also, and my 7 year old has not even started English yet. Luckily it is not a problem for our two as they read loads. But yes the Welsh school is really good at teaching Welsh (and in this area most of the kids are not in Welsh speaking families of course) but I am realising everything else is maybe not so hot! And yes, there is no emphasis on writing at all. I feel neat writing is a basic skill you can give kids which is never going to do them any harm, and may even lead to many other skills, and greater motor control which could possibly mean they are better equipped for some highly skilled jobs like surgeon, artist, sculptor sportsperson, etc, etc. Private schools still place massive emphasis on writing, and hey guess what? Half the UK medal winners from the 2012 Olympics went to private school.

Well for me the starting point is always to work out how many cubic feet of timber it is which in this case is about 4.33. Then multiply it by a price per cubic foot which for me with good ash is £28.75. This gives a price of around £125. Sometimes I then bump the price up a bit if I can see it is really spectacular. Realistically this is the price for the piece when it has fully seasoned in a couple of years, and of course what sometimes happens is it cracks and distort so ends up not being worth so much. If it is no good as a slab when dried it gets re-sawn and sold as square edged boards which usually means lots of waste.

No It is in the stack ready for sale next year or the one after.

Got a nice Ash log on the Lucas mill at the moment. Not slabbing it, just getting square edged stuff, but flipped this one over to get a slab.

The main thing I am trying to teach my kids whilst they are off school is something they are certainly not taught. Indeed neither was I when I was at school. I am trying to get them to learn how to teach themselves. Yesterday they taught themselves (with a little help) how to play chess.

Worth selling to me for milling?

Yeah that is what is needed take charge and don’t leave it all to the school. We have already decided our kids are hopefully not going to local state secondary but we are now feeling a little disillusioned about primary as well. I am sure there are some great state schools around, just not near us!

On my route in to work near Chepstow/Newport they are flowering now.

The other thing you need to look out for Harry is that the logs will give off so much moisture they could cause mould and rust on other things in the garage. You need to get the door open as much as you can.

Well it turns out at age nine they are now trying to get our eldest to do joined up writing. Trouble is they haven’t shown him how to form half the letters yet so he was just guessing. And he has had no practice yet. Why not teach cursive writing from the start?

Well, yes we probably should have taught him this, but I am comparing to my own schooling. They also don't teach them times tables. At seven years old I knew all my times tables up to 12, number of days in each month of the year, number of feet and yards in a mile, and chains in a furlong, etc, etc, etc. My kids only know times tables because my wife and I have taught them. And yes we do check our kids work as far as possible - but they get precious little homework and so the only time is parent's evening twice a year. And just to clarify, we do not expect the school to bring up our kids. But I do expect them to teach them lots of stuff in the thirty hours a week they have them.

My wife and I have been home schooling our two boys (7 and 9) since a week before lockdown, and I will be honest we are pretty shocked. We are shocked at how easy the work set by the school is. We are shocked at some of the things our kids do not know (youngest did not know months of the year). We are shocked at our eldest boy's handwriting. In general I am wondering what exactly the school do with our boys all day. Our boys are apparently both top of their class so what the hell do the other kids know or not know? Anyone else come down to earth with a bump?