Matthew Arnold
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Everything posted by Matthew Arnold
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Bugs, bees and beasties- Bio-diversity matters
Matthew Arnold replied to White Noise's topic in Ecology
I hate Himalayan Balsam. We have a big patch of it on one of the sites i manage. We spray it each year but have now decided to do one big spray in june then pull up the rest as we go through the year. My other two invasive nemisis' are Japanese Knotweed and Grey Squirrel. -
lol. I went with my family to Majorca for two weeks and all my sister did was complain every day. First it was about my dad and i drinking too much (when its 1.75 a pint who is gonna argue), then it was the parents were smoking too much. The final straw was when she said my dad and i were spending too much when we hired bikes for a few days. We cycled about 120 miles over the 3 day period we hired the bikes which isnt bad going in 35C + heat.
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We had that happen to us today. We let 13 vehicles go past us as we had a trailer full of woodchip so we were only doin about 45 on a stretch of road where they normally do 60-70 mph. Only 1 out of 13 put their hand up to say thanks. and that was the first vehicle. Needless to say the boss wasnt happy.
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My dad is funnily enough a paramedic and he loves to frighten the drivers that don't let him get out of a junction even with blues n twos sounding. He gets right along side and hits the bullhorn. It sound naughty n dangerous but it gets the point across.
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This is a nice band too. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnrJLtl93DY&ob=av2n]YouTube - SOiL - Halo[/ame]
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I'm liking Korn's new album. I especially like this song [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5gjoTBkmfo&ob=av2n]YouTube - Korn - Let The Guilt Go[/ame]
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He was probably following his sat-nav and as per usual wasnt using common sense. Its quite amusing seeing 44 ton arctics trying to get down lanes that are only wide enough for one car and are very twisty with high banks. We had a small local road closed for about 3 weeks because a french lorry driver was following his sat-nav and it was directing him up ever narrower country lanes till the lorry wedged itself on two banks and couldnt go forward or back. It was rather amusing as it was one of the thinnest roads in the area so no cranes could get down there to lift it out. The highways authority got an oxy-acetelyne cutter and cut the trailer in two so it could be puleld out by tractors. Wish i had got pics now.
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I am currently listening to Pantera. This is 5 minutes alone. My mum and sister hate me when i turn this up on the tv. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m7njvwB-Ks&ob=av2e]YouTube - Pantera - 5 Minutes Alone (Video)[/ame]
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pmsl. lol
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The Erectus trouserius or trouser snake is the world's most dangerous snake. Colour varies from pink to black. It's fangless, average length 5-6 inches (although some are said to reach 8 inches depending on honesty of it's owner). I have one but its only a little one. It appears usually in bedrooms attacking women in the mouth or lower abdominal area. It's highly venomous spit can cause swelling lasting 9 months!. Some mutant species are known to attack men from behind. I apologise if this one is innapropriate it was sent to me by my dad. Delete if innapropriate.
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Paddy's wife is watching a cookery programme on tv. Paddy says," why are you watching that? You cant cook". Wife says "well you watch porn".
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We have fully marked up council trucks with all the relevant warning stickers yet we were pulled over to check all the kit in the back is ours. I think they were more upset that our two trucks with agrressive tyres had decided to empty themselves of mud just as they came up the hill in their nice clean traffic car. No further action was taken. The next day we had 2 chainsaws, a brushcutter and tirfor winch nicked from the back which was fully locked up with deadbolts. Police found a vehicle matching the description of the one i described screaming up the hill afterwards but the vehicle was allowed to go on its way despite having what we beleive was our kit. Bloody typical.
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I felt funny just watchin that. You can tell i'm not one for heights. i can just about stand on the roof of the truck taking deadwood out with the polesaw
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We had a complete muppet at work. He had only just started working with us. He thought he was the Dog's but he was thick enough to pour petrol from a leaf blower onto a fire to attempt to get it going. I informed the boss straight away and the lad was given such a bollocking and was then sacked on the spot. We were so annoyed with what he had done we sent him home and we were aproximately 5 miles from where his car was parked. It sounds harsh but it was fair in my mind. And as Mark Bolam says patience is key.
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How close is the nearest track/public highway? It sounds a bit daft coming from me but a volunteer last year put a tyre on one of our fires even tho we told him not to. I got smacked in the face by a piece of rubber as the flippin thing was still on the rim and full of air.
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Burning tyres is a massive no no. We caught a farmer burning approximately 2000 tyres. The smoke could be seen from miles away so we informed DEFRA and EA and they sent their guys out. The farmer was fined somewhere in the region of £150,000 for deliberately polluting the air, nearby ditches (from the molten rubber) and causing a nuisance to a nearby village.
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We lattice pine kindling so the paper is off the floor then put very fine twigs (elm and hazel works very well as does beech). Only put a glug or two of diesel as the diesel can saturate the paper and you cant light diesel very well. And have a few heaps of gradually bigger bits so when the fire gets goin you start adding and within an hour or so you should have a raging fire. It works for me anyway.
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The trees are surveyed every 3 months to catch fungi or defects as they appear. It depends on the LA and how much of a busy bod the head of highway tree maintenance is. We had the tree officers look at the stumps and nothing was wrong with them (no spalting or obvious splits,etc). I think it was just a bit of a heavy handed response to drop the trees as the leaf litter was an issue due to the drains blocking up frequently and that one of the trees dropped a 4 inch thick branch. The branch gave in due to it being a tight union and it being moved by the double decker buses every 30 mins. They felled 6 trees. P.S. - Lots more trees where they came from in much worse condition but well away from the highway.
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We had some tree work done on our trees by the highways agency a few weeks ago. as far as we could tell the trees were in perfect health. The only thing they had against them was they were growing from a slight bank and had a bit of a lean toward the road but they were in no way dangerous.
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All of the larch should have been cut down stacked with the stumps and torched. It sounds a waste of wood but its the only way of getting rid of bleeding canker. The sweet chestnut and lime need to be felled as well.
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That has hit the nail on the head. If you inform the tree owner of a serious defect of the tree then it is their responsibility to deal with it. If the tree fails, then its their home which would be on the line. We did have a tree last year that we informed the homeowner about. It was on their land overhanging our boundary, approximately 2 weeks later the root plate failed in spectacular fashion putting their new shed onto its lid. They blamed our ditch works but the ditch hadn't been dug for approximately 20 years so the root system wouldn't have been affected and would have as fair as i am aware recovered to a point. We blamed the shed footing being dug 2 ft down into the rootplate. Which was riddled with Honey fungal laces. The shed would have been the final straw.
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If my dad and i are shooting in a private wood within 100 ft of a highway we put signs stating that shooting is in progress. that way if a horse bolts then we can say that we had signage warning them.
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THE am i liable bit. You cover your backside if you notify the LA as its there necks on the line if nothing it done not yours. Your neck is only on the line if you are doing remedial work or removing the tree and something goes wrong.
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Nope. We have done the same thing. Except we informed the homeowner and LA about the hazardous tree. We had an instance last year where we told a member of the public that their Limes were all looking very sick. They were well in target distance as they were in the front garden on the road side above 1000 volt elec lines. 2 days later tree surgeons were there felling the trees. The stumps didnt coppice up and they were ground out.
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I cant stand trophy shooting. They are basically killing the ones that are very fit and healthy and leaving no true blood stock. The Emperor was one of very few true blood Red deer on exmoor. Most of the stags you see on Exmoor are cross breeds of Red and Sika deer and even some Fallow breed with the Reds. My mums cousins used to live near a village called Dulverton and you could watch the Red, Fallow and Sika deer mass feed in the valley bottom. Very few large deer are hit on the roads out that way it is mainly the Roe and Muntjac that are hit. I don't have anything against the control of deer but just shooting a stag for its trophy is a shame. And as the local news has reported it was most likely one of the so called "high-earning trophy hunters" rather than a run of the mill poacher. But why leave it on the side of the road for some unsuspecting member of the public to find at first light?
