difflock

Possibly due to peaty ground, means they cant root properly, and with the "pumping" of the root area due to cyclical wind loading, the peat will separate from the underlying pan, also probably more exposed to stronger winds. cheers mth

prob about 4 acre, I know which direction the prevailing wind comes from, and the direction of the windthrown trees is another clue. I am winching out the thinnings & prepared to leave the "felled/thinned" stuff that is ackward to access on the ground for nature to take its course. currently leaving about 3m between trees, suffice that the crowns are just still just interlocking kinda a suck-it-and-see approach I would be pleased to get another 20 years out of at least some of them. mth

So to continue with my Sitka theme, how long will they live? how tall will they grow? what girth might they achieve? and what distances should I be leaving between the retained trees? (I forgot to measure, but probably DBH's of 300mm ish) mth EDIT; just checked, the stronger ones are easily 400mm DBH

Bit like the bloke on the Pedigree Chum diet, there could be consequences . . . but I suppose since she has no balls to lick, she will probably be O.K.

I get the impression that the big household charitable names have had their day, with their glitzy images, mega salaries for the bosses/managers and widespread corruption and vice within the ranks of their aid workers. And as for the smaller charitable organisations, a wet fart will soon be a good enough excuse to set up a dedicated charity for those so afflicted. based on local newspaper headlines anyways. mth

Whether due the recent cold snap, but I would say no sap from the stumps/butts, that I had cut the previous day, also the couple of blocks I cut to take the stumps down to forest floor level were clean, dry and light to handle. despite the tops being vibrant lush had-to-be-sappy green. I suspect it is the citrus oil in the Loctite 7850 product that cuts the Sitka sap, with the aid of the pumice abrasive , it is also very kind to my skin.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/232680731662?chn=ps&adgroupid=47842945425&rlsatarget=pla-380312384851&abcId=1129946&adtype=pla&merchantid=9802104&poi=&googleloc=9045175&device=c&campaignid=974959912&crdt=0 works for me p.s. whats a "best" jacket?

I will trade black sticky fingertips(cos I am wearing fingerless gloves) for black sticky everything else, i.e. me, me clothes, me tractor and everyfink covered in wet black peat. All things are relative. mth

Gents, to comment on the leftist or conservative political views. In my opinion the names do not matter so much as the opportunist charismatic leaders who choose exploit political opportunity to gain power. So when a nation is in the grip of right wing ruling parties, with perhaps some eletist excesses, there is the opportunity to offer communist type ideas as the salvation for the masses. When a country gets too left wing, and the ruling Elite repeatedly ignore their voters or are failing economically, more right wing ideas can take root. The bulk of the voting population are easily, too easily fooled or beguiled by the apparent appeal of fresh new ideas, oh, that and free money, for their tribe. But, all in all, it effectively means the political posture of a nation tends to be like a massive slow moving pendulum, which once in motion, takes a long time to move, from left to right and back to the left, only briefly, on the way past, occupying the middle ground. And the UK has went left/liberal as far as it, and the voting population, can be pushed and is now currently and slowly but inexorably moving back towards the centre and heading on out towards the right. Which swing, in time will be "corrected" mthatter

So, as a result of the always-wet rodden being frozen nice and solid, since it lies East-West it caught the full benefit of the biting/drying East wind. I finally got into my stand of 40 year old Sitka, some of which have started to blow down in the wind. An absolute pleasure to cut, sned and generally work with, and this stand is, ironically despite being accessed off the wet rodden, the driest bit of forestry I got. I am gambling that the better buttressed Sitka might manage to hold on a few years yet, so essentially thinning and removing the wind-thrown trees. I intend to plant native specis trees in the clearings, Oak and Beech primarily. cheers mth

JHC Matelot has a valid point to make. Yes, back in the European Dark ages, Meadevial period etc, there was an intellectual flowering under Islam in the Arab world. And "our" Crusauders were absolute barbarcic philistines compared to the then Muslim states But not in the last couple of hundred years, has the Muslim/Arab world contributed much to knowledge or technological advancement. On the other hand, the other Semetic people, the various Jewish populations have excelled in Noble Prize winning and such acedaemic stuff Why? I cannot offer an answer. But it is a bald bare-assed fact, however unpalatable to some. MTH

some good thought provoking stuff on that site Mark, thanks for the link. mth

Well!, Timon, that's hardly an unbiased opinion then, is it? P.S. I used to "court" a girl wot went to Art School in Brighton, got knocked up by a teacher/lecturer/lecher, had an abortion(D& C if I recall), then had a wonderfully happy healthy son, as a result of the "aborted" pregnancy. She figured she had been carrying twins and they only vaccumed out the unlucky one! cheers mth P.S. That's even deeper, Man!

Bit like the Church of England earning money from brothels, courtesy of owning blocks of property in less than salubrious areas. Which may have been let, sub-let and sub-sub let, etc. etc. I just cant remember if that was a 19th century or the 21st century story mind you. mth

Abortion? Is it; (i) 2 lives destroyed instead of 1, by scarificing the unknowing unborn(and the age at which this happens is the crucial issue) or (ii) merely facilitating some female too lazy to use freely freely available contraception(and in this case complusory sterlization is justified imho) When younger I would have been more likely to support the right to abortion, and knew a few, very few, decent background girls who quietly slipped away to England for a few days, then got on with their lives. Which, on balance, was probably the better option, for both them and society as a whole. Now at 60 odd, less approving of freely available abortion, especially when viewed as late stage contraception. mth

But, from quickly scanning some of the above posts, this is the problem with PC Speak. Pretending to pretend that issues or problems do not exist, by re-labeling them, or refusing to use the words, that accurately describe the issue or problem. like "cripple", which became disabled, but I understand that is no longer acceptable? (and my astrophysicist wife would describe herself as a cripple, because she simply is) or "Gypsy", which became traveller, but that is no considered a "slur", and gosh, I do wonder why? or "ESN", and I unfortunately knew/worked with a few of them, who thought they were cognatively 100percent, but clearly wernt. or "leper". nevermind the workshy or undeserving poor! etc etc mth btw. I did leave a local, well-doing working man, who was scolding about "furriners taking oor jobs", and undercutting our wages, whilst also pondering about investing in cheap(to him) property in Eastern Europe, (thereby forcing up local property prices) that these two things were the different faces of the same coin. He seemed puzzled by my argument. Scheesh.

Having recently fitted a new battery and heater plug a week or so ago, yesterday evening, after working for about 3 or 4 hours, smoke started rising from some of the wires leading to the ignition switch, I figured a short somehow, & got the offending wire pulled away from its neighbour, at which point the smoke stopped. I drove her home, say 15 minutes, without issue or smoke, checked she would re-start, parked her outside and disconnected the battery. Started her this morning to reverse into the shed, all seemed good, but on looking forward again, more smoke, from the same wire. So I pulled the various wires from the back of the ignition switch and then disconnected the battery, before investigating any furthur. The plastic on the heavy brown wire running from the battery via the solinoid was melted, between the ignition switch and the solinoid connection, but nowhere else. I have down through the years stripped out all fuses and apart from a solitary freshly run wire from the accessory lug supplying current to a 2 pin socket to work the wee forestry winch(i.e. PTO driven but electric hydraulic valves, so no big current draw) the oil pressure light and the charging light are the only working electrics, aside from the charging/starting circuits. The single wire to supply the 2 pin socket for the winch controls, shows no signs of excessive current draw or heat, nor does any other wire cept the single melted brown one, and the exposed copper, beneath the melted plastic, is bright and fresh. So Why? What is likely to be the issue? Obviously I intend to replace the offending wire and connectors, but what could have been causing such a heavy current draw, since it was apparently not a dead short. marcus, the preplexed

Please bring back our "hard" border, for the better smuggling opportunities presented, a long missed business opportunity for our somewhat lawless, and currently mostly unemployed communities in those border areas. mth

Quite magnificent here in Nth Co Antrim, frosty and clean underfoot, a couple more days and I should be able to make my annual visit to the Moss to extract a wheen o trees. I might even chance trucking in a few more lorry-loads of hardcore, whilst the roddens are hard underfoot, so all in all, another 10 or 14 days of this would be good. mth

And . . .

I, back when the Govt run MOT centres over here were hot on failing vehicles for surface rust/pitting on brake pipes(the quality of which has improved immensely btw.), on the strength of an arbitrary visual inspection. Having passed the rolling road brake test. because "they might fail". But their MOT Certificate stated their was no guarantee the vehicle could not become unroadworthy minutes, days or hours later. Which I thought was having their cake and eating it. If the brake pipes passed,(pressure testing under use) they passed surely. But they happily allowed one to drive away in the failed vehicle. Which always puzzled me. My single fail was when I allowed a reputable garage to prep my car(v busy at work) and the "mechanic", presumably an apprentice/trainee, failed to inspect/check/clean/tweek the rear brakes, which failed on parking brake efficiency. The lack of diligence/attention was all too clear when I took the car home and investigated and fixed myself. I was fornicating livid. mth

Apparently most people are stupider, than I. If they cannot understand that simple question. FFS!

I never could understand the "run her down, and let them give one a list" especially if unwashed. Why on earth not take reasonable care to ensure all is good before submitting the vehicle. Even if only relatively superficially, a brake test on an empty dry road, a good look around, lights working, relatively decent tyres and jack up and wriggle each wheel in turn, and spotlessly clean underneath. Worn suspension components are all too obvious from daily driving noises knocks and clunks. imho. mth P.S. As a non-mechanic, I have never had a vehicle I prepared fail a test, though a few should have failed(our ruthless Government run centres too mind!), but on 3 occassions I was given passes that should have been fails. I do not know the testers either I should add.

Tsk tsk, TVI (i) Absolutely not the case, high functioning alcoholics are exactly as described, highly functional, despite being "drunk" by ordinary/others standards. PS (ii) The (mostly) law abiding/enforcing lot certainly did/do not identify themselves as Irish either. mth

Except folks, the lesson of N Ireland, where for the duration of the troubles, a very significent %age of the population were armed, legally or otherwise & mostly concealed carry, and certainly on the law enforcing/law abiding side a significent %age of those armed were rarely sober, or not infrequently drunk/well well over the limit for driving. But they did, drive that is, and mostly without crashing or causing third part injuries. And yet we had zero gun massacres(without political motivations), let alone accidental shootings. So Why was this? I could recount various stories from my father, a rather non-partisan farmer, told to him by named known individuals, that would almost beggar belief. Never mind the tooled-up TA shenaginagans. marcusthehat