difflock

P.S. Nightingale stew . . . Reminds me that one summers night a few years ago, I was restless, not sleeping and heard a bird singing outside. Not having heard such beautiful birdsong before I went outside(stark naked btw.) and listened enthralled. When I came back in I searched on-line for such birdsong. The only similar song was that of a Nightingale, wow! N Ireland is usually outside their range, but I remain convinced that is what it was.

For cranework experience is everything, incl knowing when to ignore the over-safe auidable warning systems. Having watched a wee Kato, very very safely lift a fully laden binlorry out/off a soft verge, with the rear jacklegs clear off the ground and the alarm constantly warbling. i.e. the crane was operating way outside its lifting capacity. But The driver was using the inertia of his crane to incrementally ease the truck back towards the hard. Technically it was breaking all the safety rules, but conversely it was absolutely safe, as the binlorry never actually left the ground. The driver merely grinned at me. I approved. Marcus P.S. I can only presume re tree work the driver should know from the trunk section, the likely max weight in any lift, and have discussed weights and section lengths to be cut with the guy on the chainsaw. Seems obvious? Marcus

For me the main gripes were; (o) The very poor unbiased information available, like the standard link between boiler kW capacity and heat-store capacity, not , more correctly between the boiler firebox capacity and heat-store capacity. i.e. they were always recommending minimal heat-store sizes to keep the cost and footprint as small as possible, plus the stupid short flues to keep installer costs down. (i) The grant monies simply going to line the pockets of the mostly snake-oil salesperson type suppliers, via grossly inflated installation quotes. (ii) The absolutely shite Government/Council run admin, with zero balls or interest in tackling dodgy suppliers, or dishonest applicants. (iii) The daily grind of sourcing and stocking firewood and firing the boiler. (iv) The lack of on-demand heat in our very fickle changable climate. I had toyed with installing a ground source heat pump system, under our RHI system, which with our underfloor for base-load heat demand topped up with a good woodstove, would have been a better fit. But hey!, we had 40 acres of "free" timber to burn. And as part of that GSHP install I would have paid for a 3PH power connection, which would have been useful for various electrically powered pieces of machinery. I might yet go down that GSHP route. sigh.

Absolutly excellent link kj. I have been spouting about "benign neglect" this past 25 years. And what nature will achieve, and so very quickly, if left alone. As witnessed on our own peaty acres, mostly the hum of insect life, supporting numerous birds, that were not here when we purchased the acreage But! To no avail. marcus N.B. Stonking grants on their 3500 acres I do not doubt.

If? I make it to the end of May next year, I plan on my first big birthday* bash, for my 60th. Also to celebrate being retired and finally getting the house/grounds completed, (like the build I/we commenced in 1996!) cheers mth

That sounds like Sylvester Stallone was involved!

While we were still attending our local Presbyterian church, the treasurer told me the pay the clergy got, a bit like those on benefits, its all the freebies that add up A , generally large manse supplied Heating oil supplied, sometimes as required, i.e. no budget set telephone a car their stipend etc etc but then many churchs have generous bequests, that is funds invested to provide additional income for their clergy. Over here, many of the larger Presbyterian Church's provide a very good living And in days gone by, when the clergys wife was part of the package, perhaps understandable. but now with so many clergymens wives choosing to work, generally in well paid/pensioned jobs, and indeed, sometimes not be involved in Ch life. Perhaps a re-think is required. mth

My maternal grandmother was a hard working Church going Presbyterian country woman, who I never heard utter an ill word about anyone. Yet in respect of one of the Elders in her Church, she confided in my mother, who recounted the story to me many many years later. "The bigger the Bible, the bigger the barstewart hiding behind it" I suppose over here "Big Ian P" would fit that particular description, never mind the rascal of a scheming property wheeling dealing son (making full use of his MLA knowledge and connections) he reared. I also distrust the Ego driven nature of many of the Clergy, especially those from good backgrounds who choose to enter the Church, as a career choice for a respectable guarenteed comfortable living, however I have also met a few clergy I like and respect as human beings, and as far as I am aware all these guys came to the Church late in life, after a career in the real world.

Eh! Any branch so obviously under tension, needs "relieved", multiple glancing cuts so as to form a narrow "V", or snicked up from the bottom. And, cough cough, a 2nd saw trapped exactly the same as the first one, there is, I recall, an expression about repeating the same action, but expecting a different outcome. It escapes me at the moment! As a 1 saw person, I only ever had to resort to a Ax once, on a 14" windthrown Lodgepole. Right, back to buffing me halo! Mth

Well I can only suggest a protest along/across the route of the funeral cortage. There are bound to be a few underemployed football hooligan types about to match the gravitas I am sure the Traveller community will be displaying on the day. Or rob/trash their caravans when they are all at the funeral, like wot traveller types are likely to do to the law abiding community. Just a thought. mth

I paid 9k for a very clean coddled 2007 model with 1800 hours, direct from the first and only owner, a guy running a business maintaining paddocks and menages for horsey folk(only fault was leaking hydraulics, as I soon found out, but from a steel pipe near a valve block, an easy fix) I had sussed the loader capabilities, a critical factor in my selection process, before I went to view. The biggest weakness are the various transmission linkages running back and forward below/beside the belly of the tractor, and the vunrable mounting of the power steering ram in front of the front axle. Oh! and a teensy/weensy wee fuel tank. And horrible hard, non grippy industrial tyres. So, not perfect by any means. P.S. When I bought Reco had just thrown up the UK dealership, so the second hand prices were probably suffering. btw. I really really really had the hots for a brand new 50HP Hurliman Prince c/w loader from Tunstall Tractors. cheers marcus

2 Full straps of blocks = 1800kg, on a pallet with the pallet forks, not bad for a tractor that barely weighs more than 2000kg but limited reach, obviously. With the low gears and fast hydraulics I can keep my foot fully off the clutch and let the tyres spin(a little only), to easily load the bucket or bulldoze. The gear changes are v slick and naturally placed for the left hand, so the right hand can stay on the loader joystick lever. All very natural. And dead handy to either step on/off or indeed work the loader standing on the ground beside the tractor. cheers marcus

Dug out Thursday past when seeking to establish the cause of a wet soft spot on the edge of the drive. Astoundingly thin flat and large. Should make a good sign/house No. backdrop for down at the County Road, stood on its edge like. But how do I pickle it? marcus

And on a not entirely unrelated note, the Mrs. was watching a programme about the Operation Jerico raid in 1944. For an official, well planned RAF Operation, it appears, that despite the 74 years and presumably any/all documents now being no longer secret, no one knows who actually ordered the operation, or indeed why? Though probably MI6, but only the merest circumstantial documentary evidence. So chances are some stuff will always remain secret, unknown and subject to much speculation. Like Putin/nerve agents/false flag ops, etc etc

Erm, cough cough, Labourites/Socialists can well be greedy hard selfish perverted barstewarts. Conservatives/Tories can equally well be very decent human beings. Your post merely reveals your partisan tribal viewpoint. Just observing like. marcus

Edgar Allen Poe, the writer of Gothic/horror stuff I guessed? Wor Daughter introduced me to imgur, for loads of soppy doggy/kitten images. But loads of other stuff, generally topical, generally entertaining, and non-porno, no unsafe images. marcus

A happy old dog (his right rear quarter is wasting away with Cancer(presumably) but zero pain and still very keen on his daily hour long walk, though he takes it a lot slower. And then the Piglets hiding out below the Coffee table, now boarded round on 3 sides and known as the Pig-Pen.

Wee Kioti working, having wrassled and fought to get much smaller stones into the bucket, I got the biggun in "first dibs" Bloody diggerman cut me watermain despite being told exactly(& marked with a buried vertical paling stab) exactly where it was. At least I found the telephone cable before he did!

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZoXHV

(i) That is a, or was a, pet project of Prince Charles was it not, Poundbury? (ii) The lack of road markings/signs at junctions, to force drivers to accept responsibility for their decisions, was successfully trialled in the Netherlands if I recall correctly. And "information overload" has become an ever aggravating issue in respect of this 59 year old's more recent driving experiences, it is virtually impossible to absorb all speed limit and bus lane and variable speed limits and other traffic camera monitered cash-cow shit, while paying such proper attention to other road traffic, cyclists and pedesterians so as to be a safe driver, without driving so slowly as to be an annoyance to other road users. And this comes from someone who did and still does consider themselves a proactive professional driver, who prefers to "make progress" when traffic and road conditions allow. Without ever crashing or causing a collision in 40+ years driving marcus

One of the most accurate posts I have read on this forum. Says it all Unfortunately P.S. Another good example of dim and selfish driving behavouir, I regularly observe, or am subject to. Say one is proceeding along an ordinary road or street, with a single lane in each direction, there is moderate traffic flow, & just up ahead a vehicle or other obstruction is blocking the oncoming traffic's lane, so that oncoming traffic is having to cross the median to proceed against the traffic flow. As one gets closer they keep coming, and coming, and coming, even though I/you/one has the "right of the road", and when finally, after letting multiple cars through, one moves forward and blocks their incorrect/illegal manouver, they absolutely blow a gasket. Because they feel entitled to drive on the wrong side of the road, because they are blindly following the vehicle in front, and they look no furthur ahead to see or access the consequences of their actions. Kinda says it all about unthinking herd like nature of human behavouir. marcus

Nobody answered the question re Elm's suitability for trusses, which I suppose can only mean it will be OK?

I too resided in a caravan with my family for a 12 month. just saying is all. P.S. I always thought Communism/Marxism killed as many, if not significently more, innocents/non-combatnents than the 3rd Reich/Faschists ever did. again, just saying.

As I kept explaining during our not infrequent Council Diversity training, discrimination, or discernment is a positive thing and we all do it. Audi or Lada(and used to be Skoda, remember the jokes?) Iceland or M&S Foodhall Because "brands" or indeed tribes gain reputations based on their defining behavouirs, which reputations can be changed, subject to hysteresis. However the reputation of travellers, pikies and other such caravan dwelling types is irrevocably established. In that respect Mr. Hitler was perhaps not entirely wrong in lining up certain groups of persons for the gas chambers. mth

However if others "sounded off" in such specific terms they would probably be charged with hate crimes, but nope, that law, like many others, dont apply to Pikies, apparently. mth