difflock

Erm, coughcough. Our "farm" was purchased from PAYE earned salaries, the Mrs. a teacher, me rising slowly from Scale 3 through to SO2(in my 50's), ingesting some considerable shite along the way. And Presbyterian delayed gratification thrift and prudence. And double jobbing.(taxes paid on that too) I actually have to work for a living, well, not really, but I choose to. m

Erm, cough, cough, Wot about ussens, that worked, paid PAYE, saved, paid taxes on that, kept ourselves insured, taxed again. etc etc Then bought property, and paid stamp duty on that forby. Hardly "free" was it, the property we bought, incl farmland.

As far as I am aware, lunch time mins/hrs(Fr/Sp/I) should be deducted, but not tea-breaks. At least that is how LGovt. works.

Statistics, statistics and dammned lies, have a lot to answer for. There is no poverty in this country except that which people inflict on themselves AND their children. If people no longer cook, which they dont, but rely on fast food outlets, & witness the no of them about, supply and demand 'n all that, and spend serious money on lottery tickets(witnessed in our local shop), they may plead poverty, but not sorry, this is not real poverty. Never mind the fags and booze. Never mind the perfectly good usable items of household and especially kitchen and electronic equipment dumped at our local Civic Amenity site, to be replaced by sommat shiney and new, for no good reason. The true poverty in this country is in the rise of post war career politicans who pander to the mostly feckless, who "want it all, & now". Instead of offering true "tough love" leadership. Marcus

(i)Do you know yer inter-axle ratio? (ii) Why are you retaining the origional fronts? (iii)i.e. perhaps consider new matching wider front and rear on the origonal rim diminsions, while keeping the inter-axle ratio correct. There a few good sources giving effective rolling radius/circumfrences out there, primarily Trellborg/Micheln. From the possessor of a way over-shod DB 1490, Fer Da Moss, running at about 12 to 15psi PS With the extra rim costs I cannot see the justification in "saving" 10% sidewall height, which I imagine should be "real-world" insignificent

Meh, am not bigly inta ma politics, ye ken Sur. Perfectly normal word in our NI dialect.

I was admiring a few Biro pen sized holes in the softwood I was splitting last week, again it had been lying 2 or 3 years, most impressive tunnelling work. And yon monster of a Hornet=Woodwasp I observed and mentioned on here. As my ould Uncle Tony would likely have commented; "I am glad she is sticking her boyo into dead trees an not my arse instead" m

That would be like pricing for a Ford Edge, and being supplied a Fiesta, at the Ford Edge price, you have priced for one task, and executed another, therefore the price should be different, especially if a deal of sucking teeth and underbreath muttering were any part of your protracted price calculation, for such a complex task. Which you then choose to do the easy way. To me it is clear that one should keep the customer informed, & explain; (i) Plan "A" is quick, cheap but risky, your household insurance or mine, for any damage arising.(And allowing for an insurance claim has to carry a price cost) (ii)Plan "B" is slower and therefore more expensive, but much safer. Regards Marcus

Well DOH!!! It absolutly never occured to me to use "Ox", in my search. cheers m

Since I near got well-burned by those "*entrepreneurs" at West Yorkshire Machinery. btw/fyi * the word "entrepreneur" is apparently interchangable with "rotten-whore", phonetically at least. Tunstalls Tractors are my reliable back-stop dealer. marcus

World's first 'flat pack truck' revealed | | Honest John I know there was a thread about this vehicle, but could not find it. cheers marcus

I detect a move, by the major brands towards a basic "Africa" spec tractor. Kubota brought out the MK 5000 JD has its 3036E varient et al Iseki has the new LTE 3400, all open station or cabless, limited mech gears(mostly) single speed PTO etc and I also came across a poverty spec cabless NH. So? Is this a fight back against the Kioti/Siromar/LS/Deadong whatever out of Korea and China? m

I am warming to an open station Hurlimann Prince 45 at sub £13k(brand new) or an even 16k with a sigma loader, on fat Ag tyres. A standard gearbox with a mechanical F-R shuttle, & otherwise a "proper" 40HP tractor. Like with a 2 speed PTO, quite a few of the poverty spec compact tractors (from leading manufacturers too) make do with a single speed PTO, CHEAPSKATES! Of course what I really really want is one of the 2 ex demo jd 4049, with fixed loader, cept they are 20k plus VAT. GULP More than I have ever spent on a car, even a new car.

Ok, prob a woodwasp then,(phew!) ah did wonder if it could really be a hornet.

see att doc Renault MAXTER G300 4x4.docx

The wasps here in Co Antrim are shocking small and scrawny for August, plus not many about, so much so, ah near feel sorry for them.

The hornet, the first I recall seeing, & I cant figure out what else it could have been, about 40mm long was taking a great interest in the fresh split sticks, but finally alighted on the mudguard of the tractor, quite a magnificent creature(as long as there is only one!) Then during a breather at the pond, endless smaller reddish dragonflies, and one humengeous blue one, which appears to have been a male emporer. Bloody thing would not let me get a photo though, with its super-fast zooming about. WOW! Life is good.

glad about that eggs, 100% sound decision if only the 2 of you. I do constantly attempt to try to explain that collies , and indeed rotties will "nip" as part of their herding instinct, generally to the lower leg. Never mind bloody jack russels. This Should NOT be interpertated as "biting", or an attack per se. A world of difference in an excited nip, and a deliberated attack, being multiple bites & directed towards the head, upper body, throat, the arms used defensively generally taking the brunt. But most people fail to be interested in the difference. Which is a pity.

Eggs, what was the temperature like?, we had a v placid American bulldog/pitbull, attack another dog, on a stinking stinking hot Sunday afternoon, this particular girl simply would NOT stay about, and always wandered off, after umpteen ph calls and friendly dog warden intervention, we were attempting to rehome her, she was away with a very dog-savvy woman on a try-out. Despite zero human harm, she paid the ultimate price for her one outburst, which I could only attribute to the deadly heat that day. We still got her photos plastered all over the fridge. regards m

Oddly, Despite homing a succession of rescue dogs of all breeds, and several times intervening in fights between the pit bull/staffie/ mastiff types, who were plainly intent on killing each other. And never but never beat these dogs or even used strong discipline. only got marked once, and entirely accidently , when raked by a protruding tooth. This despite kicking(with increasing severity) in the ribcage in a futile attempt to distract the agressor, might as well tickle them with a feather when in "fight" mode. Also putting the full of my strength in twisting a choke chain, to strangle one, to persuade it to let go. To no avail. and seconds after it is over? back to being placid big dotes. We was also rearing 2 youngsters/children during these years. I trusted the dogs implicitly, Bessie, the one who raked me with her tooth, was actually v. protective of our children, since they were part of her pack.

well put Sir, but a foul calumny on any Mississippi steamboat gamblers methinks:lol:

Gotta be Hagen Daaz coffee or strawberries and cream, or even plain vanilla. The 500ml tub is perfect for sharing*. marcus *In emergency situations it is however, entirely possible to finish a 500ml tub on ones own.

An "informed insider" admitted to me v recently that Kubota HST's did not like working on hills, which I could only interpretate as "did not really like heavy work". And Kubota are still surprisingly "big" on geared transmissions. Kioti, I understand are clones/copies of Kubota, having built Kubotas under contract, until a falling out. That said I am currently waiting a price for a 45HP Kioti with a loader. BUT John Deere have "majored" on their HST equivalent "eHydro" hydrostatic drive tractors, up to 66HP in the newest 4 series, optional on the bargain basement cabless "M" spec, BUT standard, on the higher spec cabbed "R" series. That tells me JD has faith in its eHydro drive technology, which in conscience with its LoadMatch "e"lectronic wizardy, is I think justified. You get what you pay for, or more rather, definately DO NOT get what one does NOT pay for, if you see what I imagine I mean. This whole subject being very close to my heart at the moment. cheers m

"converted from a Hearse", & a used Hearse I can only presume.

Here in NI, uncovered logs have actually got wetter over the summer, with a combination of endless light rain and stonking humidity on the few days the Sun broke through. Since I cut and split some last week, that had been lying over 15 months. marcus