difflock

Yes we are indeed "living in an age of Stupid", where stupid must be employed and trained to use complex machinery, and cannot EVER be held accountable for his/her shortcomings. No-one is accountable for anything, problems are all Societies fault, or the Banks, or certainly someone else's. As I saw again recently quoted in respect of a local accident, "the car skidded off the road " not the Driver lost control of their vehicle. We all make mistakes, but many refuse to accept this, especially in respect of their off-springs shortcomings, which is then magnifed down through the coddled and supported generations. The best example would be our nations failing Health, due to personal refusal to live healthy, BUT "they" should be able to make us all better, with "free" magic medication. "a pill for every ill" Typified by the COPD smoker outside the Hospital with the close-tethered Oxygen bottle. Marcus

Um, not entirely sure re this issue, IF this is the natural drainage route, there is perhaps an issue re the inadequete underground storage tanks to capture the "flash" run-off from the new development. cheers m PS We live in a Moss, a "wet hole" yet probably one of the last places to be likely to be flooded, BECAUSE the natural undrained Moss acts as a gigantic sponge soaking up vast amounts of rainfall, and releasing it over weeks or months. Marcus

Or ere Mrs! where to start, so much to do, so 2017 should do rightly. Nivver bin fatter (15 instead of 12 stone) and never been more content. Hope to lose a bit of kg in the Spring, but not stressed. Seriously Life is good. Marcus

New and Used Tractors, Zetor, Hurlimann, Steyr, Lamborghini, Same - Tunstall Tractors Ltd This firm seems to offer a good selection of "stockman's" tractors, incl value for money brands like Zetor, Cornwall/Devon also good hunting grounds for these type of tractor dealers.

I cannot help but imagine that the number of 2nd had tractors in this "wile handy" catogory, is surely getting fewer and fewer, as farming, even stock farming progresses into larger more powerful tractors. So what demand is there for this 80-100 HP class new? Councils for grass cutting/misc duties or what else. Generally stock farmers will run a tractor till it is absolutly shagged out, in some 2nd line capacity. cheers m

Spud be Da Man! Hic. 'be back when sobered up. good luck with your new venture until then Spud. regards marcus

(i) It still fits, cos I got to check again this morning.(well it was a Friday) (ii) Both growed-up children home for Christmas, happy, healthy, content and agreeable. (iii)The smell of cooking from the kitchen, is nearly, but only nearly, overwhelming the smell of the 4 dogs, still wet from their long walk through the Moss, lying drying in front of the roaring log fire. life is good.

Farmer Rod, I keep re-visiting the wood chip notion, the BIG advantage is being able to run akin to an oil boiler , i.e. "switch-on/switch-off". BUT Really need to be able to hire a suitable chipper locally. A wile pity someone would not design a low horsepower chipper, electro-hydraulic and dead slow, but capable of drawing a tree trunk in and chipping at least fast enough to feed the boiler, feeding the chip into a buffer store. Then absolute worst case set up a fresh tree trunk each day, or every few days. Almost zero man-handling. And ideal for mechanically harvested softwood bought by the truck load. cheers m

Seafood Paella, yup seriously, must come from the wife,s Yorkshire/Prussian background, or sommat. m

16 rooms or 16 radiators Rowan, in just over 2500 ft sq, more likely rads than rooms but nonetheless look at Froling or Herz or Windhager brand boilers, & definately need min 2000 to 3000 to 4000 litres of Thermal store as well. A basement is the perfect location ( in my opinion at least) Would this qualify for any grants btw? like our RHI scheme for instance? good luck Marcus

Not kidding, the one on the shelf had what looked like a 60" bar on it. I believe David said they sell 5 or 6 a year into the NI market, which cannot make sense, quite seriously (or do Mcilraths have the entire Irish distributorship for Husquarna, which would perhaps be sensible) Anyway seriously impressive kit. m

Having happened across a Husquvarna 3120 at the dealers (ah was there looking a backpack battery blowers btw) God in Heaven! There sure are some thick strong men out there:lol: Including those who do not realize that radius is 1/2 diameter! m

Wor SDP Van, with proper Austrian designed 4WD, allows one to shift "on the fly" between Hi and Lo and 2 and 4WD. Like a hot knife through butter. Obviously sympathic drivers make the selection fractionally before it is needed, before the wheels lose traction, with an eye on engine revs. EFFORTLESS MAGIC.

At least since the Mrs. retired 10 year ago, we have got better value from the very slow reacting but stable temperature holding, high thermal mass underfloor heating. But even when we were were both working, the radiators came on for a quick blast in the morning (all bedrooms are radiator heated), and the underfloor was set to kick in about 14:00/15:00 to have the house warmed for our return from work. One did not have time to register the lack of proper cosy heat in the morning! I have only ever heated the underfloor once per 24 hours, for 1 or 2 or up to max 3 hours depending on outside air temps, I could keep the 25kW-30kW oil boiler running constantly during this time.(from recall, I seem to remember reducing the jet size in the boiler and tweeking the pump back to reduce heat output, for this very reason ) Which I intuitively understood to be the most efficient way to run an oil burning boiler. And seeing as we were heating 3600 sq ft of 1990's std insulation build, on about 2500 l of kero a year (plus the big Morso stove), probably correct.

Having forgotten to switch off the Underfloor pump, I have pulled my TS temp down to 30 deg, the house was well toasty by then. My conunderum is the fact that since my thick slab cum heat store underfloor slab requires time to both warm up and then start radiating heat, it needs to be on during the night, since we get up at 06:00, so despite being able to strip the heat energy from the TS, there is then not sufficient temperature for the DHW or bathroom/bedroom radiators from 05:30. Only solution ud be a more expensive Froling type WGB that can be pre-loaded with fuel and left to light on a timer, about 04:30. Or actually two TS'S run down alternately would be another solution. marcus

A laminated copy of my latest bank statement, to ogle and caress. bah humbug!

The best design I have seen to date was a German one, a 2 story high thermal store located in a corner of a new build, and left so as to be assessible for maintenance or swopping out(from above) Allowed for useful volume of stored water and ultimate temperature stratification, and designed so as to take multiple inputs of heat/water at any temperature without upsetting stratification. My big regret was not designing a basement into our new build in 1995, with Yankee style (or indeed English pub style) doors to the yard outside. A LGB and associated thermal store under the build is surely optimal, plus get a taller flue. BUT With current technology in our temperate climate, if starting from scratch, one should only require minimal heating, i.e. a log burner for both ambience and heat, with solar hot water panels to supply the DHW, backed up by a small modulating mains gas boiler. marcus

yup! We have had our first official notification re "ash die back" over the sake of a sapling in a T Centre car park, no thicker than my girly wrist. Which to my jaundiced eye looks remarkably healthy, bark wise, all smooth and green, obviously no leaves to be seen in Dec. A man with a bicycle and a bowsaw could remove it in 15 mins. But I suspect it will be a somewhat larger operation!

I ud have presumed for stringing high tension cables over plyons, dont quite know why, but that is my intuitive judgement. And the name would sureley support this notion?

Drinksloe, I am in agreement with your assessment. A good log burner in a reasonably insulated home heated with oil or gas, seems to be the most pragmatic/best "fit". I.e. keep the living room warm, & screw the thermostats back elsewhere, a kitchen should be warm anyway, but ours backs onto the wall with the stove in the living room so even better (as was indeed planned) And when we used the bedroom above the living room, it was also nice and warm, being above the heated room with the flue running up through the associated en-suite. Perfect. Cheers M PS My assessment of ALL grants is they are there to support the suppliers/installers, not the end users.

Hmmmm? In which case "they" may have to increase the amount of the "counterfactual" KwHr payment, specially now that fossil fuels have become so much cheaper. I will therefore wait (cos we in NI only get sommat like 5.6p/KwHr currently) cos hey, our oil was more expensive (than mainland natural gas) therefore we were deemed to require less encourgament to switch to Biomass. Marcus

Quite stupendous stuff, I liked the cat's dismissive "go-away" gesture btw

The 1998 Steyr Puch Van went back on the road today. I paid £220.00 for a wash, and a seal to the steering box, literally the only work needed, this £220 incl the test fee. I could/should have knuckled down and done the work myself:confused1: No sized brakes or owt else requiring attention. It had been parked up for 2 or 3 years in a grass field. I did fit a new battery, at £90.00, to get it rolling. It started absolutly first kick. Oh and £168.00 to insure class 1 Business with the Farmers Union. I reckon that is value for money. Also got divinely comfortable supportive Recaro seats with proper armrests. 24mpg is the only issue. marcus

I will be buying another Viking mower, or 2, since the one we bought last year has proved so popular, currentely clearing out a mixed bag of assorted unloved, underused & unwanted lawn mowers. Also fixated on purchasing more Stihl blowers and Strimmers. Purely due to them being a good product, with absolutly excellent local support. Marcus

If prepared to consider LHD, though there are a few RHD's about, consider a 461 "G" Wagen, particularily with the 5 cyl 120BHP "Sprinter" engine therein. From about the year 2000, little to go wrong and properly hammered together. Marcus