difflock

Funny you should mention the creeper. Which I planted, but " it gotta go!", since it is in through the shed everywhere.!!!!!!!!! It and the one I planted at the other end are near about to meet in the middle of the 4 bays. It seems to love the subdued light from the skylights.

Had 10m3 in the shed from last backend, should see me through a couple of winters, with a few more outside, to be brought in when dry next year, since I have prob missed them this year..

Dumper, Ah, the site at the outfarm is good soil on top of basalt rock, like the well is cut into the living rock, right from ground level down, but our homeplace is on rank moss/ pure peat, with blue/ grey clay beneath. Cheers

Spuddog, But a 6 to 8 tonne machine has much better reach and capacity. Somewhere in my brain remembers a 6 tonne Tracked machine as being regarded as well farm friendly, since easy to move behind even a moderate tractor, and still knacky enough for older more confined farmyards. And any wheeled digger would be less than useless, here where we live, since it is all rank, or in places, cut out peat moss, but still wibbley wibbley wibbley!

TC, I am a cynical, critical judgemental barstewart, wrt too far many blokes that call themselves tradesmen, or indeed mechanics! But the SIL is one of the finest men I have ever come across, and in all respects, breadth of knowledge, skills, morality, standards, work ethic, etc etc etc. Which was a long winded way of saying, that yes, he will know his way round an engine. Cheers, Marcus

Thank you Swinny, for that comprehensive list, and also TM, and not in the slightest offended by that hire suggestion, but there is quite a bit of rough shurbs and bushes, semi dead trees, with many big old Ash, never mind an largeish overgrown pond to resurrect, plus the old buildings to clear away, then there would be work for a digger here where we live after, plenty of sheaughs to clean and roddens to maintain. I had toyed with the idea of buying a digger myself a few times in the past, but figured I would either overspend on a buying a better fresher digger, or buy a bag o shite. So I wisely bought nothing. I am sure Marcin will know a bloke that knows his diggers and take their advice. And I would be more than happy to chip in to get a better machine. cheers

As above, our daughter and son in law, who is a mechanic, are intending to build on a derelict outfarm, we were up there today and the SIL said that he intends to buy a digger to clear the site and be there for the build. Which makes sense. Something about 8 tonne (ish) and at the rougher cheaper end of the spectrum. So what to look for, or what to avoid? I am entirely out of touch. Marcus

See my last paragraph above. I just watched that badtard Biscuit cat kill one of the 2 surviving Moorhen chicks, that had started to come out onto the lawn to feed with the the parents. With my own eyes. Fornicator! And I mean just immediately after I had fed him his lunch. But there are other semi feral cats hunting our ground so I suppose no particular point in blaming Biscuit in particular.

Tree Monkey, I know a lovely bloke who has asbestosis, he reckons he knows the job where he likely contacted it too, and he is quite bitter. But with all the chemicals around us in everyday life that we cannot avoid, incl overused household cleaning chemicals, never mind the idiots that vape, plus me having already having had a stroke(aged 65) and the hazards of venturing out on the roads etc etc etc. Hardwood dust is likely to be the least of my worries. We gotta live. p.s. I took a look at my only plane, while I was planing some 50 to 60 year old salvaged Oak from a school lab, its a Stanley/Bailey No. 4. I have no idea how or where I got it, was it a present, but I have had it forever. PPS I still got the pliers I won as a metal working prize way back about 1972.

I suspect that is likely to be the least of our worries.

Pity the piece I cut in 1/2 and glued end to end before using in the middle, has such a discordant grain.

Since I had loaned my belt sander to the son in law, now up at Ahoghill, see 40 grit sanded, to be finished with Tung Oil. I don't intend to go any finer, since it is for a working chopping board. Still got to add the finger grooves to the ends.

The son in law, fished these few scraps of Iroko from a skip in an affluent Dublin superb. Due to remodelling work It had been a solid 44mm thick door, complete with door trims, fully 5" wide by 7/8" thick. Stupid wasteful Bollix! Crudely chopped up into tiny pieces to go in the skip! Nothing bigger than 9" long. Cut on my wee electra beckum flipsaw and then planed with my only plane. I was quite pleased with my efforts. Cheers Marcus

Hawt Hawt Hawt, Here in Nth. Co. Antrim, started on Thursday past, then sweltering hot Fri, Sat, and today. Too hot to be pleasent if doing much. Its a bad job when an Ulsterman bees looking for a bit of shade. The measure of the heat, Senior Management washed out a 3" thick home made 100% wool rug yesterday mid morning, I hung it out to dry, moving and turning it bytimes during the day, then brought it into the still roasting with all windows and door open living room at 22:00, when to all intents and purposes it was already dry, FFS! That is HOT.

Well, before I got a couple of pints and a lovely late lunch today, I fired the lawnmower up for prob the first time in a month, stopping to rescue so so many froglets through the grass, yes it was that long and wet! and not cut for a month since it has been that wet with us over here, then hopped on the wee Koti with the Major mower to cut down the lane and around the pond. Except when I got to the back corner of the pond, there was a hen pheasent with chicks. So I choose to quit. And I then decided to investigate wtf the moorhen was making such a racket on the pond, and lo and behold, she had very young 3 chicks out and about. Did she perhaps lose the first nest of eggs? P.S. The big placid neutered tom cat from Belfast, that was a rescue kitten and kept in the house from a kitten and never allowed out, or been showed how to hunt by his mother, has turned into a stalking/ killing machine, well he catches the odd schrew and a rat or 2. Nature, huh. Cheers all Marcus

We have had more than enough rain here in Nth Co. Antrim to do for the rest of the summer.

AhHa! Well deduced Dan.

Being only £195.00 per year, after the eye-watering unjustifable greedy £5490.00 on first purchase. And also the stated fuel consumption figs? Like 10.6mpg combined average, fir a diesel. Surely this does not compute. Gibber, mutter an twitch.

Well, ah went inta tha toon, this afternoon, and both motor factors recommended a GYS Batium. They both also, each, despite retailing multiple Ring products, described the Ring stuff as only suitable for very occasional use( an who fornicating knew?) So ah bought a 12V/15A Batium . Despite its French provanance. For a relatively insignificant amount more than random on line suppliers. Fingers crossed.

Well, when I opened the Ring charger up, hoping to fine a failed fuse or something obvious, since it stopped working with a distinct "pop", the only fuse I found beside the 230V input, was 100% good. But, good Lord, 2 full circuit boards with a shocking( & pun fully intended) amount of electric/electronic components mounted thereto. Cheers Might just buy myself a stupid=unsmart Draper one.

Hmmm? Sounds like it is isolated, so start with a Silky saw or HD secauters, cut off at ground level, burn arisings or otherwise dispose of, and spray any regrowth with glyphosphate. Or post ground level cutting, gorr out the roots wi a digger, wait, and spray any volunteer regrowth wi glyphosphate. Rinse and repeat as necc. From an uninformed bloke that, a few years ago, helped a daughter eradicate bamboo that had spread beneath a boundary wall and invaded the neighbours garden. It has never come back, nor have we heard owt from the neighbours since.

Ah, yes Dan. Well spotted, my proclivity to forget about stuff. Incl battery chargers. Though oddly enough only a month ago, I had been very intermittently using the wee Kioti, without issue over a few weeks, then after a 3 day gap, the battery was completely dead. Refused to take a charge, so I swopped it with another one. And then I tried it again with the wee basic charger, and after violent full needle deflections and various other non charging aberrations, I finally got it to take a charge, it however took a full week before the battery, a Yausa showed the green light, and the battery once swopped back into the Kioti has been preforming faultlessly ever since. All most odd.

My 50 year old Halfords special, has finally lay down. After long and loyal service. This after the £80.00 "smart" Ring brand charger ( bought some 15 to 20 years ago!) shit itself just outside the warranty period, this despite very little use. I am still sore about that expensive( for me) mistake. Which kinda, however irrationally, makes me distrust so called smart chargers, because when it was working, it did not appear to do anything the basic wee Halfords transformer charger did. I only charge 12V lead acid batteries. So do I even need a so-called smart charger? Thoughts?

Thanks for those informative comments re the wood pigeon.. P.S. My recent iteration for billet bundling. Makes for a nominal 1.0m3 bundle. With 2 straps at each end, and I was using 3 straps on the 0.5m3 anyway. Twice the firewood moved and stored with the same amount of handling/ tractor use. I had increased the size of the bundles, to about 0.75m3, using the old wooden former, but stacking them higher( i.e. egg shaped)as seen in the image. The last bundle is my first at 1.0m3. My new former still needs a couple of wee mods, before it is off for galvanising.

That idea did not work. The orange mesh was far too slippery. However changing the shape from circular to ovoid or egg shaped, worked a dream, no sag whatsoever. P.S. Another ponder. We have had a single pair of wood pigeon this past 20 years, never more than 2 but always 2. The nest in the scrub at the front of the house, and feed up and down the lane and on the hard where I intermittently process our firewood. So why only 2? Since I understood pigeon were a social bird that was always found in flocks?