difflock

Was in the local commercial motor factors getting a few bits and bobs, and while I waited, I saw a Metabo 18V grease gun sitting on display. £185.00 + VAT And I already got some Metabo 18V stuff already. But no other cordless stuff at all. However the Milwalkui stuff is significently cheaper, but I would need to buy an additional Milwalkui charger and battery. And the Milwalkui range of stuff is fantastic. . . So any thoughts as to which brand makes the better grease gun? P.S. Spent some time recently looking for a third hand to (i) hold, (ii) pump and (iii) keep the end correctly aligned wi the grease nipple. And was thinking, man ah need a cordless GG. Edit To add they were able to cross ref the original Korean Deadong? hydraulic filter fir the Kioti. I was rather impressed.

Well I bought the wife a Magimix Cook Expert, wi the cocotte thrown into the deal, for Christmas, in the Jan sales. And she is like a lamb wi two tails. Makes a perfect and very visually pleasing 3lb loaf every time, dough prepped in the Magimix CE, including the 2nd proving in the cocotte, then baked in the traditional oven, while still in the cocotte. Much more reliable than the Panasonic breadmaker. Pics to follow.

Hard to describe how balmy and mild and sunny it is here in North Co. Antrim. March has been an unbelievably dry and warm month. From beginning to end, with only a smirring of rain a couple of days ago. Yesterday afternoon we were in Portrush, and again staggeringly fine sunny weather, with zero biting wind Better than we experience many a summer. Might even be tempted to go skinny dipping!

Well folks, she held up well, when I caught the tip of the blade on a heavy branch, accidently like. I have found that to be the weakness with a slasher. But I rapidly concluded that the Silky saw was the tool of choice, simply reach in and snick off the offending branches. Much less effort, with total precision. And bulldoze the branches away wi the wee kioti.

The grain in this piece of hickory is a bit gnarly, and split or cracked, I freed the shaft from the ironwork the last time, prised the crack open as best possible and tried wood glue, which failed. Fingers crossed this repair is effective.

Yup! And I did glue the whipping. Going to face a thorn hedge tomorrow, just removing the spindly branches that have fallen over/out. At least I got the distance from the lane to the hedge line right, but it looked proper silly when I planted the thorn quicks.

Our ponds are full, and the first one solely from rainfall, the past 12 month the big pond has never dropped, such was the weather, unlike a couple of years ago when it dropped 2' in a dry spring. Our ground is still bloody wet underfoot, despite the searing weather.

I would actually like a spot of rain, to nail down the bone dry and mischievously behaving Beech leaves? Get off my lane!

Slasher, which I bought many many years ago, like about 40. I regret not "acquiring" an unloved billhook from the Council. They stole the slashers right left and centre. But the unloved bill hooks. Nope. Leave them in the store.

60 feet of salvaged Steel Wire Armour. 2 30 foot lengths admittedly, hence the slight discontinuity in the middle. Set on a smear of Stixall. And as smooth as a babies bottom. Fingers crossed

I would need to sound like D.T. to describe the past 10 days of weather here in N.I. and indeed Donegal last weekend. Stupendous, brilliant, magnificent, etc etc etc. Esp for mid March

Thank you so much OSM for your detailed informative words of sound advice, I should(obviously!) Have pruned and tided these years ago, and there were/are so many narrow forks. The Ash I did prune have lovely clean boles up to about 7 feet( the limit of my unaided reach) but are all dead with ADB. I shall however have enough material for shafting tools for the next several generations! But I will leave felling then to the dead of the winter, which is what month for minimus sap? P S. I am going down just now with the blower To The wee Kioti fits below the trees, and the Major 8000 roller mower mulches everything green to bits.

Can't seem to add text to the images above. But I was surprised at how well the wee 50 HP Kioti handles the Major 8000 roller mower. And superb visibility, plus low enough gears for tiddly awkward bits in reverse. Plus physically small and low sans cab to get in below the hedges and trees.

Thanks all, These trees are, at least for my lifetime, intended to be purely for amenity and pleasure. But yes I have and will continue to remove some lower branches, though mostly just the overheavy oddball ones.

Thank you for that Mark. So retain every third tree. Better give the scraficial victims an extra special hug before firing up the chainsaw.

Along our front access roadway. Beech on the gravel knowe, then Oak on the peat. Like? Should I remove every other one at some point, and if so, when? Or just let them be. P.S. I was told to just buy slips and not bother with the 6 bigger and disproportionately more expensive ones. They were absolutely right. Despite the great care I took in planting the 6 bigger ones, the slips rapidly put them to shame. Marcus

I have been pondering the artifical intelligence vis-a-vis human stupidity conundrum. My money is rather regretfully on human stupidity winning this one. Einstein was right all those years ago.

Thank you Spud, yes I ran 2 full fills through her when I got home and all quite faultless. but I need a polycarbonate visor for the forestry helmet, my lips were kept well pursed/sealed behind the mesh visor as I rotovated the dog shite (from our own dogs) among the grass, but that does NOT make it any more attractive. P.s. Quite horrified at the price trimmers/brushcutters of the FS200 class have risen to. I suppose I have finally turned into my father! P.P.S. (i)John was adamant that E10 petrol was the culprit, for dissolving fuel lines and gumming up carbs. (ii) They have stopped even looking at the DIY Chinese shite retailed by so many outlets. (iii) I took a walk round the new Lidl store in Coleraine, and was gobsmacked at the array of Parkside tools and the prices, from memory £50.00 for a metal cutting bandsaw. £150.00 for a plasma cutter, £80.00 for a gasless MIG welder. Etc etc etc Pure skip filling madness, and see item (ii) above.

£39.00 later. No coffee or doughnuts, but a bit of crack. And only left in at quitting time yesterday, and ready this afternoon.

And tried her this morning, and the air filter was swimming in fuel. Stripped the carb down, removed the two diaphrams and blew through any orifice I could see or find. Reassembled, and no different, started, ran, then died when the throttle unblipped, and fuel swimming about the lower reaches of the air filter housing. P.S. Piston is spotless and oily smooth, and a strong enough looking spark. In today's sunshine. So off to J Whyte it is.

We choose to live in a house that is now "too big" for 2 retired people, but FFS! we are paying eye-watering rates for the privilege of doing so. And hope to leave it to one of our children. Labours policies are ALL driven by the green eyed God of envy and spite. Which policies appeal to their feckless voters base.

I went out after dark to lock it away for the night, and tried her. First fornicating pull and away she went, the bitch! But again, no choke applied, though the pistol grip throttle start setting was engaged. For the limited use, on good mix, I could not imagine the compression should be poor, and it still feels pretty tight to pull over TDC. Thanks all.

About 10 years old, never saw that much use, has on occassion been left parked up with fuel in the tank, brought out this morning and started virtually first pull. Stopped and restarted a few times with strimmer line problems, refilled the tank, restarted and then I stopped it again, and would NOT restart until stone cold. And it will only run flat out, and died when I unblipped the throttle. I mean it will not even cough, and the plug threads were always wet when I pulled it a few times. Guessing it is carburetor related? So strip down and clean? I know zero about 2 strokes and have never disected one before. In hindsight, it started without the choke 1st thing this morning, after I pumped the primer bulb. Marcus

If I can use it, it should be idiot proof. But I would not be an experienced or competent enough welder to give a meaningful review. Cheers, mth P.S. I was biggly in the notion of an R Tech welder, but when I asked our Polish SIL "what MIG welder" , he then consulted a welder mate, almost certainly another Pole (and the bloke who aluminium welded the NLA water pump housing for me) Who strongly recommended this yoke. And they are apparently MUCH cheaper in Poland. Hence the long drawn out purchase process. First I need to cut the Polish 2 pin plug off and wire on a 16A plug. EDIT I presume? that despite the different gas suppliers, the threads are indentical across the different gas bottles, so the regulator is interchangable? P.S. £318.00 Ex. Poland