difflock

I missed this earlier, and I too have been pondering buying a gerneral purpose/dropside tipping trailer, my old db 1490 used to be about 84HP too, and I reckon about 10HP/tonne, thinking back to when trailers were 4 t and tractors 40 or 50HP, plus 15 tonne behind a 150HP still sounds OK. So I am looking at an 8 tonne trailer, possibly on tandem axles to carry better. Marcus EDITED; To say, that I been looking and looking and looking, and will prob end up buying new, since anything likely looking 2nd hand is not neither local nor even in NI, so prob end up with a 6 tonner on a 400/60/15.5 tyres on a single axle, and probably a Woods from G Kennedy up at Dunloy.

Absolutely brilliant here for about the 4th successive day, bright Sunshine and a staggering dreuth(tis still cold mind), I walked the dogs up the moss earlier, and came back with dry clean boots!

I just finished a big plate of bolognaise made with Aberdeen Angus mince, the fattier one from Tescos, stacks of celery, onion etc etc, very heavy on the veg, but so satisfying without being fatty or heavy, served with wholewheat pasta. And ketchup, and stuffed olives, and pesto and parmesan. Senior Management cooks from scratch, including making her own bread and jam, I tease her that I need to get a Cow, and we can have our own butter as well.A behive for honey is also on the cards, so far in my dreams. Shame on me, but no home grown veg, rubarb and fruit only, perhaps next year for the veg and herbs, if I get round the house tidied up and the landscaping sorted this summer. I hope to blag Damsons or plums this autumn for jam making, I love my plumb jam. mth

Why the freezer for 48 hrs, if for feeding to the pigs anyway, P.S. per Lock Stock and 2 smoking barrels the only bits the pigs cannot digest are the hair and the teeth! Btw, I believe the wife mentioned the Italians were "loaned" coffins, I understand purely for the sake of appearances, to transport the bodies for the mandatory cremation.

I had a browse through a local undertakers coffin stock, pure curiosity, I had expressed an interest in the cardboard coffin(as recommended by the Green Party, but still a very good idea) he was more interested in showing me the latest faddish Wickerwork coffin(complete with naff, probably not biodegradable, plastic liner), which, needless to say, was more expensive than a solid wood coffin. I was however, in general gunked at how poorly made many of the "solid Oak/solid Mahogony" coffins were with poorly colour matched filler showing, nevermind the hideous shiny not-brass handles and trimmings. Marcus

I tickled some 1" graded down the lane, while the soil dried a bit, into the couple of potholes, then ran the link box up and down the entire length a couple of times, it leaves a lovely finish. But I intend to get the lane surfaced this summer, prob just go for concrete, then asphalt round the house. Covid19 permitting of course. The daughters man, fly fishes, how prescient that he had stocked my pond, cos he now got a private fly fishery!

The empty link box is generally enough to usefully use the loader, but once filled, much better, she would not actually lift the filled link box, but I had cunningly ramped it up in the pile, while filling, and then using the hydraulic tipping ram, levered it a bit higher again, the 3pt linkage ram then "held" the weight. I did drive canny btw! I did however move a surprising amount, surprisingly fast, with no fuss.

Kioti EX50, & 50HP, unsure re the age, but I bought it direct off an equestrian place in England with 1800 hrs on it, cracking good/fast hydraulics, and I bought it specifically to have a handy loader tractor, I quite deliberately avoided a cabbed model to get in below a low lintol, plus tis wile handy stepped on or off, which suits the way I use it. It has a clutched shuttle and oodles of gears, I never use the 2 lowest ranges, but still 3 ranges by 4 gears outside of those. Also got a mid PTO, but I cant figure a use for it, other than a midmount lawnmower deck, which does not interest me. I generally choose to not work if it is raining, so no cab no problem! The only weakness is the hard bastard industrial tyres, they would spin on a wet snotter, and simply do NOT carry over soft ground. Marcus

Not so much overloaded, as nicely loaded, with no fuss, nor any clutch slipping/abuse just used a super low gear and let the wheels spin fractionally, I was moving the aggregate to prep the base for the relocated glasshouse, see images

Landscaping, after a fashion, I was moving the flags anyway, and thought they would make good ballast to use the linkbox as a rudimentary land-leveller, tis a bit "tiddy" tweeking the ram to finessee the cut but . . .see images.

Oil in first, then petrol, and absent-mindedly give the fuel jar a shake before filling the saw, but despite leaving the mix sitting for months and months and months, I have never seen any evidence of the oil settling out.

I lifted a manhole lid "downstream" of the pond this afternoon, there is only a trickle of water coming in from the direction of the pond, and some of that could still reasonably be natural seepage from earlier rainfall, if I had a while tomorrow or Sunday, I will try and find the 2, perhaps 3 number tile drains that run into the back sheaugh, since they drained the field the pond was constructed any other leakage should be easy to find and quantify. This evening I lit a wood fire in a big 500mm dia cast iron saucepan, set on top of an upturned galvanised mop bucket, the perfect improvised fire-pit and sat out until just now, watching the trout rise while spotting the odd Bat flitting about. Wi a big mug o tay. All quite perfect.

No joking, but the wife was using the last of her green serge school knickers until recent, as dusters, bloody indestructible they were. P.S. Her be on the wrong side of 50 btw!

You must be doing sommat right then Bob!

The daughter blew a gasket when she found out I had went into the town yesterday, for a mirror for a hired digger(I caught it with my bloody shoulder getting in the cab!) a fill of diesel where I also bought 8 litres of milk(to do the 2 of us a long time ex the freezer, and btw there was oodles of milk on the shelf, or I would not have lifted 4 cartons) Anyway I took a trigger spray of Jayes fluid and squirted owt I touched. BUT The word has got through, everywhere almost deserted, I did business outside the backdoor of the motorfactors with no personal contact, and EVERYONE was keeping their distances everwhere. I joked in the filling station shop that it was like long distance ballroom dancing, where everyone, incl the staff behind new plexiglass screens, were very positive and cheerful P.S. The hire firm that had closed of Monday, reopened Tue or Wed, but the gates are shut, all by telephone and pre-arranged collections or deliveries only, as I found out when I phoned to pay the bill. Strange times indeed. Marcus

I am most envious!

No paperwork, it should not have been needed in this local community, and despite making enquiries locally, and indeed furthur afield, for a D6 Bulldozer, after about 2 lost years, I ended up using the local firm that I have used this past 20 odd years, but they have grown too large, the son who runs the business was away on honeymoon, I did not get the particular operator I had specified, and the "main man" on the job was the "canny" father who spent as much time on a mobile ph running the business in his sons absence, combined with them choosing to turn up when it was raining/too wet and then machinery breakdowns and oddball short days/part days. All in all the perfect shitstorm, which was why I cut back on my planned larger size and chased them away. But the invoice was only? for £1825.00 plus VAT. We had a site meeting to discuss very recently, and they could see no issues with their work, or work ethic! I will , I suppose, pay the dammned invoice, which I only got a couple of weeks ago, despite my repeated requests for same to get squared up. I have since switched to using another local "one man band"(with a selection of different sized diggers), at least that way I know who I will be getting in the drivers seat, and he invoices promptly with all supporting documentation.

Nope, the impervious "blue" clay underlies the peat in this area, i.e. where we built the house had been "rank moss", but long since cut-out for peats(turf), so the remaining 500-600mm or so of peat was to be entirely removed, then the underlying clay scooped out and built up to form the banks, with said banks built entirely on the stripped clay base, i.e. not incorporating any peat beneath them, never mind the tile drain! . It should have been a simple straightforward operation . . .

Not noticably, but I really must install a rudimentary depth gauge. And yes triploids.

An entirely constructed pond, filled with runoff water from various roofs. With a Clay base, it should be "near-enough absolutely watertight", but the contractor was not entirely diligent in identifying and setting aside the limited amount of less-than-suitable material, and being a very experienced local guy, he really should have known his stuff. He also buried peat that should have been removed, and included in the peat was an undisturbed clay pipe land drain, which issued copious water when I broke into it. Fingers crossed it should now be OK.

Ah fink he makes cracking fast supercars . . .

Same here, yesterday too, but on a laptop.

Still a work in progress, and with fingers crossed for the better few days weather forecast(since yesterday was a most depressing steadily wet day here) I will get it better finished with the wee Kioti and linkbox cum land leveller(since I have reluctantly concluded that I will never be a good enough digger man to please myself) I am not intending to sow out before this Aug/Sept at the earliest as it will need to settle, since I buried umpteen Couch grass "scraws", plus there are varying depths of loamy peat fill. I found, pure happenstance, and externally fixed one leak, hiding behind where the glass house was previously located, they may be more, though no other signs of external wetness(but seeps/leaks could well be getting away through pre-existing land drains, plus some inevitable seepage, but as long as the water level remains reasonably high, no odds, I may simply never need to worry about an outfall . The brown trout are well happy and it is a pure pleasure to see them rising for nymphs. So a couple of images.

So, Donnk, how would you so well informed as to the sexual attributes of Borstal dinner ladies . . .

Is Emily14 another bloody virus then?