difflock

Eggs, Where did I ever say or state that I felt farmers should be entitled to State handouts? BUT If the State controls how they farm, what crops they produce, how much they are allowed to produce, and bytimes the price they could sell the produce for, plus control the timing of slurry application/hedge cutting etc etc, surely there is room/should be room, for some "sweetners". The farmers are absolutely not free to farm to make money based on a free market economy, so why should they refuse to accept the compensatory handouts? and as Conor says, the big AgriBizz outfits are much better at exploiting the made-up rules than the average family owned farm farmer is. And a lot of the flash new gear is on the never-never, sometimes rather heavily subsidized by the manufacturers, who no doubt get various regional kick-back grants. Regards, Marcus P.S. My brother got stupidly good SFP, based on the pure happenstance that Dad had had built up his suckling cow numbers, for "year zero", and even more preversley, he continued to get this sub, long after he got rid of the cows. BUT my brother did not make up the convoluted and stupid Government subsidy scheme. He merely "gamed" the system.

By what defination are they "doing wrong", if they are acting within lawful constraints? Are you asking landowners/farmers to act more morally than the rest of the population? And brutally, the law abiding farming community are significently less of a drain on Society(compared to benefits scroungers) in respect of the associated costs of providing Social housing, Social Services, Policing, NHS health care and litter lifting. From my local observations over 50 years leastwise. And I know farmers/landowners are not perfect, but . . .

Gents, I can only reiteriate my family owned farm upbringing of 60-50 year ago. It was very plain, any money was re-invested in the farm business. My father and his brother worked brutally hard. There was no mains electric. There was no mains water.There were no holidays. There were few luxuries, compared to my townie classmates. These things may have changed, BUT that is how family owned farms were inherited or accrued. You can be as envious and jealous of the current farmers/landowners as you like but you sound like Uncle Joe Stalin and his reaction to, and treatment of the Kulaks. Link attatched. Kulak - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

From a NI perspective, where most farms are family owned, they either bought the farm with earned income, but most probably inherited it, so, why does this make them parasites, assuming, not unreasonably, that they are merely lawfully claiming what somebody else in Government decided they were entitled to claim.

Agriculture in New Zealand - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG In the very first paragraph, ALL agricultural subs were removed in the 1980's

Like what happened in NZ then.

Why does the timber have to stay on the site, and how is it to be used?, or is it being left to rot?

Most of our moderate financial success in life, was due to NOT being in the thrall of the money lenders, for cloths, consumer electronics, furniture, cars or houses. We were and continue to be shocked by the sums most people pay in interest, for their, mostly, unneeded consumer goods. But, despite my aversion to credit, from about age 17, i.e. 43 years ago I ran a credit card(and 43 years later still with the same CC provider), to our advantage. mth

AC Price Engineering Ingleton Cumbria WWW.ACPRICE.CO.UK If my near 20 year old memories are to be trusted the above firm was helpful and reputable. I also talked to AV but they , from memory, were a bit unhelpful, my impression being that one should simply write them a cheque without so many newbie questions, quite unlike AC Price's helpful/unpushy responses. I did actually manage to rationalize that a Unimog was not best suited to working in peat-moss, hence I did not proceed.

"Plus shaving, at least amongst white males in the western world is diminishing." Me? I blame Isis.

Well we took the latest pup to Portrush today, we have only had him 2 weeks he is now 12 weeks old and got his 2nd innoculation shots Friday past. After a bit of a walk we sat on a grassy bank to eat our chips, the 2 older dogs know the drill and drool, but dont beg. The chips were sitting on the grass in front of their noses obviously. Montgomery, the pup, only needed to be told about 2 or 3 times and quiet nicely too, before he too sat as good-as-gold, until we finished and they got their few chips as a treat. He has been equally quick picking up the dos and donts st home, but, pardon the pun, I thought this early unforced obedience "took the biscuit" A proper "clinker" in the making methinks. Marcus

Ah must ah bin wile lucky then . . .

Guessing air brakes will be needed. Good luck.

My various "Gay" Wagens will never forgive me, but I too got the hots for a 'rok. Ever since they were launched by VW. Problem is I really really really, really dont need one.

The blokes that built the garden room for us, were big into buying certain tools from the states, incl one of those worm drive Skilsaws, essentially stuff that was not available on the Euro market. One very simple thing I saw on Youtube was the steel pins, square or round, 5/8" thick, with predrilled holes every few inches /two inches, for setting out, nailing retaining timbers to etc etc.

Quite Stalwart like is it not?

Reminds me of the old old story about the pair of younguns that fall in love and get married, she soon starts making a few changes, disapproving of his friends, correcting his grammar, improving his table manners, "encouraging" him to get a better job, tidying up the way he dresses, insisting he goes shopping with her, etc etc, until one day 20 years down the line, she sighs heavily one day and says; "John, you know, you are just not the man I married all those years ago" Devon and Cornwall would be the same by the time "J" had them sorted out.

Well . . ., not about topics they know nowt about.

Slob that I am,( and despite trying to persuade/motivate/encourage staff to drain the multitude of strimmers and push mowers at the end of the season) I have only very rarely run the 026 (bought in 1997) dry before parking her up, for up to 3 or 4 months, perhaps 6 months bytimes. Only changed a couple plugs too in all those years. And still she starts and runs. I also leave the mix sitting for months, like all the while the saw is unused. But I use the red Stihl oil and am very particular about the 50:1 ratio. And in this case my light usage should make stale fuel problems more likely. But I never experienced any issues, well perhaps the once to be honest, but it cured itself.

Best thing I did was take my entirely unexpected package and go at 57, (with 32 years "punched") I am now 60, and I was looking forward to a payrise (being the State Pension) in 6 or 7 years, but I will not be getting ahead of myself. Marcus

But assuming wind or birds do not carry them off-site and into a watercourse, surely they will eventually degrade back into the environment, assuming they are not made to the same degradation proof standards as Wavin sewerpipe. In the greater scheme of things there is always something to eat anything.

Hmm, You know that old expression, "Big feet = Big Lad", is there a corrolation, or does he take after his poor ould Da? mth

I ordered a router bit yesterday at 12.22Hrs, from Dennis Wilsons of Glenavy Through the letterbox 08.30 this morning, c/w a complementary carpenters pencil. WOW! Well impressed I am. Edit; I "pinged" them an unsolicited testimonial this morning and got a actual human reply inside of 4 hours, also proof that someone is "gripping" their on-line operation.

Fcuk me! you nabbed that before I edited it, but only cos it had already been said.