difflock

Lit the fire this morning, which was quite prescient o me, because it bes a gui dreagh day here today with that wonderfully wetting NI "drizzle". Actually mild despite the drizzle, but awfully dreary nonetheless.

Nevermind a 1/2 hour would walk it, 'ee when ah were a lad . . .

Hopefully I will get it fitted tomorrow, it will only be to a rather rudimentary ply topped bench, IF I get various more pressing jobs sorted I kinda intend to build myself a proper woodworking bench. I was using a router today making the mortices for floating tenon joints for to join the shelves(at the corners) going right round a 2.0m by 2.45m utility room) using my salvaged 28mm thick teak from the old Lab benches. I would NOT need to be charging by the hour. Then I need to fit 30 plus replacement DG units to our 20+ year old Brazilian Cedar frames. etc etc

To quote "J" "I'm not asking for special treatment, rather to be considered on the same footing as a farm." This clearly states that farmers do not get special treatment, by way of direct inference. just saying like.

Received this afternoon Steve, all good and very well packaged indeed. I now need to modify/extend my bench to mount it. Thanks, Marcus

Ah, so you accept that farmers do not get special treatment then?

Re economical viability and scale "J" A local farmer has just put up a new chicken house, to supply organic eggs to the London market, the hens need access to 12 acres, he with much previous experience,i.e. 30 years running the first, now demolished chicken house. He also bred pedigree bulls for a substantial number of years. Based on his previous experience with the hens has said that he wants his young son, not yet 30 with a wife and 2 children, to give up a good government job. So based on that, a finanically viable agricultural unit could be as little as say 13 acres. I do not know the size of his farm, but probably surprisingly small, since he bought the land when his other brother got the home farm. I was surprised at his clear idea that his son did not need the Govt job.. But Brains beats brawn most times.

Ah! So you would not be happy with "just" the relaxation of the planning Regs, you rather wish to "seize"(i.e. obtain at less than the market rate) the possessions of others so as to benefit yourself then "J". Got it! Edit Since no sane individual landowner would sell on your pipe-dream pricing terms. And , even better luck with enforcing "set periods" of ownership to prevent speculative development.

"J" So you would be happy with a relaxation in the planning Regs, and equally happy for the current set of landowners to profit from selling off more easily approved sites thereby?

I wonder would "they" produce such helpful figures in respect of the top benefits claiming families, or would that be accused of impinging on their "human rights", so why are farming families fair game then?

But the "best bitter" favoured by Yorkshire men is worthless enough to use for washing? ? Ouch! Anyway OK for washing, like weak water, tis the antiseptic element that is missing, that would require actual alcohol? P.S. Joking aside one of the best draught bitters I ever quaffed was Theakstons best bitter, at 3.8%,(@ the Fat Lamb, Fell End Cumbria, near Tunstall tractors ) but just "perfect" to allow me to enjoy 4 pints, without being do-lally.

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.