difflock

Buy any FWD/RWD car with a slick underbelly(and most now are due to slippery design considerations) and reasonable ground clearance, stick on a set of mud and snow tyres, and away you go. From someone who has driven ordinary cars reasonably surprising places, without issue. Or have a "wee scheme" on the track? cheers mth

My initial take on the Grenfell fire was that the Fire Brigade failed to make any investigation of where the flames had possibly went, after they vented out the kitchen window, in a multi story building with other, possibly open/possibly broken windows above. Or were simply, dare I perhaps say negligent?, in failing to properly ensure the fire was extingushed. These thoughts are from my memory of my impressions formed based on the TV coverage at the time. mth

I would set an Architectural competition for a design using glulam beams for a spacious airy design, like wot the Medevial craftsmen would have done like a shot, if they had had our materials and technology. Or simply glulam the Oak into the sizes needed to recreate the medevial beams and woodwork.

Every bulk bag of logs, from the honest suppliers, should include a tape measure and an A4 sized explanation of how to measure and calculate the volume of a cube. The message might eventually get through. P.S. We had the same scam when buying bark or wood chip for Council Play Areas, priced and bought per m3, and always paying for about 20 to 30% more volume than the walking floor trailer could hold; "because it settles in the trailer Sir", when I first queried the clear discrepancy. However across the limited suppliers in NI it was a level playing field, since the bulk trailers were the same size. But still.

I really would not mind if the Palace of Westminister burned right down to the the sub-basement, just so long as the House was sitting, and all the Emergency Exits were locked. The architectural loss would be a very small price to pay.

We spent a year in an old static caravan while building, and with 2 pre-school infants, the roof did not leak, but Lord God, every time there was a storm I swore the bugger was going to disintegrate. Lying in bed with one hand on the floor and the other on the siding, and feeling each move in different directions at the same time My only regret was not building the 60' by 30' shed first and housing the caravan under its shelter. Anyway over here there was little depreciation on those old statics, certainly cheaper than paying the Rates on a dwelling over a year. Good luck and best wishes. mth

Eh, could I suggest throwing a few Bishops on the flames, I dont really care if it puts the fire out either . . .

I was always astounded at the number of drivers, including most of the employees I supervised, who despite endless training and reminders, could neither find nor understand the vehicle "plate", yet these same blokes would "spit blood", that of course their Shogun was legal to tow 3500Kg "because it is a 4 wheel drive", even after I read their veh plate out to them explaining how they were only good for 2800Kg. And a transit, no matter how light, was ALWAYS legal to tow any trailer with a 50mm ball hitch. This might have been funnier if it had not been so frightening. But then when the Transport Manager refused to buy useful dropside Iveco trucks fully legal to tow 3500Kg, because, and repeat after me "they are not 4 wheel drive", therefore they could not be safe or road legal, BUT hey! what does Iveco know. DOH!

Not really, all straightforward and the information needed is widely available on the tinternet. But, people do tend to see, or interpret what they see, so as to allow them to do what they want to do. cheers, Marcus P.S. I too wonder at the legality of most caravan outfits, since generally towed by a big heavy car or 4 by 4, and unlikely to be sub 750Kg caravans

First is your sister a gynaecologist? so ok it might be a little tight for elbow room, but assuming your sister is of reasonable small stature she should be OK as long as somebody keeps a good hoult of her ankles.

Hmmmm, how about a transportable anaerobic digester, fed with the arising grass clippings, feeding the gas to an engine, which is driving a generator, to produce the needed electricity, to charge the batteries, to power the lawnmower, to cut the grass, to produce the arisings.

I kinda imagine, with all the quality assured "kiln dried" "x" % moisture malarky, that logs should simply be sold on weight, with, if needs be, the price adjusted for the weight against excess % moisture (& a very simple "app" would take care of that) at least by the large professional outfits, an added benefit is there would then be less fuss about hardwood or softwood. Selling, or at least buying by improperly measured loose bag volume is to me a mugs game, unless delivered in a rigid container that can be measured. Marcus

Honest Officer Eggs, it just jumped outta the page at me, there was nowt I could do to avoid seeing it.

Indeed WW, but the(since defunct) company the wife was buying coffee beans off were selling 900 grammes as 1.0 Kg. Their "excuse" was they did not have scales and they were Kg bags! As they say "worth a punt" P.S. Might just be worth getting Weights and Measures involved?

Tis brake pedal btw!

I prefer " .. .. .. like a busted sofa"

Oddly, or not, but a Labour Councillor was censured or de-selected v recently, for saying what I have often thought, that Mr. Hitler was not entirely wrong with certain aspects of his policy, in respect of his erasure of the Roma population(and I know thousands of Roma and other, children were murdered, and some quite horribly, but then as a US Calvery Officer stated when rebuked for killing native American children "nits make lice") And if, like the Asian(read Muslim) grooming gangs one is not even allowed to mention the Pikey/Irish Traveller thieving, non law abiding, countryside trashing ways and habits(but, its there culture innit!) without being accused of sterotyping or racism, little wonder smouldering repressed/suppressed feeling can then manifest in ugly ways. Marcus btw I witnessed first hand the way the Roma are clearly regarded and treated in parts of former Czechoslovakia, not pretty or edifying, but probably quite justified, based on their track record.

My take on this topic is the lack of supply, i.e. such tractors essentially stopped being bought as 1st line agricultural machines a significent number of years ago, and of the pool left from the 1960/70/80's, most were 2WD and a lot got exported. Therefore there is significent demand for the "wee hand" 4WD, actually to such an extent Zetor has introduced a model, the Minor to cope with unsatisfied smallholder demand throughout Europe. The only farming market that continued to buy these handy 4WD's new was the livestock farmer, and they (mostly) simply trash them. Btw, look at Tunstall tractors, they generally carry a representitive selection of decent properly vetted or described stockman tractors. As commented, tyres are a significent expense. Marcus hmmm, I no nowt about Gordon Agric, but looks a "contender" http://www.gordonagri.co.uk/view-stock/used-tractors/deutz-fahr-dx-3.90-4wd

Which is why I doubt that any puny efforts by man can or will make a significent positive difference in respect of CO2/SO2 etc. Never mind the vast amounts of currently trapped methane hydrate, ready to be released by the merest world sneeze, hiccup or tectonic fart. Profligate breeding and resource consumption is a different matter, in these respects man has no competitors. Marcus

Pity I did not buy a 390T, back when they were merely 2nd hand tractors, and the brother suggested I should too! But anyway here is Mrs. 1490 in her working cloths. The log trailer(bought off Jas P Wilson 20 odd year ago) came on the poxy wee tyre shown beside the road works sign, so I put a set of ex slurry tanker Russians on her, I had a larger set, which I returned because the axle was simply too wide, anyway the set pictured carries remarkedly well, and from experience the trailer is perfectly matched to Mrs Brown's tyres and tired HP. Oh! the untidy alignment of the logs on the trailer is because of a big butt, the bottom 4' of the largest tree on the trailer, that I did not want to leave behind. They were all leaners at about between 30 and 45 deg off vertical so were cut at a safe height, I got some spectacular barber chairs too, but was not prepared to get the saw nipped cutting a mouth, nor indeed put myself in any danger. Marcus P.S. The weather here today is simply magnificent.

Hats off the JCB, they really did get the Hydradig right, first time, and such irony that the UK prevents the Hydradig being so simply maximally utilized with a trailer for the various attatchments. DOH indeed!

First, thank you Billhook for that post above, which exactly mirrors my own beliefs(& I was wile tempted to merely post "perhaps" in reply to "J's" rather dogmatic statement) then Hmmmm? Apart from building a big slap of conventional, but reasonably insulated, masonary construction house, which should do us, and future generations for 100+ years, we live very plain, i.e. we do not buy clothes for fashion, then dump them, ditto for household appliances, furniture(or every-day used suite is 30+ years old, the rest is cherished 2nd hand stuff), electronics(we dont hardly own any) and cars(the ave age of our 3 veh fleet is 20, and would be 26 if I put the 1984 veh back on the road) So unfortunately I do regard most humans as a plague on the Planet with their trashy profligate jet-setting resource wasteful polluting ways. Btw. I spent yesterday lifting others peoples rubbish from the roadside woodland we are custodians of, said unprotected woodland that I could well have sold for building sites, probably at least 2 but choose not to. I also hope to leave an area of woodland for future generations to enjoy. Yes we drive a limited amount of unneeded miles for pleasure, but that is about it. And we only had 2 children. So yes, most people choose to bury their heads in the sand, or say "its not our fault". But it is, and to some unavoidable extent, ours too, but I can live with the responsibility without wearing a hair shirt or other such virtue signalling.(& could the above statement be construed as virtue signalling?) EDIT: Just to say I am plagued by doubts, and as lazy as sheaugh water, and not to sound too much like TVI, but prone to ponder the meaning of life, so far far from anything approaching perfection, just in case that all sounded a bit "up myself". BUT, for sure I detest our current society and its "values", comprising as it does of mostly plastic people seeking continual instant gratification with the entirely needless trash they generate and so generously distribute throughout the countryside. Cheers, Marcus

Universal consensus is another way of saying groupthink, and driven by grants and funding. Like a Consultants report for my employer many years ago which blandly stated "It is clear that . . ." with no explanation or facts to explain why what was so clear was so clear. But to what extent is climate change human caused, a / of a % or a more significent %? and how much is entirely natural. For example anyone care to argue with an Ice Age caused advancing glacier, or how to prevent its inexorable advance, I dont doubt the IPCC would pontificate, quoting many "facts" but even they could not generate sufficient hot air to prevent the ice advancing. So, simply, I do not believe it is within the power of man to change the affect of humankind on the Planet, with sufficient speed to contract the hugely alarming predictions of rapid climatic catastrophe, plus I would be more concerned about ever increasing habitat loss and specis extinctions. Anyway I read a rather good article about the down through the ages predictions of "the end is nigh", and how the current breast-beating climate-change doom-mongers are merely the latest incarnation of this prevailing trend. Marcus

And yet the unmarried mothers, of multiple children, are already whinging, about being accommodated, at the expense of others, in converted office blocks, they want real family homes, you know, like those bought, with the associated financial privation and suffering, by married couples in days of yore, before they had children, this despite being a married couple. Marcus

No scruffy mixed breed mongrels for you good Sir! Lovely dog though.