AHPP

Yes, chef! I try to use the smallest amount of water possible so it's as starchy as possible. Hit and miss whether I get the really sticky quality. Often achieve it with something beige like a carbonara or cacio e pepe but less luck this time. The olives were quite oily before I added the Exxon Valdez of Filippo Berio.

Horses (six or seven maybe) have only been there for a couple of days btw.

Spaghetti alla peds. Got excited and put too much water and oil in at the end. Would have tried to cook it out but the pasta was already dangerously close to being cooked. No parsely. Lashed a bit of dried mixed herbs in. Wish I hadn't bothered. Frankly I wish I hadn't bothered buying them but they were cheap. Anyway, getting better.

The vast majority of the regrowth is coming from the stools, very little from along the laid stems. Should the stems be nicked at points along their length to stimulate growth at the nicks? Ah hang on. You're meant to limb the stems before laying them down so the limb wounds do that, right?

Not my hedge, not my work. Saw this and thought it looked like a fairly poor job but I don't know why exactly. So what's wrong with it? How could it have been done better? Apologies if it's anyone on here's work. Promise I'm not trying to be snarky. Just seemed like a good learning opportunity.

Nice gaff.

Wait. Nevermind.

PM on the way!

I was hoping for a blue leg at the very least. My mate, Brian spilled a load of acid into his crotch at work, wearing jeans. Blue knob for weeks apparently.

A satisfying bit of rigging. Perfect balance.

Anchovies are a win. The leftovers of this pasta approximation have picked up some quality fishiness overnight.

Trying to get in touch with@forestrynick. If anyone knows him, could you furnish me with his contact details or ask him to check his private messages on here please.

Might add some heat shrink next time I build some.

The wires on mine have lasted surprisingly well but I treat them very gently, don't put the muffs up on the back of the helmet etc. Those look spot on. No sound isolation, which machine operators don't need and probably don't want.

Had a jar for years. Never found much to do with it.

We horsed it right up. It wasn't going to be enough so I started shoehorning other stuff in. Mission creep took hold quickly. Then Josh overcooked the pasta. Perfectly edible but not what you described by some margin. Still have some capers and olives left. Attempt two when I've got another tin of anchovies.

Answer to OP so far is basically helmet comms are still good, no major advances.

I make them wear a helmet because I still haven't found a headband to take the spare helmet muffs and I'm too tight to buy another comms set to go in some normal muffs. I am good enough to take the visor off for them. When I first became evangelical about headset comms, I considered supplying/installing them commercially. Going round building sites with a workshop in the back of the van etc. Then realised just about anybody with a dremel could do it.

Minimalist. No onion! Have lemon. Dog ate the butter overnight, the bastard.

Come on, chef @peds. Someone's coming for dinner tonight and I won't get him into bed with just any old pasta.

Forestry contractors: "Forestry is so hard to make money at." Also forestry contractors: "The first five grand of those headsets didn't last long. Neither did the second five grand. Hello, 3M? Another five grand's worth, please."

Technology and comms products are no doubt evolving. How are we keeping up? What's out there now that wasn't out there five years ago? I'm still using ebay Freedconn motorcycle intercoms self-fitted into a pair of helmets. Haven't felt much need in the six or seven years I've probably used comms to have more than two way conversation. Certainly never wanted comms outside of my helmet. Was just pushed an advert for these. https://www.okmilo.com/en-gb/ They won't be any good on loud sites. Helmets are still king there. One of the underrated benefits of helmet comms is being able to talk to someone three feet away, muffs down, over a background din or facing different directions etc. Perhaps these might be useful for a site with a load of battery and silky pruning happening all over the place, a few climbers up and one groundsman nipping round untying the odd bit of tail rigging etc. Easy to hand out to whoever, no hygiene issues sharing helmets. Major downside is lack of privacy. Client will hear your group chat... Nothing groundbreaking. Just saw them and got me thinking.

I watched DMM's video on it and I still can't tell what it does. Could you take a picture or something of it all in use please. Make it obvious. I'm clearly not very intelligent today.

Puttanesca. I've done a load of things I've called puttanesca before. Basically if it's pasta with all the usual plus black olives, it's puttanesca. Have procured a tin of anchovies and a jar of a capers for the particular purpose of making a relatively authentic one. Recipes abound. Which one to follow? Nominate @peds. While I'm on the subject, a story about puttanesca and life. At uni, the least popular lecturer teaching the least popular module demanded a bit of coursework be completed in groups. I'd kicked off about this with other lecturers and done all mine solo but this time I was for some reason amenable to a joint venture. I forget exactly how it came to pass but I approached a girl who had fallen back a year to do the work with me. She was a bit of an outsider, a bit goth, all her mates moving on and her held back but she had something about her. It wasn't pity but I felt some compulsion. She came over to my digs to do the work. She told me about the various troubles she was having with life: long commute in, working nights on the front desk of a lapdancing club, trouble with the rent, scum neighbours, difficult family etc etc. The poor girl was not having a great time. I whipped us up a spaghetti puttanesca (because I always had olives in) and listened to her woes. She was living on toast and supernoodles so a decent meal was a revelation I think. We had the nicest couple of evenings writing some shit about whatever but most of all bonding and making her feel human. Anyway. Assignment went in, did fine, move on. Spoke every now and then but we both had things to get on with. Roll on the end of uni. We've all graduated and are out on the piss. She came up to me in some bar and poured her heart out. She was at the time feeling totally shit about life, about to ditch the course etc and it was basically a restorative feed and a few hours of shared time that pulled her round. Man, I've never felt so good. The little things you can do for someone that can make such a big difference. I have tears in my eyes thinking about it. I felt like a father. She's doing fine now. Married, professional job and all that. We talk occasionally. We're not bezzies because that would be weird. I'm a fair bit older and we have very different lifestyles. But we've got this lovely little bond, just from cooking her dinner.

FullSizeRender.MOV Just to keep tensions running high... He was actually pretty non-flighty today, despite deer everywhere. His walk this morning was on the lead following yesterday's fairly major transgression. Plus in this video he was probably still blissed out from all the attention the girls in the hardware shop lavished upon him.