AHPP

What causes a valve to stick in the first place? Bad AFR? Moisture?

I have an egg pecker. It’s one of five of them. Hen six is currently sitting on four eggs in a DHL box serving as a broody coop. But back to the five. How do I catch the perpetrator, short of CCTV or finding egg on its face? Video for general interest and pleasure. IMG_5483.MOV

Set up a company. Pay yourself £200 a month as a PAYE employee. Plead poverty to the council to get a 100% council tax reduction. Accountant probably a bit cheaper than council tax. I don’t care if mine spends it sponsoring a panda. As long as the council aren’t getting it. Doesn’t work if you need to show high PAYE earnings for credit etc. Might not work if you have reportable investments.

You bitch.

**************** people if their will is to impose a(nother) government on me. You have as many masters as you want. I don't want any.

Shop was fine. Took it back.

IMG_4872.MOV

It's got the same chuck and therefore quite possibly the same gearbox as the DHP486Z 18V LXT I had. Unwilling to place further trust anyway when there are other brands that haven't sold me something shit yet.

How did you move into arb work from this, stubby?

Water mill?

Good observation. It’s a two acre lawn and a one acre hedge.

Sailor’s been pretty bloody good recently. Usual annoying babe under my feet but recall etc has never been better. Walking tighter, not bursting off so far and so quickly. Asserting himself with the geese more and hassling the chickens less. Often herds usefully. To what do I attribute this advance? My deep understanding of the canine psyche? Doubtful. My slavish devotion to routine? Err. No. Savage beatings and round thrashings? Sadly not. He hasn’t needed any. My calm demeanour, reassuring consistency and patient husbanding? Some of that. Inherent maturity (he’s 2.5 now)? Probably helping. Basically I’ve stopped walking him. Instead of 1-3 hour sorties in the countryside, we pod around the garden and do a 500m lap of the fell (becoming his territory) on the way in and out. He’s not cabin feverish or obviously missing it and approaches domestic activity with the same enthusiasm he did for the outside world. So that’s a result. IMG_5461.MOV

It’s not a competition, stubby. But if it was, I was up at 03:30. Lager is basically an energy drink. Now sat up the garden supervising a broody hen. A mate’s over from Lithuania. Going to see about some clay pigeons when the morning has matured a bit. Trying an OU for the first time. I hope I don’t like it.

What the **************** is this nonsense?!

Mick’s nephew turning up on day nine, finding it still there.

Sorry. Say again. I could have sworn you said 2 men for 2 days. Wednesday off for a CSCS refresher and then a quick coat of red Hammerite on the Forth Bridge to take you to Friday? It’s a monster. I’d start with a full week hire and not have anything planned for the weekend. Or the following week, besides a shoulder massage. Actually no. I just wouldn’t do it. I don’t have the resilience. You’d need pictures of your loved ones in the basket to make sure you didn’t jump out.

Great photos. Slap them in front of anyone you’re trying to win bona fide subcontracting work from (or just anyone who knows what tree work entails) and you’re winning it. I did three memorable days in a wheeled 86’ genie a few years ago. Something like a seven tonne carrier. Great on the flat. As risk-averse on slight slopes as you’d imagine. Spent a lot of time cajoling the alarm.

Bolam has written most eruditely on the subject recently. Along the lines of you retire it from climbing because it can’t be trusted to support a 100kg man and the next thing you know it’s catching 400kg lumps over a £20,000 conservatory.

Is one government not enough for you?

Anyway. peds. Have you decided what tyres you want for your electric wheelchair yet?

Oh for god's sake.

Well done.

I had an 880 with 30” bar. Sold it. Been happy ever since. I picked up an 881 with a pretty big bar (five foot ish) in a shop a couple of months ago. Hefted it up as if cutting on spikes. Horrible. Right in my face. I’d just done a crane job on a fat beech. 36” was fine. You just dangle round. How many larger than six foot diameter cuts do you need to make a year in the UK? I’ve actually done a seven or eight foot cut with that 36” bar. Had to cut out a block the size of a washing machine to crawl inside and sweep the middle out. Depending on your interest in mining, you could theoretically cut even bigger diameter if you really wanted to go boring. I think triple bar length is a reasonable cutoff though, considering how little it’ll be necessary here. Anyway. Would have liked a bigger bar but that was only one cut in twelve years doing big trees. tl;dr: 36” is all you need in the UK. 661 pulls that fine. 500 would probably do it acceptably. 881s are miserably cumbersome, even with short bars.

30”, just use the 500 unless you’re doing loads and loads and loads of constant big stuff (oversize firewood or milling). 881 with 30” probably won’t be any quicker and will certainly make your life much, much worse. Don’t underestimate how shit they are to live with. I’d have one (with a 48”) for primarily milling but that’s partially because I already have 25” 500 and 36” 661 (mainly arb climbing, bit of milling). I know what you mean about the 661 seeming comparatively underwhelming but it’s good enough. Actual cutting is a fairly minor part of arb.

Thanks, doobie darling.