agg221
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Everything posted by agg221
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We stayed in Collioure this year and the thing that surprised me was how good the whites and roses are. This is old vines on rocky terraces so the yield is very low and the flavours are correspondingly intense. We flew, so could only bring back so much (18 bottles in suitcases and I swear my arms are two inches longer!). AOC Collioure seems to be virtually unknown in the UK and nobody seems to want to ship outside France so they will need to last a while. Alec
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It's paint. Wood dries a lot faster across the grain than along it so the idea is to block up the pores at the ends to stop them drying out faster, shrinking more than the middle and cracking. Anything that will cover it and block up the ends will do - emulsion, gloss, wax, doesn't really matter. Alec
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I am familiar with Stihl models so would go for the 661 but to a large extent I think it is personal choice between these two. It also depends a bit on what your other saws are - the bars are interchangeable from the 261 to the 661 which helps (subject to sprocket). I would be inclined to see if I could do a deal to get the 661 with a 24" bar and make sure it has a rim sprocket (not a spur sprocket). I would then buy a 36" 3/8" lo-pro bar, chain and matching sprocket. The 24" bar balances much better for general work and will allow fairly easy felling up to 48". The lo-pro bar will cut a lot faster for milling. Alec
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It is chip, what you do with it is mulch. Mulching is laying down a layer over a surface. I would have a quick chat with your potential 'clients' to find out what they would and would not like. For example, if the allotment holders are looking to form paths then high levels of woody material are most useful whereas if they want to compost it down for use around plants then plenty of leafy matter will go faster. Horse owners may be more picky about what they can and can't use. You may find you can offload most of it, but perhaps into different sites/different piles. Not much extra effort and it will keep the site available a lot longer if your 'customers' are happy. Not many will take blackthorn, hawthorn or holly (you need a farmer for that lot). I use it on an arable field where anything goes and around fruit trees so for the latter I actually welcome thorny stuff as the rabbits don't like it. Alec
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It could well be being grown for Premium Crops - they have a branch in Braintree. Alec
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How big is the tree? Alec
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I suggest using hot wax to mask off your fingers and then plating your nails with a flash of electress nickel, followed by electroplating with hard chrome. Shiny and very durable. Small issue with the highly toxic plating salts, but what price art? Alec
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Yes, the white bit is sapwood. The sapwood is the 'living' part of the tree so tends to be thicker in healthy, open grown trees in good soil in their prime and thinner in cramped trees in poor soil which have died slowly. It also varies with species - sweet chestnut is usually only 1/8" while a 2' walnut can sometimes have no heartwood at all. I wouldn't say that is particularly wide for oak. Sapwood is not durable. On oak it will often rot away, even on standing dead trees. The whiteness and softness on that bit strongly suggests decay is quite advanced. It might be possible to stabilise it by soaking it in acrylic resin but generally the best option when it's like that is to remove it. Hacking it off with a hatchet or a chisel and then removing the rest with a horse rasp across the grain or a sanding disc on an angle grinder is the easiest way I have found. Alec
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Well that would be one use for it. Alec
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OK so totally different industry but I find the main use for LinkedIn is as a convenient cloud-based address book. Unlike Facebook etc it has a purely business function and seems to have kept this. This is of course reciprocal and being easier to find helps put me nearer the top of the pile when people are looking for someone to help. If I was a stubby I would link to all the people I subbed for, then add skills and get them endorsed. If you then post something every now and again your contacts are more likely to think of you, just make sure notification of messages is turned on and directed to an email address you check regularly. Alec
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Is BGT bacon, grape and tomato? Alec
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A straight line? Alec
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I am presuming from the species and flag that you are in the US? This site is mainly UK-focussed so there may not be much specific information, however it looks to me like your tree is stressed due to being dry. I suggest mulching around the base, out as far as the drip line, with cardboard covered in chippings and giving it a good watering whenever there is a dry spell in the growing season for the next couple of years until it starts to grow away. Alec
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Cool and breezy. Rain earlier but although there are some ominous clouds it is still a nice sunset. However, I am in Helsinki and it is midnight! Alec
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I can probably do most of that; all of it in fact except the dips bit. Dairy intolerance means he'll take me out at the cheese and chive. I shall retire to the back benches and heckle. Alec
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Try poetryarchive.org - there's an audio recording of Ted Hughes reading it. Alec
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It's my bid for the position of Culture Secretary in the Arbtalk cabinet Alec
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Sorry - it's the start of the poem 'Pike' by Ted Hughes which captures the essence of pike rather well I think (as do your carvings). It was one of my GCSE English set texts rather a long time ago and sprang to mind when I saw them. Alec
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Three inches long, perfect Pike in all parts? Alec
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This is exactly the process I am using. Trench in the ground about 6' long, 2' wide and 2' deep with steeply sloping sides. Takes about 2hrs to make 200 to 250litres. There is a bit of an art to timing the layers if your material is not uniform but works well. I normally cover it in steel sheet for around 45mins afterwards and then put it out. Only the top couple of inches are glowing so a combination of 4gals of water and some stamping is all it takes. I am aiming for biochar so the crushing isn't a problem. I try to put it out at night so I can see any glowing bits and then dig out the next morning to catch anything that may still be going before it burns away. Alec
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When I was growing up the local constituency regularly changed hands and my local MP was Bob Dunn (conservative). He became a junior minister in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The Channel Tunnel rail link was being planned at the time and was infamously drawn as a straight line on an out of date map. Bob Dunn was the person who stood up in the House of Commons and pointed this out. It cost him his ministerial career, but the seat was his as long as he wanted it. These days, I live in a constituency which is such a safe conservative seat that nobody even bothers to canvas, the MP doesn't bother to visit the area (he's one of Boris' mates from somewhere in South London and clearly doesn't fancy crossing the river). Voting is therefore a pointless exercise since it makes no difference - still couldn't bring myself to not do it though! Alec
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No, that's because an emoticon serves as an alternative punctuation mark, equivalent to a question mark or exclamation mark (do you really think I could have submitted that post without at least triple-checking it?) Alec
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Oi, that one is extremely unfair on us OCD types
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The trouble with that one is the obvious final line falls foul of the Arbtalk language policy...
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Maybe you're not doing yourself any favours in avoiding temptation by carrying your dips with you on a special dip belt? Still, on the plus side, I would imagine you could now get yourself a job with Mr Humphries as a specialist in natural fracture pruning - and you wouldn't even need a saw. Alec
