pgkevet

I'm working my way through the mount of stuff left here and most of the simple to split rings have been used. What's left is a pile of assorted diameter and length branches..everything from 4-6/7 inches and a mount of irregular rings with branch stubs and the like. A simple v-type stand should do for the branches - but I'd appreciate pics if you have them.. but what about the lumps that won't split and need cutting? Anyone got a 'chunk holder' type stand? Cross-over tripod?

..just walking my dally and going past one of my fields..full of sheep i borrowed to save me mowing..and there were two escapees. Dalmatian hurtled after them with me shouting at him..still not sure i trust him not to chew one up. Next thing i see is Dalmatian running back towards me across the bridge - with two sheep chasing him!!

I can understand your attitude and beief that it's disrespectful but I'd be inclined to be in favour of the dog walkers..so long as they are picking up. Dog walkers carry out a fantastic policing of fields and grounds, spend more time outdoors than casual passers-by and thereby act as deterrants for vandals and the like. It's the dog that's doing the pee-ing and the dog is hardly able to understand the concept of respect and more than the bird overhead that drops a suprise..and when your dog has to go it has to go... The problem with many graveyards is that people don't visit them and miss out on the diversity of plants and wildlife abiding there...

Let's call this one 'I'm knackered' Most folk think that's a rude word but bright country arborists recognise that the correct meaning comes from the knackers yard - the place where animals unfit for consumption are processed and rendered. I'm about fit for turning into cheap lard after chopping at the brambles and blackthorn and terracing a small patch for my greenhouse... I popped back to the local agri machine chappy to see what the score was. It had been ten days since he said he would think about my needs for a day or two. This was the conversation: Agri: "Ah, it's you. I hadn't forgotten about you. I'm still thinking about it." Me : "Yes you did. If you hadn't forgotten about me then you'ld have the answers." (I should add that Agri is a friendly chuckling chappy and we were having a laugh rather than being rude.) Agri: "Well you don't want a new one do you?" Me : "Look, I need a blasted tractor and one that I fit in and I'd be happier spending the money locally so long as you can match prices. And any way I shall expect you to mend the cursed thing when I break it - don't worry about old or new just find me the right sort of tractor and stuff and give me a price - the new holland or the tym that I fit in" Agri: "Okay. I'll think about that" Me : "No No No. Remember I'm one of those strange folk from the south and a townie. We're the sort that ring up about kit and expect a demo the next morning. We're used to salesmen that actually sell stuff. I'll give you 2 days since this is the sticks and you're a village-ie" Agri: "I'll get right on to that. Now where did I put your number?" Me : "Well last week it was on your hand. Have you washed yet?" Agri: "That's right I wrote it in the book after" Me : "Would it help if I email you my details and the list of kit needs?" Agri: "Ah, now email. I've heard of that. We don't have that here. That works on computers doesn't it? We don't use those." Me : "Have you got a spare slate I can scratch it on for you?" My only other news is that I have sheep on my farm. I'm not farming livestock but I have one field that is steep and thickly tufted and impossible to mow. I couldn't find any pigs to borrow but it turns out that borrowing sheep is quite easy in Wales: you just ask if anyone has a spare hundred or so and a flock turns up herded by a teenager on an ATV....

I'm new at splitting but bought both a cheap ax and a good maul from Jonesy and the maul just looked and felt right. This unfit old man cleaves nearly every round in one swing..good excercise. (i'm thinking of charging admission like a gymn :-) ). But I'm only splitting for myself. If it was commercial then I'd want to compare a good big ax with a narrower blade cord.

Even with the machete slicked up to super-sharp it's hard going trying to cope with brambles with netttles growing through them. The previous owner left me some kiddie tools.. a ride-on mower, a land clearer and a real ef-off sized husky strimmer. The ride-on sceams surrender whenever i go near it. To be fair i don't suppose it was ever designed for 115kg rider trying to force it through matted grass clumps. It has done stirling work but the brambles would be silly. I've already had to tow it out of boggy ground with my 200SX and 50 yards of three-strand poly and we all know that if i keep working it to the burning smell of rubber belts slipping then it's life will be limited. I think it's going to get retired to being the wife's toy to prune the lawn and carve some pathways through the meadows between hay cuts. The husky strimmer came with a flair head I've discovered and new flais ordered. if that doesn't sort the brambles then it will be time to get serious. I'm still dickering over tractor prices. Remember this is Wales and i do want a cab on top and with this acreage and soem hilsl then a complete toy size one isn't going to work. It's my perennial problem of being taller than most - bad enough with special order chainsaw trousers and boots - finding a comfy tractor goes with a bigger price. So far the TYM 433 and a 50HP New holland both fit and it's down to delivery times, price and whether it's possible to get a good second user job. Brambles watch out! My dog Rebel is still being a fruit loop. We came back from town and there was a pheasant by the back gate. Rebel got out, looked at it and strolled the other way. I got him a cow's thigh bone in the butcher's shop. His first bone. He looked stunned at that and couldn't figure out what to do. Did i mention he was a bit retarded? So after kneeling on the floor and pretend chewing the thing for him he's finally got the general idea. To date he's rolled it around the floor and collected all the fluff and decorating debris on it - so it does have it's uses. Some more pics and one reason why i wanted some land:

What couold be a better view from a window? And the early suns makes the first autumn colours really shine...

Sorry for my absence :-) ..this one is definately 'down on the farm'...I've been here a week generally trying to get things sorted before we move everything down. Down? Perhaps that should be 'up' since it's Carshalton to Llanfyllin.. The first couple fodays were steeped in panic. What had i done? How the heck was I going to cope with this acreage? But then the next few days i;ve woken up tp glorious views, total peaceand feel that there's no better place to be. Until the nagging little voice warns me about winter - but she only stayed for a couple fo days before going back to the old house. That left me with the dog and a couple of mates who are helping out redecorating. Yeah, that little voice wants it tarted up before she moves. The decorating is moving on fine. there's not that much to do; well there wasn't before the bedroom ceiling fell off but we put that down to trivia. The panic has subsided now. I've started cutting back the grass and brush over the new areas for the orchard, fruit cages and beds and today's job is to build an incinerator and start hacking at the odd acre of brambles. I'm going to have to get a better edge on Jones' machete. It looked sharp out of the packet but by the time i have that slicked up on my wet wheel it'll cut a falling pubic hair that brushes the blade. Rebel (the dog) just loves the place but he won't go out solo. I think he just wants company and misses the other dog who is with wifey. He is also a townie dog and hasnlt come to grips with ttally black nights. The poor sod woke me up this morning at 4 am and I had to kip on the sofa. Which shows i must still be a soft touch - or an idiot. We went for a long walk right now and I gave him a chewie afterwards and the stupid dog started trying to find somewhere safe to bury it. 54 Acres and he's not happy. It's been reburied at least four times now and he has a sore nose. At least he'll be knackered. Tree related stuff: I've got a dead big beggar up a slope above the yard in the middle of other large one's and heavy undergrowth. I reckon if it did fall it would come my way rather then towards the road since it's got more mass this side anyway and that's the downslope. In any event the road is probably just outside target zone and the barn this side might just be. No way am i parking the car on that side of the yard. It's definately outside my abilities to sort so i suppose it's going to be a case of asking around locally. My tree recognition isn't so hot on leafless stuff but I reckon it's probably an old ash tree. Which really brings me towards an end here. I do need to cut some stakes for the new fruit trees I'm going to espalier and for the fruit cage. I resent the idea of paying for stakes with all this hedgerow and woodland. there's no chestnut or larch here (yet) and my best stake options are ash, hazel or silver birch. I'm figuring that whatever i cut will only get 3 mths seasoning before I have to use it so i'm planning on soaking the ends in borax before using them. Does that make sense? Oh, and it turns out borrowing sheep to munch down one of my fields is very, very easy..just ask the first farmer you see. A shame no-one here keeps pigs becaise wifey will only let me have my own if they stay as pets forever. I really don't want to be treating geriatric arthritic pigs in twenty years.... ..time to shake the sloe gin mix..

Just to ask: What is the protocol if tree like that is considered doomed but is also a bat roost?

A communal dish (his wife was a dish..but don't think she'd have been up for that!) Yeah, Steamboat...a way of cooking your own delicacies in a ring of boiling water using various spears and baskets... and then spooning up the soup as it happens and changes.. let alone all the side sauces and fresh extras in little bowls. It really is a great way to dine - a long slow tasty meal with bags of chatty time!

It's one of those areas where the more i read the more I confuse myself. At least half the tractor offers have perkins diesels on board, another chunk have kubota engines..so a lot of cross component anyway. When it comes to secondhand value - some guessing here - a £20K known brand after 5 years drops to about £14K. A Chinese one starting at £12K isn't going to lose more than £6K??? Whereas after ten years I'd guess the Chinese one is pennies and the named brand still £10K. Still the same sort of money loss? When I read about the manufacturers; even of the chinese one's they've all been around a long time. With the power of the internet I'd have thought even if a British distributor packs it in then parts should be gettable..albeit with hassle? I'll drive around to local agri guys when the move's done to see what they have...

Also tractor dilemmas.... I'm going to need one ..reckon about 40HP for messing about on my new farm...and loadsa tools: plough, disc harrow, splitter, loader etc etc.. Punting about so far best 'value' would be the landlegend but I really can't find anything about them...certainly nothing bad on searches ... I sat in most things around that size at SALTEX and I must admit that when it came to stuff with a cab the TYM433.. well heck that was comfy..I could have happily had an afternoon doze in that one.. which is pretty impressive for my size and weight.. trouble is that adds 10K to the budget compared to the LL <sigh> Anyone got definite no-no's???

Any new discovery will be based on a lucky find or plodding research. If the analogy to proving superstring theory is pursued as a model that harmonises physical laws into one application - explaining the findings of all particle physics within the same set of rules - then applying that to forestry means finding a model that explains any form of tree growth and interaction of tree and forest to surroundings. That epiphany is nearly on us..when folk finally realise you can't look at trees without considering the whole biosphere. But equally (as was commented on in another thread) conservation and management can be as much a halt to evolution as a benefit to retaining current biodiversity. The buzz-word in the arts has been 'organic'. Here you have the perfect organic - which will out-evolve the fragility of man's meddling. (heck that sounded too smug to me too) Got to add this: If you're the alone in the woods will anyone else hear the sound of one-man logging :-)

A couple of Quickies. I'm a bit snarled up with organising the move to be able to write any long stories but to keep this thread going: Nip I had a good Japanese friend some years ago and his family, mine and another used to have a weekly dinner rotation. I loved going to his place because his wife was always persuaded to do a 'steamboat'. Google that if you've never tried it! One evening we turned up and were introduced to a cute rottweiler cross puppy. My Japanese friend worked as a site surveyor in London. In the interests of international relations and his unpronounceable name we called him 'Nip'. Nip had been at work that day when a group of labourers drew his attention to an odd noise. On closer investigation they found the puppy abandoned in a pile of concrete pipes. Nip shared his lunch but over the afternoon no-one came to claim the pup so he decided to take it home. Obviously Nip had classic oriental features but spoke perfect English. However, as he tells it, he was getting some very strange looks whilst traveling the Underground on the way home with the puppy under one arm. Half way to Morden he'd had enough, stood up, bowed formally to everyone in the carriage and spoke out loud in an affected bad accent: "Attention please. Note, honorable Chinese gentleman not eat own dog!" Bish I fly RC helicopters as a hobby. One of the other regulars and friend is Paul, the Bishop of ******. Again in my easy way I just call him 'Bish' One Sunday (and, yes, I wondered why he was bunking off on his only work day too) Bish and I were flying and the field was crowded with Modellers. It came towards lunchtime and Bish was one of the first to get out his sandwiches. "Hey Bish, what you got in the sarnies today?" I called out. "Sardines" He answers. So, naturally, I couldn't resist: "Fish sandwiches? OK, lets see how good you are. Feed everyone." Another time Bish proudly showed me an ammunition box he'd bought secondhand to store his Heli batteries in. Once again I couldn't resist giving him a long lecture on how come a man of the cloth was supporting violence and warfare buy buying surplus military equipment and thereby promoting the production and distribution of more warmongering materials...and so forth. Bish turned and smiled gently "Swords into plough-shares, Pete. Swords into plough-shares." I gave him that one!

felling a corkscrew hazel?

It's a shame you guys can't just wrap some turns of primacord around any suspect branches and then sit in a polycarbonate booth to watch the show <g>

That idea crossed my mind too but animations of tectonic plates show the UK coming from north polar areas with no obvious association with the west side of the south american plates. It's hardly an obvious ocean current routing either. Then again there would have been so much geological upheaval going on including deep ocean volcanic activity that anything has to be possible. That they mined for the jet as well as finding it washed up suggests a huge deposit: which implies that perhaps instead of washed up logs there was some seeding and local forests of MP's that later suffered a catastrophe? Interesting. Perhaps as a single sex tree it's more susceptible to extinction than a self fertile variety?

**A young blonde girl in her late teens, wanting to earn some extra money for the summer, decided to hire herself out as a "handy woman" and started canvassing a nearby well-to-do neighborhood. **She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had any odd jobs for her to do. **"Well, I guess I could use somebody to paint the porch" he said. "How much will you charge me?" **Delighted, the girl quickly responded, "How about $50?" **The man agreed and told her that the paint and brushes and everything she would need were in the garage. **The man's wife, hearing the conversation, said to her husband, "Does she realize that our porch goes ALL the way around the house?" **"That's a bit cynical, isn't it?" he responded. **The wife replied, "You're right. I guess I'm starting to believe all those dumb blonde jokes. **A few hours later the blonde came to the door to collect her money. **"You're finished already??" the startled husband asked. **"Yes," the blonde replied, "and I even had paint left over so I gave it two coats." **Impressed, the man reached into his pocket for the $50 and handed it to her along with a $10 tip. **"Thank you," the blonde said, "And, by the way, it's not a Porch, it's a Lexus.."

I had a vandalism issue where i live and put up a covert camera - didn't stop the problem and police useless when it comes to finding anyone and criticised the picture quality etc. I put up a huge obvious camera housing as well and the problem stopped. It's more about deterrance than catching them... wear hoodies etc anyway

I'm no Arb but thought the monkey puzzle came from cold mountainous regions? Doesn't that make frost damage much less likely?

Listen closely next time you pull a large carrot from packed soil on a wet day..as it sucks out and the root tip snaps while you drag it out by its hair... listen with your soul. (..Man, I can write rubbish! Should have been a spin doctor)

I'd use a PC to print out the letters singly on A4 for my template then rough out with a jigsaw and finish with a router...you could even cut a template from thin MDF and then use a router with wheel cutter to sort everything but the tight angles. Even then letters with curved bottoms won't stand..so consider thinner letters wedged into a grooved stand or with individual stand-offs - or a script where even curved letters like S have a flat bottom

The fact that as a higher life form you are able to express a state (of emotion, pain, joy etc) doesn't exclude other so-called lower forms from experiencing them. The fact that you have a nervous system primed to react in an overtly manifest fashion - mostly as wired reflexes from hormones, vocalisation, efferent nerve responses etc doesn't exclude lower forms from experiencing distress to noxious stimuli in their own way - even an amoeba will withdraw from a noxious chemical and motile bacteria will be motivated. Your own white cells as single cells will show chemotaxis. If a single cell organism can demonstrate affinity or repulsion to stimuli then it has logic to assume that a multicellular organism with it's differentiations and specialised features will be more capable of responding to a larger range of such stimuli. Where does 'sentience' come from? It's as much our own interpretation of the word limited by our own experience and values. "We think therefore we are"? - but that can fall down as soon as one has to consider what thought is - and it has to either be simple chemical transmitters holding memories and combinations or it has to be some higher more ethereal process? Even single cell plants have a huge array of complex chemicals scurrying about their intra-cytoplasmic structures more than capable of coding electrical charges within those molecules - and if it's ethereal then it may well be the height of arrogance to assume we are special. I have heard a carrot scream. If your nervous demonstrates sentience by virtue of it's rapid responses...does that mean than a slow person is less sentient or capable of such perceptions....slow those processes down further to the speed of a plant without a specialised nervous system and do you have the right to assume it's not sentient? There ya go...food for thought. Which is more cruel - eating 100 whitebait (100 lives) or a a 2lb porterhouse steak (one 250th of a cow)?

Lucky co-incidence... I was just reorganising some photo albums.. so here's my current dalmatian's puppy pics..when he was still cute and not a lazy avatar: 17 days, 22 days, 6 weeks and 8 weeks

Lucky This would be around the mid nineties. A client brought in their poorly cat that was having trouble using it's back legs. The examinations and later the x-rays determined the cause was an airgun pellet lodged to one side and plugged into the high thoracic spine; essentially just below the base of the neck. I assumed that the concussion and inflammation of this impact was responsible for the leg weakness so we went with a regime of rest and antiinflammatory drugs for a few days but there was no improvement in the cat in that time and I finally decided to try and remove the pellet. It was bit fiddly and dangerous to the patient to go digging between the rib heads and prising the pellet out from it's plugged position in the vertebra but the pellet came out and whether due to that or just time and good fortune (but I'll take the credit!) the cat recovered it's back end functions. The owners were delighted. Actually I was pretty chuffed too. But the owners also told the local newspaper and inevitably a reporter arrived to photograph the cat, me and the x-rays. Now my opinion of journalists was unaffected by his asking me what these curving parallel white lines were and what was that large valentine object on the middle of the black bit was but I do profess to some suprise when , after I pointed out that it was the heart in the ribcage, he pulled a tape measure from his pocket. I really didn't expect a journalist to know how to operate anything quite that technical and to this day I can only assume that he was a failed Estate Agent that just had to find an even less noble profession. His credibility went even lower at this point by coming up with a result of 71 inches distance (but I turned the tape round for him..) "Oh dear," I groaned. "Let me guess..you're going to write about how close it was to the heart?" "Yes," He said, getting very excitied. "It's good journalism.. to write that 'one inch lower and the bullet would have hit the heart' is good journalism. I could even make the national dailies with this one if the pictures come out!! That cat was really lucky!" I took the lens cap off for him. "Hells' teeth!" I stated "You call that lucky? Half an inch higher and it would have missed the cat."