openspaceman

Maybug (cockchafer) here this morning, also pair of brimstone and a holly blue in the garden but not seen much else recently.

Grasses are competitive in high nutrient status soils and especially so when other plants are drought stressed. Removing a late hay crop takes off lots of surface minerals. Also overgrazing has this effect which is why horse pastures become dominated by buttercups. So removing a grass crop as hay after flowering plants have seeded is a way of encouraging the flowering plants that require less fertile soils to compete. Also in a woodland setting the deeper rooting trees and the mcorrhizas associated with them mobilise nutrients from the mineral soil and deposit them onto the surface as leaf fall, so carrying off minerals with a regular cropping cycle, like hazel coppice on clay soils, limits the build up of surface nutrients and flowering plants like bluebells and anenomes take advantage of the temporay lighter conditions and thrive. Clay soils hold on to nutrients well and have reserves which don't deplete much over time. On lighter soils, like the Bagshot sands here, the minerals, once mobilised get leached away following cultivation and over grazing and plants associated with acid heath become dominant for a while. Eventually if this false climax isn't maintained, by grazing, woody species creep in and reach down to deeper strata, gradually re fertilising the surface layers till secondary woodlands develops.

I see

Is there any reason wildflower and herb rich hay can't be fed to animals? Excepting ragwort .

herptiles, reptile family. Best seen by shining a torch into the water when dark at this time of year.

It's not that straightforward but if the chimney is within 2.3 m of an adjacent building it must exit at least 600mm above that building. If it is within 2.3m of any opening it must be 1m above the opening. The rules are periodically changed which is why you need to read the document and not rely on my memory.

Was the installer HETAS approved and did he put a certification plate on the flue? You' need to look at Part J of the building regulations to see if the correct distances from the ridge and eave have been met https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200135/approved_documents/72/part_j_-_combustion_appliances_and_fuel_storage_systems

As much of the thames basin heaths are managed by natural england's proxies herbicides may well have been used. A mistake in my view because gorse is an indicator for low nitrogen but good phosphate and potassium availability and cropping by grazing with the minerals being taken off on the hoof would have been how the heath came about. With nitrogen deposition from roads and mycorrhizas mobilising minerals from lower down just cutting and leaving isn't an option as this increase surface fertility. Locally NE favour scraping to bare soil but this gross approach with bunding the surface layers causes hydrological changes as well as changing the landscape. I always wanted to harvest the arisings and make a biochar product from the harvested vegetation, this should mimic the long term practice of taking minerals off and using them elsewhere.

Yes about 50% of the gorse I see on my walks on the local commons has died off, no sign of fresh sprouts yet either the rest seems unaffected. Broom, another legume, also has a habit of suddenly just up and dying.

Fairy ring - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

I have recovered a small number of cylinders now and have never used a hone, just 150 grit wet and dry paper in order to scratch a horizontal pattern over the damaged vertical scoring to encourage a bit of oil retention.

It's hard to judge, it doesn't look bad and the standard finger can detect a half thou groove and that is not enough to worry about.

No it's not. Since I stopped work I have no access to meters for compression or air leaks so no longer any feel for this.

Yes I've had this in the past. Also most electronic ignition systems need to turn over at 400rpm before they will produce a spark and this may be easy if the plug is out but if the motor is nipped up not possible with the plug in. I have a neon telltale which fits between the plug cap and plug which I use to see if any current is running in the HT circuit.

I've had a message from an old friend who I haven't seen since he moved further south some 30 years ago that his McCulloch GBV 345 blower stopped and will not restart: "My leaf blower stopped and refused to start, so did all the usual's, still no go, long story short. Good blue spark on new plug, flywheel off, check knib key all o.k. mainshaft oil seal is just a sealed ball race, compression 140 psi, whole engine in good condition and low hours. changed carb for known good one, still nada. The engine wont even fire with a squirt of petrol in the intake or the plug hole. " He's well up on engines, great and small, and has done all the checks I would have done except check the piston rings through the exhaust so I cannot think what else to do and it's a bit far to go and look. Any ideas?

Like @nepia siskin were the only birds to use the niger feeder, not had any taken for a few years now, never had siskin and goldfinch together. Now goldfinch don't come down into the garden but occasionally one will sing to himself on the TV aerial. Both our neighbours have cats.

The business of actual moisture content is unlikely to go to court because the regulations make woodsure the regulator of the "scheme" just as gassafe oversee the domestic gas installations. So the LA weights and measures department will first check if the supply has been made legally (by someone registered with woodsure) if not then no proof of moisture content is necessary as the regulations have been breached. If the supply is from a member of woodsure then they will be expected to check up and deal with the matter.

Those green grit wheels are very friable, so they keep presenting fresh grit to the carbide but just because the diamond doesn't produce as much dust isn't a good reason not to wear a mask and have good ventilation as tungsten carbide dust is not likely to be good for you in any case.

If they are both .063 drive links and you swap the drive rim and bar too I don't see why not.

I made a minor attempt at calibrating my meter https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/125741-valiant-moisture-meter/?do=findComment&comment=1887034 I'd need to do the same for a large number of samples to get any idea of accuracy and precision, or lack thereof.

So that's why I managed to get through safely

Amusing but charcoal conducts electricity so I have just tested a bit from my last stove fire a week ago, bone dry but reads 25% on the Valiant

Having played with mine a bit now I accept that it seems reasonably consistent and if the split face is around 20% reading it's fit to burn. Most of my wood is reading around 11-15% on the exposed faces and about 30% in the middle so to get a homogeneous reading I cut a near square section of beech and removed 2" from each end such that all 6 faces gave readings between 28% and 30%. I oven dried this from 131 grams to 98 grams. So 28% on the meter oven dried to 25.2% mc wwb or 33.7mc dwb Still not convinced but tending toward wwb.

Thanks but the screws arrived today, the new version has a slight flange, to give a better bearing surface I suppose, so I shall replace the other two with them also. Saw starts and runs fine and without altering the HI needle it was reaching 13k rpm, so I have backed it off to 12500. I cannot see why it seized as carburation is stable but I have nothing to cut at home so testing will have to wait till I have some work. The rebuilt Jonsered 920 is also fixed after fun and games with a broken recoil spring. The Tillotson carburettor was pretty contaminated with fine sawdust both on the engine side of the diaphragm and under the metering chamber preventing full needle valve opening. It runs fine now but I have set HI idle to 8900 rpm, it sounds too flat but safer for a while. I have to gently ease it over compression and can then only drop start it in the absence of a wimp button. The lady apparently does not want it back. It is too big a saw for everyday use. She now has a Husky 550 so it will be interesting to try the 346 against that. I now have far too many motor saws, 13 at the last count including 3 brushcutters , the 346 is the youngest by about 20 years.

I was out walking the dogs yesterday and a chap was flying a model Vaught Corsair which made me wonder if there were any updates on this find, was it only one engine that came up? How was it identified?