openspaceman

10 mile SE, 4 miles from the chobham fire where all the roads through the fire zone are still close and 800m not 300 from the small 1ha fire Sunday on the heath/ secondary woodland opposite my house. 30C in this room now

I would wait till I was sure the tree was established

Good point as they have changed it for electric vehicles to 4 tonnes IIRC

Probably not even that much, when I was weeding through plantations I would just snap one leader and leave the tree to get on with it. It depends what you want from the tree, at the moment it's feathered with full furnish to the ground, in a forest the side branches would become suppressed and die off but an open grown tree is happy to grow coarse and knotty because it's not competing for light. In forestry we would aim to thin such that the remaining trees always had 40% of their length with live wood but below that ideally there should be no branch remains outside of a 4" core, with clear timber laid after that. In a garden it's different but if left fully furnished as it becomes mature sure as eggs eventually someone will come along with a chainsaw and lop lower branches off (because they get in the way of the mower etc.) leaving wounds so large they nearly ringbark the tree. I like to see them pruned to 20ft if they are to be pruned and done before any branches are over 1" so the wounds occlude quickly

You actually don't have to cut the lesser stem off, just shortening it will mean the desirable one will out perform and suppress it. As @Mick Dempsey has said allowing grass around the base means the grass benefits more from the watering than the tree, don't strim the grass as not only does cut grass become more competitive for water but plastic line frapping young tree bark is a very major cause of their early demise. You said "in the fall" I suspect you are not in UK?

It looks like it was potted with a decent root ball, no reason it won't keep growing if you maintain the watering regime though the top may be wilting. You will need to choose a leader and reduce the other but wait till end of summer and see how it looks

I very occasionally help out chipping and brash dragging for a chap with a Canter, full arb sides and a tool box. He never lets me do a tip run in case I go to the weighbridge. I'm convinced it is so close to 3.5 tonnes just with 2 men and tools to make no difference empty. In 11 years he has never been pulled.

go on then

Floorboards up, thin battens stapled to bottom of joists, 75mm celotex (seconds) cut and squeezed down to sit on battens, joints taped with aluminium tape, pipes and trays laid: floorboards back down. Make sure airbricks are clear as bottom of joists now sealed from house and must breathe. I've never done it as I laid pipe in screed on top of celotex with a new solid floor.

The word "reckless" is used for schedule one species rather than negligent. The problem is you don't know if a nest is there until you check and if you find one no matter what the species it shows intent if you harm it. I agree there is little chance of being caught and don't know of prosecutions other than poisoning/shooting raptors or stealing eggs. My main take on it is the legislation is a reaction to loss of bird species, it's shutting the door after the horse has bolted because the losses are related to inadvertant effects of our development rather than general domestic activities

...with a very distinctive aroma

A bit less, Isuzu give the chassis cab as 2090kg unladen on the short wheelbase and the last transit tipper I bought 7 years ago was about that with the body on.

I disagree, heat input is the same for a combustion system as for a heat pump, a well insulated house will need less heat from either. Yes oil boilers are dirt cheap in comparison but the price per kWh will favour the heat pump. As I said you have to consider capital cost, running cost and maintenance. I haven't owned a heat pump long enough to know how long it will last and mine is a simple portable which is giving sterling service in the present hot weather. One thing I didn't mention is that as the water in a wet heat pump system is generally below 60C some thought has to be taken about precautions for legionella bacteria. I think the OP said he has suspended floors on the ground floor, which doesn't preclude underfloor heating but means the thermal store of a few inches of screed is not available.

It depends what the "activity" is. You must not intentionally take, damage or destroy a wild bird’s nest while it’s being used or built. Also some birds, e.g. wood pigeon, breed throughout the year, we were stopped on a job with pigeon squabs in a nest last week.

29C here and the heath 300 metres opposite still burning

I suppose the "lock" passes through both the live and the tail strands of dynema? The lock will weaken the rope but as you have a loop with 2 lengths then reducing to one thickness my guess is the whole bury and lock is stronger than a single line but less than 200%. of a single line.

Would you tell us about the strain gauge weigher thingy? Cost, Accuracy etc.?

Not that I'm in the market for saws but the 40 quid difference in price just gets you 3/8 running gear instead of .325 a bigger filter and .2kg more weight? What proof of servicing does one need to qualify for the 2 year warranty?

I only saw one at shows and read a bit but my mate in Wales swore by his 1) reads like a failsafe brake that is normally held off by the hydraulic coupling 2 ) this seems to be the main drive which was a drum off a lorry axle the drive is engaged by applying the drum brake, the drum and input then all rotate together

It looks like @doobin and I sing from the same book, I'd be looking at heat pump and underfloor heating with a top up by electric immersion for the Domestic Hot Water. A woodburner makes an easy back up in very cold weather, all the time outside temperature is above 10C and inside around 20C you will get a bit more than 3kWh of heat for every 1kWh of electricity put into the heat pump. Even a stand alone air conditioning unit will provide a little heat in winter advantageously and provide cooling in the weather like now. You need to do the sums for yourself for the costs but there are three elements, the amortisation of initial capital cost, the running cost and the maintenance cost. That depends on how big the heat pump is and how much difference in temperature you are looking at, once the delta T gets above 10C then the coefficient of performance struggles to stay above three, I expect the COP on a modern unit is better than what I was dealing with 15 years ago. As I said I don't think radiators are the way to go with heat pumps. I'd worry about relying on LPG

Me too, on a conifer reduction Wed and Thurs and boss became aware of some squabs in the final tree so gave me an excuse to miss Friday,

Lower temperature Also longer time constant so the heat pump is constantly topping up a small temperature difference There is also a psychological benefit as the overall perceive comfort can be achieved at a lower overall temperature if the heat rises and feet feel warmer than head does.

IMO not with standard sized radiators which are really best accepting water at upto 80C and returning it somewhere above 50C to get the gas boiler in full condensing mode. Again IMO heat pumps are great for underfloor heating but need boosting for DHW and possibly in very cold weather. I gave this advice to my brother when converting his house with a heat pump in the garden and internal buffer store with immersion heaters to top up. He ignored me, the circulation pumps had to work hard, buffer store constantly de stratified so immersions cut in frequently,

You stole my next line Anyway Dexter is in the picture

sinister remark