kevinjohnsonmbe

I read the book, it’s out on loan at the moment but happy to mail it over when it comes back if you’d like. It’s the biggest example of civil liberties hypocrisy you’ll ever see. If some of the civil liberties whiners had a genuine “social conscience” they’d be championing TR as a victim of state sponsored censorship. I might be doing them a disservice, maybe they are inherently racist as well as hypocrites, maybe “is it because I is white” that we’ve never seen the likes of Shami Chakrabartihami going out on a limb for him, despite the fact his civil liberties were ridden rough shod over....

I kind of ordered it a couple of days before the Gnome World extravaganza, but went along anyway. Met Julian - I had met him previously at a Vincent’s “big dig day” a couple of years previous but that was before you’d introduced the fold up infeed on the ArbTrak. For sure wrt group visit, I’m easy to tag on with another group if you have one already planned, or for anyone else to tag on at the same time if I have a chance to visit (already had someone say they’d like to join in.) Really appreciate the opportunity if it comes off ??

And this one: or his book...

Pete, is there any chance of a factory visit? Is it something that might be possible as part of a group or by arrangement? I know it might be seen as a bit geeky, but having just placed an order for an ArbTrak150, I'd love to see it on the line. Also, it's been requested in black, I notice on page 4 you mention a black unit with silver decals, if I were to get the colour codes for the company sign writing, would it be poss to have the GreenMech logo in the same colours to match when the machine gets some company decals?

Agreed, but it has a caveat: This would be true if measured against a straight 8-4 / 9-5 (whatever) metric but doesn't hold up against a job & knock model (which is potentially more likely with contracted in personnel (particularly climbers)) A full time employed 'team' (by whatever definition) will rarely be as cost effective as a more flexible model where the job is priced according to its component input costs unless the 'team' is fully engaged in £ earning activity for the full duration of their employed day 5 days / week (and lets be brutally honest, that's rare from PAYE staff.) I've experienced this from both sides of the coin. If I go to climb for someone else, I want to know what the job is in advance and agree the number of days / £ per day required. If I were to finish early, that's my hard work, sacrifice of a break etc that has presented me the option to FO home early. On the flip side. I had a climber come help me a couple of years back, I'd over estimated the time required for the 1 job and we were done by midday after a not too demanding morning (that had earnt the days money.) Since I had another ½ day job in hand we agreed to slip onto that 1 as well. The day rate was the day rate and it was something like a 09:30-16:00 day in total so about what you might expect for a days work. I think that guy got the hump because, in his perception, I'd made double the money expected for that day.... In hindsight, I could have tipped him off with a bit extra £ but, to be fair, I'm not on the stingy side with my hire-in rates to start with. I did have some more opportunities for him but he never returned my calls.... c'est la vie! I guess the point I'm trying to make, as regards an appropriate price for the subject trees in the previous photo's, is that it will never be possible to be competitive if you are fixed by the input cost of a 3 man team where others might be using 2, or even 1 man for the same task. The answer, in my estimation, would be then to not be fixed by the number of people required for any job, make the manpower fit the task, not the other way around.

If you want to drive yourself COMPLETELY bonkers, start at page 1 and see if it gets any clearer by the time you've reached page 23! All I would say in answer to the question I've highlighted above is... They don't tend to know!! Certainly true in the case of Snows Toyota Plymouth!!

Is that the US forum I think you might have mentioned before? Any chance of a link or is it ‘by invitation??’ ?

I hear that! But I don't run a tractor....

Varies according to the materiel that's being cut Mick, I've done some thick gorse on hi-flow, and mid revs (can't remember what level but will be out again with it soon I suspect). Less revs and not on high flow for long grass. Sorry not too specific but it's been a while since I've had it running and I can't remember

Or this is a better one:

Found an example here: skip to 13:45 ish, what about like Eggs says, drive backwards??

http://bagnallandkirkwood.co.uk/product/12g-shotgun-blank-firing-alarm-mine-tripwire Brilliant, useful as an alarm but also lots of fun around the yard!

£450 each, excl grind, looks like a sensible ball park. £450 the lot, rather go fishing!

If the folks that have been to have a look think it's too big, they probably won't have advised about this either: https://www.gov.uk/permission-work-on-river-flood-sea-defence Might be overkill, difficult to see from your pic, but you might expect a responsible professional to at least have considered and mentioned it to you....

It's an inherently, systemically, irreversibly flawed concept Wes. Using the "we can't change it because it's 'contracted'" cop out is just that, a cop out (by the people responsible for local government) and a denial to accept that we make mistakes. When mistakes are made, they should be taken at face value, analysed and learnt from. Not buried, excused and blindly continued with. This is a colossal balls up by the person(s) responsible for establishing the concept and then issuing the ITT. Yes, contractors will bid for contracts and expect to fulfil the terms of the contract and be paid what's due. But (on this scale) they also have corporate moral, environmental and shareholder responsibilities to consider. The adverse PR that this is attracting will be doing the company image no good at all. The council should recognise it's error, the senior management at Amey should have foreseen the complications and between them, it should have been changed well before it got to this stage. Somebody needs to have the moral courage to say STOP. Let's rethink this. I'm by no means a 'career protester' and there may be some itinerant, anarchists in the mix that are just using this as the protest of choice for this week, but that's not the main stay of the group from what I can see. This is regular, ordinary people kicking off about scandalously inept and arrogant council destruction of an invaluable public asset. The boys and girls on the tools are getting a tough time and that's not entirely fair but where are the big kahoona's in all this? Where are the Tree Council, the NT, the FC, the AA? Way too quiet. Where is Corbyn? Where is Sue Hayman? Gove has put Corbyn to shame on this one. Stop protesting and the big kahoona's quietly get paid and move on to the next project... It's wrong, everyone can see it's wrong. (typing at the same time Gary... Must get to work!!)

My engineering knowledge is limited to checking the oil & water! Mate said the other day of the later Ford engines “they will throw a leg out of bed for a pass time” I had absolutely no idea what he was on about, but realised it didn’t sound good. I struggle to to understand why it’s necess to meddle in something that has come out of a factory after quadzillions of hours (and £s) of R&D, design and manufacture. Still pondering it as an option...

Bloody hell, obvious when you know what you're talking about. A revelation to a dullard!

Thanks Richard, options there....

What do you mean by wheelings Paul? I'm not well informed on pitch maintenance. Anyone have a view on Institute of Groundsmanship? Any good / use for the subs fee??

Anyone looked at pitch aeration equipment for MO? Was asking at a demo today but everything seems to be small tractor tow behind style or PTO. http://www.sisis.com/multitiner-1-8m/ Anyone think of a reason why this shouldn't be towed behind or pushed in front of a MO? Or does anyone have any knowledge of a hydraulic powered rather than PTO variant that would suit MO?

Where did you source that Maria... I'll have one if they are readily available. In fact, I'd buy a bundle and start giving them out in Cornwall

I don't think I grew out of baby rage, which was compounded by the terrible 2's and the fiesty 4's, overlaid with puberty, turbo charged with adolescent alcohol exposure and is all now wrapped up in early onset Alzheimer's..... Looking forward to dribbling in a rocking chair on the veranda..... Gnome world was (not entirely unexpectedly) underwhelming - but there was some awesome kit on offer and an Arbtak 150 in satin black was ordered (specifically WITHOUT the EU flag decal!) 20minutes travel each way, free entry, plenty of demo's, cheesey burger & tea from the catering outlet - not a tenner, but COMPLIMENTARY.... Back home in time for Daily Politics. Trade Shows, that's the way to do it!

It’s a mistake I’ve never really learnt from, well, I have learnt it, but the realisation only tends to hit me some time after the impulsive reaction has blurted out first... ? (hoping pubity will pass before dementia sets in and provides the next excuse for being an outspoken hothead!) The people that make me want to react impulsively are the ones that generally have the most credible counter point to make. Loike, there’s no point having a debate / discussion / argument with someone that agrees with you ?it’s got nowhere to go, just as well sit quietly in contentment. (I must be in an uncharacteristicly cheery mood....? Could it be the planned visit to “Gnome world” today? Don’t panic, it’s not a gnome fetish, it’s just that that is the venue for a demo day??)

You’ve called that one wrong fella... TVI IS a barrel of laughs, clever, funny, sometimes silly and sometimes serious but never offensive nor overly sensitive, although sometimes exasperated and frustrated by others opinions. All that and still up for a banter. An all round good and a big part of the rich tapestry of AT - IMHO

If I had the answers I'd be heading up the CQC (I did make a rather lazy submission to join when it stood up a few years back.) I'd agree, privatisation is perhaps not the solution - all that would do is switch the scam from 1 recipient to another - but you could bet the scams would be clamped down on (or exploited with ruthless efficiency) Eggs has the solution - same as applies across so many arenas - shut the loopholes. Achieving it is where the problem lies - everything has got so bloody complex. Trouble is wherever there is a 'system' some smart barstewart will find a way to maximise the benefit from it. MPs' expenses, DLA, Corporation tax, ISA... I make no bones about doing it myself because I hate the waste in the tax system. Get towards the end of March, go buy something rather than paying tax on too much income.