Wood wasp

Another good post huck. Although only internet posts people involved are debating and interested in current affairs, please don't lower to shouted insults. Remember the great lady's (a grocer daughter) quote: “I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.” And on a lighter note another one of hers.. “In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”

South Africa now going down the swanny too, talent drain, corruption etc. on a side note it's only country I've ever done business in where my host has taken me aside before presentation to explain that some of audience will talk, sleep(!) and check phones whilst I'm speaking... "Please ignore and continue as normal to the rest of audience"

I do business with Indians and they freely admit Brits were best thing that ever happened, you have to remember that the British empire didn't rape and loot like a maturing army on rampage. It organised and put structures in place. You have to step out of the rhetoric and look at facts. The demarcation lines after ww1 were wrong but an attempt to stop the sectarian butchery which existed and has now resumed now that the strongmen dictators have been disposed in the name of democracy. Albeit not empire but a good example of brutality erupting after decades is former Yugoslavia under Tito.

Total bollocks. British empire died generations ago and on the whole we left countries in better shape than we found them - ask the Indians for example. At end of ww2 we had no empire but debt that would choke a horse, we've struggled through ever since.

The Eastern Europeans do it because the Brits can have an easier lifestyle relying on the welfare state - that is wrong. As is demonising young people who will leave their homes and families to do hard work in poor conditions for low wages.

Haven't read all posts but this is very astute comment. The left bangs on about poverty in UK but our standard of living is exceptionally high - even for people on welfare. True poverty is when you see people looking through the sewers for sweetcorn and other stuff to eat, gathering up as much plastic as they can carry to earn handful of coppers to feed their family. The modern western welfare state is unsustainable and remember it should be a safety net to roof and feed a family, it's not a lifestyle choice. Re NHS funding; beyond the media hype again there is consensus that it is more than adequately funded but that there is far too much waste mainly due to middle management. Get it running efficiently and there's plenty room to save money and maintain services. .. And if Tories are such nasty b*stards why are we still borrowing something in region £8 billion per month more than we're taking in tax receipts. Do people not realise we absolutely must balance books as our debt and interest payments are getting out of control.

While not strictly related to thread but similar theme... Given strength of pound recently and after poor service from a UK machinery dealer I thought I'd see what price I could source spare parts for some of my machines from dealers in Europe. End result was I received twice the number of parts for two thirds the price and service was excellent. I like to support local dealers as much I can, however when UK dealer is 3 times the price for same parts then no thanks... and if parts are three times the price then how much is a new machine from same source??

Whilst the SNP have secured tremendous result regarding number of seat (95%) it's worth bearing in mind they did this with only 50% of the vote. 50% is obviously a good result for a political party but is it enough of an improvement to win a referendum? Given amount of tactical voting in support of SNP I think not. For both Tories and SNP it's all to play for now and I'd suggest Tories have slight edge if they keep the head and think strategically on how best to manage situation going forward. - boundary reform to level playing field can affect SNP as much as labour - can SNP maintain momentum now they're bigger party, 56 young Westminster MPs to manage for a start - full fiscal powers to Edinburgh should weaken the SNP as they can longer keep blaming Westminster and will have to take full responsibility for all revenue/expenditure. Incidentally SNP received just over 3 times amount of votes compared to Tories but have 56 seats to Tories 1, given UKIP/greens/libdems situation across UK it does show how unfair the fptp system can be. - Fantastic to see Balls, Cable and Davey out. Some of the other libdem losses such as Kennedy and Alexander perhaps to be regretted a little as they seemed decent individuals and to be good constituency MPs

Stubborn wee buggers! Thanks for sharing, never knew that.

FWIW Safety Steve dropped me a PM explaining his rationale and why he has such a strong approach. Made sense and he also gave me some excellent practical advice... So another case of forum posts in black and white losing nuance

Where do they go when you start cutting and lowering, are they still inside?

Yes, took out the old ISP kit and fitted new levers where the ramp etc programming is integrated into levers. Was working it this afternoon and took out 6 loads, quite a long extraction too.

Do bats not vacate when a saw starts vibrating up through tree? Time you mouth and toe it that's a lot of of disturbance.

How much noisier are they after the modification?

The fact that the FC who, over the last 5 decades or so, have proven themselves to be criminally incompetent with regard to managing the nation's forest estate get to judge what others do with their woods is one of life's ironies. That said the individuals I've dealt with so far up here have been very helpful with FLA's I've submitted. When you submit an fla you should get acknowledgment email few days later which contains following info: "We will publish details of your application to fell trees (except for thinning only applications) on our Public Register for a period of four weeks. We will also consult with other relevant organisations during this period. Under the provisions of the Forestry Act 1967 we must make a decision about your application within 3 months, although we may seek your agreement to extend this timescale if processing takes longer than expected (e.g. due to issues that may be raised during the consultation period)." Have you been given a reason why your fla hasn't been processed? And I agree they won't have been just passing, someone's reported you

I've been reading this thread with interest as want to learn more about rams as they're pretty new to me. Unfortunately I've not really learned much. Steve, I think you mean well and something may be getting lost in forum format but I suggest you look at how you're coming over. Trading all over the world I've never came across an attitude like that, not even supermarket buyers communicate in that tone. Shame too as possibly you're the person who really could've added something to this thread.

Purpleheart perhaps?

Fantastic work as is the diver on the other thread

Keep hearing about cuts but nothing about improving efficiency, all parties are in agreement that current levels of spending are unsustainable so instead of chief copper coming away with crap like that I'd rather see his solution. He gets paid enough after all. Incidentally the pub near me recently had small fire in one of the rooms, 5 fire engines plus 3 police cars attended so no shortage of manpower there. Two of the fire engines stayed on site with engines ticking over for 5 hours after fire extinguished, I asked mate in fire service why engines kept running and he said they're not allowed to switch them off in case they need to use the pumps at short notice.

Ok thanks for info Joy. Could you put plywood sheets over bottom layer to try level the playing field so could double up both sides to 44 in total? Obviously cost in sheets

Courtesy of forestmachineoperatorsjobs Facebook page, there's always loads of good pics/videos on it Digger goes climbing

I buy standing timber, I wouldn't pay for scattered windblown timber as it's simply too much hassle and the economics don't add up.

Yes plenty oil, as above I'll investigate over weekend

It's same bar and chain, just changed from 7 to 8 tooth sprocket. Bar never used to get hot, now it's almost (but not quite) too hot to touch which can't be right. I might have look at clutch/sprocket tomorrow to see if something's catching and generating friction

Fair enough, bags are not really my thing. Re the 33 on lorry would that be two row of 11 side by side then one sitting on top and do you run out of space before weight? I'm guesstimating here but would think a curtain sider should be able to run with about 28/29 ton