pycoed

Lots about box graders in the states. It seems to be the first implement the Yanks buy with their small tractors. Have a look through the "Yesterdays Tractors" site & also "TractorbyNet".

Dunsley Highlander 7 here (no boiler - have a Trianco gravity feed for that). Very happy with it, can keep it in all night if needed (very rare 'cos of Trianco) just on wood. Have only ever run wood in it, but it saves us 2 tons of anthracite a year, which is around £480, so it paid for itself in a year basically!.

They're only publicly owned because the monarchy that originally owned them transferred them to the state ("Crown Estate") & undertook to take a percentage of the income as their income i.e. the "Civil List". Th annual value of the Crown Estate is many times larger than the Civil List & now "we" even expect them to pay tax on that They are paying tax to the crown on income generated from the crown estate! Now if you want to argue that the Civil List covers too many "royals" then I'd agree, but the Civil List is outstanding value for money for the taxpayer. Elect a president & we'd get Clinton/Mugabwe/Saddam/Stalin/Chavez/De Rompuoy or even bloody Kennedy who nearly got us World War III in the early 60's. Give me good old Lizzie Windsor any day.

How about using two electricity poles for the main beams. Mill up some nice timber for the deck & clad the visible sides of the poles too perhaps? That'll be fine for foot traffic, perhaps even a lawn tractor.

Having looked at the website, I wonder if there's anything this guy couldn't recover? About the most impressive I've seen!!

Don't know an answer to this one Billy, even my cockers with docked tails get cut at this time of the year. Will be better as the frosts start properly. Shows what the anti docking lobby knows about working dogs though, Eff All! I've even had terrier's tails cut from thorn & bramble, especially next to the sea when the wind & salt keeps the growth so short.

Eddy, Just seen this thread & your problems with D2 steel bar. I've read that many American gunsmiths, when making sporters out of military rifles, often have to work on seriously hardened Mauser actions. A trick they use is to mark carefully the position the hole is needed & then run a plain piece of what they call "drill rod" ("silver steel" in UK) in the milling machine chuck at high speed. This is used to "drill" the hardened steel until it runs to full red heat, but before welding occurs! The result is a localised softer spot in the hardening which can then be drilled in the normal fashion. May be worth a try, since it's very easy to do?

Mix the stuff on site, it's only a day's work for two of you. In the summer I did our yard, mixing about 27 tons all in. Labour force was my wife & daughter. I am 63, my wife 61 my daughter is an arty farty type, not used to work at all! We easily did slabs of that size in one day. Get the all-in delivered in bags ( 1 bag = 0.5 cu.m. approx 850Kg ). To get them to site, weld some rings onto your loader about half way back along the arms & use shackles to connect two bag loops to each, then your 4000 should be able to lift the bags fine. My loader wouldn't lift a bag at full length - I have an UTB445 which is about the same size, & modified with rings it handled them fine up a VERY steep slope. I used the loader & transit box to shift the bags of cement. Build a base of 2 or 3 pallets to lower the all-in bags onto, so you are always shovelling down into the mixer. I had planned to use my old diesel site mixer but sods law prevailed: after being treated to new filters & an oil change, plus new nipples & a good greasing all round, the b*gger seized the engine on the second banker! Plan B was to use my cheapo Machine Mart "contractors" electric mixer, which will only just mix a single barrowful at a time if you are careful. Anyway we did the lot with that. Use a strong mix 1 cement to 4 all-in. In hindsight, thank God for the girl-size 25Kg cement bags these days

You lucky so and so! How satisfying is THAT eh? Makes up for the scum having free parking for a few days in the Royal Gwent Hospital staff car park.

Buggers just can't be bothered her. Last year had steel RSJ's stolen from my yard opposite neighbour's house. Caught the white LWB transit & got past it in the lane, accused the two scum, & told them to replace the stuff & police were on their way.They started back down the road & then accelerated away from me. My neighbour had followed up the road & they barged his car into the ditch & got away. Just a scrape on his car luckily. We gave the police a full description of the blokes, reg. no. of the van & pictures of the shed stanchions they had stolen. Also details of another attempted robbery by the same blokes that morning less than a mile down the road: owner willing to give statement. 10 days later I got a crime number & a form letter stating no action could be taken. Wrote a formal complaint to chief constable & ended up wasting a whole afternoon whilst a barely literate PC took, & typed, statements from me & the neighbour which I could have done in 15 minutes. End result: same story as before - no action could be taken. They just can't be bothered to police the Caravan Utilising Nomadic Travellers, but try using a mobile phone whilst stopped in a layby & they'll jump on you.

"Dock that Chink a day's pay for nappin on the job!" (Blazing Saddles) Horatio: How long have you employed staff? You don't seem to realise that, whilst they are just working for you, you are working for YOURSELF! It's as simple as that. There is a world of difference in the two. As their employer, you need to explain clearly & simply what is expected of them each day, & then let them do it. That's part of YOUR job. I wouldn't mention running back from the chipper if I were you, unless you like branches shoved where the sun don't shine, though. If they don't measure up, then tell them why & if still not then part company -simples.

+1 Been amazed how good mine is.

By OK I mean it looks OK! No holes visible, that is. I don't intend using the boiler again - I did have it connected to the coal central heating system, but when I moved the main boiler (Trianco) to a boilerhouse, I decided re-connecting it wasn't worth the hassle for the minuscule amount of hot water it delivered.

What ever you do, do not cap the boiler connections I've been running an old Rayburn with the back boiler disconnected for a couple of years (wood only ) & it seems to be holding up OK. I used to work with a bloke that fitted a Parkray, filled the back boiler with dry sand & capped the fittings. It blew up, caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to his house, wrote off his car, which was outside the window, & burnt him so badly he was in Chepstow (the burns unit then) for months & never worked again. Also broke his sternum, shoulder , skull, both cheek bones & his jaw. Steam explosions are seriously bad news. What ever you do, do not cap the boiler connections

Best news for the water vole is the growth in the otter population. Otters don't seem to tolerate mink on their patch & there's only one winner there! Shoot & trap mink whenever the local fishermen report a sighting (not too often now otters back on Loughor).

Hmmm... that's what they invented the .410 cartridge for, if you ask me!

If you are prepared to change the way you do things & learn how to use a computer differently (i.e moving to Mac) , keep your existing laptop, buy a solid state disk to replace the hard disk & install Ubuntu Linux. Total cost £40 - 240 depending on size of solid state disk bought. You will be amazed at the speed & responsiveness compared to Windows on the same machine. PS A few years ago I had a Mac Book Air for work, & when I brought it home my son looked at it & said "I never knew you were gay" I couldn't take to the Mac at all, though several times better than Microsoft's crap.

Thanks for withdrawal of the cretin remark, for which I also apologise! I stress again I have no financial motivation in this issue (other than being a taxpayer of course!) This whole TB issue is a classic case of a stitch in time saves nine. About twenty years ago now, we rented a farm holiday cottage in Devon the owner of which was a vet employed (probably min. of ag. in those days) on TB testing across the west country. I remember him telling me that it was starting to get really serious down there & it wouldn't be long before it got out of hand. If only the ministry had done something about it then, it would never have got to this stage, when a law designed to convict a tiny minority of badger baiting yobboes, has resulted in serious problems for countless stock farmers right up the west side of the country & farther afield. FWIW I don't think this cull will achieve a great deal ( there are those who think it is designed to fail, but even I am not that cynical...), simply because the statistical, geographic & especially the epidemiological groundwork has not been done. <SIGH> Where can we find a politician with both balls & brains eh?

Do you really believe that TB passes only the one way? How do you explain closed herds, of which I am personally aware of several, that have suffered TB outbreaks in badger hotspots? (Since you appear to know little of agriculture, a "closed herd" is one in which no cattle are bought in, all replacements are reared on farm & the only cattle transports are surplus stock OUT from the farm) The vaccine is for the BADGER, you cretin, that is what the govt. preferred "solution" is in Wales. The vaccine in cattle is similarly little more effective, but at least in the cattle situation there is a known & registered population, reactors are culled (at great cost to the country), & the remaining population of cattle are thereby somewhat protected. None of that is the case in the badger population. Yes it was a long, industrious ( & lucrative) career. Do you understand a little more now?

It's all within a casing, the only leak I've had was all over the truck bed 'cos the muppet at Machine Mart hadn't tightened the reservoir cap! (I got the last one they had left which had been on display).

Of course there's an easy answer to it: just remove the ridiculous unnecessary legal protection the badger! The truth is there are far too many badgers & that's why TB is such a problem in them. Same as any other overpopulated animal system. Removing their protected status would allow the numbers to revert to where they were 30 years ago to the benefit of both farmer AND badger. Cost to the taxpayer? ZERO. Those farmers with clean sets near them would ensure they are protected whereas the infected sets could be gassed/ shot whatever. NB vaccine has to be repeated every year, works at best 58% of the time, doesn't prevent TB carriers continuing to infect all they come across & is very expensive both to procure & administer. Not sure the cull as proposed will work, but anything that reduces their numbers is worth a try. First thing that govt. should have done is identify as far as possible every badger set in the cull area & test the dung pits for TB presence. If present, then gas the whole set. If not then leave them well alone - don't shoot a single one. BTW I do not farm for a living, but spent most of my working life problem solving, & am contemptuous of government advisers & bunny huggers alike, to the point of exasperation.

Hmmm, some people are easily pleased: I've always want to be a Guinness taster & brassiere fitter myself

I've used that Clarke one for a couple of years now with no problems. I bought it on a VAT free offer, too. The cross splitter is only useful for short, straight grained stuff, there's not enough oomph if there's any cross grain stuff, but if you stick to the standard single wedge it's pretty good IMHO. I also bought a Titan electric chainsaw from Screwfix on a daily offer (£50-60 IIRC) & despite my scepticism that has been a revelation - it's really good. Reason I've gone electric back at base is, of course, SOLAR PANELS! Why pay the chancellor to buy petrol & oil when I can get paid for using my own electricity?

Stuff Michael Clarke! Making a game of it indeed!: he was trying to win for Australia & when it all went tits up he started whining to the umpires. Typical whingeing Aussie "sportsman".

Update from earlier posts: Spoke to son & decided to go for new carb. Whilst waiting for this I compared the spark with an old ( Echo? ) strimmer & the spark was weaker on the Stihl. Dug out my old Danarm with a Kawasaki engine (bought new in 1979 & still works OK) & the Stihl spark was much weaker than that old banger. Hmmm, removed ring terminal & found enough slack in the plug lead to JUST manage to get a proper plug cap fitted. Spark now stronger, carb arrived, fitted & Bingo, starts first pull. Job's a good 'un - well - for son anyway. Me? I'm just perplexed because I STILL can't find anything wrong with the old carb... maybe I'll look for an old FS200 or MS181/018/017 just to see! Many thanks for the info down the line.