Peasgood

I wouldnt walk across!

Seriously? Of course they do, in collusion with the supermarkets too nowadays.

Go eat some cabbage then, you'd be doing me a favour. I'm selling cabbage today at the same price I was getting 20 years ago. How is that supposed to work?

When I was at school there was only one fat kid. She was the one that got bullied for being fat, poor girl. Her parents owned a sweet shop. I don't consider myself old, both parents still alive and kicking etc. In my lifetime there has been hunger from lack of food, that is what we did.

My advice is to get rid of it. Harsh I know but it is unlikely to ever be right in my experience. Yes you can manage it with various potions and blankets etc but that is just heaps more work and a full time battle.

It isn't a digression it is exactly why we are where we are. Not sure how regrettable it is never having had to do without. My view is that the biggest downside is that lack of hunger for something better. Why strive for more if what you have is pretty comfortable.

Resistance to Roundup is inevitable regardless of any deliberate genetic modifications. The range of chemical herbicides available to farmers is rapidly decreasing year on year. Roundup is extremely cheap, as food prices are pushed lower and lower farmers have little choice but to use the cheapest product available. This is human nature not a fault particular to farmers. Few alternatives and a low price for Roundup pushes its use more and more. With various weeds capable of producing vast amounts of seeds it doesn't take very much natural variation in there to happen upon a seedling that is resistant to Roundup. If that seedling manages to get as far as producing seeds of its own, of which a very low percentage are also resistant..... it does not take long to get to a point where Roundup is no use as a herbicide any more. It is probably this mechanism that will ultimately get rid of Roundup. It won't need to be banned as it won't serve its purpose anyway. Simazine went down a very similar route. Local authorities and railways etc used it in such vast amounts that it made its way into the water courses. It was this that got it withdrawn in the end (and of course the blame was given to farmers as usual). What rarely gets mentioned is that Groundsel amongst other weeds had already become resistant to it anyway.

The benefit system certainly seems to encourage folk to sit on their backsides but that is far from the whole story. The system itself discourages people from working. Why go out and find a couple of days work if the end result is you have less money than if you stayed in bed. I am a hard working bloke but I'm not so sure I wouldn't turn down the chance of staying in bed for the same money. Another very significant issue is that we as parents are turning out far too many kids that have no practical experience of anything. I employ seasonal workers and the natives that turn up in 80% of cases are just useless. They have no work in them, can't work using both hands at the same time, can not follow very simple instructions, are so slow it is unbelievable etc etc. I'm not talking about dole drawing wasters here, a lot of them are university students on summer break. They can't turn up on time, can't turn up at all a lot of the time, won't work in the rain, turn up for farm work on a wet day in flip flops, turn up with no lunch as they expect there to be a shop somewhere in the field, no drink on sweltering hot days, work in the full sun with no hat or shirt and then get sunstroke (even when repeatedly told to cover up). Arrive in cars newer than mine (I guess Daddy bought it)

My theory is simply that they are just not hungry enough. Food is far too cheap in this country. People happily pay more for bottled water than they pay for milk. Moan about the weekly food bill and then spend £500 on a mobile phone without batting an eyelid.

yes, that is exactly what I think the alternative is. Shouldn't need to be Eastern Europeans though, we have plenty of folk here already that aren't doing a right lot.

It isn't "my" system, it is "our" system. You included. You can not have the society we have here now without farming that includes chemical use. Some organic farming is fine for the few that want that lifestyle choice, because that is what it is. You can not have adequate low price food for the masses without using chemicals. You may argue that "low price" is not what is really required but there would have to be an enormous change in the whole of our society to change that. This isn't going to happen peacefully. Turn the news on, and see what they are talking about. The rise of Aldi and the fall of Tesco are front page news right now.

And not at current prices either. I am able to grow food, lots of it, without any chemicals. I would need to charge about 3 times as much as I do now though. I expect this goes for most farmers. The food industry in this country is based entirely on low cost food and still there are people saying they can't afford food.

You can.

It is quite possible that without Roundup there wouldn't be enough food to eat. Which is worse?

Yes I do believe they are that stupid. These are people that think it is OK to kill yourself in the belief there is glory in martyrdom and a load of virgins waiting on the other side. I very much expect that most of these terrorists are thickos enlisted and indoctrinated by the ones who are not quite so stupid as to go and do it themselves.

That's what I thought about the one I was stood on.

I wouldn't want to be standing on a pallet while using a sawbench. Fell straight through a pallet yesterday with no warning whatsoever.

I use an old Fergie sawbench and an old bale elevator I adapted for logs. Total cost about £600. You can not cut and load logs anywhere near this quick with a chainsaw. It handles anything up to 13" diameter and your fingers are safe enough IMO. Newer models are probably even more safe. Certainly more potential for an accident if using a chainsaw.

You say you are doing a big reduction by taking 10' off. How big are they then? I can show you lots of pics of anything up to 70' top off a 90' tree that survived and flourished. That is a big reduction 10' off a 15' tree is a big reduction I guess. They will be fine

Worst case scenario is that they might survive.

And what do you want it to do? Take the chill off a modest, well insulated modern house or be the sole heat source in a 12 bed mansion?

This is mine. Stove is a biscuit tin with the fire in it, coffee pot on top. I've got a Kelly as well but prefer this. If I did summat different it would be a billy can that stores inside the stove. You say such and such a stove is quicker, this takes just long enough to give me time to sort my cup out

I've got snow tyres on the back of mine, that made a big difference. I'm using mine to cart my apples to the farmyard from the orchards, over 20 tons so far and hasn't spun the wheels once yet, never mind get stuck. Usually towing an Ifor Williams trailer too.

I have had a few Cabstars over the last 20 years or so. One thing about them is they are particularly crap on anything slippy. I do have to point out that I am a farmer and expect to go down the fields in them, not really what they were designed for. I have not had one with an LSD but often wondered if the diff out of a Terrano would be a good idea. Do the newer models come with an LSD option then?