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Hi Mark. Is there perhaps something obstructing the clear ejection of sawdust , so that it starts to build up a layer under the bar, pushing the cut upwards? I get this occuring sometimes on the lucas slabber if I'm pushing too fast and not giving it time to clear the dust/ chips. Normally feel an increase in resistance though to let me know somethings not right. Glad to hear you're getting back to working.

All the holes will be a safe harbour for insects at least.

After milling fencing stakes for one particular farmer, I was astounded when he announced he was more delighted with the heap of sawdust than the fence stakes. Said that used in the cow sheds it didn't block up his slurry system like straw does. One good thing about the Lucas mill is it do make a lot of coarse sawdust.

Could be coral spot? Or maybe someones attacked it with a shark implement ? Oh no, here we go again !

To Nathan who's probably wondering what the hell's happening here, the simplest most innocent of spelling mistakes can lead to some of the most spectacularly glorious threads . If you need to know put in 'codwood' into the search box for pages and pages of piscal entertainment. Pure magic !

Now there's the real important issue. My heart sinks when a client tells me he's skidded the logs to a convenient worksite. As a sawmiller the last thing you want to see is logs plastered with mud, with stones and gravel packed into all the crotches, crevices and branch joints. I know its going to be a slow day trying to scrape and brush the worst of the shite off, and expensive in damaged blades. If you need to skid, keep one end as high as possible, so the log drags only on the heel end, which can be cut off at the landing site. Come on keep 'em clean guys. Shaun

The guy in the video is an irish farmer, vid is actually produced by teagasc, the irish farm advisory service. Unfortunately regarding trees in the landscape and on private ground, Ireland lags way behind the standards in the UK. Its not uncommon to see roadside trees smashed to f##k by diggers. I've even recently witnessed 2 council workers stood in a jcb bucket smashing off low branches with spades in Cork city ! The attitude is still one of "sure why should I be paying that amount to a tree company, when my brother will do it for a quarter of the price, and we'll have a days fun doing it ". This is really common place, though attitudes are starting to change a little, helped by vids like this one. However at the moment landowners are far more concerned of being taken to court for litigation reasons arising from risk of roadside trees failing, than of personal risk to themselves by poor practice.

A whole catalogue of cause and effects in there, but health and tiredness must be one of the more important ones. We're conditioned now to accept the 'tiredness kills' motto when driving on the roads but refuse to consider its impact at work. Always a case of 'I'll take a break at the next tree, or tank of fuel,whatever. ' Last week I opened up the outer layer of pants across the knee for that very same reason. Once it occurred I knew it was tiredness caused, but had to finish the job. Forced myself to slow down, pay more attention to risks and be more aware. It happens to us all and we're not indestructible. Luckily the guy in the vid is able to recount clearly what his mistakes were. Take care, take time.

Corr, heroic effort there Peter, I expect you to get a few job offers from guys looking for groundys with determination and stamina.

I think I really was born stupid for the number of filler cap failures I've had. I just fail to grasp the simple mantra of , cap comes off- cap goes back on. I can repeat it to myself a dozen times and at least once a month I'll see the shimmering trail with accompanying wet leg. .....Oooh eerrr mrs before anyone else says it. It never seems to happen with the combi can, only the saws.I consider myself an intelligent man but something about doing the caps up just doesn't register. I think gnomes are tw#ts too. Good for marking the drop zone.

Nice wood in my eyes [emoji4]

Stains and shake have beauty too. All depends on how you market it to customer. Norhing is ever lost. - the more I read the first line, the more I suspect I'll regret not being able to be find better words !

Obvious really, - the ton of lead , as there'll be 30 pikeys hanging off it by the time you get to the weighbridge. [emoji12]

Some trucks look mean, some look cool, some look purposefull and that one looks like it was dreamt up by a committee of social workers and librarians. The only time it could look good would be when it rocked up to the circus site with Nelly the elephant stood in the back and Biffo the clown driving. I don't think I like it !

Another monster macrocarpa . A big ugly bugger, 18' long and a full 6' at the butt. Needed to block up the frames to get high enough to strip off the top levels, but as this had all the large branch sites, I could whack them off in large lumps of waste to get into the premium wood quickly. Soon got sick of onto the ladder to flip the blade then step across onto platform, then up onto the log to cut, repeated for every cut ! 9x6" x 18' is a bloody heavy lump for 2 people to handle especially in todays 28° heat and with a recently fused ankle that I'm still learning to walk on.

Aren't the .404 and 3/8 both .063 guage so shouldn't 'slap' but less drive link depth may reduce the oiling efficiency, or am I mistaken. Should be an expert along shortly. Shaun

At moment mine still has a stable water level, but expecting it to be dropping any moment, the small mountain river keeping it topped up is drying, and the bogs that drain into it are also starting to dry. Worrying part currently is the river is our only water source both for our house and the farm. If pond dries will make it easy to pull out the invader though. [emoji848]

Thanks ( ! ) for finding the second article. I'd already depressed myself reading the first one. I think I'll just go and spray the shit out of my habitat and then dangle from a gibbett in front of the media ,as a warning to all others. Otherwise its back on with the waders for several more years till I've got every tiny bit pulled. We're a bit short of muskrats and some of the other moths etc here. Haven't I done enough damage?

It looks pretty dramatic if you catch one of those city underground telecom trunk lines. I was astounded when the engineer glued and stitched it all back together in a couple of hours, back in the mid 1990s when even farting near a service wasn't a hanging and profit making operation. [emoji12]

Born Rochdale, all schooling Macclesfield Cheshire.

It seems I've been misled, when talking with a local, self taught "environmentalist". When she first told me it was Frogbit, sure didn't I just accept it for the truth of her knowledge. But as I researched today about control in the USA , things in the desciption didn't seem right. Like flower colour for a simple and obvious start. Anyway 5 minutes with the observers book of plants and internet confirmation , and its fringed water lily I have. A known invasive in ireland, though surprisingly native and little threat in UK. I am still presented with a difficult task to eradicate now, whilst also not allowing any fragments to escape into other watercourses. Also teaches me not to accept everything I'm told unless by a qualified expert. - Should have been dealing with this 4 years ago. Bugger !

The european frogbit plant is considered as offensive to maby American states as knotweed is within the UK. Not every state blacklists it, so maybe there's something either climatic or geographic about it. Certainly its quite a coloniser of standing water here in Ireland. The place where I harvested mine from, later drained the ponds and sent in a team to spray plants and manually drag root material. Several years later it's returned as if nothing at all had disturbed it.

I think I've done enough damage relocating just one organism, I like the sound of a holiday somewhere exotic though.

Made a big environmental mistake a few years ago. Cleared a completely overgrown mountain pond on our farm. Hidden by sprawling willow scrub, didn't even know it was there. Worked on land drains to bring a flow of water all year round, created differing habitats around edges with planting and various water heights and marsh areas. All going well so far, newts, frogs, dragon and damsel flies, even wild brown trout moved in. Then my big mistake. Seeing waterlily type plant on a parkland pond, lifted a few rooted sections and set them in my pond. The culprit......- Frogbit weed. The bloody stuff took off like billy o , and kept on spreading, covering the whole 150m area pond in 2 years. Now each year ,waders on and pull as much as I can get out, but the pond bottom is laced with spaghetti lengths of roots that resprout in days. This year I'm trialing cutting the leaves beliw water with a sickle to see if I can starve it out, on half the pond, whilst pulling by hand the rest. I don't wish to use any chemical, being mostly organic . Any bright ideas out there ?

Yep , turtle's got my vote too[emoji106]