Billhook

Thanks David

Some Poplar managed to find its way into my Ash log box and having been stored in an open fronted shed for a couple of years developed this foam like fungus. The Ash is not affected. It is just as though someone has covered the wood with a thin layer of expanding foam, never seen it before, what is it?

Yeah, Leicester, Birmingham, Newcastle, big cities but Spalding Tulip bulb auction hall with tickets at £1.00!! In 1961 the population was only about 15,000 rising to 25,000 in 2001 to about 35,000 today. Compare that with the populations of those cities which were well over half a million a piece

Bet you’ve never been there!

At least most people have heard of Leicester and know where it is, I cannot say the same for Spalding, bet most. people would have to look it up on their phone!

Probably because it was drilled early and was established before the rains really came down and had its head above water especially over chalk hills. Cannot see any particular reason why it would make more money since there is so much of it Wheat and Barley however another matter and if this goes on the poor buggers trying to put their potatoes, Spring Beans and Barley, Beet and Veg in will be really suffering

With my farming hat on, I too have seen nothing like it in over fifty years of farming. Wheat fields decimated and hardly a Spring crop sown. My Miscanthus contractor has not cut even one acre anywhere and he covers a large area in the North. Pools of water, mud everywhere. Approaching Cuckoo barley territory now. Cannot go in the woods without making a filthy mess and even winching logs out from the roadways has the same result. At least managed to bring enough logs back to the yard to process under cover.

Just found this advertisement. Spalding is only 40 miles away but in those days that was a big deal . At the age of 13 parents were still very much in charge and the idea of letting your adolescent kid go to a hippy festival with many things to lead him astray was out of the question. Too far to bike with my knackered single speed cycle. I would be surprised if any of you lot made it. Stubby perhaps?? Just look at the line up, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Pink Floyd were way down the order!

Thanks for the replies The wood came from some large trees and had been seasoned for about three years so there was less resin but it was still quite heavy. Little bark and quite stringy on the outside of each log. I felt that this stringy layer burnt fiercely and may have coated the remaining log with a black ash which subdued the fire The air vents were fully open, normally half shut down for Ash and Sycamore once the fire is going I think it is good advice to mix it with the Ash and Sycamore

I know this topic has been on the forum several times but just wanted to share my experience and wondered if any of you had the same We took down some very large old trees with 20-30 inch diameter logs that we split into firewood before Covid (New date term. “BC” so 2018 BC!). So very dry and very stringy after splitting and a mountain of bits which are useful kindling. Been burning them on our Aarrow Stratford boiler. Normally we use Ash and Sycamore which both produce plenty of ash in the ash tray and both burn hot However we were surprised to find the Leylandii only produced about 3/4 of the heat of the others in spite of seeming to burn well initially. However after a period of time they became very blackened and I suspect that this coating slowed the burn. Amazingly there was no ash at all left after a whole day and night, with the Ash and Sycamore we usually fill a bucket I thought there would be enough resin in the wood to make it burn hotter but perhaps this had disappeared over time Anyone had a similar experience?

Too right (left). Cobber!

The main point as Peds will agree, and not about measles is that left handers are dominant in the right hemisphere of the brain , so left handers are the only ones in their right mind!

Blimey, is that the current price of wheat? I blame the Russians!

In a huge generalisation if you are in a crowd and shout out “Everyone here, follow me out the door “ most right handed people will just follow whereas a lot of left handers will say “hang on a minute why?” All through history as soon as armies were formed you needed conformity of weapons, bows and swords and shields had to be right handed and you could not have an ordered line of troops standing to attention with Peds and Billhook poking our neighbours eyes out with our weapons. Same goes for muskets and rifles all right handed. The way we write from left to right, the way pens are made And so left handed children were forced to be right handed which caused a lot of stammering which I do not hear these days in more violent times people were put to death or burnt at the stake for being witches. Even today half the world condemn the left hand to wipe the bum and not bring food to the mouth or shake another’s hand So we are where we are because of war I think What has all this to do with measles!!!

You leave us lefties out of it! when they studied flint tools they found it was nearly 50/50 left and right handed. Only when the Romans and other war like people started to call us sinister just because we would not obey orders or follow the crowd!