Billhook

Second that. Wonderful song wonderful woman. Also Johnny Cash strikes a chord with me some Sundays! [ame] [/ame]

Pink Floyd On the Turning Away live in Venice [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FStB5_yT9o4[/ame] More powerful original video [ame] [/ame]

Police phone (someone was in trouble for that!) Cowley level (Very useful) A complete cigarette machine ripped off a wall minus cigarettes and money!

Save the cost of the electric splitter, save the cost of the gym membership, save on electricity and save the planet! It is a lot quicker too. [ame] [/ame]

Pole saws is racist too!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLQJVKP3YlM[/ame]

I find that there are many 4x4 drivers who will not pull off a narrow lane or even slow down when I am on my bike. I make a mental note of their numbers for when we next meet on the lane and I am in the Fastrac. Talking of which a man in the village rang for some help after the septic tank lorry had become stuck on wet grassland. He was a six wheeler and full of shite, but facing downhill and not that badly stuck. No real problem , I thought, big chain and steady pull. I did think that the driver looked very young but then again you do think that when you are as old as me. Signalled the start of the pull and all four wheels of the Fastrac turned with no forward motion at all. Tried again same thing. Went round to driver "Were you in gear?" Reply " I didn't think you needed me to drive as well I thought you were just going to pull me out" This was referring to at least a three hundred yard pull out of the field, some of it uphill. Of course when he drove the lorry it came out with no problem. Bloke came to sell me something driving a Ford Expedition truck. Bloody great thing with Expedition written in big letters across the back. We went off to look at something in the middle of a grass field that was only slightly wet and eventually wheels started to spin until we came to a halt. Engage difflock I suggest but he insists the bloke who sold it to him a couple of years ago said it was all computer controlled and automatic. I got out and walked round the truck and sure enough the rear wheels were spinning and nothing happening at the front. I asked him to turn the front wheels into full lock to see if he had broken a drive shaft but soon discovered the problem,,,,,,,, there were no drive shafts as the thing was 2 wheel drive. He had been driving it for two years and not known! What expedition the manufacturers had in mind I am not sure. They walk amongst us!

Thanks for that, and good tips about the tape and starting 3mm lower. No trouble with the oiling then?

I have not used my slabber yet. What are the secrets of gaining a good result. I know one man who put an extra oiler on the other end. And have you been tempted with a planer or sander attachment?

I'll second that! Once managed to plank a twenty foot long forty inch diameter beech with my eight inch Lucas. Down in the wood as well as the forklift could not lift it. Really the bigger the better as you spend less time setting up.

So nobody can show me how to split wood with an axe! I had been splitting wood for the farm house since my father showed me how to do it when I was about ten half a century ago. Of course using grandfather's old Elwell axe and a log block in the traditional way. Since coming on to the Arbtalk site I have learned the car tyre trick together with a Fiskars X27 and my log splitting is now a joy. Old (log) dog, new tricks! And thank you Arbtalk.

I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars! [ame] [/ame]

A lot of these are the equivalent of cutting off the branch you are sitting on. [ame] [/ame]

Pick a good auctioneer, advertise it well, pick a good day and watch people bid mad prices.

Looks a bit big for a swan.

I let some grassland to some young brothers who work all hours and do a great job with their sheep. Here in the East Midlands we feel a lot less remote than a lot of sheep areas but last year the boys were horrified to find that someone had been into the field at night ( I live 300 yards away) and all there was to show was the fleece, skin and entrails with a couple of foetuses. Anyone who knows about sheep will appreciate the difficulty of performing an operation like this at night and the fact that the meat will not be worth eating due to age and stress. They walk amongst us.

Toe caps will not help you if Forest2furniture puts up one of these! [ame] [/ame]

Always preferred Ugly Kid Joe's version but very similar [ame] [/ame]

There is a lot of healing power in all these good wishes and I hope you can draw on it to make a swift recovery.

The YouTube section on log splitters has many car wheel driven cone splitters which look unsafe but to see the French guy stepping over the pro shaft gave me a bad feeling in my stomach! The links above show some dingbats. They walk amongst us!

The LogRite looks useful, I was just wondering if I could adapt my Arbtrolley to do something similar as I already have a pair of Stihl tongs. Here is a video of a hydraulic wedge in action [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQG9GQckqiQ[/ame]

Not so much now as they tend to become caught up in the long dresses!

There is a level of lawlessness around where plod are not really interested. We have had timber nicked all over the farm, even rotten pine logs which have been put across field gateways to stop people driving all over the place to test their 4x4s or go lamping. Someone picking our daffodils told me to naff off as he was picking them for his sick wife in hospital. I was looking forward to harvesting our crop of Early Windsor Apples last Autumn and there were six trees with about 50 gorgeous apples waiting to be picked in our garden. (behind a hedge!) I decided to leave them until my wife and I returned from a weekend break and every single one had gone. Our workshop was burgled and £6000 worth of tools was taken. Plod did come and half heartedly tried to find some fingerprints but the only advice was "Well you're insured aren't you?" The only good result was from a six ton flat roll I bought from a local dealer. I asked him to bring it round on his flatbed but in the end I had to tow it as his 6 ton capacity forklift would not lift it onto the lorry. I parked it in the field but when I went back to use it a month later it wasn't there! Looked a bit further and it was about 50 yards away in the hedge and there were a couple of twin wheel transit type wheelmarks running away from it. Obviously they had tried to load it onto an Ivor Williams type trailer and it had all become a bit too much for them. I should think the front wheels of the Transit came off the ground! (Wish I had a video of it!) The roll is 90% concrete anyway so not worth nicking for the metal. I found a glove under the roll and very cautiously shook it in case any fingers might drop out!

Must be interesting to move around at 17 tons and 11 mph. Does not say what weight it will lift with the grapple.

I milled some 7x1" Ash planks from similar logs nearly twenty years ago with my Lucas Mill. Planed them up and they still look good as a wooden suspended floor in an old garage I converted into a living room 18 feet x 24 feet. The floor is very hard wearing and does not show stiletto heel marks! I use straight logs for anything from repairs to one ton boxes to making 3"x 8" eight foot wide beams to go on the front of my grain pusher. This is much gentler than the steel equivalent on the floor of the grain store and on the walls when I misjudge my turns!