Billhook

That incident seemed to be the beginning of a culture of people who were in prominent and highly paid positions, refusing to resign when they have done something wrong. It seems to be a joke now but at the time much damage could have been averted if people had battened the hatches. I remember hearing the woman calling in live saying that her sister was living in Brittany and she was in the middle of a hurricane which seemed to be heading North.

I was thinking that 86" boards meant that it must have been one helluva tree!

I am not sure what to think on the subject based on what happened to the council houses in our own small village. There are six attached houses and the inner two bought their properties when they were given the opportunity first time round The new owners were very pleased and proud of their new homes and suddenly the gardens had a makeover and double glazing went in and they rather stood out against the others. This was at a time when it was hard to start on the housing ladder (when is it ever easy?) As time went on the residents of the other properties seemed to find ways of increasing their benefits. Usual story of limping around town with a zimmerframe but playing football with the kids at home. The motability brand new cars then started to stand out a bit against the tired looking vehicles of the owner occupiers. The latest thing is that the council decided it had too much money at the year end so they opted to re roof all the council houses, which were perfectly good concrete pan tiles which would have lasted another century. The whole lot looks a picture now with four properties with stark new tiles and two without. It must have cost a fortune with full scaffolding and two teams of builders there for ages. But all this is lost somewhere in the massive council tax bill that we have to find each year.

You can please the fools some of the time, but you can't fool the pleasers in the Summertime

That was very simple Gnome. It should appeal to simple people.

But these bastards are not necessarily Conservative voters. A lot of the very rich were backing the last Labour government all brown nosing (or should that be Brown nosing!) Tony Blair who seems to me to be the epitome of disgrace in all departments. He made a fortune, which he is now trying to cover up, on a lot of dodgy deals involving untraceable money movements to off shore far off places. Ambassador to the Far East, there is a joke. And to crown it all he is paid vast sums for telling people it was " The right thing to do" Now he is backing Miliband 100%. As good a reason as any for not voting for Miliband. He has the cheek to say that the British public are not capable of making the right decision in a referendum on Europe. He may be right about that as some wag wrote to one of the papers " Well the British public really cannot be trusted to make the right decision, after all they elected Tony Blair three times in a row!"

If you build a machine like the one in the video, you are still going to have to pick up the split/cut timber and put it in the furnace. Would you not be better investing in a second hand processor like a Palax Combi with a circular saw and conveyor which you could arrange to feed the boiler perhaps with the whole processor mounted on a sliding track. You could open the furnace doors and slide the whole thing forward so the conveyor feeds the oven. I would not bother splitting it, just cut up to 12" diameter 2' 6" foot logs. Then invest in a decent roller table(or build one) to present the five foot logs easily to the processor. Use your mini digger only for loading the roller table and the initial stacking. I find that with my trusty old Palax 600 combi which I bought from Jas Wilson in 1996 for £2500 I can process a large amount of timber in a short time and load it as long as it is presented to the processor constantly. Apart from blade sharpening I have never had a problem with it in nearly 20 years. It was pto but I fitted a 3 phase motor which was really easy as all the pulleys were already there, so now I can use either electric or pto. The electric motor makes it quiet and slightly safer to turn on and off.

Much the best idea is to buy a trail camera like this one or a Bushnell. [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bushnell-Trophy-Night-Vision-119436/dp/B005OYFV06/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428553743&sr=8-2&keywords=bushnell+trail+camera]Bushnell Trophy Cam 8MP Night Vision #119436: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PPiqTqkJL.@@AMEPARAM@@41PPiqTqkJL[/ame] This one is £127 but much cheaper than legal fees as the garden waste conflict escalates! They work at night and have the time and date on the clips. You can have either still shots or short,(say 10 second) video shots. Great definition in colour by day and quite good range at night in black and white. The great thing is that they are so good for wildlife in your woods. You can check for all sorts of animals and birds and also woodsnatchers and tool shed raiders. My latest video is the best so far catching an otter with two young on our lake which I created at the Millenium.

I thought that you were going to say that he could not come in because of transport problems as "My girlfriend drives me mad!"

Thank you for the encouraging post, i will persevere this Autumn.

And of course Tony Blair was never interested in lining his pockets and Jack Straw was never going to charge any money (£5000 a day) for influencing an outcome.

I am in favour of compulsory turnout to the voting station as happens apparently in 22 countries. Compulsory voting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia You do not have to vote when you turn up and you can write something rude (spoil) the ballot slip, but at least you have turned up to respect all those who have died as you have pointed out Mark. My other issue with the system here is that there is a number on the back of my voting slip which links to a number on the recorder's slip. When I challenge them about this they always say that the ballots slips are locked away from the counterfoils and kept in a safe place but this is all only probably ok in a rural community like my one. I point out that I could come in last thing in the evening when they are about to close with half a dozen of my big strong logger friends and take away both the ballot boxes and the other papers and there are generally only two old ladies who are going to stop me Ah you say, in that case there would need to be another local voting session, but the point is I would now have information on how everyone voted and would be able to intimidate. Not many of you on this forum would be intimidated by me I must admit, but now think of an inner city where a religious extremist preacher may have a congregation of several thousand. He could wave his finger and threaten and tell them all that he can find out how they voted, so they had better do as he suggests or else. The postal voting system is abused and needs a complete overhaul as well.

I too have been wondering about a planer but they are too expensive for the amount of work I have in mind, so I was wondering about making a bracket which can be easily fixed and removed to the Lucas Mill carriage, which would hold an electric planer or even that evil looking planing disc that fits on an angle grinder. This grinder disc looks lethal freehand but perhaps useful when fixed to the Lucas. A sander could be fixed in the same way. The great thing about the Lucas Mill is that you end up with a finished board size in two quick passes. You can slab with a dedicated slabber but it seems a lot of slow faffing about for most jobs unless you are making huge table tops. [ame] [/ame] The Peterson video shows a similar planer. [ame] [/ame] I bought a 9" Cooksley planer thicknesser years ago and it works well for flooring just like this one cooksley planer | eBay but they need a lot of caution in use and one rule is not to stand in line behind them when feeding in.

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]