Billhook

It is a bit of a difficult one in these days of litigation and compensation. If you found a lovely tree in a quiet wood and you did not damage anything or peer into anyone's bedroom window, then I cannot see any person complaining if it was just a one off. (Even with ropes) If you start to use the same tree regularly with a group of friends that is probably different. It might seem sensible to ask the woodland owner for permission, but it opens up a whole new problem because now the owner has knowledge of the activity there are liability and insurance implications.

Thanks for the replies. A clean cut is unnecessary for the firewood, and speed is preferable. I would understand multitooth blades being used on joinery quality crosscut timber. I just assumed that the Palax came out with the 100 plus tooth blade as a good compromise, but perhaps it is because it mainly deals with pine in the Scandinavian Forests. The fifty tooth blade is stunningly more effective on the ash and it does not grab at all I suppose that it a case of suck it and see but that experiment can be quite expensive!

My trusty old Palax Combi came with a 700mm blade with about 110 teeth. Been using it for about fifteen years with hardly a problem cutting mainly ash up to a foot in diameter. The blade was due for a sharpen I thought, but an old friend who was a woodworker all his life thought that the blade was not in need of a sharpen, just a cleanup of residue. I took it off to clean it in the workshop and replaced it with another brand new blade I bought some time ago but this one only had fifty odd teeth. This blade went through the Ash like a knife through butter. Far quicker than the old blade even when freshly sharpened. How do you go about selecting the correct blade for the job in terms of number of teeth for mainly Ash and Beech, and what blade would you change to if you were cutting Poplar or Pine?

Army Cadet suffers burns in blowtorch attack after selling poppies - Telegraph

I came to the end of my energy contracts with Eon and British gas for the house. Suddenly because I had not renegotiated a new contract I found that the electric was over 20p/unit and the gas was 9p/therm. Spent the morning on the phone, takes ages and can be stressful but the result was Eon took on my electric and gas combined. Electric at 11p and gas 3.5p. Do I feel guilty about haggling? Not me.

Perhaps lat a few concrete blocks under each end and then the polythene to give the water a chance to clear. I made a platform in 2000 and the lengths of whole tree poplar were laid on four massive stones. Before I set the poplar down we slipped some polythene roofing felt where it touched the stones. It shows no sign of rot but a length we did not use which has been sitting on the ground has now completely rotted away.

Mmmmmm, two years later and it is looking better than ever! I feel that I need something to break down the waxy layer so that systemic herbicides can work. Wetters we use on the farm are more for sticking the chemical to the plant so I was wondering if I mix some washing up liquid with the roundup it may break through. Anyone tried it?

I have ivy all over two outbuildings. The bricks are old seventeenth century and porous. Firstly I cut a foot out of the trunk of the larger one which was about four inches in diameter, then I went up with a cherry picker and sprayed a mixture of Garlon and Roundup which I have used many times to great effect on beds of nettles and thistles and other things roundup will not kill well. However the ivy does not seem to be remotely affected by either of these treatments, in fact I think the chemical has acted as a fertiliser! It has obvious managed to push its tendrils into the brickwork where it finds enough to sustain itself. Any other chemical ideas? Flame thrower would not be wise as there is too much timber about!

If you can jack each end up a bit it would be a good idea to slip a sheet of heavy duty polythene under each end as poplar does rot quickly when in contact with the ground and moisture. I would staple some galvanised fencing mesh across the surface to stop people slipping. We have used plasterers mesh quite successfully in the past as well.

But my point is that in the sixties and seventies when we had men sweeping up there was no grain left around the yard and the bins were sealed and yet there were dozens of sparrows. Now I am lazy and do not sweep up so much after loading and spilling small amounts of grain and I see no sparrows. I agree with you Difflock, we were careless with DDT in the fifties and killed the hawks and magpies and crows which used to keep the small birds in check so we have this rosy view of how wonderful things were in the old days, but it was all man made. This together with ruthless game keepers who shot all the hawks, magpies and crows that were not killed by DDT. We have about ten Buzzards here, a couple of pairs of Sparrowhawks (need 2000 small birds per season per breeding pair) A pair of hobbies, the occasional Red Kite and Peregrine, Carrion Crows everywhere, Magpies also Grey Squirrels, domestic cats, Mink not surprising the small birds are under pressure.

Our corn has been in bins since 1965 and there is no access for birds. In the old days we had lots of men to sweep up at loading time, now most farms have few men and a lot of pressure so the forklift driver has not the time. But it still does not explain the loss of sparrows in towns where they have a constant supply of food all the year at bird tables.

"I don't know much about chemicals" is not such a good start to link it in an unscientific way to Parkinsons and birdsong. Parkinsons could be linked to many other things, even sitting for too long in front of a computer screen while lack of songbirds cold be more to do with the increase in raptors and carrion crows and magpies. When I was a child in the sixties there were song thrushes and blackbirds all over the lawns and in the eighties there were little clouds of feathers after the sparrowhawk had done its work. In those days there were hundreds of house sparrows in the yard but today there are none. Modern chemicals you say but we are now organic and have been for over ten years. Even at double the wheat price I would not survive without HLS environmental subsidies. But there are also no sparrows in peoples gardens in towns, where they and starlings used to be a real nuisance nesting in the roof. No chemicals there generally. However in our local Spa supermarket car park there are hundreds of sparrows which you hear but never see because they are in a thick holly hedge, protected from the hawks. The same thing on my morning bike ride I hear song thrushes and Mistlers singing but never see them out. Darwin theory at work here I think. A sad truth is that DDT when it went into the eco system and killed the raptors, magpies and crows actually did a lot of good for a variety of smaller birds and what we see now is the pendulum swinging the other way before a natural balance is restored.

Doctorsresearch.com For decades the ‘natural’ health industry has been touting thousands of vitamin supplements. The truth is that most vitamins in supplements are made or processed with petroleum derivatives or hydrogenated sugars [1-5]. Even though they are often called natural, most non-food vitamins are isolated substances which are crystalline in structure [1]. Vitamins naturally in food are not crystalline and never isolated. Vitamins found in any real food are chemically and structurally different from those commonly found in ‘natural vitamin’ formulas. Since they are different, naturopaths should consider non-food vitamins as vitamin analogues (imitations) and not actually vitamins. A lot of insecticides are produced by mashing chrysanthemum plants to make pyrethrum type products. The humble aspirin comes from willow but is synthesised in chemical process, so although the active ingredient has been identified, it is then made artificially and is a chemical. Do not forget that not all natural products are fantastic. Wheat without seed treatment can produce the ergot fungus which is an alkaloid poison which has killed thousands in the past. Every schoolchild is taught about the terrible effects of DDT when it went into the food chain What they are not told is that hundred of thousands of African people were saved from starvation by simply going over areas of locusts at their flightless stage, armed with nothing more than a branch and a bucket to spread the chemical to kill the locusts. Malaria was very nearly wiped out worldwide just before the ban and has killed more people than all the wars put together since.

Strange how most people will take "supplements" basically chemicals, or medicines, mainly chemicals without too much fuss. These are directly ingested. And yet they complain about farm chemicals which have been through just the same rigorous testing procedure, and which they are ingesting only in tiny diluted doses. Not to mention the amount of bleach, detergents, fly spray and other chemicals that the average housewife splashes at random every day. Roundup was always deemed to be one of the safest chemicals and wasused in waterways (not sure now) as it was said to be harmless to fish. A glass of neat Roundup was drunk in front of an audience by the chairman of Monsanto to prove a point. If you have a field of wheat that you have been working hard on all year only to see it taken over with greenery before harvest to make it unharvestable. If you have chosen not to use Roundup for noble "I hate chemicals" reasons you will begin to feel a bit like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis.

This thread needs this for a soundtrack [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwGrC0KicSo]Corb Lund - Hard On Equipment (Tool for the Job) - YouTube[/ame] Excellent soundtrack! Find us some more.

Our Palax 600 Combi has an electric motor as well as the pto drive. I was setting it up in the yard and had just plugged in the extension lead and was walking back round the corner and heard that my 45 year old helper, who had already operated the machine many times before, had started work. Unfortunately the extension lead 3 phase was wired to reverse the motor. He was pushing this bit of wood against the circular saw with all his might, wondering why it was not cutting in reverse. You would have thought that the fact that the conveyor belt was running backwards was a clue. Result= lost about fifty teeth from the blade which had just been re-tipped. All happened in few seconds and he is helping somebody else now.

I bow to your superior knowledge here and admit I have not looked too closely at the 8210 position as I would not dare to use it. I may be wrong about the trailer weight which is an AS Marston and they are much lighter than Bailey/Larrington, but the three ton figure sticks in my mind. Is there not also another law about the GTW not being greater than four times the weight of the tractor. I could pull a five ton trailer with my Little Grey Fergie in theory but that would be in another league of potential disaster! (even at max speed of 14 mph the hills around here make it even more dangerous.)

My Fastrac 2170 only does 39,9 mph, how do you manage to squeeze three more mph!! But I agree with you about people overtaking. The worst cases 95% of the time are women who sit right on your tail and look as though they are going to overtake but never do, even when there is a completely clear road ahead and I have indicated for them to pass. This means there is a frustrated queue behind and leads to an angry driver making a dangerous manoeuvre. I always try to pull over where possible but it is sometimes very difficult. The Fastrac is special because it has four disc airbrakes with ABS, but because it weighs eight tons and the trailer another three, I can only legally cart thirteen tons of corn to make up the 24 ton GTW The old two wheel drive Ford 8210 since it only weighs 4.5 tons could in theory carry 16 tons in the same trailer which is a scary thought as the Ford brakes are not up to the job even when new. Another 5 mph with that tractor is really scary.

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Sad to report that my efforts to move the Hornets have failed and they rejected their new very superior property and presumably flew back to their original nest site a mile away as there were no casualties in the log on inspection. Yesterday my wife went down to the now Hornet free log cabin and started to take some wood for the wood burner out of a half ton box full of wood that had been sitting outside the cabin for some time. A veritable cloud of Hornets came out of the box and she beat a hasty unstrung retreat. I sealed up the cab of the Matbro Teleporter and went down in the daytime so I could see what I was doing, gently lifted the box with no bumps but to no avail as a huge cloud of Hornets came out and buzzed about the box very angry. However they made no attempt to come near the cab so I again gently manoeuvred the box to a small wood not far away. This time I was more confident as I had not actually touched the nest inside the box. But alas the Hornets did not follow and remained buzzing around the cabin. Later they had started work under the cabin on a new nest and I had to work out some form of deterrent as we have children coming this week. We have some ant powder which I see contains 0.5% pyrethrum as opposed to the 35% dose in wasp killing formulas. On the Wikepedia it says that low doses are a deterrent so last night I sprinkled a little around where they were going in. This morning I hope I have achieved a good result as there were no Hornets at all and not one dead one. So a good experiment for Hornet lovers like me, that they can be deterred without killing them.w I looked to see if they had found the box in the wood but no. I hope they have now understood the message that I have no war with them but please not just around the cabin.

It is not always the old folk who frighten me!

I have always thought that a less Hitler like approach to birth control would be to put an infertility drug into all types of artificial sugar. This would cure the obesity problem as well. You would advertise the fact so it would be a question of choice.

Under the bee suit I had a thick pair of jeans and heavy shirt and pullover, on top of that I wore my wool track suit and then the bee suit! Rigger boots and heavy leather gloves all duct taped to the suit. It was a bit warm in there but I did not like the look of predator's photos! Father always told me that it was the slash the Hornet made with its sting that was as painful as the poison. He was fascinated to see this damage when the wife of a friend of mine was stung on the head. She was sitting on a large log which I had chainsawed into a seat, and her terrier started to dig into the rotten centre which was the Hornets home. They did not take too kindly to this and flew around squirting venom. The dog was stung several times and she only once which was surprising considering the damage the dog was doing. Both she and the dog were not badly hurt.

Billhook survived and lives to tell the tale! Not. Nearly as bad as I thought. Dressed up in beekeeping clothes and tackled the Hornets nest first with about fifty Hornets inside. Put a strong clear plastic bag over it and gently pulled the nest from the beam and put it into a waiting cool box. Not one Hornet even tried to sting or even buzz me as there were one or two still outside the bag. Took them to their new home and they were a little more agitated when I tipped them out of the bag but still none actually came for me. Gas nailed a board over the hole in the stump leaving them with a mouse hole at the other end. Will report on developments. The wasps nest just fell apart and the wasps were particularly dopey. I feel that the nest had been nailed by the Hornets. I put the remains in another tree but they looked very slow and lacking in energy and I do not think they will survive.