Billhook

My father too was in Coastal Command, stationed at Davidstow in Cornwall. He was initially sent to Canada then Pensacola to learn how to fly Catalinas. Then ended up in 280 Squadron flying Wellingtons then Warwicks. I visited the museum at Davidstow some time ago and they had a record of all his missions. He flew Warwicks that had the bomb bay converted to house a large lifeboat that had its own engine and medical and food supplies. I think it had two or three parachutes. Like many he never talked much about the war. However on his death bed he suddenly told the story which had obviously been haunting him since the war. They were called out to a Flying Fortress downed in the Channel. Father dropped the lifeboat closer to the crew swimming there than he was trained to do, maybe fifty yards away and they circled around helplessly as they watch all the crew succumb slowly either to the cold or their wounds and not one of them made it. Going back to the wonderful Lancaster, we live only a few miles from Coningsby and from East Kirkby, where the non flying, hope to be flying soon Just Jane just taxis. Have not seen the flying one recently as it has been undergoing surgery so good to see it in the video Here is a video I took at East Kirkby when the Canadian one visited and the sound of twelve Merlins filled the air. As you can see at the end of the video I nearly fell over backwards! Alas these amateur cameramen! The only place in the UK where you can ride in a Lancaster Bomber - Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre WWW.LINCSAVIATION.CO.UK Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Museum is based on a 1940's RAF Lancaster Bomber Airfield. The only place in the UK you...

I apologise for the remark above!

She has suspiciously clean hands throughout!

I have a few old and tired bits that I think she could restore!

Obviously health and safety has not reached her area as far as chainsaws go. No chain brake and no CHAPS

Human waste needs a good dose of Batemans XXX to produce the amount of gas you need!

Any idea of prices now being charged for firewood

There is so much stuff on the web that it is hard to find the truth. Just look at the Ukraine at the moment The dangers of closed cell foam were well known when we looked into icynene, we did our research and have been really thankful for the way it has changed out house and it has not shown any signs of a problem since it was applied in 2009. We have put it in between the floor joists in the attic and in between the felt and plasterboard in the dormer roof. So there has been no direct contact with the pantiles. I could see that there could be a problem if a firm had tried to use it to fix loose tiles on an unfelted roof Icynene - 4 Misconceptions & Real Icynene Reviews WWW.MASSFOAMSYSTEMS.CO.UK Discover 4 misconceptions about Icynene spray foam insulation & how these myths are busted to put your mind at...

It would be very cruel to make your wife work a treadmill like that

Good man Andy, may the Force be with you!

Was it icynene open cell or chemical closed cell foam? We used closed cell on our refrigerated store years ago before icynene was on the market and can quite understand how it might cause problems by making the wood sweat. Our store seems to be ok but we do not keep chickens in it. It was done in the 1970s. All I can go on is our experience from 2009 with icynene and I feel fairly sure that if there was a problem with icynene then we would have seen it by now after twelve years of severe weather up here on an exposed hill top.

We had the foam done in 2009 and it shows no signs of deteriorating 12 years later i wrote a testimonial for the firm who have now gone back to Ireland I believe but I was amazed at the deterioration of the fibreglass as I pulled it out apart from it being useless in high winds I was looking for a better type of insulation for the locked pantile roof of my house, which was constructed in 1983. In those days the eaves had to be vented with soffit vents. The roof is a 30 degree pitch gabled half dormer. It has a false ceiling which makes a small attic space above the bedrooms. Before the plasterboard was put on the five inch deep rafters the space was filled with glass fibre wool and the ceiling was covered with the same material but to a depth of over eight inches. On still cold days all this worked well and after a fall of snow, the snow did not melt on the roof for some days. However all this changed with a cold wind, especially from the East, when it would be forced up the soffit vents and find its way under the fibreglass causing the ceilings of the bedrooms to be freezing cold. It also found its way under the floor of one bedroom, and was so bad sometimes that it would lift the carpet. The cold air would find its way in through any crack however tiny. It is a very exposed site and a good test for effective insulation and draught proofing. A friend had his slate roof covered with polyurethane closed cell foam and was pleased with the result. I had some quotes from similar people but they all said the ceilings would need to be taken down to expose the rafters at vast inconvenience and cost. Airseal was a company I found on the web having watched impressive demonstrations of Icynene on ‘Youtube’. The foam was interesting because it was open cell which breathed, it was inert and smelt of nothing, and it would not catch fire when I held an open flame to it. The main advantage had to be Airseal’s promise that it could be fired down the ten foot long cavity between the plasterboard and the felt and completely fill the space down to the eaves without disturbing the felt, tiles or plasterboard. I hooked out all the old fibreglass, a job so vile that I felt I could not ask anyone else to do it. I used drain rods and bent the corkscrew end into the shape of an anchor, which was very effective. A six ton farm trailer was filled volumetrically with the stuff. Interestingly, when I pulled out complete lengths of fibreglass from the eaves, the last couple of feet were black with mould. This presumably had formed as a result of moist air entering the vented soffits. Hopefully the Icynene foam would stop this happening, but still allow the timbers to breathe. We had an initial trial of the Icynene foam with the builders lifting up the bottom layer of tiles to see if the foam had reached the eaves when fired from above. The result was most impressive and it was an easy decision to continue with the rest of the roof. The job took two days and would only have taken a day had it not been for the ceilings being enclosed. Simon and Karl were very enthusiastic about the product and did a good job, Simon Walker having been sent to Canada to be trained. The weather has been very windy and cold since the job was completed, but our house feels completely different. The product feels benign. It is quieter and warmer. So much so that when the builders came back to do some more work they had to open the windows because it was too hot to work. They could not believe the difference We are so impressed with it that we are planning to have some more applied on the garage loft.

Some years ago we used this icynene foam which has been fantastic, no chemical smells as it is water based and it breathes like a sponge allowing wood to breathe whilst stopping draughts

Just had a look at it on YouTube a neat idea with the cone splitter to save on hydraulics. And a reasonably safe way of presenting the log to be split by the cone which normally seems to be asking for trouble with loose clothing or log spinning. Good to see the stop button in a sensible place too

Not arguing with that, just saying that a quick fix for some people in certain areas is to install a wood stove which can be done without the big disruption of full insulation, ground source heat pumps etc

Me here again and I have to ask the question again now that there are abundant U turns on Fracking, Nuclear, Oil and Gas . A lot of these will take time to implement in the meantime many vulnerable people are having to choose between food and heat. Surely a government push for firewood is in order to alleviate the situation? It ticks a lot of the green boxes, renewable and environmentally friendly if done correctly

Not sure if I told you of being let down by the NHS with the death of my dear old father in 2007. He was 87 and had actually had a very successful open heart operation at the Glenfield in Leicester in 1999. NHS working well as far as the surgery went, although we were forced to go privately to avoid a long wait during which time father's life would have deteriorated a great deal. However even after paying £10,000 he still had to be in a public ward to be monitored. BUPA we stopped paying some years before because of the high premiums and we worked out that we wold have paid£30,000 in premiums so by cancelling BUPA we saved £20,000. However he also had a pace maker which needed a new battery in 2007, the main heart operation having been a total success and given him a new lease of life for eight years. The new battery operation was a simple local anesthetic op, same day in out but it was done by an inexperienced person who botched something and the wound started to weep. This was of concern as the weep could go back down the wire to the heart. Anyway it was 50/50 as to whether to leave it or not and after a discussion with the main surgeon we decided to redo the pacemaker as long as he was in and out the. same day. Took him in on Friday (always a bad sign) they phoned to say that the op had not been done and he would have to wait till Monday. Every day in a ward is no fun, no peace, lights on , people groaning moving about. I stayed in a building for relatives and was shocked to find that simple things like his urine bottle had not been replaced. I eventually had to go into the stores and find one for him "Hey you are not allowed in there" "What are you going to do about it?" seemed to work He was on a ward with several other patients who had pace makers fitted and the bloke in the bed next to him had a lump on his chest the size of a tennis ball where they had fitted the pacemaker. He was showing it to us all when an Asian surgeon burst in still in his bloody gear and shouted, "This should not have happened, I am sorry I am sorry" and then ran out again leaving us all a bit stunned. Eventually after three days Father became so run down with lack of sleep and confusion that I demanded his release. We brought him home but he was in such a state that he died a week later, at least in his own bed with his family around him, so I feel for you with your father Stubby, who died alone. I actually had a call from the surgeon who apologised which was something I suppose.

Thanks for that, actually it is not hurting as much as I thought it would and maybe the tear looked a lot worse when it was fresh. Now all sown up and cleaned I find I have no pain and can pick things up between my thumb and forefinger as before. I will obviously have to be very careful until the stitches are removed and consider myself very lucky so far not to have been permanently disabled. The other really important thing is that I am left handed!!!

Yes but how do you shake it up? Creating a scene in the hospital does nobody any good. Politicians keep up the NHS being the best in the World Mantra hoping that if you repeat it enough times people will believe it. I am afraid it will have to break down completely, with many innocent deaths before things change. A bit like our current energy change of plan, nothing happens until there is a crisis

How did it happen? Chainsaw kickback? Barber Chair? Chopping kindling? Kickback feeding wood in the planer thicknesser? Like a lot of accidents it was not related to arbwork. I went into the garage to drain the oil of my car and lifted the heavy wooden cover over the pit which flipped up and trapped my thumb between the chassis and the cover. I really thought I had broken it or at least ripped the tendons. Anyway next part of the story is a journey to A&E at Louth who were very good and quick but could not stitch it and I would have to go to Grimsby. Arrived there at 5.00 pm and there were eighty two people waiting and the projected waiting time was eight hours which turned out to be accurate. Sitting there for all that time I see more people from different walks of life than I would see here on my remote farm in twenty years! Interesting conversations A policeman and police woman (am I allowed to use those terms anymore?) walked in with a distressed 15 year old girl that they eventually put in handcuffs. I could not see why as she seemed to be behaving but would not give the permission for an examination Everyone in the room could hear the conversation and at one point glass in the vagina was mentioned When my wife came to fetch me at 2.00am she passed three young girls at a junction near the hospital and saw a man cruising with his window down. I had the feeling that the handcuffed girl was another one of these. All a big eye opener for my wife and I as to what goes on in the world while we are tucked up safe and warm most nights The young female doctor was brilliant when I was eventually seen and put five stitches in very skill fully and assessed that there were no broken bones or ligaments The moral of this story is for goodness sake be as careful as you are when doing arbwork when you do other jobs like cleaning windows, gutters, hanging pictures draining car oil. The A&E system is overloaded and you will be at the end of a long queue

Are you saying that if I put Brut on before I go outside to fetch the wood in, I will not feel the cold??

Forgot to mention the North East Wind that cuts like a razor

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Global Warming has blocked my solar panels, solar tubes this morning with a layer of snow and we have just lit the wood boiler again As my dear father would say “ Beware the Blackthorn Winter”