Billhook

Next thing anyone sitting in a room with a wood stove will be forced to wear a mask or risk a heavy fine

It is the easiest system in herringbone formation and uses no cement or sand We made a HaHa at the old farmhouse in 1970 to keep the cows out of the garden, but retain the view to the grass field and trees It was leaning back slightly into the bank and eventually roots found their way into the cracks and held it together. It has survived all this time through heavy rain, earthquakes and cattle rubbing A friend of father’s in the next door Farm decided to copy it but chickened out at the last moment and built a solid wall with cement. This cracked and fell over after about five years as there was no give in it when the soil moved

Sorry no sun in these ones but just a Fantastic display of snowdrops in a copse here

Here we have yet another “Follow the Science” So the pollution from wood burning is only half what it was last year. This follows all the government models for many things including Covid deaths and Climate Change forecasts Sure it should always be “ Question the Science” with automatically being called a denier. Question the science and expect a calmly reasoned response

Todays sunrise plus the snowdrops

Neither Oak or Copper Beech No prizes this time as I cannot afford it! By the way Where is Conor Wright with his essay on chainsaws having walked away with the last prize of the “ Danger may start talking about chainsaws “ coffee mug!

There was a big row some years back when the Churchwarden locked the gate into the Church field for the one day. There were a couple of houses in the Church field and an ambulance was called to one of them and could not enter and I think after that it has not been locked again

Hence my gate and fence But I really do not want to be seen as a “Git orf moi Land” farmer and 95% of the locals appreciate the access . In fact it was one of the regular locals, a strong character, who gave the knob in the village a dressing down for exactly the reason that if he carried in insisting it was a public footpath that I would probably completely close it down to the detriment of the whole community

Well you are correct that I should lodge a letter because of the state of the law, but where does all this stupidity stop. What do people not under about a big notice that says “Private Land, no public right of way” at either end of the path? Must we eventually put these notices in our gardens and keep writing to authorities to say these places are private and not public? There must be an assumption of privacy for peoples homes and property without having to resort to these measures. My older tractors on the farm have no locks. Can someone just go on them because I have not placed a notice saying private property on them and I have not sent a letter to the DVLA?

Since this is Arbtalk, can anyone tell me what the tree is featured in the middle of the sunset??? I have the advantage over you lot of seeing it in the Summer!

No, in my case it was never a public footpath, just a private path that I allowed a few people in the village to use in return for them reporting any interesting wildlife or people acting with bad intent. Newcomers to the village who saw others using the path then tried to claim it was now public because it had been used for over ten years, but they had no evidence of this.

The problem is that there is no real trespass law in the UK, and people can be on anybody's land, even in your own garden , and if they are not causing actual physical damage or nuisance which can be proven in a court, there is not much you can do about it. With the police not even bothering to come out to burglaries any more, there is not much hope with trying to prosecute trespass

Rule 1 Never turn your back on a bull Rule 2 Never walk into a field of cattle or sheep with dogs even on a lead especially with calves or lambs, unless they have been trained for the purpose. As for foot paths, we have one going across a boring 90 acre field that is often cold and windy with no special views and diminished hedges as they do not grow well in those conditions it used to be for the children in a neighbouring hamlet to walk a shortcut to the school in our village. Both the school and the hamlet no longer exist and nobody uses the footpath anymore but we have to maintain it and cut a path through the crops each year, just for what? We also have a very pleasant private footpath through some woodland down to a lake which I initially allowed a few villagers to use. Other people then started to use it and I put up signs saying “Private Land, Permissive Footpath “ but this was not enough and some knob in the village has challenged me that because it has been continuously used for over ten years it is now a public footpath. He has no evidence of this but now I have been told by the NFU to erect a fence and gate at the beginning of the path that must be closed once a year. Most of the people using the path are very reasonable and appreciate the farm and report to me any suspicious activity or dangerous trees or just interesting airings of wildlife, especially otters and kingfishers on the lake. They are the ones that keep their dogs under control and I welcome them

He is having a bum trip but doesn't give a fork.

Sunrise

Following on from that one, we named this log today “Boris” firstly because it looks a bit of a prick and secondly because it will be burnt shortly!

Been running this saw for some time with no issues, but have been cross cutting some dry Yew logs. The chips seem to be smaller than other logs and I think some must have found their way down the right side of the lever where it goes down to the switch. Anyway it will not turn off when the lever is pushed forward. I have turned the saw upside down and given it a good shake and blow with the airline and can only assume that some wood chip has lodged inside the on off switch. Anyone else had this problem?

So far so good, no issues

Where was Keto when you needed him?

I assume the reason that you sent back the Hakki after two weeks was that you could not get on with the chainsaw. My Palax Combi seems very similar to the Kisa and the only thing I would add is that if you are cutting logs of over 11 inch diameter and about 8 to 10 feet long they are very heavy to deal with. But maybe I am just becoming old and weak unlike all you fit young hunks!

This guy seems to be putting some dry stuff through ok and although I usually use fresh cut branches I cannot see why there would be any trouble. I notice that this machine like mine has a yellow safety frame to cut out the tractor if necessary, but these machine are not like chippers which will pull you in if some loose clothing becomes caught up in a branch, I can hold on to the branch and stop it at any point. The Ukrainian machine does not appear to have a safety frame.

Damn, I thought everyone had forgotten that!