Billhook

I think that we need to know what the comparative heating costs for say a well insulated three bedroom detached house are with electric and gas and oil and heat pumps and then work it out from there

Just wondering what price will electricity need to be per unit to make heat pumps not viable

Interesting and slightly more positive angle on the future of firewood. I do not know if N, Snell is @ certainlywood is here on Arbtalk, but it would be interesting to hear if his opinion has altered to become even more positive about the future of firewood in the last few months with the vast increases in gas and electricity and the negativity around heating with heat pumps. The Firewood Market – What’s happening? WWW.CERTAINLYWOOD.CO.UK We're seeing improved supply chains, better quality fuel and increased efficiency, but pricing is a difficult one to predict as... By the way, what are the mathematics now on the costs of air source heat pumps with the increased price of electricity?

Some time ago, in the days when I had more hair on top, I was clearing some brash amongst some tall nettles with a Manitou which had an open cab. I was concentrating on the grab and felt some light pricking (no comments here!) on the top of my jeans and thought to myself that these nettles are rather sharp. Looked down to see about twenty wasps on each leg giving it their best shot but only able just to touch my skin and not sting. I leapt off the cab leaving the engine going and did 0--60 quicker than a Tesla across the field followed by a swarm. I felt them as lumps under my hair and did my best to shake them out with my bare hands. I arrived at the far end of the field with not one sting and still cannot understand why! The Manitou was left with the engine going for at least half an hour!

Couple more from Bernard Miles, “Over the Gate”

Other classic quotes are "I took my son up here to the highest point where you could see the whole farm and told him that one day all this will be his I haven't seen him since!" Farmer won the Lottery and was asked what he was going to do with all the money "Think I'll just keep farming till it all runs out!"

Could ask local council if you could plant a few around a playground or perhaps a Churchyard or another public space What about making a bench with a plaque on it alongside a footpath in an appropriate place? All these ideas are easier in a country village than a town. You might even have a word with a local farmer. If you are paying it might even be “Get on my Land!”

I do not know how you can cultivate a villainous voice like that as an actor, without actually being a villain in real life! Better version of part 1

Just found this old 78 record in the attic, worth a listen! Wish my chainsaw was as sharp¬

I suppose if people were hungry due to lack of nitrogen we could always increase beans and peas for the nitrogen and not inefficiently process the beans through cattle Then there are the oceans to harvest seaweed kelp etc but best not go there as we have managed to fcuk them up enough already

No not really fair. There were some farmers making headlines by tearing up hedges and trees and making huge fields with continuous cereals but here in Lincolnshire with better soils we had good rotations with potatoes and sugar beet and oilseeds as healthy break crops and this farm and many around here have seen sustainably high yields and much more informed and intelligent use of chemicals and fertilisers which had to be reduced by regulation and sheer costs. Our soils have not been denuded and we have not changed fertiliser and chemical use much in the last forty years, The yields seem to improve gradually which has a lot to do with improved plant breeding We are proud to have kept our woods and hedges with little loss of profit i have been at the sharp end of chemicals for many decades, my father more so and I have never heard of anyone being made ill around here by their use People all the time give us grief about chemicals but think nothing of taking headache pills, sleeping pills, vitamin supplements and any pill recommended by a doctor which are all chemicals and undiluted as well. We could easily feed you all but several things need to change Firstly there is so much waste caused by supermarket obsession with the visual impact of a few blemishes Then there is the size grading Then there are the sell by dates All of these causing perfectly healthy food to be chucked out Then there is the fact that food is too cheap and people will just cut the breast off a chicken for instance or not eat liver and kidney Then there is the obesity epidemic and the fact that people eat too much Then there is the trend for importing exotic foods at great cost to the environment Then there is the current trend for rewilding and greening taking land out of production as well as land sold for planning

In 1984, there was enough food produced in Britain to feed the nation for 306 days of the year. Today, that figure is 233 days, making 21 August 2020 the day that the country would run out of food if we were relying solely on British produce. But what does this actually mean and could we be producing more?

Confucius say “ People ask me about the future . I say to them, if you want to know the future, firstly you must examine the past “ By 1984 we were about 80% self sufficient but as you say it has been reduced to around 50% It will always be the case that if people are hungry, they will not give a damn about the birds, the bees and the herbicides as long as they have their food, and if they are cold they will not give a damn about the birds, the.bees, the trees or Climate Change as long as they have their fuel.

If you ask me everyone around farming, the machinery, the inputs, general professional charges, all look at the price of wheat and adjust upwards regardless of supply or cost of production ! So we farmers (moaning as usual) end up with the same low profit. So I am banking on fire wood to pay for Christmas!

I see that Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is pinning his hopes in the Met Office forecast of a mild wet Winter and the hope that heating demand will not be great from the general population. As I have said many times as a farmer, if I had farmed by the weather forecast, I would have been bust years ago. They have not even been close on a daily basis let alone half a year away At the height of wheat harvest here on a Friday they predicted heavy rain on the Sunday so everyone went mad on Saturday bringing in wheat at a high moisture content causing massive drying costs. Of course no rain here in the Sunday. There are so many variables to the weather, particularly long range weather forecasts. So I will make a prediction that it will be the coldest Winter for twenty years due to decreased solar activity, increased cloud cover, larger hole in the ozone layer ( funny that we have not heard much about that recently) volcanic activity causing more cloud and blocking of sunlight Buy my firewood now!

Would it be good or bad to take a reasonable sized pipe into the roof space to draw air from there? Warmer air and venting the roof space at the same time??

I never gamble!

Nobody on the forum listens to me, my wife never listens to me, my bank manager never listens to me (mainly because there does not seem to be one), none so deaf as those who won't hear!

The point for me and possibly BigJ was that it was quite exciting to watch and dangerous but the point of the exercise was not to try and injure an opponent, just to be stronger faster and more skilled. Any injury was incidental and not the purpose of the competition. We have come a long way through the years from gladiators to bear baiting to cockfighting to badger baiting to dog fighting to otter hunting, bare knuckle fighting all of which have been outlawed. Fox hunting is nearly gone. Boxers suffer brain damage, look at poor old Ali, and now it seems that heading in football is to be reviewed The point is that you can have good sport without the need for anyone or thing to be injured.

You seem to be on your own here but I will offer some support. Really boxing appeals to one of our most primitive forms of entertainment, much like the gladiators of old, the baying crowds desperate to see bloodshed. Hopefully we were meant to have advanced in the same way that we stopped having baying crowds at public hangings and feel that putting people in prison with colour TV for life is a better way. Sport should have advanced to having far less physical contact , The web gives these examples Examples of non-contact sports include cricket, tennis, table tennis, badminton, golf, bowling, bowls, croquet, pool, snooker, bossaball, darts, curling, tug of war, bodybuilding, swimming, diving, gymnastics, sprinting, running, track and field, bicycle race, rowing, freestyle football, footgolf, fistball, tchoukball ... Of course there is always tree climbing, chainsawing, axe swinging/throwing competitions to keep arbtalkers satisfied!

Need to start the video at 13.50 minutes to cut the crap and show the actual tool I bought

I bought one of these and made this in about a minute for knocking difficult logs back out of the splitting wedge

" You have just been selected by popular vote as the guinea pig to report back to Arbtalk on your experience with this machine!" All Right Trigger Andy, we will let you off having to be a guinea pig as HHH has vindicated the machine somewhat!