Billhook

I will raise you one!

Sammy Squirrel has just created the leaning tower of peanutsa I thought that he might have broken his teeth when he came across the six inch long Tek bolt I feel a bit like Donald Trump dealing with Kim. Yes I could nuke him with a twelve bore but the following YouTube outrage storm would also be nuclear. Threatening him did no good so it is now a question of whether he is more intelligent than me. My wife is on his side! I feel that I need to rig up the cattle electric fencer next

Nine years on! Large Ash branch fell down in the drive and could not be assed to fetch the Teleporter so again an Arbtrolley is lurking some where beneath! Upgrade from a Panda 4x4 to a clapped out Volvo XC70 with 250k miles. Diesel still pulls like a train! Panda now classic car, vindicated by being listed in the back of classic car magazines. One advertised at £7250! Bought mine for £50 in the 1990s. Too valuable for mistreating now Same madness as Ford Escort México and prices

Not at all my experience. I welded some Matbro fittings to an old Sanderson Muck grab (£150 sitting in a local dealers yard looking lonely and needing a new ram) and it has done more work than any other attachment. The tines are strong as is the box section they are fitted to. The four tines on the top grab do occasionally become bent but are easily straightened. I load all the big lengths of timber onto the log deck with it. I can bring up half a dozen ten inch diameter logs from the woods and I like the ability to slowly release the logs one by one. Of course it will still lift a large tree if it weighs under 2.7 tons but the Palax processor is comfortable with 10 inch maximum But its other job is to pick up a mass of brash and I have not found a better tool for that job.

Found an example on youtube. Perhaps a slightly better and sharper saw would improve things and you can see why it is a good idea to slip a bit of timber under the logs

I just bought one of these and made a platform for it above a one ton box. I also slipped a bit of timber in the frame beneath the logs to make sure that the chainsaw never makes contact with the frame. Works well with no picking up! https://www.manomano.co.uk/p/black-powder-coated-saw-horse-for-woodworking-1185434 I might add that the vertical sections are only slipped into place so that if you have a big log you can just remove them all on one side to save lifting it over the top

The decking out front was a bit of an experiment with some Turkey Oak which I had lying about, but boy does that stuff warp and twist when left outside! I need to replace it with something else really.

Send him my regards. We are still looking after the statue of his ancestor SirJohn Franklin, who discovered the North West Passage. Tell Dan I will still be able to beat him at arm wrestling!

Well remembered Mr Spaceman! Just sitting down there now, in the sun which is a pleasant change, twenty years after it was built, and not a sign of rot as the whole. Cabin is a couple of feet off the ground perched on six large sandstones and there is a membrane between the wood and the stone The joints have settled nicely and you cannot push a bit of paper between the logs. All down to the full scribe method and the guidance of Dan Franklin at woodenways Cut the copper beech floor with the Lucas Mill and it needs another coat of varnish after twenty years of kids and adults messing about in the lake and then dragging all the water and mud inside when they come in to change!

Just been to a funeral of a 90 year old man. He had been reasonably fit till the time he died. His son took him to see his first great grandchild, a beautiful baby boy. His grand daughter handed him the baby and he cuddled it for some time and then handed it back to his mother. He turned around to pick something off the floor and had a massive heart attack and died on the spot. Traumatic for all those around, but what a way to bow out having just held the next generation in his arms.

Well done Steve and thank you! Is there potential for a general "Life Story " thread?

We found one of those highly polished green stone axes in a field a few years ago. It apparently came from Langdale. I have not fitted it to a shaft yet! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langdale_axe_industry

A Man can never have enough tools, so I thought a heavy maul would be a good idea I thought that I was buying this https://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-Core-Maul-Inch-751110-1001/dp/B014M9LQGG/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cr_simh_0_1/254-9185871-2085030?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B014M9LQGG&pd_rd_r=e732f887-e68e-4102-b835-bb37c12f3dc9&pd_rd_w=8GAPw&pd_rd_wg=lzXMO&pf_rd_p=67aa5820-8762-4202-90ba-881bb99c913c&pf_rd_r=ZRK8EDPY1A9ETDWRE5GT&psc=1&refRID=ZRK8EDPY1A9ETDWRE5GT But what was delivered was this http://www.123pricecheck.com/Product-283926/B004BTZKJM-Fiskars+Maza+cu+a+3+7+kg+Splitting+X46+2+in+1+Axe+.html Since Amazon or anywhere else do not seem to do the maul I opted to keep the axe and test it. I think that they are both mauls really and I may have been fobbed off with an out of production model However it did split a very heavy bit of knotty yew quite impressively. It is so bloody heavy at 8lbs that I shall only use it on the occasional difficult log or give it to one of the lads to tire him out to keep him out of mischief. It is still the X27 that is King

Quite a hip thing to do though!

Do think that on reflection, the work you did bending, picking up , bashing and operating the English wheel was the cause of your bad hip? Some people put it down to a games career in a hard sport, others say it is just hereditary. Do tree workers suffer more than average? My brother in his fifties, was sitting in his parked car reading a paper when a woman lost control and ran into the back of him which set his car on fire. He was not hurt but six months later he had to have a new hip out of the blue . He had no history of pain and another few months later he had the other one done. The doctor said that it was strange and started asking questions about his family history (no new hips in our family up to this point). Then the doctor said in his experience two factors come up time and time again. One is deep sea diving and the other is severe shock. At this point I reminded my brother of his accident and the doctor said that was undoubtedly the cause..

I bought one of these in 2018 when they were £35, now £43 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141447656080 I had an old Dolmar electric chainsaw with no kickback protection so I was keen to keep the top guard. The saw horse looks identical to the Portek one but that one cost £100 I found that it was difficult to clamp the chainsaw bar without the clamp slipping so I drilled a couple of holes in the bar and bolted it and it works fine. This works for me as the Dolmar would otherwise be redundant The table folds neatly for storage and the whole setup is fine for occasional use at home when a trip to the farm and the Palax is not worth it. The chainsaw is relatively quiet and fume free for working indoors.

Just to be pedantic it was always called just a Jensen FF not an Interceptor This was a gathering of FF cars at Gaydon in May

Come on you two, I need more observation of the Jensen for its correct name!

I try to be as safe as possible in the woods but elsewhere is more dangerous. I was assaulted by three women last month and you can tell by my horrified expression that I was about to be part of the “Metoo” movement. This was nothing compared to the danger of my wife seeing the photo. I have now hidden all possible weapons in the house and will employ a food taster! Having said that, there is nothing like being in the company of “My Favourite Things” to take your mind off any aches and pains that come with age!

I am fortunate enough to have reached 65 years without hip trouble in spite of an early farming career where cwt (50kg) bags were the norm, usually lifted from the ground and then leaning over a hopper to empty. The invention of a forklift then a teleporter was a godsend but my main ambition now is to go down to a tree in the woods, bring it home and process into logs into a ton box and bring it six feet from my wood stove, without lifting anything but the final log to the stove. I put the wood through a Palax Combi now but occasionally I will cut a box of smaller pieces for my elderly neighbour using the forklift bucket and an electric kinetic quicksplitter

The trouble with these devices is that squirrels think it is fun!

Poor old rat took the blame for the Black Death https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/rats-plague-black-death-humans-lice-health-science/

Diseases Squirrels Carry Squirrels are known to carry numerous diseases, though only a few are dangerous to humans. Some of the more common include tularemia, typhus, plague, and ringworm. Such diseases are transmitted through bites or other forms of direct contact with infected squirrels. Tularemia, typhus, and plague have symptoms that mimic the flu and can be deadly when left untreated. While all mammals are capable of getting rabies, squirrels are very rarely rabid. Parasites and Disease Other diseases squirrels transmit to humans come from the various parasites they carry. Rife with parasites such as fleas, ticks, and mites, squirrels living in proximity to homes frequently pass these tiny pests on to both humans and pets. Some of the diseases humans can get from the parasites include Lyme disease, Encephalitis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Are you supposed to adopt the same procedure for rats? I cannot imagine many people putting a rat in a sack and taking it to the vet and paying £30 for a lethal injection! And there lies the problem with conservationists, for if it is apparently fluffy and cuddly it is treated in a very different way than if it is slimy and dirty. Nobody cares too much about the method of killing rats