Billhook

I think I am due to land on the “pay some income tax” card shortly which should take the shine off it!

My wife is a Daily Mail snob and would not even touch it if we had run out of loo paper!

I framed it and it now sits pride of place on our mantle piece!

Of course I read these wise words from Arbtalk so naturally am ready when I receive a phone call while I am in the middle of the woods asking to help clarify my name and address. Was not in a great mood and surprised myself by being calm and polite. ”Who am I talking to?” ”Its the Daily Mail here and I was hoping to clarify some details” I thought that they were going to ask me what I thought about the new ELM scheme on the farm or similar ”So what do you want to know?” I would just like to inform you that you have just won the Sudoku competition “ I thought here we go , next thing he will want my bank details, but I could see no harm in giving my address He said that the cheque would be in the post where have I heard that before!!! My wife gave me a billhooking “ You idiot you gave them our address, we will be burgled now etc etc” Anyway a week later a cheque turned up for £500 and I. Paid it in and it cleared and my name appeared in the paper as the winner! I have never heard of anyone winning these competitions. I only buy the Mail really for the code word and Sudoku which are more difficult than other papers, to try and keep the old brain going. I shall try and be less hasty with my torrent of abuse in the future when I receive these calls! The sad part is that the money of course has not bought me new chains and bars and fuel, just a new pair of shoes for my beloved who apologised for calling me an idiot So Billhook has brains as well as beauty!

This is the website selling them at £6 per bag so quite a mark up! Alder as well which is not quite the same as Ash Firepower Bagged Hardwood Kiln-Dried Logs LOGS-COAL-SMOKELESS-FUELS.CO.UK

Just passing by the factory shop in our local town and spotted this! Eleven pieces of kiln dried for £14 I really believe it would be cheaper for me and easier to sell my firewood and go back to North Sea gas! Funny old world! Future firewood optimism indeed!

Here in Lincolnshire I have not seen a Fox or Badger around for a year, they are not hunted or shot as far as I know. I have not seen a rat for ages or a sign of one but we do have bait traps. Very few rabbits. Hundreds of grey squirrels though. Quite a few deer Roe and Muntjack Plenty of bird life, Mistle Thrush singing today, every Tit and Finch in the county on the bird feeder. Many Carrion Crows Rooks and Jackdaws. No swans on the lake when there used to be a regular pair breeding. No sign of the Otters either Just finding it very strange particularly about the Foxes who were not afraid of me and were seen often both in the day and night.

Not as good as the Mustang cockpit! I flew the Mustang at Kissimmee in Florida and the Spitfire MkIX at Coningsby. An hour each of bliss, well you only live once! Nothing digital on these two!

I have driven a friends Model S on a couple of long trips and yes the screen i s bad as it is not central and you need to read it rather than glance at it. To alter things like radio or temp you really need to stop the car and pull over or put it in self drive. However there is no temp or pressure to worry about or RPM and it tells you about battery range remaining Some aircraft panels have analogue dials with all the needles pointing vertically when all the temperatures and pressures are good so a single glance will tell you all is ok and it shouts at you if one is off.

I have a strong dislike of touch screens and digital information in cars and tractors. With digital read outs you have to actually read them which is not as quick as glancing at needles on dials. yes it may be micro seconds but that can be all the difference between an accident and a good result. The old Bourdon tube gauges told me far more accurately what was happening with engine temps and pressures and kept working when the engine was switched off. I have a Fastrac and the dash must have been invented by a spotty geek who had never been on a farm. Try adjusting touch screens when you are being bounced around! The only car that has sensible instruments and switch is our Volvo XC70 from 2005. It has a couple of rotary knobs for volume and stations on the radio and the wipers and lights are intuitive and the minor switches also With one of my old classic cars from 1967 the dash layout looks scattered, but because the switches are well spaced it is not long before you learn them all without looking. Unlike a classic Jaguar set of switches from the same period, where they look neat and wonderful but you really have to stare at them to find the right one

I am like everyone here drawn in to this mystery. I assume as has been stated that the police know more, but if that was the case then surely the Grandparents and family would be taking a different line. Last November a young lad was killed after hitting a tree after a dangerous bend right by our farmyard. I am still trying to work out how it could have happened. The Mini looked as though it had been hit by a truck, and when I first saw it I thought it was a convertible. Glass was embedded six feet up in the tree and I found glass that had been thrown 20 yards into the copse. There was not a mark on the road and the soft grass verge was untouched. The line of hollies I had just put in with bamboo canes were untouched, one right by the car. The car itself had actually gone round the worst part of the bend. If you were driving over 40 it would be too fast but the way it hit the tree it must have been going faster than that. It honestly looked as though the car had been picked up by some force and taken to the tree The couple in the cottage came out and were very upset to find the lad dead but without a mark on him, checked for a pulse and breathing but concluded his neck had been broken. I go round that corner sometimes many times a day and it is still a mystery to me and much on my mind, especially as his distraught family and girlfriend still keep leaving flowers and messages by the tree. I suppose some things will remain a mystery

Living not far from a key UK air base and hearing and seeing an increase in activity with Euro fighters does concentrate the mind somewhat.

This is the sound as the Lucas sailed through the Whichy Elm, which is definitely female as it was quite resistant to being told what to do!

Must be Elm methinks

Old age hitting my brain cells perhaps. I had it in my head that it was a Sycamore as I remember taking the two halves of the tree from a neighbour. It had blown down in a storm and hit his roof damaging some tiles and his car.. But this was some years ago and we also did take down a huge diseased Elm but I am 100% sure that was planked. The Sycamore was full of burrs which may be the cause of the grain and colour. I will check with him again as he wanted a dining table out of it. Is there any other method of checking what tree it was? Now I look at it again the bark is not Sycamore and it may have been from one of the large upper limbs of the big Elm. Also the Lucas did not like it very much on the 8 inch vertical cut and for the first time ever in 25 years jammed on the sawdust as I approached the end of the cut!

Some good looking beams for the fireplaces too

Just took the top off this Sycamore with the swing blade to have a look, think I will have a go with the slabber!

I also have had little problem with the bits and pieces that are inevitable with any splitter. We might have a carrier bag full after filling a 2cubic metre box which is great kindling.

Thank you for all the likes. It was really all a result of the Lockdowns and my wife being fed up with me mooching around the house, so I was told to go out and find something useful to do. I was sure that I could make a splitter around the Matbro 270 with all that lifting and hydraulic power. But everywhere was shut and all I had was the scrap in the yard, so if i was starting the project now I would perhaps incorporate a saw and make it more of a processor than just a splitter. One of the problems with the Ash and Sycamore that we have here is that many are bent sometimes at 90 degrees. The Palax Combi will handle these up to 10 inch diameter, but the big stuff still has to be cut in my case to 16 inch blocks with the chainsaw and then rolled onto the log lift. Using the tip and crowd to pick up the logs would work well with straight lengths of pine, but not with the stuff we have here Now I find it very steady and therapeutic with the engine ticking over at the back of the machine and the remote control operating the hydraulics, so no lifting just easy rolling, which is also easy on my old limbs as Stubby will I am sure sympathize! In am sure that i could make the ram quicker by altering the pipework but it is surprisingly productive and safer at its current speed Keep a look out for modification number 1035!

find someone with a Lucas Mill planer sander

Help! I have developed CRSD! Compulsive Repetitive Splitting Disorder! I cannot stop, I just love it!

After decades of playing league hockey, tennis, squash, workshop hammering, axe work, hoeing sugar beet, shovelling corn, potatoes, my wrists said enough! I built the splitter out of scrap during lockdown. My X27, which I rate highly, has been put on one side and instead I operate a remote control which is bliss. My wrists have gradually been improving with the rest.

We had a foggy start followed by a shower then it cleared and the sun came out