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Billhook

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Everything posted by Billhook

  1. Google result says What is the difference between democracy and populism? Populism: A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite. ... In short, Democracy is a form of government elected by the people whereas Populism is a movement initiated by the people to bring some change in the existing government. I cannot see the difference between the two . Take the Corbyn labour government opposition which clearly has come to power because of a populist movement and may be elected in this democracy with the idea of bringing change in the existing government. Really all opposition parties are populist. Google again However, there is a vast difference between nationalism and patriotism.Nationalism means to give more importance to unity by way of a cultural background, including language and heritage. Patriotism pertains to the love for a nation, with more emphasis on values and beliefs. And here heritage surely encompasses values and beliefs and patriotism includes love of your language and heritage.
  2. Did she ask for a leg up when decorating the top of the Christmas tree?
  3. Billhook

    Rats

    I think that the rats may be more pleasant! Envenomation[edit] The venom of P. affinis is potentially one of the most lethal in the world, causing coagulopathic and procoagulant effects.[1] Dugites generally avoid biting humans, but risks of encounters rise when they are most active during the mating season through October and November.[2] The last death attributed to a dugite was in Fremantle (South Beach) on 15 August 2015. A woman was bitten on her heel mid-afternoon while walking alone. She walked home and later collapsed whilst her husband was taking her to her car in order to transport her to the hospital. The ambulance was called, arriving five minutes later, but medics were unable to revive her.[2] In January 2011, a seven-year-old Perth boy was bitten and temporarily paralyzed after a dugite entered his bedroom and wrapped itself around his arm while he slept. After receiving immediate medical attention, he made a full recovery
  4. What is a lot easier than deflating the tyres and messing about with a winch, is just sticking it into reverse gear and backing out! I videoed it because it was odd even to me that six wheel drive would be brought to a halt by such a small rut It was not the Landie or the driver but the soil and its particular state that beat us. Earlier I had just managed to get the Matbro stuck in the same place . Now that had four wheel drive and limited slip diffs and new tractor tread tyres. The downside is that it weighs about eight tons The saving grace is that you can push yourself out of trouble by extending the boom.
  5. Here is a clip I took of the Sandringham 6 with five wheels turning on a level ground and enough room underneath for me to crawl under. The tyres look like slicks but they were nearly new and just filled with a very sticky clay!
  6. Billhook

    Rats

    We had a problem in a grain store and the little !!!!!!!!s were not satisfied with just gnawing the corn but they set about the tractor wiring as well. I know that car and tractor tyres have some metal in them to earth static electricity caused by forward motion so I was wondering if a cattle mains electric fencer might work to keep them at least off the tractor I put the live wire onto the tractor and then there was the question of where to fix the earth. I decided that the metal grid above the grain pit would be as good as anywhere so I clipped the terminal on and plugged the machine into the mains. It is of course not mains voltage or amps going through the fencing wire but about 10,000 volts and very low amps I turned on the switch and all hell broke loose in the store. There was squealing everywhere and a rat jumped out of the tractor and headed for the door in a series of leaps but every time it landed on the concrete floor it received a shock so it exited in a series of squeals. But there were squeals everywhere and I realised that because the concrete floor was reinforced with metal the electricity had penetrated the main duct and the laterals and the dresser! I assume the electricity found an easier path from the rat's back feet to its front feet than it found through the concrete! Very effective solution for me but I am not sure how you would rig that up in a poly tunnel I had two Airedales, the ones in my avatar, one was more the terrier and the other more hound (they are half terrier and half otter hound) They worked very well together with rats, the terrier one would catch the rat and flick it in the air to be caught by the bigger hound one and she had a jaw like a steam hammer. No shaking or anything, just crunch and dead as a door nail!
  7. Same as you and Spudulike here Used to have major back problems in my twenties and it was amplified by sitting around or events like Weddings where you spend a lot of time standing and talking to people in a more upright position than normal. I used to hobble around with a stick when it was really bad. At the weekends I played some serious league hockey and I never felt my back hurt once I had warmed up, but after the game, the shower and the time at the bar the journey home in the car, by morning I would be in agony again. When I was in my forties I lost a couple of stone, bought an abs exercise machine and do about 30 rotations with that every morning. I then bought a decent bike and some Gore-Tex all weather gear and every morning regardless of weather I do a 4 mile circuit with two steep hills. I have studded tyres for the frosts. This now means that the body is warm before I start to do any work and it has proved to be a game changer. I very rarely have a twinge but it is gone in no time whereas before it would last for days, weeks even. And as has been said, a lot is about strengthening the muscles around the spine which keep the vertebrae from pinching the nerve. I have given up with the physios because although they seem to do some good at the session, by the time you have stiffened up in the car on the way home you are back to square one. Lastly in about 2012 I treated my wife and I to an Endless Pool which is indoors in a conservatory. I do 400 metres equivalent on most evenings I think that it is good to make the old heart do a few extra revs, to keep the system healthy. All this sounds like a lot of hassle and expense, but for me it is now routine and nothing like the hassle or expense I endured having a bad back all the time.
  8. Some years ago I went back to collect our fully loaded Land Rover in the woods after dark with my dear brother. The Landy is a six wheel drive V8 with a tipping IW body which holds a couple of tons of timber. Rule number one is that it is probably best not to venture down a rutted narrow track in the woods in the dark after some heavy rain. Anyway the inevitable happened and we slid off to the side and with all six wheels spinning were not up to our axles but just slippery stuck. Told my brother to take the winch line from the front into a bunch of thorny scrub where we could just make out the trunk of a substantial Ash about a couple of feet in diameter with the dim headlights Rule number two is do not forget to take a torch in these circumstances Anyway he fixed the line around the tree and I started the electric winch again with all wheels spinning The winch line came in but the Land Rover did not move. Suddenly out of the thorny scrub in the dim headlights appeared the whole tree trunk complete with enough root ball for it to remain upright. It was of course rotten and only about fifteen feet of the trunk was left but the bark was still on and it looked ok at waist level! We walked home laughing and went down to the pub Next day went back with a tractor and realised that if the tree had been its original height we might have pulled it over to crash down on the Landy cab. I think it had been dead for some time and lost the top in a Winter storm and the ground being so wet meant the root ball came out easily.
  9. I once put a new 700mm circular saw blade on my Palax. It had 60 tungsten teeth. I had moved it to another place in the yard and the chap who was helping me had a degree or two but like many academics was not very practical I told him to start processing some straight lengths of Ash while I went off with the forking lift to collect some more. I came back with a load to discover that he had not processed anything but there was a cloud of smoke coming from the machine where he was forcing the log onto the blade. "Its not cutting" he says stating the obvious. The three phase power point had the wires in a different order and the saw blade was running backwards, By forcing the wood onto the blade he managed to remove nearly all of the 60 teeth! And yet he was still standing there trying to force the log onto a toothless blade with the log beginning to catch fire! My stupidity for not checking the rotation beforehand I suppose but you would have thought that anyone with an ounce of sense would have realised the problem straight away. The blade cost nearly £250 and I think to re tooth it would cost more.
  10. So when do you take out your nothing box Steve? Great analysis of the differences between the sexes!
  11. Just like the Floyd song above, "and then one day you find, ten years have got behind you" I remember being fifty five....................................ten years ago! Just received my pension birthday card from the government Happy Birthday y'all!
  12. And then one day you find, ten/twenty/thirty/forty/fifty years have got behind you
  13. I had a Bosky 90 back in the 1980s with a mere 3kw oven. It was all there was on the market at the time. I had just built my house and it did the cooking and the heating quite well but it was very badly built. I had taken a power line from the farm and was limited to 4kw because I could not afford a bigger cable but I hardly used the electric oven as the wood was good enough. I think that the electric oven was really there just to maintain a constant temperature in combination with the wood and was designed for people who bake cakes and are far better cooks than I.!
  14. Obvious choice since he is between jobs at the moment is to pay him a billion to make a proper Brexit happen. That should leave £38 billion to play with.
  15. Same as you here in having several acres of woodland on the farm which needs managing. Just the clearing up of wind blown stuff and diseased trees is enough to keep the home fires burning I enjoy processing firewood now I have the Teleporter and processor and one ton boxes to air dry the split timber I never sell any firewood, use it all here but the woods would soon turn into a real mess if I did not do this work For those that do and wish to avoid being fined, just set yourself up as a supplier of David Hockney inspired garden art in the form of a folly Contemplating a beautiful pile of logs on your patio is both calming and soothing and also helps meditation combined with a glass of good malt! At Hockney prices you could sell a pile for millions!
  16. O K last one I promise to make the heavenly trilogy Guy goes up to the Pearly Gates. St Peter asks him if he has been a good man and always faithful to his wife. You are not allowed to lie at this point in the journey! "Yes St Peter, I have always been faithful to my wife" "In that case you can have the keys to this white Rolls Royce in the great car park over there and continue your journey on the great highway into heaven! Next man comes along and is asked the same question to which he replies "Well there was one time I was unfaithful and it has bothered me for years. My secretary was bending over in the office picking up some papers and her skirt lifted a bit and showed me her beautiful legs and one thing led to another........" St Peter says "OK , not an unblemished record, but not really bad so you can have the keys to this blue Ford Mondeo to continue your journey on the great highway into heaven Third man comes along and is asked the same question " Where do I start? Well there was that bird in the chip shop, another on holiday in Marbella, no two there, and then a conference in Manchester........." .this confession went on for some till St Peter had heard enough. "OK, you have not been that good so here are the keys to that Trabant over there" The Trabant took ages to start and he set off in a cloud of black smoke slowly progressing up the highway until he came upon the White Rolls Royce, parked in a layby. The driver had his head in his hands and looked miserable "What seems to be the problem? You have the white Roller for your journey, you should be ecstatic with joy" " I would have been, but I just overtook my wife on a skateboard!"
  17. More heavenly encounters! A man goes up to the gates of heaven where he is welcomed in since he has been a good and righteous person but just before he enters he asks St Peter if he can just be shown how his ungodly brother is doing down in hell. St Peter obliges by producing an image of his brother sitting at a bar with his arm round a blond sitting on one knee and a pint glass in his other hand. "Well it does not look as if he is suffering much to me after all the bad things he has done in his life!" St Peter said. " You do not understand the Hell of his situation. The pint glass has a hole in it and the blond hasn't!"
  18. To carry on the encounters with God theme Man riding his Harley down the Pacific Highway, all is perfect harmony, the bike is purring , the sun is shining, the view is stunning. All of a sudden Paf! and a huge apparition appears in front of him and God speaks. He pulls over in awe and God says. "Harley Man, you have lived your life well, you have given to charities, you have been faithful to your wife and me and I would like to reward you with the gift of one wish, what will it be?" Harley man thought for a bit and said " God, what I would really like is a bridge built from this road across to Hawaii so that I can travel there whenever I want without the hassle of planes or boats both of which I hate" God said "It can be done but have you thought about the huge resources needed for this task, the thousands of tone of steel, the pilings down to the bottom of the ocean, the tarmac, it will be a huge demand on the planet's limited supply of these things. Can you not think of something less demanding on the planet?" Harley Man thought for some time then he said " Yes God, I have always wanted to understand women, what makes them tick, why they are so emotional, why they sometimes cry for no reason and other times are totally unpredictable in love so you never know where you are with them. Yes God my alternative wish is to understand women" God replied " Did you want that Highway to have two or four lanes!"

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