Billhook

I think that is referring to the "Lazy" part of my character! Difficult to steer in drunkenness though, which is pretty ignorant!

She has indeed been very loyal in spite of my ignorance, decadence, laziness and drunkenness! There is a much bigger heap around the corner!

Stupidly left "Norwegian Wood" book lying around and my wife read out page 116 to me where it describes from a woman's point of view the type of man she is with by the way in which he stores wood. For instance "Upright and solid pile = Upright and solid man" Then she found" Everything in a pile on the ground = Ignorance, decadence, laziness, drunkenness, possibly all of these. But I pointed out another line "A Lot of wood = A man of foresight, loyal" But she said "It is not much good having a lot of wood in a pile on the ground" I was lost for words

You can see my comments at the bottom of this page when we first bought one from Welmac It was stolen and I replaced it with another make called Remet from Poland I think but tractor driven this time with a little more capacity than the Urban petrol engine one., besides being cheaper. I put it behind the Little Grey Fergie and they are a good match. Welmac are very good and Andrew Balfe is very helpful Regularly use branch loggings on our office stove, a Clearview Pioneer, and the pub still asks for them. To sell them as I said before you need to be very selective about the material and diameters of the brash. You can put the whole branch through but you end up with a load of twigs that become stuck in the netting and which drop out when people carry it through their house which is not popular.

Two years ago I took a friend to Nottingham University where Tesla were giving sales talks. This was conducted in a pleasant room on the fourth floor with no-one else in the room apart from us two and two Tesla guys. I am a petrolhead and mechanically minded. My friend is not, but he does like fast cars and is a large land owner. He was really only coming out for a day out and was cynical about electric cars and their limited range and limited opportunities to recharge. We went down for a test drive and I sat in the back of this ModelS. with a camera. On a short stretch of road the Tesla man put his foot down and all my internal organs went towards my backbone and I nearly went into the boot with the camers. We then were allowed to drive it ourselves and he guided us to an industrial estate where there was a roundabout. He told me to see how fast I could go around it. Now I have raced cars on a track and done some aerobatics but my nerve went before the car even squeaked. All the batteries are so low down plus four wheel drive. Anyway my mate bought one and I would have done but I did not have the 75k necessary to hand. (or even £7.5k for that matter!) Two years ago and he has driven all over England, been to the South of France and never been let down through lack of charging or other issues. His one had a range of about 270 miles normal driving but I see the new ones are already over 400 miles. Quite a bit of progress in just two years. Drives itself where legal and even detected a deer in some fog ahead and braked before my friend saw the deer. He has an anaerobic digester to create the electricity. Both Car and Digester I admit are highly subsidised, but how else are we to have the encouragement to steer ourselves away from fossil fuels, renewable energy and clean air to breathe?

In the 1880s I heard about this Benz guy who had invented an engine which used explosions to operate pistons instead of quiet steam pressure. To make these explosions he obviously has to carry around highly explosive fuel which he or his passengers had to sit above or near. Imagine the consequences of an accident and the subsequent fireball! We already have wonderful quiet steam power with massive torque powered by coal but also possibly by renewable wood. Think of the enormous energy involved in searching and drilling for oil and refining it I really cannot see this Benz idea going anywhere

Thank you Anthony again. They certainly have my top award and I will look out for future developments

I expect that is short for a Terawatt, or one million million watts, That is a very big Twatt indeed!

Thanks for that photo Anthony, just look at that lighting on the logs above the counters for originality. So to answer my original question, was anyone on Arbtalk involved with the woodwork or know who the designer was? I gather that there are a couple more of these and I was talking to someone today who told me that he and his fishing mates make a point of meeting at the original Cumbrian Services each time they go up for a fishing week, as they find it to be so good. More here http://www.gloucesterservices.com/our-story

Well done Donnk, I am sure that this is the way forward. The cynics say that alternative energy is useless as it is either not there when there is no wind or sunshine or in abundance at other times when it is not needed. If every home and business had one of these it would be a great way to store electricity to keep sensible (rather than "ludicrous") electric cars running as well as lighting the home. Garages could have an array of panels on their roofs (rooves) or a field full of them to charge these kind of batteries. The technology for both batteries and panels will advance in the same way as the ICE

Asking a big favour of you all. My wife has just finished writing a book called the Invisible Army and is trying to create some publicity so that she can gain the interest of a publisher who will crowd fund the printing. I think it is a great story, but then I am biased! It is about an elderly woman who has had her life ruined by an evil owner of a huge department store. It is about her realisation that she has become invisible with age. No more big hair, make up and fashion clothes and shoes to make her stand out in a crowd. But she uses this "invisibility" to advantage by finding a whole raft of other elderly women who have had their lives ruined by the same man. The book then gives a very plausible description of how she manages to assemble this group and give them the incentive to bring this man down by robbing the store. These are women who would not normally go 32 mph in a 30 mph limit! Need a few likes on the video please!

I am not sure if this topic has been raised already, if so apologies. My wife and I had to go to Exeter last weekend from here in Lincolnshire, five and a half hours mainly A46. (The hedges and trees are no further forward than ours and they should be a fortnight ahead normally) We stopped at Gloucester Services for a break and were mightily impressed. Everything from the car park, the peaceful quiet setting with a pond and wildlife to the building itself. So much quality timber work and a great feeling to the place. Two long tree trunks had been hung above the food area with spotlights let in to great effect. The tables were set out with great thought and the farm shop was of a very high quality. Both male and female loos were the best we had seen with many cubicles, which as my wife pointed out is vital considering the time she has had to queue in similar places when a bus load turns up. She also noticed some family cubicles for some poor mother who is trying to deal with a couple of toddlers as well as a baby at the same time Food was excellent, even Lincolnshire style sausages, and a full breakfast for two at £20. I gather that there are a couple more of these so I was wondering if any of you had anything to do with the timber construction, or the planning of these masterpieces?

I will go back to the Lidl store with a lump of wood and keep cutting until I find a good one or until the store manager comes along looking bigger and fitter than me!

Lincolnshire East Coast

This was taken on Friday April 13th showing the max temp at 34.3 degrees C On that day I did my morning bike ride in shorts and T shirt Today we are back to 5 degrees and I have put my heavy pullover plus wax jacket and gloves on for the bike ride That old saying is true!

34.5 degrees C here, just Whatsapped some friends in Oman and they have exactly the same temperature

Used to have all kinds of pets when I grew up in the 50s and 60s. Probably not legal now. However "Johnny Magpie" was rescued as a chick and was part of the family for about two years. He took a bath in a washing up bowl and used to sit on my head on my school cap before school and I was terrified of him pooping down my neck but he never did. He was allowed to fly around and gradually he went further and further away until he stayed away. We never did manage to tame rook chicks. they seemed to be too wild but Jackdaws made good pets. Once had a beautiful leveret called Chuchundra, after the Jungle Book, saved from the power harrow. He used to stand up on his hind legs and beg for Cadbury's chocolate fingers and lie flat out in front of the fire with the dog. When he grew up we had a very large pen which used to house turkeys and he had a great time bounding around, but one terrible morning mother heard these screams from the pen and the poor thing has leapt around with joie de vivre and had broken his back by twisting around as they do. So the vet was called and he was put to sleep. I am not sure what the answer is with the magpies. I think three will just be an untamable noisy rabble but you cannot just let them die now you have taken pity on them. Then there is the legal question

Well done Teed! Everything there in exactly a minute which works well with Youtubers short attention span. You show us the whole process from dragging out timber in difficult conditions, to advanced wood working machinery, to the finished product and its sale at country shows. A raft of great skills and a great example of what many of us dream of!

I will try and find my micrometer screw gauge and check both blades for taper. The Florabest sticks like the proverbial in green wood!

We seem to have gone from Winter to almost Mid Summer in a couple of days, missing out Spring altogether. Sunglasses and aircon on today! Everyone is out on the land desperately drilling. Up to a few days ago there was not a potato, a bean, a sugarbeet seed, a spring barley/wheat seed, and as for the poor old vining pea boys, they are going to have problems later on with everything happening together.

That may well be part of the problem but an old man of the woods came round today and observed that the teeth had not been "set" or whatever the term is for introducing a little splay to widen the cut enough for the main blade to pass through easily. The wood grabbed the Florabest making it nearly impossible to saw. I expect that the steel is good enough to maybe take to a saw master to correct, and the handle and fold out mechanism are sturdy enough. "Spoiling the barrel for a ha'pence worth of tar" comes to mind.

All of you lot are watching too much telly when you should be out there chopping logs!

The Hawthorn may not be in leaf yet but the Blackthorn is starting to flower "Beware the Blackthorn Winter" Next week you will all be searching for your pullovers and gloves!

April 16th here in Lincolnshire, it has warmed up a bit today and it has been really pleasant in the sunshine but the hedges still look dormant