Billhook

Yes Salt was a driving force in the Roman Empire and I believe soldiers were paid in salt. "Worth your weight in salt" etc. The other thing I heard was that there were a couple more reasons why the Romans bothered to invade Britain. Firstly there may have been a global warming spell which meant that the crops in Southern Europe were burnt off and they had an Empire to feed. There was a bread basket here on the East Coast hence Lincoln and Norfolk being much more important than they are today the clue is in the Roman roads Secondly there is not much of a tide in the Med which means that it is not so easy to fill basins as the tide comes in and then let them evaporate to find the salt. We have many salt names in Lincolnshire, Saltfleetby, psalter road etc and they used the massive tides here and in Norfolk to their advantage. I just feel that there is a lot more to salt than just simple sodium chloride. It is a very delicate balance. Too much will kill you and too little will also kill you . So do not overdo it!

About five years ago, I was too fat and made a giant resolution to lose weight on a long term healthy diet. Cut out bread and beer. Omlette with vine tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms for breakfast and a pint of whole milk. Smoked salmon and fruit made up rest of diet. Certainly lost the weight, over 40 lbs in all. Coupled with exercise regime, daily bike ride and swim on top of farm/wood work. Giant halo now floating above my head! Started to gradually feel more tired more easily, legs feeling heavy, strength not quite what it was. Old age creeping on I thought as I approach 65. Suddenly became apparent that I actually may not be having enough salt in the diet. It says on the web that smoked salmon is 60% salt but on the Lidl packet it says 27% salt. Then I wondered if a lot of that is lost in the washing/smoking process. I never add salt to any meal except chips and I do not eat them any more either. I started to have bad leg cramps in the morning and looking on the web found that salt deficiency could be a cause. Anyway, I started putting a teaspoonful of salt in the omlette at the beginning of this week together with a twist of rock salt and the result seems quite stunning. Not only have all my cramps gone away but I do not notice the 1 in 7 hill on the bike ride and feel full of vital energy. There may just have been a sodium deficiency or perhaps iodine imbalance or even some other element that I needed hidden in the sea salt or Himalayan rock salt. I mentioned this to the old shepherd and he said that when he came in from lambing, completely knackered and exhausted, he used to go for the bread in a big way and thought that the salt in it gave him the boost he needed to go back to work. Just thought this may be of use to some of you sweating away in the tree tops in this heat. I know that most of us know to drink a lot of water in these conditions, but too much water can also make you salt deficient.

I am afraid that this sounds contrived compared to BB in his younger days where he gives it everything he's got.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=giant+horsefly&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM3fPji9rbAhXLWsAKHVkEC3oQ_AUICigB&biw=911&bih=441#imgrc=navAQESd3C7EWM:

Hard day's work? Luxury I call it!

Together with Upspeak I will add Glottal Fry which seems to be mainly used by young women at the end of their sentences. They all make the person sound very needy. Taking the "T" out of the word as in "goh" instead of "got". Miliband and Blair being prime candidates in their quest to be trendy. Finally the use of inverted commas with the hands which seems to go well with wearing sunglasses on top of the head. (Doesn't seem to work for me mainly in cap and hard hat!) As the thread is named "pet peeves" these things are only minor irritants, I do have a life, need to go and chop some wood to make me feel better and forget about it for a while!

I too have this wonderful Elm in the middle of one of our fields and each year it developed a full canopy but later in the year there was a touch of yellowing in the crown. We lost all our huge mature Elms back in the seventies and they seemed to take several years to die. The canopy gradually declined. This tree has suddenly nearly died in one year just like your tree you mentioned. Just a tiny bit of greenery I was hoping to take a cutting but there are a mass of suckers at the base. Could the long cold wet Winter have had anything to do with it? We now just have one large Elm left in a hedgerow. There are dozens of sub fifteen year old elms which succumb eventually and I suppose in time the beetle or the fungus might mutate or the beetle might have a predator or a disease itself. The little Elms just waiting for their moment. Perhaps it has always been like this in cycles of several hundred years even.

It is subtlety different to me, with the former being inexplicable to a certain person whereas the latter unexplainable to anyone. A bit like the difference between inedible and uneatable (like a bit of meat from the BBQ the other night!)

60 litres according to this. But plastic can size limited to 10 litres and metal cans 20 litres both types fit for purpose of course https://www.jerrycans.co.uk/blog/are-jerry-cans-legal-what-is-the-law-on-fuel-cans

You would hope that the word "reasonable" would appear in these cases. Was the work done a reasonable piece of work in the eyes of a jury. It is against the law to do 31 mph in a 30 mph limit but it seems unreasonable to prosecute. Generally people are let off doing 34 or 35.

Why are some days sunny, the wood is perfect, the machinery never misses a beat and life is good sitting on a log in the woods taking it all in., while eating the lovely packed lunch your wonderful wife has made for you. Then another day is rain, mud, stone or iron in the wood, chainsaw will not start, run properly, you left important tools behind, nowhere to shelter, you hate the people you are working for/with and you drop your small screw from the carb and/or sandwiches in the mud....................

I liked the thinking behind this man's theory but apparently it has been dismissed

He built a large wooden box and gradually filled it with a cement/sand mix until it weighed 20 tons. in fact this way he would have already put the wedge under the box to save him digging the hole and going through the risky first procedure. I cannot help being a smart arse, it comes naturally, I was born with one! Actually I found this video on youtube where a man did a bit of lateral thinking on the building of the highly precise walls in places in Peru. So I am not really that smart!

Would he dig away the earth under one half of it, perhaps leaving the end supported by a small piece of wood. He could then slip the wedge under it and knock away the support, the block would tip and so on.

Amazing what you think of when you are stoned!

Just shows what you can do on your own with a bit of ingenuity, makes Stonehenge look easy!

How big diameter/length? and how much?

I have a 14 gallon sprayer on the back of the self propelled mower I use around the yard and garden similar to this one which costs £90 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Draper-Tools-34674-12V-DC-37-Litre-Spot-Weed-Killer-Fertilizer-Sprayer-ATV-Quad/201371719639?epid=1806155923&hash=item2ee2b097d7:g:o~AAAOSw~OdVeax2 The pump went wrong and the local dealer wanted £78 for a new pump This pump has a similar performance although physically smaller for £5.99 or £8 with postage. It has been working fine for over a year now, in fact I think it is slightly more powerful than the original and if it goes wrong I am not going to lose much sleep over buying another. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-12V-70-PSI-High-Pressure-Agricultural-Electric-Diaphragm-Water-Sprayer-Pump/263026519600?epid=18002556164&hash=item3d3d9a2e30:g:locAAOSwJAtZOQ1O

The Morgan car factory had a stuffed owl sitting in the rafters to stop sparrows dropping their stuff on the cars, Quite successful I believe https://www.amazon.co.uk/Popamazing-Realistic-Rotating-Repeller-Deterrent/dp/B01LCLG266/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527685742&sr=8-2&keywords=garden+owls+to+scare+birds

Same as yours I thought. Free speech is paramount and the right to state your opinion as long as you are prepared to calmly argue your case without anger or name calling. As Peterson asks, who has the moral high ground on being offended. The man who says he is a girl but still looks like a man, especially in the nude,and is addressed as a man and thus offended or Peterson who is very offended by not being able to use free speech

Following hot on the heels of Buffalo's thread. (I am afraid I cannot come up with an answer to his problem) I have had my BR600 for some time an it performs very well on a full tank of fuel, until the tank of fuel is half full, when it begins to stutter and eventually stop. This has been the case since it was brand new. I know that I should have taken it back to the supplier some twenty miles away, but since I usually have had enough of it on my back after half a tank, I could not be bothered. It seemed easier just to top it up with fuel rather than mess around taking things apart and maybe doing more harm. Has anyone else had this problem, and is there a simple, cheap solution?

He was brilliant!