Lucan
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Everything posted by Lucan
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The RSPB often boasts about having more members than all the political parties put together and gets over 60% of its income from them. The issue is that wildlife conservation can be a very complicated and seemingly contradictory subject in some cases. The majority of these members are only interested in seeing songbirds in their garden and have no understanding of the more complex issues regarding raptors, game birds, etc. The RSPB is in my opinion almost "held hostage" by these members in fear of upsetting them. I'm a long time member of both the RSPB and the GWCT and have volunteered for the GWCT (radio tagging black grouse in the Highlands). Saying the GWCT is just as biased as the RSPB is a ridiculous claim. The wife of a former work colleague used to work for the RSPB, but left due to the amount of radical fundamentalists within the organisation.
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Would you change your mind if your cat kept killing animals that were endangered? Say red squirrels, water voles, skylarks, etc? I don't have a cat, but if I did and it kept bringing back red squirrels I'd feel sick to the stomach.
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BBC News - Wildflower meadow protection plan 'backfires' What was it Reagan said?
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One idea I've heard is putting a small bell on a cat's collar, especially during key nesting and fledgling months.
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This wee fella had been living down at the stream at the bottom of our garden all summer. Don't want to come over all soft but really enjoyed seeing watching him from the kitchen window. Found him today, 95% sure it was the neighbour's cat due to his condition and where I found him. Neighbours have 2 cats and say between them they bring back a small animal most nights
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Growing trees from seed.....
Lucan replied to Tony Croft aka hamadryad's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
Collected a couple hundred acorns last autumn, stratified them in the fridge in a medium and planted out this spring. The planting mix was homemade compost, sand and garden topsoil (hence the weeds). Happy with the germination rate and growth rate (tallest ones should reach 2ft by next month) considering I haven't spent any money . Also what with this year being excellent for nat regen, been picking up seedlings (ash, beech, birch, syc and chestnut) before the deer/rabbits get them and transplanting to a small raised bed. Plan is to establish a broadleaved understorey in the small conifer blocks on the farm. Going to try growing alder from seed for the wetter areas using info from this website; Grow trees - Grow a tree with TCV
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Any views on spruce as kindling? Sparks a lot but seems to get the job done. Have a bit of it so was thinking of making up some bags to chuck in free with large orders of firewood.
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Think the first ones are Buff Tips Second is an Elephant Hawk Moth
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Fire on, Sunday papers, pork belly slow roasting . Weatherman expects night temps of 6 this week
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For my 2 cents My missus suffers from depression, she was diagnosised from an early age, her parents ignored the medical advice, thinking she was typical teenager and told her to snap out of it. That was over 10 years ago and she has been having monthly sessions with a phyciatrist ever since. Its hard knowing your loved one isn't happy and there is nothing you can do. It is like trying to cheer up someone who doesn't want want to be cheered up. All you can do is be strong, for both of you.
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Don't mean to pry but is there much difference? I use all 3 larches and all seem the same to me. Is Japanese easier to process/fewer knots?
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If it disintegrated it sounds like the grams per square metre (gsm) was too low. I use around 200 gsm and they survived the last couple of winters fine. Think the highest is around 550 gsm which is used for marquee roofs/walls, etc.
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Spotted these in Falkirk area. Must of been hundreds of young nat regen.
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Thanks for the info, useful advice there and some good looking pieces of kit When I couldn't find anyone doing it online I guess that was a bit of a clue I do have an old McConnel PTO sawbench left from a different generation (dated 1975). Have never used it as it's covered in rust and never had the need to restore it. Again not seen anyone using a PTO to cut boards so is that another clue?
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Looking for a bit of advice into the possibility of milling long boards using a workshop bandsaw. Got a project coming up that requires a decent amount ( enough to justify a new toy ) of floorboards/cladding/etc. The timber (windblow from around the farm) would be cut into 6in thick boards with an Alaskan and would all be green softwood. Ideally the boards would be 10ft long so would need to create a sizeable sled, etc. Was thinking a bandsaw would be quicker and more efficient than doing it all on an Alaskan? Budget of around £700. Pretty new to all this so any advice greatly appreciated
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Woodchip Gardens the way forward!
Lucan replied to A Pettersen-Firewood&Chip's topic in General chat
Only watched a bit of the video but I wouldn't recommend adding pure woodchips to soil. One of the keys to good soil is balancing the Carbon:Nitrogen (C:N) ratio (C = the bulky structure/humus, N = nutrients and energy), leafy plants and grasses have a C:N ratio of around 30:1 which is roughly what you're looking for. Woody materials such as woodchip and bark have a C:N ratio of around 250:1. Therefor when you add such low nutrient materials to the soil the soil itself has to use up its own energy (in the form of N) to break the chip down, resulting in an immediate loss of nutrients (that some studies have shown can last up to 10yrs before a net gain is achieved). You can add woodchip to soil but it must be first mixed with at least equal parts of high Nitrogen material and be fully broken down first. -
I just quickly searched alibaba and did the conversions, the price was from someone offering cheap kiln dried ash firewood. There may well be more charges to apply, having never done it before I'm quite ignorant in the whole thing.
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Have often wondered this. Considering you can get FSC hardwood logs the equivalent of 1m3 unstacked for just over £30 there is a pretty impressive profit margin available, especially when there is no processing involved and it comes ready packed and dried. Guess it depends on how ethical your customers are with local vs imported, but if it comes down to an extra £15 in their pocket per tonne bag could probably guess the answer.
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Do you live or work in rural Scotland?
Lucan replied to Tim Stobart Tree Surgery's topic in General chat
Forcibly taking away land from an individual is protected under the Human Rights Act of Right to Property, unless of course it is in the "public interest". By coincidence the Land Reforms Review Group's final review mentions the buzz word "public interest" almost 250 times. -
On a commercial basis it is possible to sell non-Certified wood in large volume. Thousands of tonnes of non-cert softwood is shipped off to Europe every month from the east coast of Scotland. There is generally a price difference in whether this wood is certified or not. It tends to be around £2/3, you'd have to do you're own CBA, remembering it will also open up more markets. I don't think the whole £85 a tonne of hardwood is really relevant for RHI, depending on you're location you should be able to get FSC green softwood logs for little over £30 a tonne.
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See page 2 http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/eng-woodfuel-woodasfuelguide.pdf/$FILE/eng-woodfuel-woodasfuelguide.pdf
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I'd recommend the clinometer made by Suunto. Bit pricey but a great piece of kit. Gives more accurate and reliable readings than holding a stick, especially when dealing with trees on gradients. If money is no object you can buy clinometers with inbuilt lasers that measure the distance to the tree, angle, height for you . These are more for suited to when you are needing to measure hundreds of trees a day though.
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This is a paper I often referred to during my time studying forestry and climate change. Climate change and the future for broadleaved tree species in Britain It's a good general read for anyone interested in the subject
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD8BNyKu7Ng]Idiot felling rotten tree[/ame]
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Kev, I've been home brewing for a couple of years now and found this website very helpful, still go back to it each year to refresh the old memory Temperature Control - Love Brewing
