matelot

I burned some pellets on my parents open fire. Tbh, they burned quite well and I would do it again. I just poured them in at one end, they obvioulsy fall through the grate but they still burn beneath the fire. You obvioulsy need some logs as the core of the Fire. You could maybe put them on a baking tray or something.

So how do you target Islamic State without killing citizens? The Russians are doing nothing different to what we did in WW2 when we bombed German cities. What I have against the media is that they are spouting anti Assad propoganda. We removed Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi and now Iraq and Libya are complete disasters. Yet the media paint a picture that we have to remove Assad before Syria improves? Have we not learned that removing Middle East dictators does not work? Then when the Russians sail their battle fleet through the English Channel the media getting their knickers in a twist. ffs, that battle group is away to fight IS. We should be cheering them as they sail past.

Tbh, once upon a time I used to believe what the mainstream media said. Now I'm a lot more sceptical, some things that made me change my mind are: 1. We went to war in Iraq based on a load of lies. If they are willing to lie about that they will lie about most things. 2. The Rotherham sexual abuse scandal was ignored for decades. If media are prepared to ignore widespread sexual abuse of children for political correctness they will lie about other things. 3. German police/ media lied about the Cologne sexual attacks. The Cologne police first reported New Years Eve as being "uneventful".it was only social media that exposed the attacks. The German state broadcaster issued an apology for trying to hide this story. 4. The BBC say that a group called "Islamic State" has nothing to do with Islam. 5. The media still use a report that is widely discredited to "prove" that migrants economically benefit the UK. 6. The media constantly talk about How bad the Russians are in Syria (ffs, they are ripping IS a new arse - surely a good thing) while ignoring what our ally (Saudi Arabia) is doing in Yemen.

It's funny how people that insult the Daily Mail use insults that a 12 year old would use. So you're right, Daily Mail haters defintely can't be described as "intellectual".

Paying £100 to shoot a grouse makes me laugh. The most enjoyable shooting I've ever done was shooting rats at a farmyard. The rats were under a shipping container, someone used a telehandler to lift the container and we shot the rats as they scurried out.

Tbh, I find the Guardian an awful newspaper. A lot of the articles show a complete lack of understanding about the world. It's only the comments beneath the Guardian articles that make the Guardian website worth reading. I like the Daily Mail as it helps defeat the pro migrant propaganda pushed out by the BBC etc.

Work less. When I go on holiday I always find it amazing how much I sleep, then after a week I feel so much fresher

perhaps the underlying problem is that the employers aren't paying enough in wages? I currently work 200 miles away from my house. I only do this because my hourly rate is good. If the employers paid more they would get employees....

perhaps people should be investing in branch loggers to supply smaller stoves?

my apologies you are correct. Farmers don't have to pay business rates on their farm. So that means some guy in a tiny corner shop has to pay rates while a multi millionaire farmer pays nothing. It's not really fair. Farmers get loads of subsidies that few other industries get. Yet they still don't add much to the economy, pay cr4p wages and do nothing but complain.

I live in Scotland. We have millions of acres of hill land that have been grazed bare by sheep. If we left the hill land to nature we'd have more forest. The pic below is what happens when sheep and deer have been excluded from an area of hill. The natural forest around Glen Affric etc is a million times nicer than land grazed bare by sheep. Fair enough keeping the sheep if they were creating millions of well paid jobs... but they are not.

who mentioned anything about "cheap house and migrants"?

lol, farmers get £2.7 billion of subsidies and produce £3.2 billion of GDP.... it's almost laughable. United Kingdom GDP From Agriculture | 1990-2016 | Data | Chart | Calendar

Why? Do you think a fleet of EU submarines is going to blockade shipping to the UK? Most clothing and electronics are imported. Why should we be bothered if the country isn't self sufficient in food? imho, the billions spent on farming would be better spent subsidising growth industries like robotics/ high tech materials/ batteries etc. These are actually industries that could provide highly paid jobs etc. It always amazes me how little economic product a farm worth millions produces. For instance a 2,000 acre hill farm might be worth £2m, yet it will only produce say 1,000 lambs worth £50 each. It seems strange to push so much money into an industry that produces very little. If places like Africa are to escape grinding poverty they will have to build industries. For that reason I'd rather we imported more food from Africa....

looks nice did you do something for drainage? it looks like water would pond in front of your wooden kerbs.

have you told the police? with a partial registration I'd think there would be a chance they could find the culprits.

tbh, it look well weird. I work in road construction. I remember once we were drilling test holes and we struck an artesian well (google it). We had a hollow drill shaft sticking 2m out the ground and water was pouring out the end of it. If you have a length of old copper pipe stick it in and see if water comes out the top. Is there a local university? If there is send the video to their civil engineering department and ask them what it is. I can't see replacing the soft spots with hardcore making much difference (as you say). A proper solution would involve drainage.

Have you seen the price of log stores? a cheap 2m3 store is £120. For that you get a cheap looking structure that might last 15 years as long as you don't throw the logs in. My dad wanted a nice log store for the garden... £300 for a decent looking one... He decided not to bother.... Unless you have redundant outbuildings seasoning your own logs could be expensive.... Perhaps if log merchants could sell cheap log stores they could push bulk log sales as well?

Yeah, some neighbours are a bit weird... I don't think your mum has any responsibility to pay for an 8 foot fence if a 5 foot fence would do. It also seems likely that the gap between the retaining wall and 8 foot fence would fill with crud leading to the fence rotting. If I was a suspicious person I'd suggest your neighbour wants to eventually knock the 8 foot fence down and make her garden bigger. As a matter of interest where would the wall and 8 foot fence be built in relation to the existing fence?

Tbh, I'm slightly confused. Why would you build a 3 foot high retaining wall between the gardens then build an 8 foot high fence in front of the retaining wall? Why not just build the retaining wall and then put a 5 foot fence on top? When the wall is being built it should be easy enough to cast in slots for the fencing posts. I'd agree where the wall/ fence are to go with the respect to the boundary before work starts....

I use a standard Gillette cartridge razor. Until last year I would use them about three times before they became blunt and I got a new one. Then I found out they weren't actually blunt but dirty (smeared with soap). If you get a cloth (like an old pair of jeans) you can rub the razor over the cloth and the razor is sharp again. I must get about 50 shaves from each razor blade now. It's a fair saving each year.

It looks like Brexit is working its magic then

It does seem a lot of work... If you are rarely going to use your lawn for vehicular access how about using a temporary running surface? TuffTrak

Surely in a case like this the police should be involved? They must know who done it and the evidence must be there?

I've never used them. I've personally never really seen the point of weed control for tree planting. I dare say weed control improves growth rates in early years, but when you plant a tree with a 200 year life it doesn't make much real difference. They must cost a fair bit in money and time? Have you factored in the cost of gathering them in 5 years time?