David Cropper

Time for your nap, I think young man. Off you go then.

I'm on about the reply from Timon, its blank, Stubby! Not the dog one.

Ditto.

Is this tongue in cheek, which I suspect it is, or do you really believe what you said?

Misogynist swine!

Excellent idea, Ratty! For that advice I shall put you on my mailing list for free. Enjoy!

You are correct young Moose, hence why my replies are a touch late. My wife is a member of the local fat club, all 8st 4lbs of her, a vast disappointment to me, however, her larger friends are a true delight, giving me hours of harmless voyeurism. Well, apart from a big Geordie bird, I need ear defenders to get near to her.

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs, I can no longer be your life guru, I'm afraid, you are a lost cause. I may have one last crack at it and send you my rather excellent handbook entitled "Fat chicks and my rise to the top." If that doesn't work, nothing will. I've dispatched a copy to Ratman already. He is demanding more of my literary work. Another disciple I hope.

That's because Eggs has no idea of the finer points of my philosophical outlook on the larger ladies, Douglas.

Blimey Gary, you wouldn't think she was at death's door not that long ago! Lovely dog.

I don't know if it still the same, but when my wife lived in Germany it was not allowed to hang out your washing on Sundays, cut the grass or generally make a noise or disturb people.

In theory here in France you should wrap in work between the hours of 1200 to 1330 because lots of folk come home from their work for lunch. That's not always enforced, it depends where you are. Some villages are quite strict, the Mayor's office will have it written in the "rules and regs" section of the village journal or website. Other villages aren't too concerned. I usually work through lunchtime to get finished and get home, totally forgetting to ask if I should stop. Yesterday, I started at 1000 because I only had a few stumps to grind 110 kms from home, gave me a late start. As I was unloading my kit, the homeowner asked me to grind the stumps at the front of the house as he didn't want the possibility of complaints about noise during the lunch hour. Doing the ones at the rear meant less noise. He'd only been in France 2 years but had been told when he arrived to be aware of the working hours. It's all about respecting the wishes of the client and being aware of possible complaints by the neighbours. Sunday working here is a bit of a no no.

I always think her name is quite ironic actually as a lesbian, I'm afraid I snigger like a schoolboy whenever her name is mentioned.

Call me cynical, but Stuart Lee seems awfully quiet on the subject of chippers at the moment. Just a thought.

B positive, quite rare.

Excellent questioning on Hislop's part! Tied them in knots, didn't let Jenkins and Costas waffle their way out of it. Always admired his tenacity!

No, white is a shade of grey in horses. Have a quick look on Google.

No such thing as a white horse Dan. Only greys.

This is the same bloke using horses for logging, again, middle one, the sepia photo is of Manu getting in the grape harvest in his area, the last one is his team ploughing, absolutely magnificent, wish I could see that!

I started stump grinding with a tiny DR Power 9 hp grinder years ago. The maximum I did was a 75 centimetre chestnut. It did it but took me well over half a day and nearly killed me! If you take your time and, most importantly, have sharp teeth, you can do bigger stumps than what the small grinders are designed for. You will have a problem with height above 15 centimetres. I moved up to a Predator 450, brand new, after 2 and a half years it was falling apart and getting tired. I then got a Vermeer SC30TX, still got that after 6 and a half years, but would never get another small hydraulic grinder. I then bought a Vermeer SC292 18 months ago, a world apart from the tracked Vermeer. I use the two Vermeers alternately as the conditions change. Still have the little 9 hp just to remind me how hard it was in the beginning. The point of this is, buy what you can for the jobs you have in the pipeline, as you progress move to a bigger and better machine. No point spending a fortune on something if you won't get the work for it. All I do these days is stump grinding, before, I incorporated clearance work, grass cutting etc which helped out inbetween stump jobs. Get used to the one you've got, learn how much you can safely achieve with it then move up if you think you can justify buying bigger.