bansobaby

My brother-in-laws job, Divemaster in the Caribbean off the Riviera Maya.... though when he's over here he really loves messing with trees and chainsaws!!!

As regards the CLA, about four years ago it was local to us at Ragley Hall, and we were asked to use our Geomatics kit to measure the casting competitions on the lake. We jumped at the chance, a few complimentary tickets were thrown in, we spent 2 days (4 of us) setting up and testing, tweked some software, and then had an enjoyable weekend doing the measuring. The competitors, most of whom are sponsored and travel the world, were very appreciative of the improvement over 3 men and a dog in a boat guessing their casts. The next year we were asked to do it again. We quoted them roughly what they charge for a hot dog van for the weekend and they never even came back to us....

Anyone remember The Royal Show??? It went the same way, glorified Sunday market with over priced tat.

Nice, if they ever do a re-make of "Fargo", they will need some more bad guys:thumbup1:

Metcheck is good, and netweather.tv has 15 minute rain radar. I spend a lot of time looking at sites like these because I live in an old watermill. The real- time (ish) information can make the difference between "there's nowt to worry about" and "get everything upstairs now". Also, professionally, we use it to gauge the chances of having a full nights work in a double third lane closure of the M5, M40, M4 etc. It's not perfect by any means, but it helps.

As most have noted, some of our "quality" daily papers have previous when it comes to weather forecasting. "BBQ Summer" and "Big Freeze" seem to be trotted out every year. We use various different sources, many of them free, for planning weather critical work in the civil engineering sector. It gets more accurate by the year and if you read more deeply into the subject you appreciate how the people providing the information work with possibly/ nay probably, the most complex system known to humankind. These journalists are at best bored, ignorant and can't be arsed to do proper research, and at worst, in danger of crying wolf. However, sometimes it all goes base over apex, that's the weather for you:thumbup:

I just found this thread today, and have read it through. It's absolutely fascinating!! Many thanks to Kv for starting it and taking the time to post such interesting stuff. Likewise to all the others who have contributed. I have enough scientific knowledge (just) to grasp the more esoteric subject matter and if I ever come across anything worthy of the thread will happily post it. Keep up the good work:thumbup: Cheers Paul

:001_tt2: Love it!!

Its getting late, just going to feed the Tyranosaur, check the razor tape and Claymores, then that's me away to bed! Goodnight all!!

Aye, but as I recall, the poor old boy was feeling a bit isolated, what else was he gonna chat about on dominoes night!

Exactly, unless you have the land, equipment, chemicals and gift of the gab to get away with it, killing the little shites is a non-starter!

Yes, in that the burglar was 16 years old and running away at the time....

I love this banter about buttresses. I know nothing compared to most of you, but when looking at a rotten/ hollow tree, I will trust that the buttress wings have a little bit of integrity. Learning a lot from you all, Thanks!!

A chap called Tony Martin, I think it was, went to jail for unloading a 12 bore into a burglar, ended up killing him. Yes, he did have his sentence reduced or even overturned, but that's the way the law works.

We had a similar situation about 25 years ago, affecting a wide area of the county. Caravans, vehicles and thieves everywhere. A fairly Draconian system was put into place, including: 30-06 rounds to the head of any dog loose on private grazing land (it's amazing how fast the unwashed can run in those big boots with no laces in when Fido explodes 10 yds in front of them), digging moats across the entrances to fields as the river began to rise to their encampments, and even just helping them on their way with Telehandlers. However, the next year, at least 2 millions worth of torched barns in the same area. We don't have the same scale of problem these days, but we still have thieves about. We also have a lot of genuine Romany people at certain times of the year, and they are more than welcome. Indeed I would help them out if I could ever do anything for them. As regards the Law, these days a good shoeing could see you in clink, as has been mentioned earlier.

Sorry Spud, it was a bit late and I was being pedantic! You are right, it's the process that's useful to us. Just didn't like the vision of sheds and workshops across the land emitting small clouds of WMD!

Hydrochloric acid is indeed a solution of Hydrogen Chloride in water. In a similar way Sodium Chloride is what you put on your chips yet Sodium is not something to mess with. I repeat my earlier comment, in that HCL DOES NOT give off Chlorine gas.

The gas will be hydrogen chloride, not chlorine. If it was was chlorine there would be a lot more dead people about.

Depends on lots of things really, how old is the wood ( has it been resawn from aged timber, for example), what you want to use it for etc. A Dutchman Joint really means any kind of repair to a fault, failure or split in the original material ( not necessarily wood ). The tension release in Elm is very high, whether through drying or resawing. Without knowing what you want to achieve, I would suggest you complete the drying first and then decide.

I have a deal with local farmers, if they have a tree down or one that needs to come down (danger to a road, bridleway etc), I can have it. One condition from one of my friends was "kill Ivy". That was ten years ago, I reckon his comment has saved over 50 trees. Oh and 8 inches, stick to what you know! Sorry.

I would recommend IPAF every time. It certainly is the one area of training that has not been taken over by the money grabbing CPCS side of things. I work in construction and apart from my basic renewal through a touchscreen test of my Supervisor's ticket, I have lost loads of qualifications because even though you have previously been trained and are experienced, they want money every 3 to 5 years. I am no longer qualified to change an abrasive disc on a Stihl TS350. I am all for training and gaining experience but so many experienced and knowledgeable operators have simply said "F**** that". By the way, IPAF is good, sorry for the rant.