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Paul in the woods

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Everything posted by Paul in the woods

  1. Time for a thread resurrection with some beetle porn. (Oil beetles to be exact)
  2. Yep, looks like Reticularia lycoperdon. Common and it'll gradually go grey/brown.
  3. Thanks for the bump on this Beau. I'll watch the videos tonight as I keep mulling the idea of making charcoal. No it's hard to sell small batches of logs making small batches of charcoal might be more suitable.
  4. Links work fine, someone's got too much time on their hands and facebook makes my eyes bleed. You standing in the new elections?
  5. I wouldn't mind if the excuse was real but even some of the worst scare stories doesn't show C19 damaging trees.... Anyway, between chopping some fresh beech logs and sharpening me saw I looked at our parish council minutes and they're have loads of problems with the county highways dept. It's even got to the stage where they're going to write to our MP and complain that highways are wasting so much money, not doing work they've claimed they have etc. I'll not hold my breath. Speaking of parish councils, did you find out why yours raised its precept? Mine did the same thing, voted on a 0 rise but there's 1.3% in the new bill. I assume they regard something like an inflationary rise as zero?
  6. I have gone to the top of the highways dept, and the lady in question reports directly to the CEO. She did half sort out a previous problem but this time is much less helpful. Partly I expect down to the fact the councils have been allowed to blame COVID for problems they've always had.
  7. Probably not, but it's the forth time in four years they've done something. I now need to fell the remaining trees and fence of the area but I expect they'll damage the fencing in a couple of years time.
  8. I was expecting someone to suggest contacting a suitable councillor as well but in both cases not worth it. The MP doesn't seem to reply to letters and when I last spoke to a councillor they seemed more interested in what I could do for them than helping.
  9. Going back to the original post. As someone who's recently tried to get someone in for a job I'm surprised how hard it's been. There's not a local tree business I'm aware of and those that are a bit further out don't seem to have a web site and just rely of facebook/mobile. I've spoken to a couple of neighbours and they ended up getting people in from 30 miles away which seems daft for small jobs. It's not a wealthy area but there's lots of second homes and a good number of large roadside ash showing signs for dieback. Plenty of work for someone with a MEWP I'd have thought.
  10. Does it though? I've been a net saver since the financial crisis and I don't think anyone at the time would have thought interest rates would have stay so low for so long. You would tend to think the the current government borrowing can't last for ever but many seem to think it can. Perhaps a big fall out with China is more likely but who knows.
  11. Or the ubiquitous dormouse. When the first waste was dumped there were a few orchid seedlings appearing which did get some sort of reaction from the council. The waste also includes invasive plant material. Unfortunately none of this seems to matter now.
  12. Sadly there's no such thing any more. The 'local' papers have been swallowed up and are now county wide so no local news. The best I could come up with would be tweeting or posting on their Facebook page although I don't use either. I might have to set something up one day but where will it end, I'll be phoning in radio shows before I know it.
  13. They don't seem to care about that. The work has been contracted out, or rather the old staff have been moved to a 'company'. So although the senior council manager I have spoken to knows the work has been done by 'the company' he has no idea by whom. This came to light after they insisted the worker involved was highly trained and knew what they were doing. I've logged the tree up and it will add to my firewood pile although with the ash I'm taking out it would have been nice to leave the beech. I certainly don't want to spend any money on solicitors etc. It would be nice to get an opinion or two from the guys who work in councils.
  14. I have taken lots of pictures. I've raised the issue of fly tipping and criminal damage which they don't really disagree with. The problem I have is that they think they can do it as they tend to get away with it. I'd normally report fly-tipping to them for example and they're not going to enforce against themselves.
  15. Part of my woodland boarders an itinerant neighbour who once every couple of years turns up to clean out one of their ditches. Unfortunately they tend to venture onto my land, damaging my trees and dumping soil on my land which is mounded up against my trees. Rather than do a sensible job on their own ditch they tend to route water into my property expect me to sort out the mess. A couple of years ago I raised the issue and they admitted they were in the wrong. Unfortunately they came back in December and did further damage which included digging out a channel right next to a large beech tree. A few weeks ago I noticed the beech was leaning and it came down yesterday. Looking at the roots one side has rotted where the neighbour has dug out the channel over the last few years. Reading some of the problem tree/TPO threads I would assume if I did this damage to a TPOed tree I would likely be in trouble. In my case the itinerant neighbour happens to be the council highways dept so would I have any recourse to claim damage? I expect they will simply ignore my concerns even though their actions are likely to have caused the demise of a 25m 80 year old beech tree. Any constructive advice of how to proceed is welcome.
  16. You don't want to use lime if you're planting lime hating plants! As for a pH tester, I've tried a cheap prong type and it didn't work for me. The ones with a pH solution seem ok, go for a kit with a bottle of solution if you plan a few tests.
  17. Can you ph test it? I've mixed composted pine and ericaceous compost for azaleas without problems but I knew the mix would be acidic.
  18. I've done a fair bit of foraging over the shore; limpets, prawns, seaweed etc; then on to bass and my preferred mackerel, all bushcrafty in my opinion. Especially freshly caught mackerel cooked over home felled alder.
  19. One of my relations was working in oyster farming but was made redundant by Brexit/covid. One can only hope it picks up again once leaders get over their egos? I did catch a BBC programme that followed some Cornish insure boats last year. Some seem to be creating a market for local fish locally, is that something you're trying? Once this lockdown eases I must try and get down to my local port as I think they're trying to sell more locally as well. I've always wanted to try spider crab but never seen it for sale, it's been renamed Cornish King Crab or something?
  20. I've always fancied a bit of kayak fishing round here or try an blag my way onto one of the small fishing boats. @Xiucutil what do you normally catch commercially down there? I'll not suggest Rays, but genuinely curious. Up here it's lobsters and crabs and herring still.
  21. I hope no one mentions codwood again.
  22. Not me, are you thinking of Jerusalem artichokes? Funnily enough I've tried growing them in the woodland but the deer ate them all.
  23. I find similar with my little MSA120's Stihl chain. It's cut a fair bit for me and hardly needs sharpening. I wonder what some people must do to require cheap chains and reels unless you have loads of dirty jobs or you're cutting loads of wood.
  24. Anyway, back to something more simple. Tonights dinner was a wild garlic omelet. Wild garlic picked from a patch I've planted and nurtured in our young woodland as part of my attempts to make it more useful and productive. I'm a sort of terraforming bushcrafter.
  25. I know, I've met a pro stalker that does. From a personal point of view I know I can place a shot within an inch of where I want it but I know that by the time I decide to pull the trigger the deer could easily move. The number of times I've shot a squirrel that seems to move the moment I take a shot. Certainly not something for a novice to attempt.

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