Steven P

Just to note and with extreme venom of course, London has millions of migrants, 100+ years of small boat crossings full of them - for a phenomenon that has only been occurring since Brexit. If you read this thread you would persuaded that all these small boat crossings are responsible for 100% of the UKs crime. No, say 150%. Got to ask, is it the crime that winds you up, or the nationality of the criminal. I think you have it all topsy-turvy, the actual crime regardless of the criminal is what you need to look at. Not the small portion of all crimes committed by a small portion of small boat crossers, and a tiny portion of all immigrants. Todays excitement appears to be sexual assaults.. in the UK predominantly carried out by white men.

Yup, as above, something like 85% of rapes and sexual abuse in the UK is committed by White Men. Once that figure is grasped, appreciated, and understood then you can look objectively at the problem. Until then just shouting that 'only foreigners' as the incessant posts on here do, commit rapes are just from a position of ignorance and a racial bias.

There are a couple of ex-solders on here, maybe they might chip in with any advice using your background that might make you more employable - perhaps give general hints and tips about transitioning from soldiering to tree work.

That's because there was no deal before. Starmer had to swallow the Brexit pride and talk to the French, should be hung for that I reckon.

Hush now, he is only knarky that this government has gone behind the Brexiteers backs and actually talked nice to the EU, and the French

What is brown probably won't grow back again satisfactorily if at all, if that helps you. (Your neighbour might like you a bit more too if they are replaced with something more manageable, kept to fence height unless you want privacy from the overlooking window)

Paypal is safe and easy to use - as a business and as a customer, protections on both sides - not really a question on that though, more business management. I guess the plus sides are the customers are used to paying for stuff with their phones - click a paypal link, job done where bank transfer - a slight extra hassle putting in all the account numbers. On the other side though, for a one off it is probably a few evenings work setting it all up as a business account, working out the transfer from paypal to business account - stuff like that. I'd be polite and say sorry, your business isn't able to accept paypal payments but the options are.... Air miles.... I've never bothered but what is the saving in £1400 worth of airmiles? £15 maybe? They might go for the next quote, a higher one no doubt, to collect the air miles but will be paying far more for that than any savings in ticket prices.

That's intriguing, not much use but intriguing.

But in this case, the OP has been working on a farm for the last 10 years, reckon that gives him a step up from a 30 year old accountant of course. Be giving different advice if the background was different.

You see it all over, as we age we are fitter better than similar aged 20 years ago - might have been the rule then and that has carried over despite the evidence. Regardless, 'best years are gone' - but that never means throw onto the scrap heap, pointless - even if they are past, I'd be putting in a fair bet that most of us on here (and we are predominantly grumpy older men), we could still put in a fair shift when we need to.

A small battery one but realistically the brand is your preference (big brands anyway, not knock offs)

I'd be considering a longer one and a shorter one these days - start a smaller hole as support for the longer bits.

I'd take some just for the challenge now! (though likewise if it doesn't split it goes in the wood for the bugs)

Wages - as you put it in the first post, are only a small part, there is the work-life balance to consider too - an hour of free time to spend with the family is easily worth an hour on the pay check once all the bills are paid. We could all chase the ££, weekly commutes to job sites miles away - but that comes at a cost when you have family to consider. I've always reckoned that you can earn big ££ and have no life of your own, or earn nothing and have 24 hours a day to fill... and somewhere in the middle is where you want to be. Might be you are happy spending all day with a chainsaw and taking a wage home at the end of the day, no pressure to run a business, no pressure to earn bigger money. Might be that you are happy to earn similar sitting at a till in Tesco (other supermarkets are available) (that would drive me mad). At 33 you are not past it - working the last 10 years on a farm probably hasn't given you a beer gut and a sit on your backside attitude - plenty of life left and an attitude to graft if needed? Do you have (mentally at least) the time to work at getting tickets / other qualifications / build a second career alongside the farm work? (or do you need to get out now for your sanity?). Looking at what you say, degree, worked in farming, a love for the land? then environmental stuff might be the thing, maybe not mega ££ but if it pays enough the mental side will more than make up for the rest. Rather than asking for what tickets you need just now, maybe there are some guys down your way you could have a face to face chat with (like in real life, IRL!), maybe shout them a coffee - no strings attached - who know the local market, big firms and small outfits operating your way who might get you a start - and they can tell you what tickets they would be willing to fund and what they'd like to see (different areas, different employment pressures, firms are more or less likely to train up depends how many people are looking for work locally)

A weird comment from Trump over the weekend, word to the effect of "I didn't order Epstein to be killed". To be fair, neither did I but that isn't a thought that has ever crossed my mind to make a public denial about it. Thinking further about Trumps best pal, odd isn't it that the prison he died in only has a single CCTV camera that didn't quite point at Epsteins cell, no cameras pointing at the perimeter or gates that would show anyone coming or going, say an hour either side of his suicide - one for the MAGA conspiracy theorists there then, why arn't we being shown those video feeds as well (I'd be assuming any 'killer' wouldn't have been a prison staff member there of course). This story keeps going on and on, longer than the 24 hours press interest I thought it would do.

Bill, that has been my point all along, sexual offences are not excusive to a single race / religion / gender but the ones reported frequently on this thread are exclusively biased towards a single race, religion and gender.

With the length of the auger, you have to be a bit careful not to bend them (from experience)

So this was quite funny, to his face the European leaders know how to keep Trump happy, just nod, agree and let him play golf (or let his golf minions place golf balls down for him to hit). Ursula von der Leyen nodded along as Trump was announcing 'trade deal', 650 billion investment into the US, then she got home and said to the effect "he was making that up, there is no trade deal, it needs all of the EU to sign up to it before we can call it a trade deal" Starmer, as Trump demands windfarms be scrapped he nods along, Trump goes home, UK announces Berwick Bank windfarm. Yes, they have the measure of him, smile, nod, agree and then carry on as normal.

For all his city banking background, Farage is quite coy when it comes to how things will be afforded. I suspect it will be through ripping the heart out of the country. A single policy but no idea on anything else really.

That might be tricky - if homeowner has an accident at the saw mill place of work, it might count as industrial accident... HSE piles in asking for risk assessments, suitable PPE, supervision, training... many places if they realise don't want that responsibility. Same as collecting wood from a yard, might struggle to convince someone to use a saw there for oversized wood

Friday lunchtimes.... brilliant:

Takes me back. The last I found was a DVD Actually that might not be true - found a bag of VHS last year but no player to verify what it was

You can of course relax, there was a list on the news yesterday Microsoft have made a list of the professions that AI are going to wipe out, manual work (ie. tree stuff) is safe, customers service phone reps are screwed. Entry level graduate jobs have been wiped out - managers just use AI - but are not hiring anyone to to become experienced to do the stuff AI cannot. (onto topic, one of the very few things Trump (or his advisers at least) has done is try to encouraging chip manufacturers to return to the US - AI chips are the next big thing)

A while ago we had a guy with a macro that would screw up a drawing he was sending out - not every drawing of course, just the really really important ones - text and hatches converted to lines, random elevations (on 2d drawings) - but only by tiny amounts so it was still useable but drove the customers CAD guys mad (CAD guys all have 'special interests' type of people).

Democratically elected though wasn't he with the 2nd largest majority 3rd time he was elected, (I think he also claims to have achieved the largest majority 1st time around), so whatever it is he is doing must resonate with his electorate in London.