Baldbloke

I’m interested in this thread too as a small landowner without a business but related to the ground. Also if I’m cutting elsewhere for firewood for my own use. My concerns relate to open access in Scotland, my boundary trees, and risks while taking down trees on neighbouring properties. Where and who is likely to cover me (without a related business) for third party risk?

The op doesn’t mention where he’s from. In Moray I’ve given up on hens as we have too many pine martens which can easily climb anything. Even with concrete blocks covering the entry the bastards were able to lever the door tops open to allow ingress.

Surprised he didn't include catastrophe, financial meltdown and cliffedge too. Good to see him referring back to imperial measurements ?

You want self governance and yet by pushing to remain in the EU you will never attain it, as you will be ruled and regulated by foreigners even more remote than those you detest in Westminster. Middle earners are already taxed by the Scottish Government at a higher rate than their English counterparts. The recent pay rise to paramedics and nurses was immediately lost because of the devolved Scottish tax allowance. None of the oil companies you mention are Scottish. U.K. farming exists through subsidies and not by making a living through world markets, and banks on the whole are carrying a scary amount of toxic debt, which if called upon (again) would truly fuck us over. Most wind turbines are manufactured abroad. I have one myself. That leaves whisky. Good luck with running a country on that.

Can’t quite get my head around needing so called Independence from Westminster but to remain in the EU. To my mind that would be anything but so called independence.... Maybe a it’s just an anti-English thing or needing the assurance of being one of the 27 because your scared and know you your country as a truly independent country would struggle. And to base your argument on possible carbon revenues when every civilised country is trying to get away from such usage is the argument of simpletons. Is it really a generation since 2014, and wasn’t there a promise to respect that first attempt at such a vote for that period of time?[emoji12]

A burnt away exhaust valve face can certainly pump out a bit of blue smoke too[emoji3]

Really unpleasant having that experience so sorry to hear this.

Used to do a lot of fencing with rabbit netting. As Gimlet said, don’t go short on the buried overlap or on the finished height of the net. If there’s a lot of rabbit pressure it’s often wise to price in ‘windows’ for drop box/barrel traps every 50 metres or so. Using pins to hold the net down on the surface rather than burying it is sometimes ok (on really hard ground) if the line is being walked every day until the grass grows, but as suggested above, pre-planning by using a furrow saves an awkward dig after a fence is erected.

I use a thing called Typhoon. The rods have sprung buttons and the rods are flexible enough not to damage my biomass chimney or the flexible liner for the Aga. The head has a nylon string head and you fit the other end to a drill. Excellent at £50 from eBay. I use my standard drainage rods for the other lined chimneys

We find the same thing. After getting a quote for a carpet clean prior to the guy coming out his window cleaning service quote (having eyeballed the house) was for double bubble compared to the time taken to remove three stains from a carpet.

I’ve often regretted not keeping old bikes and saws that at the time thought impossible to refurbish economically. Now with the internet things are a lot more possible with patience. If that’s not nicked I’d have thought it worth a punt

On Gumtree. Too far for me, but might be worth a look. If it’s not nicked[emoji848]

Seems to be the later the Land Rover the more unreliable they are, but my ‘96 Defender has done 100,000 miles more reliably than my 2007 Mercedes or Audi or later shit 322 RR or Freelander 2. Certainly wouldn’t buy a new Land Rover. They are truly shit[emoji3] Apart from routine servicing, I had one breakdown in 100,000 miles due to ignoring a noisy front wheelbearing. In spite of the bearing collapsing I managed to file up the stub axle to accept a new bearing. Try that on any other modern throw away vehicle[emoji1303]

Never was a climber, but did earn a living cutting commercially for a few winters. When I got too wanked out to do hard graft outside I got a job with the NHS[emoji1303]

Believe I have a plough off a Grey Fergie up by one of my sheds. Shares and mouldboards look fairly good if a bit rusty. Any use to anyone? Up in Moray unfortunately so a bit far from most. I'll try to remember to post some pictures if anyone's interested.

Having suffered 10 years of Discomfort with one hip, I’d be very insistent in asking for the other hip to be done ASAP were the symptoms to reappear on my R/H/S

The trouble with Codeine is it makes you shit bricks and get piles. And that gives you something else to moan about[emoji3]

Ok, saw my consultant today who seemed very pleased with my progress. I asked him what kind of joint he’d fitted because you asked. Titanium with a ceramic ball end held within a plastic sleeve/surround. Reckons it’s as good as you can get. So sounds similar to yours

Always fancied one but the cost is fairly prohibitive. Along with that manufacturers (with the exception of Tesla) apparent aim of making them look as awful as possible, the financial sums don't really add up. You could buy a hell of a lot of carbon sourced fuels for the price of even a second hand EV. Having tried out a 2015 Nissan Leaf and been totally underwhelmed by its performance and appalled by it's limited winter range, I was surprised by a 2017 BMW i3 performance but appalled by the looks. 40K for a model 3 Tesla along with that disincentive of a hefty 5 year luxury road tax to disincentivize you would also be hard to justify unless being Green was more important to you than the financial argument. An interesting article below (AutoExpress online) that I've pinched off another forum is also worth knowing about. You just begin to wonder how easy Government promises for going Green is going to be. Scientists warn of “huge implications for our natural resources” as government pushes for rapid adoption of electric cars A team of scientists has written to the Committee of Climate Change warning that if the UK’s 31.5 million cars are replaced by electric vehicles by 2050, as is currently planned by the Government, this will require almost twice the current annual global supply of cobalt. The researchers have also calculated that based on the latest ‘811’ battery technology (80 per cent nickel, 10 per cent cobalt, 10 per cent manganese), UK demand for EV batteries will require almost the total amount of neodymium produced globally each year, three quarter’s of the world’s lithium, and “at least half” of the world’s copper. The letter, authored by a team of eight scientists headed by the Natural History Museum’s head of earth sciences, professor Richard Herrington, explains that to replace the UK’s cars with EVs will require 207,900 tonnes of cobalt, 264,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate and “at least” 7,200 tonnes of neodymium and dysprosium, as well as 2,362,500 tonnes of copper. Furthermore, the Committee on Climate Change, an independent statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008, has previously called for all new cars and vans to be zero-emission by 2035. Professor Herrington and his colleagues estimate that to make the (roughly) 2.5 million new cars sold each year in the UK electric “will require the UK to annually import the equivalent of the entire annual cobalt needs of European industry.” While the UK’s 2050 target for all cars and vans to be EVs gives us around three decades to procure those materials, the push towards electric vehicles is a global one and other countries, particularly China, are competing in the global mineral marketplace. The letter deepens concerns into cobalt resourcing uncovered by Auto Express at the end of last year. The scientists also estimate that the energy required to mine materials for EV batteries will take 22.5 TWh (TeraWatt-hours) of energy, equivalent to six per cent of the UK’s current annual electrical usage. Just mining the battery materials necessary to replace the two billion cars in the world would require four times the UK’s total annual electrical output. Once all those EVs have been built, the letter highlights further concerns. Current estimates put the extra power required for all UK cars to be electric at 63 TWh a year, a 20 per cent increase over current generation levels. To produce this extra electricity with environmentally friendly wind farms would require and extra 6,000 turbines, the production of which would require a “years’ worth of total global copper supply and 10 years’ worth of global neodymium”. While the letter highlights making all cars electric and environmentally friendly is a “laudable” aim, it warns that the “global supply of raw materials must drastically change to accommodate not just the UK’s transformation to a low carbon economy, but the whole world’s.” Commenting on the letter, Professor Herrington said: “The urgent need to cut CO2 emissions to secure the future of our planet is clear, but there are huge implications for our natural resources”. Herrington added: “Our role as scientists is to provide the evidence for how best to move towards a zero-carbon economy – society needs to understand that there is a raw material cost of going green”.

Don't think former muff diving is relevant....

Up to 25 I did motocross and rugger, which probably didn't help my joints. I'd snapped both my Anterior Cruciate ligaments by then as well as broken a number of bones. I've also always worked a saw and been an outside person. I don't think crawling around on concrete floors or playing with tools in the garage did any harm.

It was just a part replacement. Rear Cross Member with extensions. A bit of mud off the field added to the ridiculous amount of winter salt they put down up here and six years isn't too bad for some crap modern mild steel without any galvanise. Since the front end isn't too bad I may buy the longer one in thicker steel + galvanise to see if I can get a decade out of it next time. The ones I've been looking at are long enough to include the rearmost top spring mounts.

[emoji3] Depends on who rebuilt it. I bought a very second hand 300 TDI from my work which had been my work vehicle for 10 years. A rear chassis, some wheel bearings, brakes and brake pipes, and a thorough going over and it didn’t miss a beat for six years until the replacement chassis rotted out again. One thing I really value about earlier Defenders is their simplicity. No abs, no airbags, and the simplistic ECU. All my other vehicles, although packed with tech, are an absolute nightmare for reliability purely because of the shit that supposedly is required nowadays. If I could remove all the electronic shit so I just had to concentrate on the mechanicals life would be a bit better. I’ll be fitting a longer replacement section to my Defender so I’ve got one vehicle I can rely on again. meanwhile it’s being used by friends kids to learn how to drive in our fields[emoji3]

Last wood lorry load I bought (2016) was newly cut high moisture content lodge pole pine from forestry Commision @ £410 (estimate 22- 24 tonnes) + £270 delivery. Can’t imagine there’s a lot of calorific difference between larch and lodgepole pine for biomass use. So £17 / tonne wet + delivery (£11.20/ tonne) comes to around £28/ tonne/ cube. £33 / tonne dry seems good to me[emoji1303]

If it’s thin gauge get yourself a m/c tyre. Beaten to it[emoji3]