peds

What distance are you covering these days? My tib-fib post-op father can make it down the single step to the outside bog all by himself now! Very impressive. I'm sorting my folks shed and summer house today, trying to put them back into a functional space instead of mishmash storage in both. Pretty rock and roll. Nice to have a week off work, anyway.

Nice one, I'll give it a go.

I have a block of home-grown beeswax waiting for an application. Anyone want to suggest the ideal oil and the ratio in which to mix it? Neatsfoot does sound like a strong contender... being cows, and all...

Are you supposed to use an offcut of your climbing line like that?

You're being mean to your fat groundies. Probably hurts their feelings more than you realise. 💔

Like that nice chunky piece at 07:30? Great watch, thanks for sharing.

That doesn't rhyme.

If you like the Petzl Eject, you'll love the Beal Escaper... Beal Escaper Abseil System WWW.CLIMBERS-SHOP.COM The Beal Escaper Abseil System is a retrievable rope anchor designed to let you travel a full rope length without...

Went walking up behind our fence on Saturday, while the winds were still slightly raging... this old ash, biggest stem of three rotten at the base, was facing away from the wind and as such got peeled down. The other two, leaning into it, were flexing a bit, but coping well. Perfect place to sit and have a (very quick) snack while learning about calculated risk...

For anyone who can't recite it from the top of their head: * The Firewood Poem Beechwood fires are bright and clear If the logs are kept a year, Chestnut's only good they say, If for logs 'tis laid away. Make a fire of Elder tree, Death within your house will be; But ash new or ash old, Is fit for a queen with crown of gold Birch and fir logs burn too fast Blaze up bright and do not last, it is by the Irish said Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, E'en the very flames are cold But ash green or ash brown Is fit for a queen with golden crown Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes and makes you choke, Apple wood will scent your room Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom Oaken logs, if dry and old keep away the winter's cold But ash wet or ash dry a king shall warm his slippers by. * Now open to suggestions for a stanza extolling the virtues of leylandii firewood.

Get rid of anything vertical, thin them out a bit (so you can throw your hat through the tree, as they say) mulch out to dripline, feed it.

I knocked over a stand of escaped leylandii for someone a couple of years ago (previously topped, multiple new leaders, a windy mess). I offered to process it for him, said wait for four years and it'll be some of the best firewood you'll ever have. He just left them there on the ground. Drove by a few months ago, the site had been digger cleared... I saw him, asked what became of the wood. He said the digger driver told him it was pure garbage, he dug a big hole, smashed it all in, leveled the top, walked away. Pity. He was buying in double-height pallet crates of kiln-dried from eastern Europe.

I know what you mean, I really do. I think any kind of leylandii or cypress out in the middle of a field, on its own, like you get as specimen trees on big estates, are absolutely stunning. I hate a leylandii hedge, but a big tree can be beautiful. As soon as you go snipping into it though... you'll be starting a cycle of problems for the tree that you'll find it difficult to keep on top of, especially with that big wound low down. My advice would be to either keep the tree or don't, but don't go creating new problems by doing half a job.

I have a brand new collie, but I think it might be defective, or part sloth at least. He's so happy to be left asleep in the van.

Having never had my finger on the trigger, I'd be inclined to say the same thing. But the man in the Stihl shop the other day told me it could...

Well, I mean... no... unless you want to do this? That'll reduce the height without taking the top off.

Taking the top off a leylandii will only make it angry, and instead of one top, in fewer years than you think you'll have half a dozen replacement tops wanting to snap off in a storm. You won't keep on top of the maintenance (be honest with yourself here), it'll escape. Get rid, plant six more (appropriate) trees around your property, sit back and watch them grow.

No no, he's right. You can take it all off, over 3 years. Start off by removing anything dead, damaged, or vertical, then get three colours of tape or ribbon, and tie a bit to every branch coming off what you might think of as the bare bones framework of the tree, each colour spread evenly around the crown, ⅓ each. This winter, take off one colour. Next winter, take off a second colour. Next winter, take off the last colour. Pretty f*cking stiff, as Mick says.

Apples are never a lost cause. A stiff haircut over a 3 to 5 year plan and they'll be good as new.

I don't remember seeing him this summer, but two and three years ago I saw a fella cycling around town with a similar setup - but a Stihl battery mower, not a chipper - and a selection of Stihl cordless tools. Obviously going for the zero emissions crowd. It must have been going well enough for him, because last summer (2023), I saw that he had upgraded to a tandem! Fair play to the guy. Edit: with regards to your ongoing conundrum, yeah, you'll definitely need at least 2 batteries, especially if you hope to be working for someone else... it'll be tricky enough to convince some people on the day-long efficacy of battery tools as it is, especially as a ground saw, without you burning through all of your available power. It'd be hugely embarrassing. Personally, I'm still of the opinion that you'd need a bigger petrol saw, for now, as well as your battery saw... but who knows what improvements in technology we'll see in the future. But some people say that the 300 can match a 50cc saw all-day, I don't know.

Very true, fingers crossed as much as possible of what they've got there gets swallowed up in the advance.

So you're suggesting an alternative, more nefarious cargo, packed somewhere else, to throw them off the scent? Will do.

Someone with a wealth of knowledge about the TPO side of things will be along shortly to answer the meat of your questions, but in the meantime, what species is/was the tree, and would you mind sharing a few photos of the casualty? This will help people offer advice on the best way to about getting rid of the evidence. An 8m goat willow is not the same animal as an 8m monkey puzzle!

Cheers Mike, good to hear. I'll wrap it up well. I was definitely going to call easyjet beforehand to get the official line, although with mentioning no specifics to my actual booking... but I'd have thought a note on the outside of the luggage would cause more problems than it solves... what they don't know can't hurt them, why draw attention to something that would only stress them out unnecessarily? Where were you working at Gatwick Bob_z_l?

"His plane" was shot down... the question is, was he on it? His family, apparently, all escaped to Russia in recent days... now, if I wanted to escape to Russia too, with the bare minimum of people coming looking for me after the fact, I'd probably consider having my plane shot down as a showpiece while I leave the country hidden under the seats of a battered old Hilux. Either way... he's no longer in charge. Seems to be a big win for Ukraine, too, having another Russian-backed regime crumble away. Good for them!