peds

Take up the plastic before mulching with anything. Build the soil, don't cover it. Three layers of brown cardboard out to the drip line of the tree, then loads of manure, seaweed, mushroom compost, woodchip... either in layers or mixed up altogether as you please.

I have two of those steel frames, they are essentially slug-proof tables in my polytunnel and hardening-off area. One came with a free sawmill, I forget what the other one was wrapping.

They really are! Three of them were delivered underneath 4.5 tons of timber from a sawmill. So you just need to buy enough wood for them to be worth building, I suppose. I'm lucky enough to get all sorts delivered at work on brand new blue pallets, and they never get picked up again. So I've been gradually upgrading the various pallets in my woodshed, now there's a matching colour scheme pretty much throughout.

I bloody love long pallets. Edit Question for the pallet aficionados among ye, I came by some great pallets a couple of months ago, made of four x 240cm lengths of 3x3 longways, and four x 80cm-ish 3x3 widthways, with another layer of 2x3 80cm widths for luck. Has this style of pallet got a name?

More light... fell and replant with something that let's more light in?

There's a whole pile of stuff I'd spend 2 grand on before getting one of those. I'm sure it's a joy to use, though.

Fair enough, I'll just keep on with the current system. Have to say, I've never used one, I've only ever seen them at my neighbour's house, outside his woodshed, buried to the hilt in some gnarly chunk. I'll continue to give them a miss.

Go at it Fred Dibnah style and light a small fire under it.

There's no such thing as a glass chopping board, and anyone who thinks otherwise deserves blunt knives. Those big glass rectangles you can buy to inexplicably take up a load of prime countertop real estate... pot stands. The mind boggles. The single remaining piece of advice I occasionally give out following a career in kitchens that I'd rather forget is this: stop holding your knife like a mong by wrapping your sweaty palm around the handle as though you're slinging yoghurt, and pinch grip the blade in a thumb and forefinger instead.

Anyone got a recommendation for a decent wood grenade? I have a growing pile of gnarly pieces, sometimes I run the saw over them again and just burn them big, but it seems a waste of time when there's other decent timber to split. But it's also a shame to waste decent firewood. Some of the chunky bits make nice ornaments, anyway.

Quick bit of damage control from the PR rep there... "This is the answer to your question," says the public in one voice. "No, you are all wrong," they are told.

I remembered after sending 1. No and 2. Yes that I actually know a fella (three decades in forestry) recently missing the end of a left finger (I forget which one, I hope it's not important for your research) thanks to a dangerously unleashed chainsaw. I suspect, as so often is the case, that if the chainsaw had been muzzled, then he would still have full digital capability. He has had to switch to using left-handed saws as a result. I once tickled my left thigh with a top handle in a leylandii I was putting some manners on because of a poor work position, a few years ago. I occasionally have to poke the kevlar threads back in through the little hole so I don't look too unprofessional. I suspect that if all trees were lower to the ground, then it would be easier to find a safer work stance, and the risk of thigh ticklage would be minimised.

Yep. Replacements or new recruits should come as a 2 or 3, minimum.

I save my wood ash from the fireplace in the winter and scatter it about inside the coop in spring and summer months, it helps to keep the parasites and flies down. A good bit of ash goes into their dust bath too. I have a dust bath in an old wheelbarrow in their shed so they can still bathe in bad weather.

As long as your hens all wear a mask and have their booster, they can be allowed outside during bird flu outbreaks no bother. Ignore Moose and Monkey, that's boring. Get chickens, it's great fun, especially if you've got kids. I'm building an incubator this spring to start hatching eggs. Mine free range, but they have an enclosed run and a shed to hang out in on bad weather days. The dog has kept the fox away so far, and the cats keep away the rats. If you don't have these things available, you definitely need to be a bit more mindful of other countermeasures. Keeping chickens in is easy if you keep their wings clipped, my fence is a few 6ft lengths of rebar driven into the ground with chicken wire threaded over it, you can move it around easily to add or remove bits to the run. Even a more permanent solution doesn't have to be Fort Knox, they are chickens, not goats. I try to see my girls at least once a day to gather eggs and muck out the coop (the nitrogen harvest is a huge part of the appeal for me), but with their hanging feeders and waterers, I've left them on their own for 4 days before with no input, going away for the weekend in the campervan. Depending on your local fox population, you might invest in an automatic door opener, I'll be getting one once the 2022 paychecks start again.

Hmm. Bedtime on day 2 was... less straightforward.

They were on it from 0800 to 1600 yesterday, short break for dinner, passed out by 1830. Their energy reserves can now be exhausted even when it's raining outside. Straight back on it at dawn this morning, didn't hear a peep out if them until we got up ourselves. Worthwhile time investment, for sure.

The kids were fairly pleased with their climbing frame beds. I definitely shouldn't have assumed the floor would be flat or the ceiling level in this old cottage, but a bit of jiggery-pokery got it in. A lot of the timber is reclaimed from big pallets, all the steel bars are scrap from work.

Yeah, and what if he tripped on a kerb and got mashed by an artic... what if he had a heart attack following a particularly violent sneeze... how many more scenarios can we list where the helmet doesn't matter? Loads, I bet. But an object falling from height onto a visibly, obviously damaged helmet... questions will be asked. PPE is there to do two things, protect the wearer and tick a box. Even if this particular helmet still worked at 99% for protection, the chip in it means it no longer ticks the box. As suggested, I'd be happy to wear this lid while trimming or strimming in my own garden, but I absolutely would not wear this professionally.

Until the inquest and inspection of all PPE concerned, resulting in a cheque for naff all from the insurance.

Sorry if that upsets you Triggered Mandy, but how were we supposed to know that the pub, which had only been there for 300 years, was going to be so noisy? Anyway, there are still other pubs nearby.

I moved into an apartment right next door to a pub a few years ago. The noise was terrible, every night at closing time there'd be shouting, singing, etc. We complained about it all the time and eventually we got the pub closed down, and we could finally live in peace, surrounded by people who hated us.

My chickens used to eat slugs but, annoyingly, eventually went off them raw. They'll only eat them if "cured" in beer, brine, or vinegar. I've never had them, but I believe ducks are far more reliable and less fussy.

I hadn't thought of it like that. We're saved!