coppice cutter

The expression "long runs the fox" is plainly multicultural.

When I started working basic rate was 33%, there was no minimum wage, and personal allowances were much smaller than now even in real terms. So if you're pissed off now just be thankful you weren't trying to forge a path then.

I detest Nicola Sturgeon with a passion which terrifies me. Therefore I ignore her as much as humanly possible, and then some more. Merely pointing out the inaccuracy of you stating that "nearly half" is taken of you when it isn't, it only serves to somewhat discredit an otherwise valid point.

Not that it affects me, but yes, sneaky and unnecessary. Every chancellor that I can remember since I cared enough to listen has pledged to make the taxation system more simple, transparent, and easier to understand. Yet they never do.

But you still only pay between 19 and 21% on what you earn up to that £43,600 surely, plus up to £100k you have your tax free allowance? Unless you earn so much that those figures are negligible?

You always worry about a spaniel when they go off their food. Their two base instincts seem to be to hunt, and to eat. You'll be glad to get her home again.

On the face of it, it has also made Echo's own 390esx obsolete as it's both lighter and more powerful. But presumably that's what it is meant to replace so you'd be expecting an improvement. Not many pro saws under 50cc available so if it's a good saw there's no reason why it shouldn't sell. The 43cc Makita is widely used and well regarded here but as above, not being made any more, this seems like a good replacement.

Naturally the birds have no interest in the crab apples which are dotted around the place everywhere!

As Paul says, you look to find suitable positions around the edges or in my case you also position near to stuff that can be coppiced or thinned (hazel, oak, maple, etc) to give the apples a head-start. Stronger root-stocks for a bit of vigour and height is also a consideration. This wee area was slightly different, it was supposed to be 100% Norway Maple but in the first few years they done badly so (again similar to Paul) I stuck a few apple trees in the spaces but as it's a southerly facing corner it started to develop a bit of a micro climate and soon became obvious that it was worth a bit of extra effort so I moved a couple of weaker maples for space, added a few fruit bushes, and I keep the grass trimmed a bit. The remaining maples will be managed to provide a bit of shelter but without being too shady, at least that's the plan at present. But it's ongoing and every year you find out something else, which is just as likely to be something you done wrong as right!

I did wonder if the still relatively small number was an issue. Certainly in the early days with soft fruit, it was nearly impossible to get anything, but now that the bushes are much bigger and more of them, it seems more a case of everybody being able to get a bit, humans included. Maybe going to have to be similarly patient with the apples.

Has anyone experience of growing apples in a native woodland environment as opposed to a bespoke orchard or even just a tree or two randomly in your garden? This is the first year of any apples on most of my trees and they are being absolutely mullered by birds already. Wondering if there's any practical preventative measures possible or is it just a bad idea trying to grow apples in a relatively wild setting? Any experiences or advice welcome as ever.

Big fan of Japanese stuff as well, I've a collection of Silky saws and now cut mostly by hand. Also have a Yoki billhook, and an Ono axe, they are works of art. But Fiskars seems to be one company who can take modern design and production techniques and actually use them to produce stuff that both works well and lasts well off the shelf. A niece was looking at a house to buy a few years ago. In the garden was an old dilapidated wooden garage and along one wall of it was a whole array of old hand tools, slashers, billhooks, sythes, sickles, etc, etc. If she had bought the house (which she didn't unfortunately), I'd have got them, restored them, treasured them, and even taken them out to play occasionally. But for day to day practicality, buy something to do a job, take it home, work it hard, set it down, lift and repeat the next day, and the next, and the next, etc, Fiskars seem to have it nailed.

It's so light that I seldom go out in to the wood now without it, even walking the dog. There's always a briar trying to encroach on a path, a low hanging branch about to snap, a fruit bush getting smothered by cleavers, etc and you can deal with it there and then. Light enough to safely use one handed as well. I've one of the original S3 brush hooks, I've trimmed many loads of coppice with it and it's still going strong. This is shaping up to be a useful companion for it come winter time as well.

Could I just add, that saying as you've gone petrol and the machines are new, there's few things that will give you any greater benefit from using alkylate fuel than a hedge trimmer. I've an old Robin, well over 20yr old but I've had it from new and it hasn't done much. Hated using it, the fumes stuck in my nose the rest of the day. Switched it to alkylate last year and it's been a revelation, so much so that I've started trimming one or two bits and pieces that I usually just left until the winter and done with the tractor. No need to drain over the winter either when not in use. You should give it some thought.

Mrs CC, a nurse, approaches jar sterilisation at jam time with the same sort of clinical thoroughness that she approaches wound dressing or stitch removal. I used to think it was ott, but probably not.

Not sure about that. Not many peasant farmers still on the go any more, but seems to be more unhealthy people on the go than ever. Most of those I know on DLA/PIP or whatever it's called now, have never done a hard physical days work in their lives.* But anyway, that would be an interesting debate for another place, no wish to derail another potentially useful and long running thread any further. *edit* - probably worth adding that there will no doubt be some incapacitated due to a life spent working in the heavy industries of the past, which were both brutual and body killers. Although to be blunt, there's probably not many such people left!

I think that in retrospect the widescale shift from FYM to slurry has been a poor move for the land. After nearly thirty years of using slurry, I've now returned to FYM and the change in soil condition over the past five or so since the change has been profound.

He wasn't wrong about much. Here he is commenting on 'progress' in Sub-Saharan Africa. Totally contrary to the common narrative (as he seemed to be on most things!) but makes a lot of sense. Sorry for the de-rail!

Took a punt on one of these this spring, based entirely on positive experience with other Fiskars products. WoodXpert™ Brush Hook XA23 | Fiskars WWW.FISKARS.COM The longer handled brush hook has all the good qualities of its little brother including the redesigned backwards... Early days yet although I've used it a fair bit already. It is superb, the best way I can think of describing it is to say that it is to billhooks what the X series are to axes. Highly recommended.

The wonderful John Seymour always preached that the various arts of preserving your self-grown food were just as, if not more, important than producing it in the first place.

Actually some of the conservationists are starting to twig on that if they introduce an excessive number of pine martins, once they're done killing the greys then they start killing the reds, and the upturn in red squirrel numbers is short lived. Not saying that trying to decrease grey squirrel numbers is a bad thing, but unsurprisingly, addressing a problem which has built up over more than a century is going to take more than a few years.

An elderly neighbour left me in a 36v cordless Black&Decker hedge trimmer to "have a look at". It was obvious that it had done next to nothing but apparently was just out of warranty, was working fine and just stopped. So I split it and started to check all the individual components. Long story short, battery, motor, all the individual micro switches are fine, but the power goes in to a wee tiny printed circuit board before the motor and doesn't come out again. I disconnected the motor and put two wires on it straight from the battery and it worked grand so the PCB is definitely the problem. If it was my own I'd probably just by-pass the PCB and take my chances but I don't want to do that and give it back to a man well in to his 80's, not sure exactly what the PCD is supposed to do but lithium stuff can be weird so I'll report back the issue and his son (who bought it) can chase up to see if there's any chance of repair. Anyway, I assumed the motor would be shot, as presumably did the "garden repair centre" who he took it to before me and said they couldn't find a problem, but it wasn't the case, so it's probably not a wise assumption to make. However if it's under warranty you don't need to worry, get it returned and find out what the problem is.

Cat's are too smart to get caught, so they sit back and orchestrate everything. Sneaky buggers.

Just seen, he's officially going. So, for those who follow these things, who's the new PM? Hope it isn't that feckin cat!

Sames. And as some have admitted, he seemed to make a half-decent job of the London gig. Was never the same man after his covid experience, I think he was recalibrated rather than cured!