john87

To be honest, looking at the blades they look to have been sharpened wrongly.. They are supposed to be hollow ground, the blade in the picture does not?? That would make a huge difference i would think.. john..

Ok, so i own a pristine immaculate 13/75 and I can tell you that the hire shop are full of shit.. Now, leaving aside the fact that the makers tell you not to feed it "green waste" the thing will gobble down anything less than 3" diameter that you can get in it.. The pictures of the stuff "your" machine is putting out, clearly show that it is not right.. The makers tell you that the machine has to be running at full speed while in use, and i would say that this is the problem. If the throttle control does not work, then the thing is obviously faulty.. The thing IS a pain to feed sometimes, as anything with a fork of any size in it will jam in the chute, BUT, apart from that, it makes no difference if what you feed in is the diameter of a matchstick or 2" diameter, the machine will pull it in and munch it up in a big way.. john..

You have a right to abate whether they like it or not.. If they tried to stop you i would imagine that they would find themselves arrested for assault and/or battery.. The relevance to trees, means that in order to trim the trees to the boundary, you most certainly CAN climb the tree or place a ladder on "their" side if this is needed.. I think the idea fo the high hedges this was it gave you a right to have a thing removed that was not trespassing on your land. I do not think you could have claimed that the high hedge was a nuisance either, as i am not sure that you actually have a right to light.. So far as i can remember, any right to light you did have, could be extinguished as the tree owner could say that the tree had blocked your light for many years. You see, so far as i can remember, you can gain an easement to retain a nuisance, in the same way as you can creat an easement that consists of a right of way., The high hedges act means you do not have to let things get this far.. john..

That is how it seems.. It is not something i would choose to get involved in though, not unless it was to do witrh people next door to me.. What i mean is, if i was an arb worker like you lot, i would walk away, not worth the trouble. Not sure if a third party like yourselves COULD get involved, I think it is only the owner of the land themselves that has a right to abate... Best left alone i would think.. john..

No mention of permission here.. If you think about it, if you needed permission, abatement would not be possible, they could just say no and that would often be that..

No, the court bit was to do with the "access to neighbouring land act" That is a separate bit of law that might come in handy one day!! john..

You can go on their land, you just have to give them notice that you are going to.. john..

you can to abate a nuisance.. No court needed there.. john..

If it is to abate a nuisance then you can do whatever it takes. It the tree is a risk to you, then you can also do what it takes. See below.. (4)Where the court is satisfied on an application under this section that it is reasonably necessary to carry out any basic preservation works to the dominant land, those works shall be taken for the purposes of this Act to be reasonably necessary for the preservation of the land; and in this subsection “basic preservation works” means any of the following, that is to say— (a)the maintenance, repair or renewal of any part of a building or other structure comprised in, or situate on, the dominant land; (b)the clearance, repair or renewal of any drain, sewer, pipe or cable so comprised or situate; (c)the treatment, cutting back, felling, removal or replacement of any hedge, tree, shrub or other growing thing which is so comprised and which is, or is in danger of becoming, damaged, diseased, dangerous, insecurely rooted or dead; (d)the filling in, or clearance, of any ditch so comprised; but this subsection is without prejudice to the generality of the works which may, apart from it, be regarded by the court as reasonably necessary for the preservation of any land. I will give the title and all tomorrow, off to bed now college course in the morning!! [asbestos] john..

Why do people have a problem with this??? john...

Afraid they can.. john..

I have a blue Bosch drill i must have bought at least 15 years ago if not a lot more, Was well expensive when i bought it, about £200 i think, but worth every penny. The batteries are starting to lose capacity now, but the drill is as good as the day i bought it. Would i buy another?? OMG yes, a thousand times over.. john..

Ok, my mate with the 130 acres.. As i said, we had about 200 breeding ewes. There was also a market not 4 miles from the farm and he owned several long established butchers shops.. There was a slaughter house about ten miles away.. So, we would grade the lambs [they had to be a target weight bracket, cannot remember what it was after all these years] you did not weigh the things though, you knew by feel, and then we would take them to the market and they would grade the things too. My mate was an expert on these things so never ever got it wrong.. The things would sell, if they were the right price, he would buy his own sheep back. I know this sounds daft, but you got a subsidy for them, so if they were they right price, it made sense to buy them back, if not, we would buy someone elses.. Now, the slaughter house transport people had a presence at the market, so, once bought, you would just go and tell them the pen numbers your sheep were in, and they would do the rest. About a day later, we would go to collect the now dead sheep, and take them to the shop.. My friend was very much like you. He more or less inherited the farm, AND, he was from a bit of a farming background. He was basically self taught though.. I asked him how he was such an expert, and he said he was not to start with!! I asked how he learnt. He told me from books and listening to others. I asked, "what you mean?? how did you know when to dip the things and about worming and when to do it and all that sort of stuff?" He said that when you were down the market, you would hear the other farmers talking about the subject of the day. "got to worm the bloody sheep next week" that sort of thing. The others knew he was a new face round there and he would get talking to others and they would all be keen to offer advice.. The HUGE advantage my friend had, was that not only did he have the farm, he had the shops too. This meant that he knew exactly what the "end user" if you like, wanted. The other advantage, was that he had a wage from the shops, he never took a penny out of the farm for many many years, and of course, lived there for nothing. The only stuff he had to buy in was fencing materials, the oats and barley, wormers and the like and fuel for the tractors, oh, and straw for bedding. We did our own hay, about 2000 bales at a time. We made about 100 bales of silage too.. He had cattle, but only about 15 of them. Like you, i did not like the things one bit!! I used to dehorn calves though, but that was it for me! Now, my friend also rented out space for horses. The one bloke had about eight of them. This bloke was a right pain, and i asked my mate why he put up with it. He replied; "because i make more money out of him than i ever do with the sheep" This gives you an idea how it is, and this was nearly 40 years ago.. Now, nearly 40 years later, the market has closed, the slaughter house has closed, and my mate buys in all the meat for the shops from a wholesaler. He says it is cheaper than growing the things yourself.. He still has the horses there and rents out about 60 acres to some looney with sheep!! This bloke, [the one with the sheep] does not make a bean, basically because he will not be told, wrong sheep, wrong ram, not a clue and will not be told.. Totally clueless, i could do better.. I asked my friend about a year ago about the subsidies. He said it has all changed now, and is so complicated that unless you farm thousands of acres, it is not worth the effort.. So, if you want to do it, you will learn the same way, but you will never make any money out of it.. I mean, you need one van to take the things to the market, a different van to get them back from the slaughter house, you will be buying in hay and straw, the list goes on. It is like Gareth said above.. Probably better off covering your land with solar panels.. What ever you do, please post back, as we are all interested in such things, so would like to see how you are getting on. Others on here know FAR FAR more than me, i was just a sort of amateur at this sort of thing, but believe me, when the owners clear off for weeks on holiday, and you are left in sole charge of 130 acres and 200 sheep [that all belong to your best mate] it concentrates your mind no end!! Good luck with it all though!! john..

Not saying it is a daft idea, but you need to live on site.. When i had to do with sheep, you had to get up first thing in the morning and walk around all the boundaries [of 130 acres] to make sure none had got out. The usual thing is, one or two will find a weak spot in the fencing late at night, and then, very early the next morning, the lot will all walk out through the same gap.. So, you had to find the gaps before you had 200 sheep in the school next door.. The you had to trudge across fields and put out maybe ten bales of hay in the freezing bloody cold [we would leave a horsebox trailer full of hay in the field so we did not have to carry them], then again at night, AND feed the things oats or barley or whatever. Just as well as we would have a trailer with hay in it, as from time to time, it would be so cold the tractors would not start.. After lambing [which involves checking them every couple of hours, so yes, midnight and 3 in the morning, then again at about 5am, that sort of thing] you then had over 400 of the things to look after, and all in the freezing cold, as you would have the things lambing in about January.. It was bloody freezing.. You would also have prolapses and the like to deal with in the run up to lambing.. It would have you on the go first thing in the morning, in the evening, and all weekend.. Do not get me wrong, it is not none stop work by any means, but you HAVE to be there, or at least someone does, all the time, for the well being of the sheep.. Fairly often you would have sheep with some sort of brain disease. A predecessor of "mad cow disease" i think. They would go round and around in ever decreasing circles until they fell on their side. If you left them for any length of time, the crows would peck their eyes out while they were still alive. We would spot the ill ones, catch them, it was not difficult, they would run away, but in a circle like a boomerang, and hence come back to you, and then bash them on the head with a hammer.. It will be a steep learning curve for you.. If you really want to do this, then do it, but it is not like having a cat.. john..

Yes, my other half had two of the things up until about three years ago. Had to have them both put to sleep in the end. The one was 26 years old and had some sort of leg problem [i am no expert!]. He could still get up and walk trot and canter, but you could tell he was in pain, and also, you could tell that he was sad as he could no longer behave as a horse should. We decided that his quality of life was not what it should be, and so the decision was made.. My other half had owned him since he was about 18 months old.. The other one she bought as a 3 year old, mainly to stop the local cruel twat from buying it. [They were a moron that had 27 horses at one stage and had most of them taken by the authorities.] Problem was, it was literally mad. It was like an autistic horse.. It was lonely and wanted to have friends, but at the same time, it was frightened of other horses and everything else too. To be honest it was dangerous. As it was quite a small horse, it would have been suitable for, say, a 13 year old. Problem was, a 13 year old would not have been able to control the thing. It would have ended up being sold on and on, and would eventually have ended up being one of them horses you see abandoned in a field up to its neck in mud. We did not want that for our princess, so she was put to sleep as about a 9 year old i think it was.. It was the kindest thing for the two of them.. john..

Yes, you are more or less right. Turns out your land has to be more than nearly 13 acres as you said. Once above that you can put up agricultural buildings.. As you say, the councils are not daft, and if the land stops being used for an agricultural purpose, you will be removing the shed.. I know someone that did the pig shed to house thing. They got planning in the end, but it took them 30 years and so much hassle it was never worth it... john..

Yes, defintely right. Coupled with the fact that every horse owner i have ever met is a nutcase, extremely dishonest, massively selfish, cruel, [as in their fags and booze is more important than the timely intervention of a vet] They will also just dump you with the horse when they cannot afford it... Besides, they only approached you as they were being chucked out of the last place.. There ARE people who are not like this, but i have never met one.... john..

Yep, agree entirely. 100% john..

Hmm, I last had anything to do with sheep about 30 years ago, so regulations and practice might have change somewhat How many sheep?? I would say about 10. You will also have to fence the field into sections to make smaller fields so you can rotate them. This is a MUST as otherwise the whole lot will end up like a swamp. Secondly, after treating them for foot rot, or after worming them, you will have to turn them back out in a different field or it will have been a pointless exercise.. The planning people will have to let you put up a shed. You tell them that it is needed for the "in wintering of sick and pregnant animals" i think the wording is/was, and then they have no choice.. As for the size of the shed, you will need enough room for the sheep and to store hay and the other stuff you will need.. Rams are no different to ewes, but if you have a ram, you will have to keep the thing away from the ewes as otherwise when they are in season you will be having random lambs at random times and dates. You do not want this, as when they are lambing you MUST MUST, be there.. In addition you will also have to cut their tails off [no choice in this unless you like the idea of your sheep being eaten alive by maggots] and castrate the ram lambs [Both are done by means of a rubber ring] You will need someone to teach you how to do this.. Injections.. If you are not going to breed the things, you will not really have to worry about this.. You will have to worm the things though.. Mind you, if you cut them shearing them, or if they injure themselves, [or get injured] you will have to give them penicillin injections.. This might be terribly expensive, as unless you have a registered small holding [you get a number i believe] you might well not be able to buy the stuff you need anyway.. Sheep shearing.. Yes, once a year you will have to do this. You will have to do it yourself though, as no sheep shearers will be interested unless you have 200 sheep.. and you have to pay them of course.. It used to be a legal requirement to dip the things once a year too. Even if not a legal requirement now, it is still a good idea.. Foot trimming, Yes, you will have to do this, Again, you will need to have someone show you.. You will also have to treat them for things like foot rot.. No, just the grass will not be enough. You will need to buy in hay, AND have somewhere to store it, In the winter we used to give ours oats and barley too.. Again, you need advice, as if you just give them a load of barley apparently it will kill the things.. We also used to have "sheep pellets" Fencing, you want proper sheep netting topped off with barbed wire. God knows who told you barbed wire was illegal as we used loads of it.. Have you seen the price of fencing??? Depending on where you are, foxes will not be a problem, but ordinary dogs will be. They will kill and maim your sheep for fun. The only cure is a 12 bore.. As for breeds, go and see what others around you have.. Where i am, i would have welsh ewes and if i wanted a ram, a continental thing like a Texel.. [opinions will differ greatly, but go and see what the locals have] At the end of the day, unless you WANT to waste money, AND you are able to be there all day, forget it. You HAVE to be there, as otherwise you WILL come home one day to find that a dog has killed or maimed the lot of them. This will only take the dog minutes.. You will also find the sheep falling in the water and being too heavy then, being unable to get out and drowning. A sheep by the way, makes no efforts to rescue itself.. We used to have them cause up in brambles, and left to themselves, they would just lay there until they died. You will also have the locals climbing over you fencing and the sheep will be out [and if one goes, they all go] and, the first time you have an argument with the locals, you will find that you now have people cutting your fences.. Please listen to the others, sheep is a bad idea.. rent it out to someone with a horse.. Problem being, is that you will need planning permission for this, a horse not being an agricultural animal.. john..

I dont think it is quite the same.. As you say the highway code is not law, however, it can [and is] relied upon to "create" offences. There is absolutely no law that says you have to drive on the left. If however, if you choose to drive on the wrong side, contrary to the provisions of the highway code, then the code can and will be relied on to create the offence of dangerous, reckless, careless, without due care etc Not sure that the insurer could decline to pay out though.. Not sure about up trees though!! I suppose they would judge what you did against what they suppose a reasonably prudent man would have done in the circumstances?? john..

I think that is entirely correct. Think of it like this. There is NO law that says you have to have two ropes. It might be considered "best practice" but that is meaningless.. Say you had an accident in your car. The insurers could not argue that best practice was not to drive the thing, as this [driving the things] has been proven to be dangerous and that therefore "best practice" was to go on a bus so they are not paying out.. john..

Ahhhh.... Is your's like it too then?? john..

Ah, yes, i see! The sprocket in the bar turns well too though. I oil it through the little hole in the bar. You can see the roller bearings in there! john..

Tree report?? What possible difference will that make. The tree roots traspass onto their property. They can abate the nuisance any time they like.. john..

Yes, is that indicative of anything?? At least now i know the chain fits the sprocket well!! john..