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Jim Neal

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Posts posted by Jim Neal

  1. Quote

    trees take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere when they are alive and, when they are chopped down, the carbon is stored in the wood. As long as the wood doesn't end up rotting or being burned, the carbon is not released.

    A perfect example of moronically guided fake environmentalism.  What is the probability that the wood used will not ever rot or burn, for all infinity?  Zero.

     

  2. The site manager at our village school is at his wits end with the feral pigeons that congregate on the roof and tower.  Apparently the guano is over a foot deep in places 🤮

    He asked me if there is any viable active control method I could think of.  Obviously shotguns are out.  The only shooting I guess is possible would be a low power (?) air rifle but a bit dodgy safety-wise; you'd only be able to shoot in the direction the photo is looking towards, and obviously upwards with no backstop, which takes you over the newer school building roof and to the playground some 200yds back.  I don't think it would be wise or achieve anything trying to do that, plus you can't retrieve the birds very easily but that's not really a problem with 50+ red kites visible in the sky at any one time round here!

    I'd personally look at preventive measures such as meshing the slats on the tower and fixing spikes on perch points, but he seems keen on some sort of culling so I said I'd see if I could maybe locate a local falconer, or at least someone familiar with the sport, to see what they think.  Can anyone help?

    Thanks :)

    Gedd Sch.jpg

  3. On 21/08/2023 at 20:38, TIGHTCHOKE said:

    Yes of course, but under the Labour Party candidate selection process, women were selected because of their gender rather than their ability!

    Very obvious when you look at Diane Abbott, you just have to put 2 and 3 together to get 4........

  4. The affected plant is on the right. 

    IMG_4921.jpeg

    Different angle

    IMG_4920.jpeg

    On 21/08/2023 at 23:19, mrpip said:

    Been perfect weather for late blight,  it's gone through all 30 plots on our allotments, topped all main crop potatoes 2 week ago, and took up all outside tomato plants (all infected), got 6 moneymaker in greenhouse no sign yet and cropping well now were getting some sun. Dug 9 rows of Picasso (12 ft rows) good crop 4 sacks clean and 1 sack slug damaged or caught with fork only a couple of small ones near top had signs of blight. Started digging main crop cara today not looking to bad to say there coming out early. Think I caught the potatoes just in time before it travelled down the stalks.

    Seeing the wider pictures of the plant… Would you say my problem is blight? The leaves look fine

  5. On 21/08/2023 at 11:00, JDog said:

    I am a first time tomato grower.

    This plant is no more than 50cms high. We have taken eight tomatoes from it already and there are many more to come.

    Our other plants with different varieties are also doing well. 

    I would say it's beginners luck.

    20230821_105545.jpg

    I’m amazed that a gent with so many strings to his bow (and candles on his cake 🤪) is a first timer to tomato growing!

    Looks like you’ve done well, keep doing what you’re doing 🙂

    13 hours ago, Keith 66 said:

    I have had a good year with tomatoes, I usually pick some plants up from the local horticultural society, moneymaker or whatever they have going. Had blight for several years. This year i bought some seeds from sea spring seeds in dorset, Captain beefheart, Consuelo & Tigerella. All have done well but the Captain beefheart was really good, one plant was put in a south facing corner with full sun in a good vegetable bed with loads of compost, it reached 5ft high & the crop is huge, great beefsteak tomatoes ranging from 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound in weight. Definately be growing these again!

    I’ve got a random surprise beefsteak among mine. It was given to us by some neighbours as a seedling, among a batch of five, supposedly three sweet millions and two gardeners delight. The biggest fruit is now approximately 3 inches in diameter. I’ve let that plant go a bit haywire so might end up with half a dozen canes and a mile of twine holding it up!

  6. On 17/08/2023 at 19:41, Bigbob said:

    Have you watered them in full sun looks like sunburn 

    Pretty sure it's not that.  They're against a south facing wall, I normally water first and last thing, but anyway I use a watering can with no rose and just wet the compost.  This one is in a manger up on a wall.

    I don't think it's blight, doesn't look like the pictures I've looked up, the leaves aren't suffering.  None of the other seven plants (I miscounted before) are suffering so surely it would spread through them?  This plant is in the manger next to a yellow tumbler which is perfectly healthy (albeit being hammered by something which gets to eat them before I do!).

    I lost my tomato guru (Dad) last year before I'd managed to learn a great deal from him about cultivating tomatoes.  So I'm learning on the job by trial and error.

    I know about nipping off the errant shoots at the junctions, and there's a rule of thumb about maximum 5 fruit trusses per plant, however I was a bit too severe with a couple of this year's when they were quite small, and maybe not severe enough with some others!  I'll grab a pic when I get a minute.

    Thanks all....

  7. On 28/07/2023 at 10:58, Penelope said:

    I caught a documentary, recently, where they mentioned that a small number of Me262 (3/4), shot done 25 B17's in a single missile engagement. The remaining B17's broke off and returned to base.

    Apologies, I'm a bit of a nerd on these things :D

    For air-to-air combat, the ME-262 was fitted with four 20mm cannon as standard, although rockets could be fitted and were used, but to a much lesser degree (possibly due to production/materials limitations).  They were fired from outside the range of the bombers' defensive machine guns but were not terribly accurate in their deployment.  The 20mm cannon shells only needed one in the right place to put an allied bomber in a difficult spot, and a decent bunch of them in the right place saw the plane going down.  These were best delivered from a much closer range, but the problem was the closing speed of an attacking jet on a lumbering piston engined bomber was quite significant.  The 262 pilots developed tactics whereby they tore down through the bombers from height, from behind.  The Mustang pilots escorting the bombers cottoned on to this and used to wait at very high altitude for the 262s to arrive, then would convert height into speed to get on their tails to see them off.  A few 262s were maybe shot down but this was probably more of a deterrent.

    Sources vary, some even dispute this, but it's generally believed that the first recorded victory for the 262 was against a DeHavilland Mosquito which was damaged during the engagement and reportedly crashed and was destroyed, attempting to return to its base.

    The ME-262 project was (as became typical later in the war) ruined by Hitler's constant meddling and interference.  Despite its original design intending it to be an intercepting fighter to take down the enemy bombers, he wanted it put to use as a fast bomber, to pierce British defences and hopefully abate the impending invasion on France.  All this did was delay the project and save a lot of lives and planes of the RAF and USAAF who could well have been hit much harder, much earlier. Eventually, Hitler was persuaded to let the Luftwaffe use the plane how it was intended.  This was helped by another model of fast jet bomber being brought through the design/prototype stage to satisfy Hitler's demands.

    The biggest bag of allied planes destroyed from one raid as far as I recall reading about was around a dozen, for the loss of three 262s.  Sources for thsi sort ofthing vary greatly.  Claims were wildly exaggerated from Luftwaffe pilots towards the end of the war, or more likely the propaganda wildly exaggerated them.  The Luftwaffe really was a spent force by the time the jets came into use though.  Germany couldn't manufacture the new planes quickly enough and they had virtually run out of any good quality pilots to fly them.  The 262 itself killed a fair few of its pilots due to engine failures.  Being such a new technology, and with Germany unable to obtain the ideal materials to cope with high fatigue & stress, the engines had to be changed/overhauled something silly like every 10 hours of flight time!

    I find the ME-262 a fascinating story of what could have been.  @TIGHTCHOKE I have no shame admitting when i scrolled to that photo I nearly wet myself because I was unaware there was any airworthy 262 in existence.  With it being a replica it's obviously not going to evoke the same emotions as an original airframe, but I must say I have a massive amount of respect for the guys who've built it!  I agree, they should have ragged it!  After all, if you break it you can spend your next lifetime building another one 😅

    Thanks for the pics 👍

  8. Stihl Super or Husqvarna XP (both green colour, the higher performance grades).

    For the price difference it's false economy using the cheaper stuff.

    Don't do what I did years ago and run a high performance machine using moped additive which burnt out the piston & pot!

  9. Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply.  That's some great advice, I appreciate it 👍

    In buying this house, I've inherited a lot of workmanship that's "interesting" to say the least!  I'll eventually rent the house out so it will need to pass the recently introduced electrical test - which it won't at present!  The biggest nightmare I've got is I'm going to have to lift a load of patio slabs and do some digging, then reinstate afterwards, to run an armoured cable to the outbuildings.  The previous owner's attempt at supplying the outbuildings was to run a not very thick twin & earth spurred off the house ring main, inside a plastic conduit, just below surface, which I put a garden fork through the first time I dug the weeds up in the flower bed by the house!  To be fair it runs a fridge, freezer, 4 strip lights, battery chargers plus whatever else I'm using and it hasn't caused fireworks yet.....

  10. I'm sick of buying flimsy rubbish from DIY shops & screwfix etc etc that doesn't work properly and fails after 6 months.  I need to renew some outdoor lighting and wondered if anyone could recommend somewhere to purchase from that's not rubbish quality.

    I'm looking for a corner PIR detector, standard PIR, a few standalone manually switchable lights, that sort of thing.

    Thanks!

  11. 1 hour ago, Minky said:

    I completely understand this.  My eldest sister didn't fair well with a bad covid attack.  She has had to go into a care home and is paying £4500 a month for the privilege .  They have taken most of her life savings and are looking at her family home.  SO last year's holiday to Tenerife and this year's to Madeira have mainly been paid for by my tax free part of my pension pot.  Both myself and the Mrs have sufficient other funds. SO  I am going to enjoy the fruits of my labours before some private company dips their hands into my pockets so that they can enjoy my labour.

    It's heartbreaking to hear of this and so many other identical stories.  If anyone is reading this and thinking they might end up going down the same path, have a very serious look at putting your house in trust to the eventual beneficiaries of your will.  This not only helps with care fees but also inheritance tax.  Take some professional advice.

    Also a good idea, presuming one has a trustworthy relationship with one's sons/daughters, is to set up both types of Lasting Power of Attorney.  This helps guard against all sorts of things, should a person become too poorly or too bonkers to manage their own affairs.  You never know when it's coming, so best to get it sorted beforehand.

    All cheerful stuff.

  12. 4 hours ago, rovercoupe said:

    Cartridges, at the rate there going up you could sell them in a couple of years and make a decent amount

    That's quite possibly the most shrewd answer of them all so far 😕

    I can also vouch for premium bonds, in so far as they keep trickling you small wins, usually approximately equal to interest of 3-ish percent on an instant access savings account.

    Do you need instant access?  If so, the best rate I have seen recently is with Chip, which is not a "bank", just an online app.  Don't be put off, it's kosher, I've got quite a few g's in there running at 3.71% last time I checked.   Check out MSE for more info https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/#easyaccessanalysis

  13. It was a very pathetic display.  However, the objective was achieved: they disrupted a major televised sporting event and got their name credited with the act.  As much as it pains to say so, they will have won themselves a few more sheep as followers no doubt.

    I'm wondering if snooker has attracted this protest because they've switched title sponsor of the world champs to Cazoo?  A firm that deals in nasty cars with their nasty oil etc etc.... ?

    You never got this with BetFred!  Maybe this will be a one-off sponsorship.  There isn't a Just Stop Betting is there?!

  14. As you can see, there are lots of people with a less than positive experience in renting out property.  The quiet majority are those who do make it work.

    There are lots of reasons why people say "never again" after a foray into BTL, most of which are down to poor planning, unrealistic expectations and a general lack of ability to make a venture work the way they want it to.

    I draw on my own experiences as a landlord, being a tenant in the past, having friends with rental properties, and also working as a contractor to the BTL sector.  I have some golden rules which I think, if followed, will steer you in the right direction:

    1. Invest in the right type of property.  This is the absolute most important thing of all because it's the foundation that your BTL venture is built upon so a **** property is going to set you on the wrong path.  Forget the bottom end of the market; letting out cheap properties at low rents is simply asking for the dregs of the market to cause you problems.  Go in a bit higher, for example a decent quality, post-war 3-bed semi in a respectable enough part of town.  If all you can afford to buy now is a skanky Victorian terrace or somewhere that looks a bit grim, forget it, save up some more and look at it in another year or two's time.  Also, older and/or cheap properties have a habit of springing unexpected maintenance costs on you, constantly.  I'd rather rent out 3 good quality properties than 6 wrecks.
    2. NEVER advertise privately to save money on an agent's finding fee.  You'll end up with the dregs who can't go through an agent because they have bad credit, bad references etc etc.... these sort of people are MUCH more likely to end up as non-payers and/or house-wreckers.  A good agent is well worth their fee.  You still can't guarantee a great quality tenant through an agent, but you massively reduce the chance of getting a nightmare one.
    3. Manage the property yourself.  You don't need an agent.  If you've made sure the property is in good order and have a good tenant you don't need to pay an agent to do nothing month after month.
    4. Make your property one of the best examples of its type in your area.  Whatever property you buy, DO NOT be a skinflint and leave it with peeling wallpaper, tired decor, shabby flooring, dripping gutters etc etc.... this again will attract the dregs of the renters who are probably stretching themselves a little to rent this type of property.  INVEST in the property by giving it a decent kitchen and bathroom.  Make sure all the joinery is in good order.  Fit some nice door furniture and faceplates on the switches.  Sort any dodgy plastering and decorate it throughout to a high standard (nowt wrong with a bit of good old magnolia!).  Renew the carpets; you don't have to spend a fortune on carpets, just a respectable quality polypropylene pile that looks OK - steer clear of wool and nylon which stain easily, always go for polypropylene because it cleans up really well even if fairly trashed.  Making your property look better than the competition gets you the best rent for it and filters out the dregs who will always be down the cheaper end.  I can't stress that enough.
    5. Be realistic with your financing.  If your mortgage is going to be more than about 70% of the expected monthly rent, you're cutting it too fine.  Don't do it.  You need to consider also that every time you change tenants you'll likely have at least one month void with no income and you'll also be paying an agent anywhere between 50% and 100% of a month's rent to find you a new tenant.
    6. Don't go into BTL if you want to use all of the profit as an income source.  One blip and you're stuffed.  Sure, take a couple of hundred quid, but not all the profit.  You can overpay on your mortgage up to a certain % every month, which will reduce the monthly payments as time goes on (slowly at first but as you get a few more years down the line it starts to really show).  Keep an amount back every month in a separate savings account as a contingency fund.  You'll need it at some point.
    7. VALUE your tenants because without them you're screwed.  Make sure they can contact you easily and RESPOND to them immediately if they have any concerns or report maintenance issues.  Get maintenance issues sorted IMMEDIATELY.  This really does earn you a lot of good will from your tenants.
    8. Don't get emotionally attached to the property because it affects your reasoning and rationality.  I'll give you an example: last week I went to do some work at a BTL property between tenants and the landlady was there, totally stressed out..... "Can you believe it?  She's done this, she's done that, only been here 9 months..... blah blah..."  She was blurting out all sorts of irrational, unrealistic things.  So what?  It's a brick box that makes you money, this involves someone living in it, sometimes people have mishaps, it's all just material stuff and you have a deposit to cover damages.
    9. You also have legal options if a tenant causes you large losses above the deposit amount, so make sure you get yourself an insurance policy that's worthwhile.  It shouldn't be more than around £300 or so per annum.
    10. Remember good times and bad times ebb and flow, so don't lose heart if you have a tricky period, the good times will come back if you've made realistic plans and can make rational decisions.

     

    Nobody's got a crystal ball, even with careful planning sometimes you can end up with a few problems.  BUT the better you plan, the less problems you have and the less expensive they are.  You can make it work if you're smart.

    Good luck 👍

  15. My highlights of the video:

    The guys scarpering through a door into what looks like a portacabin, only for it to fall down seconds later revealing it to seem like merely a panel with a door in it.  They could have gone around it?!

    "My beard was cut open!" this man says.

    I don't worry about the the past, the inevitable, or things outside of my control.  Meteor strikes fall into the latter, so if it happens it happens!  Not healthy to spend too long thinking about this sort of stuff IMO!

  16. ... a rook in a Leylandii treeeeeeeeeeee.

    Anyone who says they didn't sing that to the prerequisite tune is a liar!!

    Well that's it, my roost shooting season is over for another year.  On Saturday I ventured out alone, armed with the knowledge from my recce the previous day that our woods are virtually devoid of woodpigeons.  My Friday afternoon dog walk was around a wood I mentioned recently that can be good for roost shooting, but the farm has had two gas cannons on the field top side of it, one of them I swear was actually pointing into the wood.  All I can say is that it has been a very effective pigeon repellent.  I'd noticed since about a week prior that the gas guns had been switched off so I went in forlorn hope that the local pigeons might have cottoned on to this new-found sanctuary.  Alas, it was not to be.  My walk round at about 20 minutes before sunset disturbed just three single sitting pigeons in different places.  There were no birds in the air around the wood, or over the top passing by.  Nothing, zilch.  Curiously I observed an abundance of what looked like fresh feathers and poop on the ground under quite a lot of trees.  You'd swear from that evidence that the wood might surely be crowded at a time approaching sunset but, with nothing coming in, I scratched my head and headed back home for dinner.

    Feeling rather disappointed, the following day I went back to the same wood I've shot on my last few outings, with the line of tall Leylandii trees.  I hate hammering the same spot week in, week out, but I literally had no other choices.

    The wind, what little there was of it, was still round in the north where it had been since before the previous weekend.  A little moan on the side about the wind this February: there's been virtually none!  I can't remember the last time we had a February without at least a few days of it getting up to a speed that makes pigeon shooting interesting.  I feel most aggrieved by it.

    I've definitely learned a few things from shooting under these conifers in a north wind.  Even in single figure wind speeds, the birds zip over a bit too fast to make it practical to use the north-facing hide I've built.  They're not turning before the Leylandii and landing facing away from the hide either, quite obviously because the less windy spot is the other side of the tall evergreen trees.  The south-facing side of the conifers doesn't have any really good natural cover to use, so it's rather frustrating that no matter how hard you try to be smooth and minimal with movement, you end up spooking the birds when you lift your gun.  I've added the task of building a hide for such an eventuality to my rather lengthy To-Do list. 

    Also, the birds don't seem to be focusing on such a narrow entry point with a north wind.  They're coming in on the usual line from the north side, but instead of landing facing into the wind before the conifers they skim over the top and then the turn to land in all sorts of random places, making it impossible to pick a definitive spot.

    Excuses well and truly established, my brief report is as follows:  I had two long-range sitters which both had to be hunted down with a dog.  One pigeon from a small group flared off right above my head; I didn't mount the gun very well but it was a sub-20 yard bird, therefore something of my pattern connected first barrel and I just had enough time to drop it properly with the second before it disappeared from view through the evergreens over my shoulder.  The bird marked itself down with a very audible THUD so I guessed I could leave that where it was and not have to unsettle the dogs from their tethering point.

    Not much else happened.  I had noticed a rather busier than usual amount of corvid traffic over me, but had decided to leave them alone rather than letting off a lot of low-percentage shots which could scare off any incoming pigeons.  However, as it was nearly stumps I broke protocol when a large black shape skimmed over much lower than the usual altitude its brethren were flying at.  It was one of the kind of shots in this location that gives an immense amount of satisfaction when you manage to pull it off; having got on to the bird a little late, it had just passed out of sight over the tops of the leylandii trees.  Having had just that nanosecond to follow its trajectory and speed, I pushed in front and pulled on it, not really hoping for much.  Nothing much happened actually.  No thud or clattering, so I presumed I'd missed.  However, when I unleashed the crazy squad to go and look for the pigeon I'd dropped in the same place, the old springer brought me back a rook!

    My young cocker hasn't handled a corvid yet and, seems as this rook needed dispatching I'm glad she didn't get there first.  After dispatching the bird I lay it down for the apprentice to investigate.  She duly picked it up and trotted around with it for a moment before deciding that rooks smell funny, so she put it down again.

    Meanwhile, the seasoned campaigner had remembered where the thud came from earlier and quickly brought me the one pigeon still to collect up.  Optimistically, I swept the dogs around a 100-yard radius of my shooting position just in case of any surprises but, unsurprisingly, there were none.

    I broke the news to the two spaniels that this was it for another year.  They didn't seem to take it too badly.  On the way back I dropped the corvid off to feed a mate's ferrets, then went home and took the meat from the three pigeons which was split over two nights' dinners for the dogs.  Honestly, pigeon dinners are THE BEST if you ask my two!

    Roll on next year, and hopefully with some wind this time!!

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