[Looking for a recommendation - Towball fitter - Bike Rack fitting]

Bin the bikes.

[Weird heron]

Years ago when we ran a pub in a posh village there was a free roaming village peacock and some pea hens. In april at breeding time it used to fly onto the school roof directly opposite and squark and make the most horrific racket every morning for a couple of weeks. Villagers expected it and we were told by those in the know that it was mating behaviour. Maybe this Herons clock is out of sync and it thinks its breeding time?

[Engine swap]

 

[‘ Ban on wood burners threatens British boat-dwellers with winter freeze’]

20 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Click bait

The quote that mentions the NBTA says it all. A set of numpties if ever there was one.

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

12 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Need to come up with a fancy name first.

 

Bitchyscnaupompoo anyone?

Ten grand and a bargain at that 🤪

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

5 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

BBC News - American bully XL: Owner sought after man attacked in south London park
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66900657

Breed known as an American bully XL and commonly known as a penis extension.

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

13 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

We won't be doing that.

 

We didn't really want a dog when we got Syd. As much as we love him we don't want to replace him when that fateful day does come round. 

 

Certainly not wishing any days away though. 

We are making our present old girl our last one. Its sad when old folks die and their old dog ends up at the dogs home in its old age. Also whilst we have loved many years of dog ownership they are very tying if looked after properly and so a bit of freedom will be appreciated.

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

2 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Poor Zeus.

 

All of the breeds Syd is made up of (according to the DNA test, Schnauzer, Poodle, Bichon Frise, Pomeranian and Chihuahua) are all long lived. So hopefully with a bit of luck and hope on our side we should have many years left barring any unexpected incidents or accidents.

 

Here's hoping anyway. (For the minute anyway while he seems to be on his best behaviour. No doubt he is just playing the long game and setting us up for a fail!)

Blimey with all those dog breeds in him he must be worth a fortune. After all buy a mongrel such as a so called labradoodle and pay twice the price of a pedigree dog 🤣

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

This is the kind of madness that idiots allow!!

 

 

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

3 minutes ago, haggis said:

It would be good if vets wouldn't treat a dog which hadn't been microchipped but I have never heard that before. Or are you suggesting that this should happen. Not sure from your post 😀

I disagree, if the poor dog needs treatment its not its fault its not chipped.

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

1 minute ago, M_JG said:

 

On one of 'fly on the wall' police programs recently a police dog had a guy by the crotch...he was screaming 'its got me by the balls' like a baby..

 

The handler was heard to say 'well to be fair its painful enough being grabbed by one of our dogs, but being grabbed by the nuts is another level'......🤣🤣🤣

On evening and night shifts we used to pray for the " Best bobby in the World " to appear.

The best Bobby in the World was, as it was called in the job the rain. If it peed it down the drunks legged it home/got lifts etc etc rather than congregating in the streets looking for trouble.

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

15 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

With the current publicity surrounding out of control large dogs, I asked my dog's trainer how to get the attacking dog off should one attack my dog.

 

She said to grab the attacking dog by it's rear legs and hoist it off the ground.

 

Given Bully XL's weigh 60kg or more I'm not sure that I could lift one and in any case would then be worried that the dog's gnashers would be dangerously close to my crown jewels!

 

 

 

 

This could well work.

 

When I had my reactive rescue GSD, Zeus, a staffie attacked him whilst he as on his lead whilst we were on a pack walk with a local dog walker. Somehow Zeus managed to grab the staffie's collar and the staffie twisted around and then lost consciousness. I thought he had killed it, but the dog walker blew up the staffie's nose and fortunately it came round with no ill effects.

Many moons ago as a young bobby during one evening doing battle as always with drunks etc in a Yorkshire town centre a particularily big, nasty, well known thug was battering people. He was a huge powerful nasty piece of work and was repeatedly told to desist but would not and had to be arrested!! We got the local dog out which usualy in fact had always stopped eejuts in their tracks it was an Alsation, I think the modern name is German Shepherd which we never called them. Any way it did its stuff and got hold of the said eejut who it sunk its teeth into. Said eejut got hold of the dog with his huge hands and strangled it until it passed out!! I dont need to tell you what I thought at the time. Any way reinforcements arrived and he was duly arrested and the dog survived. Those were the days 

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

3 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Its mad shit when you get stories about big nasty dogs "loves kids but couldn't eat a whole one" suddenly violently killing someone. 

 

I assume its a Darwin Award thing. 

 

Very odd behaviour apparently people sometimes put those awful Bully XL vermin close to their own kids. What are these idiots thinking ?? 

 

Weird but then I suppose if your parents are that thick maybe you are better off dead anyway. 

 

 

I was on you tube yesterday, take a look at how many people have dogs, often pit bulls in the US playing with toddlers  absolutely insane.

[A plea to dog owners on the cut (and general)]

You are sadly speaking to the converted. Most sensible dog owners control their dogs, the ones with out of control dogs are invariably prats themselves. Even sensible dog owners in my eyes take too many risks with their dogs. We have ten grandkids and over the many years we have had them we have never allowed any of our dogs in the same room as them. Even todays soft old lab is not allowed near our smaller grandkids ( The several over six feet tall are a different matter ). Our soft old dog is removed when the grandkids are around, it takes less than a second for one snap at face level of a child to disfigure so dog goes into a seperate room whenever grandkids are visiting or stopping. 

[Fire lit yet]

2 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I've been to the butcher for half a pound of Lincoln red stewing beef, added red onions , carrots, stock, tomatoes, potatoes,  plus garlic and a bit of what thought was soy sauce, but was teriyaki, I must get some worcestershire sauce. Trying dumpling mix, I think there enough in the pot for three hungry people, its burbling on the stove, weather is not unpleasant, just interesting.

I've added a tablespoon of bottled ale, St Austell Tribute, which is quite quaffable even at 11.00 am.

 

Get youself a bottle of Hendersons relish 🤪

[Fire lit yet]

3 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Still too hot in our house for the heating. Still got the windows and doors open to cool it down 😀

 

It's usually around November time that the heating starts to kick in. It's on a thermostat year round so will come on when it drops cold enough.

 

Was 24 degrees in the hallway this morning which is a cooler part of the house.

 

Not had the heating on in the van yet although we were tempted on Saturday morning as it did drop a tad chilly overnight. By the time we had had a cuppa it had warmed up enough to not bother.

You probably have a modern house that benefits you during the winter. However when I go to my youngest daughters modern house in the middle of summer its vile and extremely hot, it seems unable to cool properly. Even on the hottest vile days above 30 degrees our house never gets above 22 degrees in any room so is never too hot. Heating on now as room temp was down to just over 20 this morning and I aint sitting freezing to death at 20 degrees.

[Fire lit yet]

Heating is on in my hovel this evening, I dont do cold.

[Batteries not holding their charge]

Batteries are like diesel, a consumable. At four years for bog standard so called leisure lol batteries they are very likely cream crackered. Bin and replace, repeat.

[Replacing Thetfor Caprice cooker]

17 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

 

If you want to go back a hundred or so years you could have a horse as well instead of an engine.

If you want to go back 100 years and use a horse move to Wales. Horses go faster than our speed limits 🤪

[Princes meatballs]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

Thirty million people can't be wrong, or can they?

Thats what they say about shit and flies!!

[Princes meatballs]

Just now, sueb said:

Low fat mince is horrid. It is dry and stringy.

Exactly what I was thinking. Taste free and orrible. Mince from the butcher is just mince, if you buy it from a supermarket they do the labeled fat amount stuff. The mrs always buys the orrible low fat stuff but if I have to buy some for the dog or even us I buy the highest fat level they have on sale 😁 it has some flavour. Any low fat meat offerings are usualy also low flavour.

[Princes meatballs]

7 minutes ago, LadyG said:

It's the pies, been loads of complaints, they've been shrinkpriced, or some such, less meat , cheaper meat, even the pastry won't puff up.

I think originally they bought all the range reared beef from South America, in refrigerated ships to the UK where it was processed, but trying to cut corners when a brand name has been established does not work forever. 

These were the years BG (Before Greggs)

GREGGS 

[Maths test]

3 hours ago, BEngo said:

Fuel consumption varies surprisingly little between  engines in typical midlands canal use.

 

On a typical narrow canal: about 2 pints per hour.

 

On a typical broad canal:  about 2.5  pints per hour.

 

 Once you are off the midlands canals  then the water around can be have differently and many factors come into play.

 

Bracket open on a wide river or a commercial sized canal: Depends on which model and how well the prop is matched, but a  2200 rpm model  with everything set up perfectly about 20-30 pints per hour.

 

N

Nice to see measurements in English 

[About rivers?]

34 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

Is this still the case now that the bottom gates can no longer be independantly operated but have to be operated together?

If that is now the case then I cant remember if that made a difference?? I think we had to operate them seperately to enable passage. I suppose this is an example of an " improvement " that means they cannot any longer be used lol. 

[Pellet Stove Installer Required]

4 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I did wonder if cost was the issue, I much prefer the pellet boiler tbh the old oil burner was foul and regularly broke down, this pellet boiler just works and without the stink of diesel.

 

I am hoping if I stock up with pellets in the summer I can keep the cost reasonable

Its sad but true that even though its cleaner to burn its simply cost. To be fair the very latest Bosch oil boilers such as what I forked out for are way better than stuff from a few years ago. The smell is tiny and as my boiler is outside its zero in the house, even outside near the vent its barely noticeable. Next door has an oil boiler that I sometimes smell that is many years old. The cost to install and run a heat pump to include the necessary cocoon work to the house would be around fourteen billion pounds so was discounted.