Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

PasturesNew

tomterm8 wrote: »

The real problem with those kind of approach is that all it takes is for the site to decide to do a bit of web development, and you are messing around with a software program that doesn't work any more. Then there is the mad dash.

Better to call up the company, and ask if they can install an API. Lots of companies will do it, after all, if you think about it the software program is actually getting them more business.

(sorry, just technical musings).

n.b. I assume by cut, misskool is not talking about a splinter going into the eye itself, just the socket, in which case a minor injury unit is good, or even just a trip to the doctor (to check it is ok). If the splinter is actually in the eye, A&E even if it is not causing problems yet.

You're right an API is the proper way to go. APIs are just out of my technical reach.... I know they're out there, just not interested enough to become competent at implementing them

silvercar

Better to call up the company, and ask if they can install an API. Lots of companies will do it, after all, if you think about it the software program is actually getting them more business.

Not really getting them more business, if you take your test earlier it doesn't mean that you take it more often. If they have a 2 month waiting list I guess the cancellations will get snapped up whether or not people are paying for software to jump the queue.

Don't know whether there is an API or not, but you have to keep your PC on, in order for it to work.

vivatifosi

Do you remember ages ago I said we were going through the process of "de-Smithing" (not their real name) our house?

My poor Dad is up a ladder at the moment replacing the kitchen light fitting. It is the only light fitting in the house that hadn't already been changed, the reason being that we thought it had been put up by the developers. All the others were ripped out ages ago and although they were only replaced with cheap contract fittings we know they are safe.

This week it has been faulty so we decided to take it down. Having done all that, we've discovered that they never earthed it properly. They cut the earth wire right back so that the wire was unshielded and also didn't earth strap it. Great. Chalk up another to Botch the Builder.

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

I try and get my hedges done in a very late solid frost, after christmas. Yes it looks ratty, but it also provides shelter for my critters through the worst longest part of the year, the freeze minimises damage to my ground (and compacts a little early choppyness for a week or two) and provides good cover. We're thinking about ELS scheme, if we are eligable, which we may well not be, then you don't cut it all every year anyway. Especially as we have removed so much of the bramble cover now. but this year they need cutting, too much neglect in the past, so we'll see what they are like next year....after two years in a row cut.

Davesnave wrote: »

We have to do our roadside ones now for safety reasons, but none of them, other than the elm one, has had proper attention for years, so they are still pretty high. The bottom hedge is in a frost pocket, so the top one (other side of the road hedge) is therefore a main place of shelter for the sheep.

I'm sure it would look 'neat' to have the top hedge cut back & laid, but there is no financial incentive for us to do that. It can stay ratty, especially as half of it is oak.

You mean you get paid to cut your hedges:eek:

tomterm8

Some farmers get paid to cut their hedges. But it is a relatively tiny amount of money unless you have a large farm. For our smallholding, it would work out around £60 a year. Not worth the form filling, in other words.

neverdespairgirl

lostinrates wrote: »

I sometimes wonder...along the lines of six degrees of separation...if we can't ''join the dots'' in some cases. e.g. a few of the nice people were at Oxford....my guess is they could link up via a third party easily..if they hadn't bought a drink just down the bar from another Nice Person in the Kings Arms (?) near the Bodleian. Same with you lot from the same patch....its possible you have a person in common or a restaurant or a bar or a school......

won't work for all, but still an interesting idea.

I bet I have a link somewhere like that with FC - we stamped around the same neck of the woods for quite a while.

neverdespairgirl

lostinrates wrote: »

Some of the Denbies (sp?) wines are meant to be very good, aren't they, especially the not champagne. When I see Brtish wines they are really expensive for the compared to others when you've tasted them they tase ''cheaper'' than equivalent wines from elsewhere.

I've had some nice Cornish wines, in the Isles of Scilly.

lostinrates

silvercar wrote: »

You mean you get paid to cut your hedges:eek:

The opposite, you get paid NOT to cut them every year, providing a wildlife shelter but impacting on your crop/grass growth and therefore takiung a negative financial impact.

Most smallholders etc I think aren't eligable for ELS...the scheme that covers that, so its a big racket imo for bigger scale farmers and is not a very sensible system. Essentially a portion gets taken out of the ''normal'' grant system to provide els...but the bigger farms are more eligable and you then have to score ''points'' based on preservable feature per acre IIUC. I might not, but its all a bit ''wrong'' IMO.....but the alternative on bigger farms is that hedges get ripped out for fences...no wildlife benefit but better for crops and a time consiuming job that doesn't have to be done. Ironically, all these things are more expensive for smaller scale famrers and small holders who would benefit more from the grant to which fewer are entitled to.

neverdespairgirl

misskool wrote: »

i think i have found a sloe bush but is there anything resembling sloes that are poisonous? in case i kill OH with this fandangled notion?

Don't pick sloes yet! You need to wait until end Sept or Oct.

They are quite distinctive, although closely related to other (nice) things such as wild plums and bullaces. All safe.

Making sloe gin from wild berries in the hedgerows



Sloe jelly – harvesting the hedgerows


and the wonderfully-named:

http://www.sloe.biz/

PasturesNew

I'd like to get paid to not do things. If I could find a good list of 100 things that I was paid £60 each time I didn't do them, that'd be worth £6,000/year. Nice (non) work if you can get it.