saveasteading

6 plants will be enough for you. You will be starting a market stall. Did you know to pinch out the growing tips to make the plant spread.....and make more beans? In one summer glut I did beans 3 ways in one meal. Indian, ratatouille and plain. One thing about having lots...you can pick them small and tender.

Saves thinking and they don't know the foundation design, so sensible. But we must always question overdesign, and always ask 'why', whether to save £1 or £100,000....or to invest extra for a benefit.

Yours probably doesn't offer haggis slices in the breakfast. A big omission to any fry up.

About to order the timber for the stick build section of new build (replacing demolished section.) 1. I am trying obviously to get the most efficient design to save timber and labour. I can see that a kit build company brings in whole wall panels, places them on a sole plate, then straps a top wall plate on to hold it together. But with stick built, can we not build the studs straight onto the sole plate, and then a single top timber (except where doubled/trebled as lintels etc)? Saves wood, saves labour, reduces cold bridge, increases insulation area. I think this may just be a standard detail that is not questioned. 2. Any idea why there should be a dpc under the sole plate of Internal Walls? Architect and Engineer dont have it but a potential joiner's QS has included it. The wall will be on a concrete slab with dpm below it.......just checking I am not missing something. 3. Simpson rafter hangers with adjustable sloping foot.....cost about £18 each. !!. x 50. I cant see any competition to this supplier. Know any alternative or something cheaper. 4, Inverness area only....where is the best timber price at the moment? The prices seem to have eased, and are about £550/m3 for big timbers. That is list price and should come way down for a big order. Do John James sell direct? Loads of mills doing C16, but is it treated? One local mill said they can't beat the merchants and only do special commissions.

What does Tripadvisor suggest as the ten best things to do in, or near, Invergordon? 1. Cafe at Morrisons. 2. Visit to ProDave development with included tea and cake, and any problems solved. 3. Visit the only industrial estate with absolutely every car supplier and national builders' merchant on it (Inverness). 4?

Meanwhile there is endless free (or included) food on board, perhaps better than even at Morrisons' cafe, and hundreds will be indulging, and not getting off at all.

It can't be that simple. Or do these parties resist zero VAT because it helps poorer people more than themselves.? There was previously a delay of many years in controlling scrap recycling (all cash, no questions), until theft of railway copper got out of hand. I kind of think I suspect (he says cautiously) why that was, but can't see how the same parties are involved in the insulation industry. Do the energy businesses perhaps resist us insulating our homes?

Remembered more. No public or commercial premises to be heated to above 20C or cooled to below 26C. This has been a law in Spain for some years, and I think recently applied in France. Cruise ships have to go somewhere and public have to get off to look at the towns they visit.....that will reduce pointless travel while allowing freedom to 'explore'.

Lead. Costs a bit but does it in one. Plus the 'decent roofer'. There are many 'roofers' who are just builders who don't mind heights, and nobody normally inspects the work. Assuming you took the picture, are you going to be the 'decent roofer'?

Yes, but it is £4 for a cheap Ubend, and you get to keep and reuse it. Or look in a skip and there is often one there, if you can be bothered cleaning it of a stranger's waste. A home-made one doesn't come apart for cleaning. BCO might say no. Spend the £4 say I, but well done for questioning the obvious.

They will, but easily chopped off and it gives up in a year or so...or let a few leaves show and spray them.

If not filling it as a 'raised bed', and just using the existing ground then i would suggest minimal digging. digging brings up new weeds. Get the grass and roots out though OR cover in cardboard and soil. Would it work to dig little holes maybe 150 dia and 150 deep for each plant and infill with soil or compost? bean roots are good at penetrating even heavy clay once started. No-dig works well for me, and the worms and plants do the work.. (I'm not so keen on the no-dig guru's advice about full moon planting etc.)

Impressive and much taller than mine, although maybe they are putting roots down. Any idea why they are so much bigger at one end of the tray? After 2 nights of deporting the snugs and slails, the next night was lashing down and I didn't do it. Wet conditions, unguarded plants, so I feared the worst, but all was well. Found 3 litlle slugs under stones and no damage. I have planted 20 beans and got 6!!! Grrr. Some were very old. I think I over watered them and they rotted. I will be asking your advice next year. What compost for example?

If was in charge: 0% on all insulation, diy or installed, starting tomorrow.* All waste timber goes into a government supplied skip and goes for chipping. A charge only for being underweight (poor loading), otherwise free. Zero vat on all rebuild to discourage demo and starting again (mainly a London problem?). No building on agricultural land suitable for crops. Every new building must have a proportional area of solar on the roof, and be facing the right way. This can be included in EPC/SBEM. but not traded off. All new developments get a proportion of units air tested at random by a well-paid and officious government inspector, not the units chosen by the developer and their own preferred tester. I thought I had more....they will come to me. This would be a good time for 90% of the populace to accept these. *This seems so obvious that there must be some reason why the establishment don't want it.

No. Your new contract with him is £1,500 and the main contract is irrelevant. You must write to him, recorded delivery, well worth the small extra cost, to say that the sum paid is in full and final settlement of the sum which was agreed before the works. It is fair to pay the full sum you are happy with. That would make any claim very difficult for him.

If you keep it tidy there is minim al chance of any damp, and what there might be would be in insignificant. If nervous about it you could circle each fixing with a sealer, then the sole plate would squidge it tight, and complete the seal.

30 slugs and snails on or around my courgettes last night. 3 on the courgette, most happy with the old daffodil leaves. 3 or 4 or 5 big snails appeared to be in a slimy entanglement, so good timing moving them on. They have gone to visit the shrubbery. I had cut back the daffodils thinking they were a likely lurking place, and so it seems to have been. Hoping for just a few tonight. Very soon 🤞 the plants will be tougher and higher and so safe.

Immaculate logic. The Mediterranean way, applicable for only a few days per year here. Closing blinds and curtains (shutters better) towards the sun to be added to this list. If thermal mass was a real thing, you could imagine them giving off their heat during this process, ready to absorb more heat the next day.

As I expected. so you have three slabs now with no continuity of the reinforcement. In theory the slab can swivel at these points. In practice it shouldn't matter, as it is for a shed and reinforcement may not be necessary.

I came across a tip that a rhubarb stalk removes the black stain. Acid on a handy fibrous stalk. It did work perhaps 50% but did not get out the deeper stains.

Charcoal left in the ash is good for the ground so don't overdo it.

Same concrete as the slab. A screed is the easy and cheap option for them, especially if using your bag of sand. Screed would not be concrete, and I assume you wanted a concrete slab, not a screed one. They can go to Wickes and get 2 or 3 bags of ballast and a bag of cement. NOT diluted with your sand. Was there reinforcement in the concrete?

Ok good. I don't think you need permission, and the authorities would rather you didn't ask.

Good point. Many small builders have insurance found in the small ads in The Sun. The cheapest cover that can provide a piece of paper. You need to see the actual cover details, not just a front certificate. The exclusion clauses can be shocking. eg No works below ground level. No works above 3m. The policy holder only. No hired in machinery. Working under the supervision of the client's project manager. etc. You cant insist on seeing this as it is the neighbour's project, but you can perhaps help them along. That is what many people believe, and don't think they need permission in any way.

It will rot eventually, even treated, starting at the ends and rotting inwards. Before the rot, there will be damp ingress. It is not concrete so they have not completed the job. It was a silly (or inexpert) idea to cast them in, so let them learn to be less silly and more expert by removing them and infilling with concrete. It will be difficult to get the timbers out and the concrete will be damaged locally, but they can repair it. Complete the job before payment!