Just the three wires – one green (ringer works ok in position 3), one orange, one blue.

I think your initial comment of trying the blue and orange swapped around is a good one to start me off.

Jo

Arctic Beast – will try swapping the blue and orange when I get home… Thanks.

oldschool – I only have 3 wires – blue, orange and green. They are solid coloured wire, there is no white undercoat or over marking.

thanks for the help so far :)

Footflaps – I didn’t check if the one i removed had a capacitor or not. I wasn’t sure if that was the only difference (or even what difference that made…)

Doesn’t work = no dial tone. If you answer an incoming call there is no connection, it continues to ring and the person at the other end just hears it ringing out.

I understand the green line is the ringer. When the green is connected to terminal 3 I get a ringing tone. If I disconnect the green then it doesn’t even ring for incoming calls.

Sorry – too far north for you DezB 8)

Joshvegas – that would be cool, I love beards – but can’t grow a whole one :wink:

Well – I’ve gone and done it…

Signed up a couple of days ago and am completely out of my depth! Keep getting ‘interest’ from guys 20years older than me, mountain bikers in the USA and a South African body builder… Come on local guys – where are you??

I got one hello message, replied nicely – recognised a local trail on his photos, asked a couple of questions – never heard from him again. I know that I can repel guys from 30ft, but scaring them away by saying hello, it’s a whole new skill… :oops:

Better not say too much on here though… I think you might be my target audience :evil:

Sorry… Couldn’t help it on the bike forum!

I thought that dogs generally only just reached maturity at 2 years… so it would be hard to tell if leaving his nuts in place was going to cause a problem in the future. Can you just wait and see? There isn’t a time limit for males is there?

I have only had bitches, and have always had them neutered to stop later health issues and because I didn’t either want puppies or have to keep them indoors for their season. I can’t really see any advantage for having males neutered – apart from aesthetics!

Does he have 26″ nuts or 29″ :wink:

More horses

Also a fair few private yards / stables all along the hillfoots. Is strange but I am out with the dogs regularly, and on the bike every weekend, but rarely see anyone riding (horses)…

:-) Certainly more top from a distance. I don’t get too close… they scare me (and they hunt in packs)!!

Guess I mean a bunch of private school mums who don’t talk to you if they realise that you work, or don’t have kids, or like getting all dirty and sweaty in the hills 8)

I once went to a party with a load of the school crowd, the women wouldn’t talk to me and I was relegated to the garden with the guys. I had quite a cool time talking to the guy who is building the new Forth road bridge – so not all bad I guess.

Dollar isn’t all expensive – only if you want a four bedroomed stone built house on the high street. There are affordable houses too, some great ex local authority houses to rent at reasonable rates. It’s a nice enough village, good pub, take aways, coop, deli etc, probably not as lively as Bridge of Allan. Has a squash club, tennis courts, golf course.

Good biking access, using the railway line to Tilli and up Silver Glen into the Ochils for some cracking days out, past the castle and up into Glen Quay, or paths along the river and into Muckhart for a more gentle pootle. Not sure abut the horse riding.

BUT a faction of the village residents are ‘all about’ the school. A lot of the social stuff rotates around the school and there is a higher than average blonde perma-tan female contingent. I live just outside the village and this does not affect / worry me at all, but then I’m fairly unsociable anyway :-)

EDIT: Dollar is really too far away to make riding into Stirling for an MTB ride feasible. Stirling itself has some great trails – Uni and Mine woods, Dumyat and a whole load to explore on the south side with Cambu woods and N3. If you want all that on your doorstep then stay in Stirling and accept the longer commute to Kincardine. I have lived in both and rode more (with more riding buddies) when I lived in Stirling.

Kipper and Whisky

and again

Esure and AA both accept additional named bikes at a cost. I am using Esure – but I didn’t check if it was new for old.

Bump @ Wharfedale – has it arrived yet?

Following on from the ‘heating rural houses’ thread am wondering if the cheaper eco fans work as well as the real deal…

@ trail rat – probably… hadn’t thought about that – thank you.

1850’s Cottage here – I have one of the horrendous LPG bills that you have heard of.

But it has been helped a lot by (as above) replacing windows, creating a snug and shutting off the larger living room when not needed, using the two log burners more and the heating less, putting up thick curtains over the drafty front door.

Problems for me are – the first floor is very much under the eaves and so leaves little room for additional insulation. One of the wood burners is situated in a recessed fireplace, so heats the wall rather than the air.

“gregarious” is quite a prolific word on female dating profiles and usually means they have several cats.

Or several dating profiles :wink:

LPG + 2 woodstoves here. To heat a three bed 1850’s cottage, inc hot water. Averages about £200 per month for gas through the year (£2400 total), and about £300 in logs (don’t have my own source).

Additional problems with siting the gas tanks – must be 3m(?) from any residence and with a sight line to the road.

@ Jamie
I have discovered supermarket ‘slow cooker mixes’ just a sachet of powder which is kind of against the ethos of using using the slow cooker :? … but they are good for quick and easy flavour. They must have some thickener in as they also get around the ‘wet’ issue and make a thicker ‘sauce’.

I used to have a 6L (I think), so that we could cook a joint, or whole chicken. However we never actually used it for that in the end. For me a chicken or joint is better roasted in the traditional way… However we did regularly feed five, and there was always a couple of portions spare for lunch the next day (guess you would easily feed 6 adults). We generally did stews or currys, and cooked the potato / pasta separately

I now have a 1.5L cooker which is great, I use it most days, just chuck something in before work. Even just put sausages, beans and potatoes in last week… yummmm the ultimate comfort food ready and waiting for you :-) That feeds two quite happily.

we are thinking of getting a dog so good advice

You will find that no matter how clean you think you are – that little dog hair tumbleweeds will form behind or under any obstacle. The said tumble weeds will then proceed to dance across the floor the minute a guest walks in. At least with fitted base units you will be able to reduce the potential tumbleweed storage area.

I also have open shelves on a large base unit and pulling out a dog hair lined dinner plate is never a great start to a meal. :?

I agree it looks great when everything is put neatly away, but the pictures above must just be for show. The bottom one looks most practical – but cutlery on the top shelf near the ceiling? Really? And books above the hob – tried that and now the pages are all stuck together :oops:

Ditto rogerthecat.

I had an unfitted kitchen with open shelves. I also have two dogs which spend the night in the kitchen… Have now taken the open units and put them into the breakfast / dining room. Effectively splits the kitchen across two rooms, which is a pain, but at least my plates are clean when I want to use them.

I also find that keeping the wall behind the unfitted units clean is a pain too. As the units stand slightly proud from the wall (due to the skirting board) you can see any dust / debris behind. I would go fitted next time.

I went with esure. Have to admit I don’t know if it is new for old, just couldn’t afford the M&S premiums anymore (esure and AA were similar quotes)

EDIT @ baden – have to admit M&S always paid up for me in the past, even when the bike was taken from the car roof (sorry :oops: ) Guess thats what you are paying for…

except company will no doubt claim SSP for the days off above that and still make you give up holidays as well.

That would depend if the 8+ days were taken as a lump (when SSP were paid) or as 8 separate occasions when the company won’t get any SSP.

Are the company saying that they are withdrawing company sick pay (the pay back bit), but that you can work an extra day in lieu (the work back bit)? I know companies that don’t pay sick pay.

I assume that SSP is unaffected as the OP is talking about un-certified sickness.

Never heard of this (I am in the private sector). However my employer doesn’t automatically pay company sick pay (just SSP after the waiting period). In reality they do pay it – but let it be known that it is at their discretion and if they feel that you are taking the mick they would withdraw it.

In my view ‘work back’ would be preferable to no pay at all.

Total formula convert here after trying ‘the ones’ I now have them on both bikes.

However just had my first issue after 3 years faultless use, when bleeding them (after shortening hoses on a new bike) brake fluid started leaking out of the piston. They are back at Silverfish for a service and repair – will see how that goes…

Anyone else used Silverfish repair / service?

I took a 9 month old rescue in, about a year ago. She was also supposed to be house trained, but in reality she knew not to do anything on carpet, however stone and wood floors were fair game :|

As I don’t have carpet downstairs it took a few weeks to retrain her. One year on and all that seems a distant memory, she’s a lovely dog and we’ll worth a few weeks of floor washing.

Not sure if you want to go in that direction, but I crate trained her, which quickly solved the night time issue (she never messed in it) and has been very useful camping and when staying away somewhere.

With those ears there might be some Kelpie in him :D

Looks lovely – enjoy!

Look at Spa Cycles – I have their Ti Audax and its is a lot of bike for the money. If you can get to the shop they will customise it to you as well.

^^ not suggesting that you’re anything other than a lovely person… but if it isn’t the right relationship for you, then it probably isn’t for her either. Although she might not have identified it yet, the relationship might be one of the things that she is struggling with just now, but she will only see that after the dust has settled. Doesn’t make it any easier for you though. Good luck.

Clackmannanshire here. As Ox says, you get more for your money, but the commute to Edinburgh would be a pain (Drive to Dunfermline then train to Edinburgh). Stirling makes more sense, but still an hour on the train for your wife.

The riding (mtb) from either Stirling or Clackmannanshire is good, not so sure about Dunfermline…

EDIT: Sorry, just reread the initial post – your wife doesn’t drive and wants stuff to do in walking distance… so Clackmannanshire would be out – not much to do and a poor bus service.

OP you would seem to have a cat that would be better living outside. Can you not think about this? I have only had moggies before, but on a few occasions I have lived in cat free rented accommodation and the cat has had to live outside unless I was home.

I used a cat kennel – sounds daft but they do exist. A bit like a solid rabbit hutch, the entrance doubles back on itself to create a cosy interior lair. You can soon train the cat to use this (feed him in there and add an old wooly jumper of yours) so he has a safe place. I have also used a cat flap in a shed or garage with a cardboard box bed which also works.

When you are home to supervise, the cat comes in, when you are away he stays out. It is perfectly feasible to leave them overnight with this system, especially as he is fed dry Hills cat food, just leave a double portion… He might eat it all in a day, but he won’t starve.

Maybe there is a reason that this won’t work for you, but got to be worth a try.

Agree with above in an ideal world… However after various way of ‘training’ and breaking the routine failed for me, I also resorted to the squirty collars. Read up on them and use with care, but worked a treat for us, they work instantly and much more reliably than any command from a human and simply distract the dog (a puff of air on the chin) and break the routine of barking.

They saved my two when a neighbour complained about their barking.

EDIT – the sprays have two refill, either air or citronella. You can buy the refill separately, but just be sure which you are buying. Not cheap.

:lol:

I rode it 2 (3?) years ago. I can’t remember anything that would be too technical for a cx bike, it would certainly help with the road sections. However the year I rode was mudtastic, i’m not sure how the skinny tyres would cope with the long muddy drags across farm fields (they seem to do ok in cx races..)

I am 5’6″ and felt a medium Scott was far too big. Admittedly it was a HT, but Scott seem to have a very long top tube and it was far too stretched to be anything like comfortable. I would think that making her ride that would be a sure fire way to put her off riding…
Maybe that is your aim :wink:

I would also say that she needs to try the bike with you there. If she hasn’t ridden much before it will be very hard for her to comment on the fit especially if there is a pushy salesman there at the time.

Capital gains tax – as far as I am aware (also in Scotland, so may not be the same)you only pay CGT if you sell the property immediately after renting. If it becomes your home again for a period of time (3 months?) then this doesn’t apply.

EDIT – I just used a contract off the internet, but I did tell my mortgage provider and insurance company.

I’ve had two dogs go through the op in the last year, both hyper active. As with the posters above I admit to walking them sooner and further than recommend, but I figured the vet gave ‘safe’ advice that would have some leeway.

I remember another thread on here about keeping a springer occupied without exercise and there was some good advice around trying to tire them mentally. Packing a toy or treat in a card board box, start easy, evolve onto using gaffer tape. Hide treats around the house, teach them ‘hide and seek’. Hide a chew in an old sock… There were others, can’t remember them all and no idea what or when the thread was. Sorry. Training also works, depends how sore she is, heel work in the garden etc

I feed mine on dry food, and when we just had the one I would feed her half her meal in the bowl and scatter the rest in the garden, anything just to occupy their minds for a bit.

WOW – but looking gorgeous as always Rach :-)

Just to say thank you to all the posters who have shared their experiences on this thread :-) I am just working my way through a rough time, and reading some of these posts have really helped to sort my mind out.

Get out there, ride my bike, walk my dogs, take every opportunity that comes my way and try not to look back.