I think it’s to do with the temperature gradient. Warm air low down will refract the sound (which is going downwards from the thunderclap)progressively “away from the normal” and eventually send it skywards again.
It’s the opposite of the effect you get on a cold clear morning with cold air at ground level, when you walk outside and realize you can hear that road a mile away which is normally inaudible.

Yes, don’t drink too much. I climbed Ventoux two years ago, it was about 30C at the bottom. Drank plenty, felt I needed to but but I overdid it.
Three quarters up I got hickups brought on by liquid in my stomach compressing diaphram, and I could scarcely complete. Massively painful (hickups for me is bad news). It took several days for torn intercostals/diaphram pains to go away.

Second the Sikkens. Seems to work really well. Pricey, find a mail order source.

I drive a Focus. Tandem is a Trek with a small/medium rear stoker seat. Both wheels off and it fits across the rear rack and is no wider then the wing mirrors. Wheels go inside.

I used to camp in a gorgeous little spot by a stream within what is effectively a “roadside” verge. Actually it’s a Roman road which is a byeway open to all traffic, but generally devoid of anything. The spot was within a deliberate diversion of the wall along the track, so as to enclose the stream in a hollow, and presumably provide shelter and water to packhorses in days gone by.

England.

So does this make it any more “legal”

I once had lightening hit a house just as I rode past.
Amazing bang, nearly fell off but I rode on heroically.

I bought a “wild” one for Mrs Mc at xmas,as having first heard about it here.

It works fine, but I haven’t been blown away by it. Coffee is nice and remember it produces a genuine “Italian sized” espresso. – Ideal for one of those ultra teeny pre-warmed cafe-cups because that’s what it’s designed to do after all.

If there are two of you and you want a couple of shots each, then it’s quite a bit of messing about, banging out the coffee grounds, re-filling the filter and water, pumping it up, all that stuff. A bit of a ritual if you like that sort of thing, but it can take three or four minutes to make a couple of doubles even when you are quite adept.

So we don’t always use it even though it’s available. Often easier to get out the carafe even though the coffee from that is obviously not as good.

“you need to cut all of the old rot out, leaving any in will just mean more problems (and quite quickly)”
is of course not true..

Seems like you do need to fix the source of water. However that might not be a leak. Caravans are ideal sources of really bad condensation since they have a external “vapour barrier” (metal skin) in precisely the wrong place. Chances are it’s condensation from the inside of the alu skin which runs down anc can’t get out.

Cook some kidney beans (Don’t ever use tinned ones – they are nasty: squishy, salty, expensive). Cool. Dressing is knob of ginger (grated), couple of garlic cloves (grated), nice olive oil, tamari, splash of balsamic, some cumin, any herbs you’ve got. Our little girl was scoffing that since we was teeny.

And why not nuts?

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I’ve got solar water tubes and 2.2KWP of PV.

I switched off all hot water heating on about 10th March and don’t expect to need it again till the last week in October. – You need to be a little flexible with hot water, a run of cool grey days leads to a slight shortage but it depends how you live. I also modified my shower feed so we can still have a hot shower with the tank down to 40C.
The high pressure sunny days, and 220 litres is at 70C top to bottom before 2PM.

The PV happily generates 2 KW. Not quite it’s rated output but our roof is only 30 degrees slope which is the reason. I’ve seen 1.95KW several days already this year and have generated about 1500 KWH since late June last year, the majority of that was last year before November. Not much Nov..March.
It really ramped up since beginning of April. A good summer day is 12..14 KWH.

I think the most reliable measure is the contour/ x section of the top.
Make a cardboard cut-out of the shape of the “hump” on your perfect saddle. (Make a couple if you like at different locations). Keep it with you, then you can easily compare the shape of saddles on other peoples bikes and get one to fit.

I buy for fuel economy/low rolling resistance every time. Well worth it. Grip is irellevant to me on normal roads. Using Michlin Energy Savers. ££ but worth it.

I’m always rather surprised that MTB riders who have first hand painful experience of high tyre drag from the stuff we normally use, have any doubts at all when it comes to treating their vehicle to the lowest resistance tyres.

If you were on a road bike you’d want it. No..?

I’m a Yes man.

My vote has never counted for ANYTHING and I ANGRY about it.

Chimney slugs 😆
I had wall slugs (and worms) in my student house in Bradford. It had a cellar kitchen. They used to come right through the mortar and ooze about the worktop in the night.

Back in the early 90’s I got a swarm in my chimney. I was cool about it and quite protective, but it all got messy in the warm weather when honey began running out the bottom onto the floor. It was a closed off chimney and was oozing out of the boarding. It all got sticky and became a pain to clear up every day. It was actually nice honey (in a sooty sort of way).

In those days people were less protective about bees. I contacted some beekeepers but they advised me to get rid of them.

It pained me greatly then, and it still does, I administered wasp killer down the pot. Most despicable thing I ever did I guess..

I put in a Charnwood Cove 1. I can’t fault it. Plain looking, glass stays clean, very easy and effective air control, super easy to light. We even heat our kettle on the top.

The Part J building regs has changed a little and now it explicitly says (in a approximate and vague way) that you must have a “leaky” house or you’ll need permanently open airvent even for < 5KW stoves. You can still get away without for the small stoves, but your Building Inspector may take a view which is worth checking in advance.

Stoner (Hyjack..) “because the port’s not working properly…. “

My experience with dry chainsaw is mostly from my electric one (husky/flymo). It wasn’t the port or the pump, but just the oil filter. I took the saw apart before I worked that out, and the pump is a teeny little oscillating piston pushed by a nylon cam on the shaft. Can’t really fail. Plastic pipe, and the port is just a hole in a bit of metal.

I’d been using special Oregon oil which is ultra-green because it mixes 4:1 with water. Nice idea, but it can then make a mayonaise in the filter. Worth checking first becauase it’s easy anyway.

Property boundaries. Loads of fun and no you probably won’t find anywhere better detail than a smudgy red line on a teeny map.

Solicitors love it.

Some better quality tyres would probably be the easiest thing.

I used to expect about 6/8 thorn punctures a month (riding every day), sometimes several a week. That was on some crappy worn tyres and then some equally crappy semi-slicks from Geax and Nevgal. I tried slime (heavy and messy when it doesn’t work and stops the patch from sticking). Tried strips (affect the ride, and heavy and the cut end was abrasive and wore away the reinforcing fabric from inside my tyres which then split..

Nowadays on the same routes, I get possibly only 1 thorn a month using garden variety tubes and better quality tyres.

Anyone who says “Myself” when they mean “Me”.

eg Boss says “When you came and talked to myself last week..”

Actually Dogbert, no.

It’s collective effect of 6 Billion people all thinking like you that sadly is getting us where we are.
Wars nowadays are about oil. Wars in the future will also be about water, soil, food.

We are mining and degrading our soil and fossil water on a phenomenal scale and I don’t feel at all ashamed to be one person at least trying to do something about it.

Yes, I think about it for almost everything these days, and often make changes where it’s possible. Costs more. – Best thing usually is not to buy it at all.

Has he had vaccines recently?

There are recognized links to increased levels of ear infections, and some types even quote it under known effects.

Sorry if that’s not much help to you, but just to spread the issue more widely.

Just to wind you up. In about 1990, I had an ancient rusting (yes) Volvo and someone kindly banged into it. In true Volvo style, the only damage was a bent bumper and the clutch pedal broke off the floor.

Insurance comnpany scrapped the car, paid me the damage, and left it to me to deal with.

I epoxied the clutch pedal bracket back down, crowbared the bumper, and drove it about for the next three years before selling it.

I don’t think that would be allowed these days!

Loads of resources stored here with links to keep you amused endlessly:
http://www.theoildrum.com/

I’d recommend David Strahan’s blog and his book is excellent.
http://www.davidstrahan.com/blog/

I’ve bought 6 houses and never had a survey voluntarily. I guess I look out for stuff, and faults often make the house more attractive (because cheaper). I suspect that if you need to ask, then you probably need the survey as well.

My business moved me once, and insisted on paying many hundreds of pounds for a surveyor to tell me the bleeding obvious.

That particular report was worthless IMO, but satisfied the system, so everyone was happy.

If you have a builder friend or someone who has worked on houses a lot, you’d cover 99% of all issues, depending on how observant they were.

Why get plastic bags at all? We pretty much have none at our house. In fact on the occasions I do want one there never are any.

I’m now off to a smelly bedroom. Nighty.

After that I put some trousers on.

I’d actually put out most of the flamy bits with my buckets when the fire service arrived. They spent 45 minutes soakig everything. .

Right Project. I accept powder is rubbish! That seals it then.

I expected foam to be better than water if there was electricity though. Yes it’s got a lot of water in it – but also a lot of air. It can’t be as conductive as a stream of water can it?

It was up and down I needed at the time. Bloody great fireball of the wheelie bin, and plastic 100mm soil pipe and stored wood. Then above my head, the plastic Tyvec membrane melted, and dripped down while the rafters all caught fire.
It’s my feet which hurt most though!

Hi Junkyard.
Thanks. I never thought about the dust issue. As if smoke wasn’t enough to deal with. I think that pretty much answers it.

I have my eye on eco-friendly foam. (No nasty chemicals). Outfit called Total make them. Hard to get though. Otherwise I’ll get a couple of water ones.

Funny you know. Hey guess what I said!

I Also said it numerous times in the past.. but you know how it is when the girls are in a hurry.

1 year old is going some, but with a wooden bike and some cutting/drilling you can re-positioning the rear “swing-arms”, shorten (ie deepen) the forks, lower the seat. Result shaves a lot off the inside leg needed. My little girl couldn’t touch the floor till I did this to the Lidl bike:

Toppers.

I sympathize with your point entirely, but if you could cope with the irritation of looking conventional whilst still actually wearing almost nothing on your feet, then get some Feelmax.

I wear them for work all the time. Soles are as thin as your Vibrams, they weigh nothing. You will feel the floor, but no one will bat an eyelid.

Fuel still costs about double in the UK compared to the US, but we don’t see very significant differences in attitude to car use. There are still so many don’t-give-a-damn drivers in the UK. It’s quite depressing.

I interpret that to mean fuel still needs get a lot more expensive before the majority make any changes to their habits. I see just as many cars lined up at my daughters primary school, bike sheds completely empty. Clearly it doesn’t really matter yet.

So other than the sad fact that that cats in the oil industry are raking it in, I’m very happy that prices are rising. I do drive, and these days I take some pride in going very slowly. (Which wasn’t always the case). – At least I still get to go as fast as I like on my bike.

It’s got to be good for the UK in the long run because is the only way we will ever reduce our addiction to the stuff, and stop fighting criminal wars and pandering to despots.

I even wrote to George Osbourne and asked him NOT to drop the duty increase, but to spend the money raised on green energy investments instead. – He didn’t listen, but every little helps.

Had two, both broke. Now in landfill.