Sorry chaps, my mistake, only £30000 a year, hardly worth filling the forms in for. The same guy got £76000 in 2005 and he was a long way off being the highest ‘earner’. http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/farm-subsidies-revealed-1.403467#

I’ve just had a quick look at http://farmsubsidy.openspending.org/ and between 1999 and 2008 one farmer in Langdale received € 530,960.50 in subsidies, in addition to any profits made from sheep/cattle sales.

I can only speak from my own experience but there seems to be quite a few very comfortably off ones in my area of the Lake District. The latest craze seems to be personalised reg plates on farm Land Rovers, not something you would expect poverty stricken sons of the soil to be spending their hard earned grant cheques on.
I don’t begrudge anyone a living, especially when they work the long hours that farmers undoubtedly do, but spare me the ‘we only earn £1.50 an hour for looking after all this countryside for the tourists’ claptrap.

Yes I have actually, used to work quite closely with ones around Langdale and Grasmere. Most have spent years of subsidy money on land elsewhere as a pension pot except for one who has a yacht in the med and took several skiing trip every winter. I’m not exaggerating when I say that some of the bigger farms were getting over £100,000 a year under the old headage payment scheme before they sold a single sheep and it’s not greatly different now.

Why the hell would we want to give farmers any more money than we already do? Apart from the second home owners who have pushed house prices out of the reach of anyone with a normal job, farmers are the only people with any money round here in the Lake District. Many get tens of thousands in ‘area payments’ before they even get out of bed. And as for this ‘guardians of the landscape’ bollocks. Ask yourself why there are no wild flower meadows anymore and why there are no fish in the rivers like there used to be and why the fells are devoid of heather and grazed to within half an inch of the ground. Farmers exploit the countryside they don’t look after it.

Pods at Low Wray and Langdale NT campsites don’t take dogs either ( don’t these people realise that 1 in 3 families have a dog?) but some nice shepherds huts at Hoathwaite campsite near Coniston do. Not sure about availability though.

Another five years of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

I use an iPhone app called OWA. It works with my work outlook account and keeps work emails separate from my personal ones which I like.

The one with the super long arm genuinely made me laugh out loud!

Absolutely no shame in calling in the professionals Hels, sometimes discretion is the better part of valour (and besides, what do a bunch of blokes on a mountain bike forum know 😀 )

If the engine is turning over strongly there’s nothing wrong with the battery surely? My first course of action would be a new spark plug, if the plug is on the way out you could easily have flooded the engine trying to get it started. Leaving it overnight has given it chance to dry itself out and the freshly topped up battery has given the dodgy plug enough of a spark to get it going. If a new plug doesn’t sort it, take it out again and see if it’s wet with fuel. If it is then you have an ignition problem, if it’s dry it’s a fuel supply problem.
Good luck.

Ooh, I like that a lot ??

I texted from my work phone on Saturday and still haven’t had a reply

Thanks guys, I’ll take a look at the Phart!

How many of these ‘secret’ places will be mobbed with tourists this weekend?

Like everyone else I was driven mad by the constant references to ‘God’s own country’ and why do they need to do a roundup at the end? I know where you’ve been, I’ve just watched the bloody programme!
15 minutes of interesting content and 45 of waffle and padding.

+1 on the safety gear, even the lowest powered electric chainsaw will slice through your leg like a hot knife through butter.

Go straight to Harris and spend the whole fortnight there, it’s the most beautiful place on God’s green earth.

Oh and remember that everything is closed on Sunday.

But the biggest Honda rotary you can afford and if poss one with a blade brake clutch – that way the engine doesn’t stop every time you empty the grass box. Not cheap but worth it in the long run.

What a legend, he makes virtually everyone else on the planet look like a shandy drinking softie!

Those bloody ‘one life, live it’ stickers on the back of Land Rovers (why is it always Land Rovers, can’t I have a life in any other vehicle)?

People who do 20mph around the Lake District with a queue of cars behind them but haven’t got the common decency to pull over and let them past. And caravans. And companies that don’t reply to your emails – looking at you Genesis bikes.

Too early for hawthorn surely? Sloe I reckon.

I meant the Noah story not the TVs programme

I didn’t believe a word of it when I was 7 years old, switched off after 5 minutes.

Mech hangers must be made in the same factory as pedal spanners. Been to 3 bike shops and all wanted £15.99+ – for a bit of steel with a plastic handle!
Ordered one off eBay for £2.99.

My three suggestions for full volume enjoyment

Whole Lotta Rosie -AC/DC
Complete Control – The Clash
Born Slippy – Underworld