Look how many ceps !! (penny buns), I'm heading over to the inside mainland area overlooking Mull for a few days (with my working cocker), I'll be out foraging too. Ceps are great things to dry out and use for sauce and stock, but timing is the thing, especially if they get too wet and soggy. Good tip, stick to the nicest tasting and easiest to recognise mushrooms, cep, chanterelle, hedgehog and a few others.
John, I see that you can lower your yard right down. Do you not use parrel beads? I have to furl my sail up against the mast because I have two sets of beads (in addition to the ones on the jaws) holding the yard against the mast. Good to see you and those dogs out. You've not missed much this season! Charlie
Hi, on the gaff I have the beads on the Jaws and further up where the halyard attaches. In a very light wind I leave the gaff up against the mast but more often I undo the parallel beads and bring the mainsail and gaff down into the cockpit. This trip was actually back in June, I have been out on a few other short trips but I agree the season has been pretty rough so far! Hope you have has some quality time on the water
I have never beached the boat myself, although I know many others do. I think it would be fine as long as you are careful to ensure there are no rocks under your boat that could damage the underside of the hull. There is also a risk that you can get small stones or gravel lodged in the centreboard case preventing the centreboard from going down, I have experienced this with another boat, and it could particularly be a problem with drascombes as they rely on gravity to go down. Despite that, I am not saying I wouldn't consider it on a nice sandy beach somewhere. Maybe I will try it and report back!
Hi there, the grill is made buy Volcann, I went for it because it's marine grade stainless steel. www.indooroutdoors.co.uk/products/volcann-stainless-steel-portable-bbq
Wouldn’t it be fair to assume that John keeps his dogs in check…. and that birds (being part of nature…) know how to recognise predators (no more than being another part of nature….) hence know how to deal with that knowledge… without total panicking…. Surely if the ongoings were not like so John would not venture in these sort of places….
@henktulp4400 Good sentiment, and I would hope so. I have seen so many incidents over the years by less thoughtful trekking dog-owners that I am concerned. Thanks.
At the risk of stating the obvious, a good walk before setting off is a good start, and try and plan a route that allows for some beach stops though out the day. My younger dog, who is still a puppy does go on the back of the boat, which sounds grim but it's actually really easy to wash it all away with a bucket of water. My elder dog has a very strong bladder. Happy sailing!
Midges genuinely not that bad! At least they can be escaped on the water. The cabin is perhaps a little cramped but in wet or windy weather its still great to get in the warmth and relative dry!
@@johnleonardandpack I'm not going to use the video, just the idea of felling them all in the same direction, cutting them to length, and then stacking them between the trees in the 'row'. I planted a bunch of chestnut trees in the last few years so they ate not big enough yet, but I will keep this in the back of my head. There may be some hazels of my dad's to bring down though. I've been thinking of doing some videos of things I'm doing but haven't done that yet, I just squeeze things into my weekends when I can, but now I don't have as many pressing projects I can spend a bit of time on that
@@johnleonardandpack all good, easy mistake to make. Grows pretty well, we mostly have the Japanese/European chestnut hybrids here because they handle our warm humid climate better. The nuts can be huge too, I think I was regularly getting 30g nuts which were on the bug end, some were 40g or so. Can't remember the numbers. One 20 year old tree I coppiced (a hybrid) has 10 shoots that I saved and they have each grown to 6cm dbh in three seasons. I planted some European ones and they are also growing well, I suspect they'll be similar when I coppice them but they could be slower. We'll see. I'm planting them for fencing material because I think I can save a lot of money in fencing. Treated radiata pine posts are about $10-20 here so I think I can make some decent savings doing my own. A question, seeing as you have coppiced more chestnut than I have, I've planted them 2m x 2m apart, is that a good spacing? His many stems would you leave on each one? And when would you first coppice them? I'm feeling a bit impatient because many of them are quite branchy - I was hoping to let them bulk up and then chop them but I might be waiting a lot longer for any straight timber. I was contemplating chopping them off as soon as I am confident they'll regrow so they can start off with a number if straight stems. What are your thoughts? Thanks
