Ty Korrigan

Tommy Simpson.  Should we remember him as the rare British sporting hero he was or as another drug filled corpse... There is a monument on Ventoux to this man who died as a result of the stress of his sport and the cocktail of drugs that buoyed his success...  Me...   I stick to bananas, mineral water and the odd picon beer...        Ty

Hello,  Most lovely of hedge material has for me to be any one of the mnay species of Willow used for 'tressage'. If you first cultivate a trench during the autumn for to plant the cuttings in they will root by the spring and by the summer will have put on 1m+ of growth and by year 3 more than 2 metres!  Each cutting can cost from nothing (pinched/donated) to £1 a stick which I feel is a bit pricey...  You can weave the stuff into a thick living fence and create living pergolas and other garden sculpures with it.  Unfortunatly I am too much of a Luddite to post any links but google willow/living fences and see what pops up.  There are many firms in the west of England who sell willow...  and one firm that makes coffins from it!  Ty..

Why not delete it all forum quisling chefs...?

Deleted me for nowt...  Boring b a s t a r d s....

Damn! All I did was go out to work and its all gone down the pan...  As I was the one who introduced the thread about another forum can some-one tell me what went on during my absence...?      Ty

This is all rather girly isn't it...  I don't care what colour your hair is so long as your cuff matches your collar love... No peroxide blondes in my little black book.... RAAAA!!!

Guess I look like a pikey...

Slates, blocks, cement and some larger stuff is actually a good price at C.Q.M  I thought the U.K was a police state until I started shopping and driving here in France! I have been searched several times by security staff and stopped 6 times by the Police and I haven't been a new age traveller for years!

Last week, I took a client there to buy plasterboard using my van and trailer. The price of the board was 3times the price in Brico marche or Leroy Merlin.  That is a FCUKING ARNAQUE!!! But I never told you before the biggest arnaqueur is in fact Francois Quimo who promises to give you 25/30% off if you take out an account for your project but never actually does...  If I hadn't already installed the slates and other materials by the time I recieved my facture then I would have sent them back...  There.... the truth is out.

Hello,  C.Q.M sell some excellent materials but are unbelievably expensive for many things. They seem to give individuals different prices on a whim...  However, I bought my slate there, 1st quality 42p each 20cm x 30cm... However, do try and negociate a discount by opening an account there. You will need a R.I.B and need to talk to Francois Quimo  Ty

Hello,  For 5 acres you would be better off contacting 'Travaux agricole' via the page Jaune...    Ty

However...  You could have hired a compact tractor and flail mower with a total weight of under 750kg to do the work... Or... sprayed glyphosate over the whole area a couple of times and left it for a couple of months... Hand cutting brambles...  OUCH!

Hello,  Unless they where totally herbivorous then there would be no problem to release them after 24 hours. They are unlikely to take on enough herbicide to cause any ill effects and the taste is offputting also...  Ty

Ewa,  Contact via the Yellow pages a Paysagist or Entretien Espaces Verts or Travaux Agricole...  I used the latter as I am good friends with the local contractor and for the last job of 4 acres it cost my client 150euros and took 30min to mow down 4ft high weeds and grasses... I have a sythe bought from Point Vert... Alternatively there are plenty of muppetts at the local brit bars crying out for such work at 10euros cash per hour...    Ty

Yes, Sodium Chlorate is very cheap but thats because it ain't clever!  Good on paths, patios and gravel areas but rendering ground unviable for 6 months+  Really for the little difference in cost, glyphosate based herbicides are excellent and you can cultivate again very soon afterwards.  5 litres for 36 euros treating 16500m2 from Gamme Vert...   Ty

Oh, I must love the sound of my own keyboard!  The first nonselective chemical herbicide to be used was in fact salt... Often used by maruading armies to render fertile lands useless. In fact salt is 'sodium chloride' and there is a cheap weedkiller (non selective) available called...                     'sodium chlorate'  The compound has one more oxygen atom which makes it far more volatile and was a preffered component of home made I.R.A explosives when added to N.P.K fertilisers and sugar.  Todays sodium chlorate bought in the U.K carries a label stating that it is fire suppressed... During the industrial revolution sulphuric acid was used and still is today on potato haulms to burn off and bleach the green material. First used on weeds in onion crops where the thick waxy leaves of the crop would shed the acid but the broad leaved weeds would have their outer waxy cuticle burned off and so make then vunerable to the bleaching of the sun.  I thank 'Herb' Robert Gray of Merrist Wood College for my wonderfull education...

Now then... 'Garlon' a selective tranlocated herbicide will start to have visible effects on Nettles, Brambles and larger woody plants as well as any broadleaf plant within 4-8 hours.  This really is the stuff to apply to difficult weeds. Round-up is the brandname owned by Monsanto ( geneticly modified maize...) It is a translocated nonselective herbicide containing the salt Glyphosate. Monsanto have lost the exclusive rights to the stuff and it is now available at a much fairer price under many names. My latest purchase of 5 litres from Gamme Vert cost 36.20euros for 360gpl strength. Farmers tend to use 480gpl strength but this is never available in less than 25 litres.  Most any 'translocated' herbicide will be less effective on waxy or hairy leaves as these tend to shed liquids. After spraying a field with glyphosate, farmers will normally wait more than a month before cultivating.  The active ingredients begin to biodegrade  within 24 hours and the product decomposes totally within 72 days. With Garlon more than 6 weeks must pass before animals can graze safely on grass land treated. A Bio way would be to cut down the brambles and use an adze to remove the root stocks once they regrow. They are generally shallow rooted and will come up easily enough. Nettles may be strimmed then when they too regrow the roots may be lifted by raking deeply as these too are shallow rooting. Sorry if these words sound long winded but I have abridged some of  them from my R.H.S certificate college notes.  Ty

Thanks Zeb,  One thing that has annoyed me for ages here is the fact that if I had a gite I could have registered that as my primary concern and gardening as secondary which ment that I could take advantage of the 72% allowance instead of the 40% I currently have... Here I am up against several other gardeners who charge 15 euros per hour against my 26 euros (advised by the M.S.A) None are registered with the M.S.A but as Gites/Chambre D'otes owners and have the gardening as a secondary occupation.  And thus take advantage of the enormous difference in tax allowance for working the same occupaton.  I am not attacking these people but just want to highlight the inequallity of the French system.... Is a level playing field too much to ask...? In this example the business cost are just 20cents in the euro. 1 euro minus 72% allowance = 28 cents minus 48% social charges = 13.5 cents giving you 14.5 cents in the pocket plus what you have spent 20 cents say,  which leaves 52 cents + 14.5 cents = 66.5 cents in your pocket. Against 1 euro minus 40% allowance = 60 cents minus 48% social charges = 28.8 social charges giving you 31.2 cents in the pocket plus say you spend only 20cents of your allowance leaves you with 51.2 cents... Am I dreaming? or have I really got my maths wrong here...  Ty P.S...  If I was good at maths I wouldn't be a gardener...eh?      

I would keep a known and registered pedophile chained up in the yard...  That should keep parents way... Bet Quillan wipes this one....  

Fred,  Are the E.D.F asking you to pay for units that you have not used...? Why is it that a simple meter reading does not iron out this issue....? They can only charge you for what you have used...right..?  I shall read your post again to see if I have grasped that facts correctly as the obvious answer seems to simple to be confusing...

Again...  Be carefull you Gite owners don't end up like the woman in Bill Brysons book 'Notes from a small island' (I think!)  She was a B+B Landlady and he called her Mrs Smegma (Is that how you spell it?) Upon his arrival, after taking  half hour of rules, regs, do's, dont's and flak he finally closes the door on her and has a wazz in the sink!  Ty

Hello,  I love to read these moans....  Takes my mind off my own ones! I saw in Leroy Merlin timer plugin switches for almost nowt... I think 9euros for two...  Ty

Hello all,  Time has come to visit the Centre de Formalites in order to de-register my entreprise. Not through lack of work I may add, as this year has been very good for me but due to my French girlfriend and I  wanting to see more of the world before we settle down.  I am very happy and excited at the thought of a future together and all the oppourtunities that are open to us.  After we have traveled we hope to return to France where I shall start up an entreprise again though in another area better located for both of our proffessions. I have 'gifted' my entire client base minus a few out lying/bad/slow paying clients to another Brit familly locally in order to give them the best possible start to their new business and my last trading day I hope to make in late August.  So there you have it... Now, my question for the honourable members of the forum is this...  What will I need to take with me in order to de-register...?  Do I hand over my spade and pick off the phone number on the side of the van...? Or will they want me to show them all my factures and bank statements...? Any info would be welcome Regards  Ty

Hello,  Out cycling, stopped at a resto and ordered the 10euro menu...  Main dish, Quail/Caille on a bed of packet mash... My mate opened his out to find sausage meat (tasty) and internal organs (suprised!) Being an adventurous fellow he spears a likely looking item, round with a gristle tube... He cuts it in half and pops it into his mouth only to spit it out with a loud retching noise so that the whole place turned to stare then laugh... including me...  It turns out it was the 'gesier' or 'gizzard'... a delicacy normally but this one was full of its 'dernier repas'...The poor birds last meal! So foul in fact that he drunk a whole bottle of wine in order to cleanse the palate and failed to ride in a straight line for the rest of the day...  Reminds me of the mystery meat curries from the place in Settle that closed when the wrong animal remains where found in its bins...    

Hello,  My French girlfriend was surprised to find out the extent of British suffering and hardship during WW2. She had no idea the U.K was bombed! As for Irish history in U.K schools...  I only found out as an adult when I made a cycle tour of Eire and started to read a history book during a rainy hostel stay... I came across a monument to the I.R.A who in 1920 routed a force of 1200 Black and Tans/Royal Hampshires  capturing most of their equipment and inflicting heavy casualties.  Great boys own stuff!