For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1851657
HedgeSparrow wrote:Mown grass airstrips always seem to house skylarks, which I'm told are an endagered species.


Our airstrip skylarks have after 50+ years seen the light and now nest in the crops alongside the strip.

The wagtails nest in the hangar, but thank the lord the swallows have decamped back to the other hangar on the strip..... :roll:
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1851658
Charles Hunt wrote:A slightly allied question. We are told not to eat meat because the animals digest vegetation and this produces gases that affect climate.

If not eaten by food animals presumably the vegetation would still grow each year, and then die back and decay. Does this produce the same decomposition gases, or is there something particular about passing through the stomach of a ruminant that produces methane?

Quite so. But the difference is the time it takes to do so. Eg here.

Letting it rot by itself raises the possibility that there may be so much of it that rots so slowly that it may actually turn into various types of hydrocarbon which can be mined/pumped/harvested and turned into Avgas :thumleft: :lol:
And, vice versa, if we could tap directly into the cows' output we could power the grid...

On a related note, marshes and other places with lots of decomposing organic matter are great carbon sinks. There is a discussion in Norway where they are considering building a new road through marshland. Needing to dig down to decent depth for the foundations for that road, the release of captured carbon would be huge and by far more costly to the environment than any cars driving along that road would ever be.

As you hint at, there is a carbon cycle just like there is an oxygen and water cycle. Ultimately, the earth is a closed system* and what comes around goes around.

(*) I know, the earth receives somewhere around 10^8 kg of meteorites each year, but that is really insignificant...
Charles Hunt liked this
#1851659
Mrs P is creating two micro-meadows at the far end of the garden. The work involved in managing them is considerable.

I only hope the end result is worth it. All cuttings at the appropriate time left to dry in situ then raked off - depositing seeds as you rake. Lots of Yellow Rattle to be planted to reduce the strength of the grasses. And much, much more.

This is the six weeks since sowing stage today.

Image

Rob P
Morten, OCB, Flyin'Dutch' liked this
#1851665
As if on cue with this thread, the local authority have just been down my road mowing all the grass verges. The mower was followed 30 minutes later by a man with a blower that he used to indiscriminately blow all the cuttings off the verges and onto the road and pavement. What on Earth is the point if that?

PW
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1851667
Propwash wrote:As if on cue with this thread, the local authority have just been down my road mowing all the grass verges. The mower was followed 30 minutes later by a man with a blower that he used to indiscriminately blow all the cuttings off the verges and onto the road and pavement. What on Earth is the point if that?

It might just be mindless - but removing the cuttings by blowing them into 'habitat piles' reduces the nitrates and phosphate in the soil, which favours wild flowers that prefer low fertility soils, and suppresses grasses, nettles and cow parsley that would otherwise thrive. (It's one of the reasons why 'rewilding' isn't actually a cheap option for councils - it's cheaper just to send a tractor mower once every four weeks through the summer, rather than the seasonal cut and collect required to cultivate wild flower verges).
Rob P liked this
#1851672
Except there are no flowers, wild or otherwise on the roadside verges. There never have been since I have lived here. Given that selfish drivers frequently decide to park one wheel on them I wouldn’t give much for their chances if there were. :roll:

PW
#1851674
If anyone wants some Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis), I’ve got loads of it growing in the garden of a derelict crofthouse - beautiful fragrance of aniseed wafting in the wind - can be added to salads.
#1851683
Bill McCarthy wrote:It’s only a matter of time ‘til muirburn and the burning of garden waste, or anything for that matter, will be banned - in Scotland anyway, as the “greens” are really in charge.


...why am I tempted to make a Wicker Man joke right now?? :oops:
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By skydriller
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1851726
PeteSpencer wrote:The road-facing grass verge of our new development seems to live a schizoid life:Its on a raised bank and the height of the grass now obscures on coming traffic: an obvious safety hazard:
...
For two pins I'd fire up the trusty strimmer and cut it me sen' but it's the principle y'see m'lud.... :roll:


Y'see, I dont get this...

If you are sat looking at the grass, you are affected by it in both a visually pleasing and safety manner, and you have the time ( you have time to write to the council) and a strimmer, then why not cut it yourself? If you do your bit, maybe your neighbour will do his bit abd so on, and soon you live in a much nicer place...

But hey, thats just me...

(Yes I cut the grass outside my house, as do the neighbours after I started doing it when I moved in there)

Regards, SD..
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1851731
@skydriller

For brevity I left out the fact that the immediate neighbours are even older than me and don’t have strimmers . It could easily be cut by a standard mower before it got 18inches tall .

The grass spans 5 houses and a stretch by the pedestrian exit to the playing field behind our house , so quite an undertaking for a private individual.

The rest of the road verges are cut by employed artisans………

But worry ye not, I have had a response from the powers that be.

Watch this space :wink:
#1851765
PeteSpencer wrote:The rest of the road verges are cut by employed artisans…


And there's me thinking that these days 'artisans' only made bread, cheese and stupidly expensive, foul-tasting, 'craft' ales.

Rob P