revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Saga Lout wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 11:15 am

Count Steer wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:36 am ...

Acorns!! Never known a year like it. Have swept umpteen kg of them up and put them in the garden recycle several times. Had to keep some back each time because if the wheelie bin's too heavy they, sometimes, don't take them. (I assume people try and get rid of soil in them).

...

What is a mast year? How and why it happens

"One of the main theories for this behaviour is ‘predator satiation’. Take oak and beech as an example again. Animals like squirrels, jays, mice and badgers feed on the acorns and beech nuts. When the trees produce smaller crops for a few consecutive years, they are in effect keeping the populations of these animals in check. But during a mast year, the trees produce more food than the animals can possibly eat.

"This abundance causes a boom in populations of small mammals like mice. More importantly, it guarantees some will be left over to survive and grow into new trees. Mast years have a major evolutionary advantage for the tree. Producing nuts is costly work and slightly stunts the tree’s growth, but as it tends to happen every 5-10 years, it’s worth the payoff for some of the crop to germinate into new saplings."

I don't know where she read it but the missus said 2025 isn't a mast year in the UK but a quick Google says it definitely is. I will question her googling skills later.

Edit: it appears she forgot to specify 'UK'.

SWMBO commented on the abundance of berries in the garden last night, along with the usual old wives tale of it predicting a harsh winter

Start a coffee business?

Acorn flour, assuming you have low tannin acorns, is said to be a very healthy carb. I've not managed to buy any and find out.

There is a cracking book about oak trees that I can't remember the name of. I read in Halifax Nova Scotia in about 2017. Not that that helps with the title

This one I think:

MrLongbeard wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 11:09 am Supermarkets being stocked with Christmas crap in September

Yesterday at the UK shop they were putting out mince pies

Monday morning driving.

Honestly, FFS


People around here often do dodgy overtakes and seem to have no care for the rest of the people on the roads.

This morning someone overtook me without enough space - the oncoming vehicle was a colleague in a similar vehicle (we were both driving 10m buses with school kids on board). I braked quite hard because I knew the other bus would be going faster than me, the car completed the manoeuvre, just.

And aside from him, what pissed me off as much was seeing my colleague later after work and he started a conversation about it. When I said I'd had to brake, he replied that, he doesn't brake for people like that FFS, that's almost as bad, slowing means the eejit can complete the overtake however badly conceived. Not slowing means that an accident is more likely


Add in that the main road on the way back was almost blocked for me due to an accident caused by (I think) a car not taking a right hand bend properly and having a head on with a sprinter van (Someone had overtaken me at speed moments before then had to hit his brakes very hard and put on the hazards when he saw the back of the queue!). Luckily, in passing it seemed that the driver of the van and the two girls in the cars were mobile and not hurt (well I think the van driver had some damage to an arm but he was upright and directing traffic). The road closed an hour or so later to recover the two vehicles.

THEN - coming down from resort I found the last roundabout blocked because a massive, oversized lorry and trailer had gone the wrong way around the roundabout (I think it was the only way he could get around to aim the truck into the village ) - only blocked because no one coming out of the village would take a few seconds to let him complete the manoeuvre

I honestly can't believe just how many massive truck/trailer combos were going through that village this morning !! And monday does seem to be "leave your brain at home for safe keeping" day for too many car drivers

Count Steer wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:36 am This is both a and a

I like oak trees and I'm very fond of the one by my drive...but...

Acorns!! Never known a year like it. Have swept umpteen kg of them up and put them in the garden recycle several times. Had to keep some back each time because if the wheelie bin's too heavy they, sometimes, don't take them. (I assume people try and get rid of soil in them).

Just been out to fetch the general waste and kitchen bins in. There's millions of 'em...again! Thinking of getting a couple of pigs to fatten up.

Drive over them in the cars and then there's crushed acorns everywhere - which the pigeons seem to appreciate. I imagine the mice have rigged up an acorn elevator to the garage loft!

Same issue, and the bastard things have TPOs on so we can do little with them
Guy opposite has no tress on his frontage and hates the mess, so goes out twice daily with his leaf blower and blows the leaves down the road

And what BMP today? My wife's inability to stop mounting kerbs with the rear wheels of her Ovlov

£650 service, £58 MOT and £345 for 2 rear tyres today!

v8-powered wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:08 pm And what BMP today? My wife's inability to stop mounting kerbs with the rear wheels of her Ovlov

£650 service, £58 MOT and £345 for 2 rear tyres today!

That £650 service should boil your piss, the major service is double the minor service (£330ish) and the only difference is an air and fuel filter.

KungFooBob wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:14 pm

v8-powered wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:08 pm And what BMP today? My wife's inability to stop mounting kerbs with the rear wheels of her Ovlov

£650 service, £58 MOT and £345 for 2 rear tyres today!

That £650 service should boil your piss, the major service is double the minor service (£330ish) and the only difference is an air and fuel filter.

Ours is a B5, MHEV - have to change the big old 48v generator belt too. Still robbery though....

cheb wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 11:30 am This one I think:

Oak Civilisation.

I'll have a look. Cheers.

cheb wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 11:30 am This one I think:

Oak-Civilization-William-Bryant-Logan/

The link shows when I try reply with quote but not when I post.

cheb wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 5:08 pm
The link shows when I try reply with quote but not when I post.

It doesn't show at all for me.

The forum tries to get clever with Amazon links, but fails every time, easier to just copy and past the ASIN from the product page as any browser / search engine will find the page from that

cheb wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 5:08 pm

cheb wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 11:30 am This one I think:

Oak-Civilization-William-Bryant-Logan/

The link shows when I try reply with quote but not when I post.

Yup, that's how I found out the title. Amazon links seem to have their own set of rules.

Count Steer wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:36 am This is both a and a

I like oak trees and I'm very fond of the one by my drive...but...

Acorns!! Never known a year like it. Have swept umpteen kg of them up and put them in the garden recycle several times. Had to keep some back each time because if the wheelie bin's too heavy they, sometimes, don't take them. (I assume people try and get rid of soil in them).

Just been out to fetch the general waste and kitchen bins in. There's millions of 'em...again! Thinking of getting a couple of pigs to fatten up.

Drive over them in the cars and then there's crushed acorns everywhere - which the pigeons seem to appreciate. I imagine the mice have rigged up an acorn elevator to the garage loft!

We moved house this year, and one side of the woods that surround us has oak trees, therefore acorns, absolutely loads of them all over the garden.

Safe to leave them? or should I try and pick them all up somehow?

Nordboy wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 7:47 pm

Count Steer wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 10:36 am This is both a and a

I like oak trees and I'm very fond of the one by my drive...but...

Acorns!! Never known a year like it. Have swept umpteen kg of them up and put them in the garden recycle several times. Had to keep some back each time because if the wheelie bin's too heavy they, sometimes, don't take them. (I assume people try and get rid of soil in them).

Just been out to fetch the general waste and kitchen bins in. There's millions of 'em...again! Thinking of getting a couple of pigs to fatten up.

Drive over them in the cars and then there's crushed acorns everywhere - which the pigeons seem to appreciate. I imagine the mice have rigged up an acorn elevator to the garage loft!

We moved house this year, and one side of the woods that surround us has oak trees, therefore acorns, absolutely loads of them all over the garden.

Safe to leave them? or should I try and pick them all up somehow?

Depends what they've fallen on. I might be tempted to rake them off a lawn but the main issue is likely to be lots of little oak trees sprouting and the lawn mower usually sorts that. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.

On the drive though they look a mess - and even more of a mess when they've been driven over a few times.

The civil service
With a little bit of joined up thinking, they could make the country a nicer place.
But it's full of little Sir Humphrey's ferociously guarding their little empires of power.
I filled in a tax return incorrectly and ended up paying a
few grand more tax than I should.
Error now fixed and acknowledged fixed by HMRC, and DWP who have also written to me about it...... bit of joined up thinking there
Only people who know nothing about it are......... The refund team.
I know have to jump through all their hoops before I can get what is basically a decent holidays worth of money out of them...... or maybe a deposit on..... No, been told it's a holiday!

v8-powered wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:16 pm

KungFooBob wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:14 pm

v8-powered wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:08 pm And what BMP today? My wife's inability to stop mounting kerbs with the rear wheels of her Ovlov

£650 service, £58 MOT and £345 for 2 rear tyres today!

That £650 service should boil your piss, the major service is double the minor service (£330ish) and the only difference is an air and fuel filter.

Ours is a B5, MHEV - have to change the big old 48v generator belt too. Still robbery though....

Ended up with a £1007 bill!

v8-powered wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:37 pm

v8-powered wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:16 pm

KungFooBob wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 1:14 pm

That £650 service should boil your piss, the major service is double the minor service (£330ish) and the only difference is an air and fuel filter.

Ours is a B5, MHEV - have to change the big old 48v generator belt too. Still robbery though....

Ended up with a £1007 bill!

Fark!!!!