No quitten we're whelan on to chitchat 11

Was in Anfield today. Front row seats. Kids got a photo with Jason mc Ateer. Great game.

My nephews were at the Tallagh stadium last night - had an absolute ball!!:)

Great day out.

Seen that. Felt real sorry for the couple. Don't know anything of the couple or circumstances or whether that's their only residence or holiday home. But you'd take from it that it's an all consuming worry now for the couple and especially the husband.

If it's an only residence you'd think something could be done to build another residence a couple of hundred yards back from the existing house. I've seen cases where just from neglect of an existing farmhouse, the council go and build a modest house for people.

It's all circumstances though. But definitely did notice this new series of ettg looking more into the personal and human element.

We were on a nature walk with Eanna Na Lamhna last weekend, a day organised by Cavan Co Council.

Looking at a 150 year old beech she told us that it sequester about 5 tin of carbon at it's current size.

As the average citizen is responsible for 12 tons per year, she pointed out that we need to any 2.5 trees per person, per year.

Say about 12 million........ij

I will be well dead in 150 years time.

There are no beech trees growing around here but remember they are an introduced species and not native. I thought about bringing some seedlings from my place in NCD to see if they would grow here but I will wait to see if we go for any of these new schemes.

I hope that Irish nurseries have been gearing up for the imminent demand for native tree species and that we don't have to rely on imported stock (with their associated diseases) to plant on our land. I have witnessed the slow demise of all the Elm trees at home and I'm seeing the same happening with Ash around here. Both diseases were brought into the country from imported stock.

Edit to add - in the 90's my late FIL was awarded a commendation for his life long work planting hardwood trees throughout the farm hedgerows.

For the past 2 years here, I have been gathering small saplings around the place and have put them into a mini nursery in a small corner. A little bit of a pit cover to control the weeds and a small prune helps greatly Better to have local trees going forward.

It's amazing what you would gather in a couple of hours. Hopefully this will be acceptable for the future schemes with tree planting

Well, the 6 of is tested positive for covid. No symptoms with the children, wife is a bit wheezy, I just have a bit of a cough. Thank you Pfizer.... I'd say the whole country must have it and don't know it. No way would I have went for a test only for the wife sending me. They should do more random testing to get a clearer picture of infection rates especially in schools.

That's for a 150 year old tree, so it needs to be an ongoing process of 12 million a year, forever.

And of course, if they die and rot, or are burned, the stored carbon is released.

Oak is probably best, due to its long life, but as Enna pointed out, we are never gonna plant our way out of this.

Population control and reduction of fossil fuel use will be urgently needed.

Now, a Covid type virus/pandemic might sort out population growth, or climate change might trigger a global famine with the same results, or a dirty little war in Ukraine with Nato becoming involved might see Putin turn off the gas supply to Western Europe ( double benefit there, population reduction and drop in gas consumption) but I feel there's little point in us greenwashing ourselves with our electric cars and peat bog protection when we are importing electricity to charge the cars and importing peat for horticulture and worst of all, importing lignite briquettes to throw on our fires.

Lignite, the dirty old man of East German Power production....

We probably need nuclear power, be that our own or French, to maintain our current lifestyle.

Yep, we have gone from 4.5 billion people in 1980 to 7.2 billion in 2020.

All of who are travelling, cooking, heating themselves and having children who need more houses etc.

That why I think all foreign aid to third world countries should be tied to the implementation of family planning measures and increased education and opportunities for young girls so that they don't end up being treated like breeding livestock as is currently the case in too many of these places. The aid "industry" itself needs serious reform too as much of its current approach is massively wastefull and often self serving(in terms of pay and perks for its upper level staff)

Any chance anyone knows where in the South East youd pick up a good quality Comeux/welding cap? Or anyone selling them online in Ireland? Hard come by in the few local spots ive tried.

How do you claim your medical expenses?

We use an accountant to do our accounts and want to claim on medical expenses, can you do yourself or do you need the accountant to claim on your behalf