Chris Bacon wrote in :

Victoria Clare wrote:
I forgot to mention that the site is right next to my greenhouse.
Anything that might involve flying stones is likely to be problematic,
though I guess I could put up some screens.

Bother. I was just about to suggest using blasting gelatine.

I guess I could dismantle the greenhouse and hide it under a pile of quilts
for the day :-p


Victoria

--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

The message . 151
from Victoria Clare contains these words:
Chris Bacon wrote in :

Victoria Clare wrote:
I forgot to mention that the site is right next to my greenhouse.
Anything that might involve flying stones is likely to be problematic,
though I guess I could put up some screens.

Bother. I was just about to suggest using blasting gelatine.

I guess I could dismantle the greenhouse and hide it under a pile of quilts
for the day :-p

Gelatine is a bit harsh. I could do the job for you using blasting
powder (black powder with a higher charcoal content than gunpowder)
without even covering-up your greenhouse with more than a sheet of ply
in front of it. (I used to 'lift' tree stumps using it, back in the
'fifties and 'sixties; and my party trick was to stand on the stump and
fire the charge while still standing on it.)

*TUMP!*

Stump would twitch, smoke would ooze out all round it, then we'd drag it
out with a block and tackle. Somewhere between two drams and ten drams
usually did the job.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

Gelatine is a bit harsh. I could do the job for you using blasting
powder (black powder with a higher charcoal content than gunpowder)
without even covering-up your greenhouse with more than a sheet of ply
in front of it. (I used to 'lift' tree stumps using it, back in the
'fifties and 'sixties; and my party trick was to stand on the stump and
fire the charge while still standing on it.)

*TUMP!*

Stump would twitch, smoke would ooze out all round it, then we'd drag it
out with a block and tackle. Somewhere between two drams and ten drams
usually did the job.


LOL! I've heard of people using this technique, but they never mentioned
standing atop the stump. I'd pay to see that.

--
Liberty is the Mother, not the Daughter of Order.
-Proudhon

The message
from bigboard contains these words:

*TUMP!*

Stump would twitch, smoke would ooze out all round it, then we'd drag it
out with a block and tackle. Somewhere between two drams and ten drams
usually did the job.


LOL! I've heard of people using this technique, but they never mentioned
standing atop the stump. I'd pay to see that.

The trick is to use just enough to break the roots, but not to launch it
au Blaster Bates.

I learnt how to do it from and old slate blaster, and applied it to a
lot of stumps in clearings on a new Scout campsite.

Some overenthusiastic and ignorant scouter had felled a lot of trees to
make clearings for camping in - leaving the stumps, thus preventing said
camping because there was nowhere a tent could be pitched.

Our lot (we later became a tree-felling partnership) would have got a
rope up the tree, dug round it and cut most of the roots, then pulled it
over, taking out the stump while still attached.

Still, it gave me scope for devilment - the campsite was bounded on two
sides by housing, and no-one ever knew. (Especially the Scout Insurance
company!)

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

Gelatine is a bit harsh. I could do the job for you using blasting
powder (black powder with a higher charcoal content than gunpowder)
without even covering-up your greenhouse with more than a sheet of ply
in front of it. (I used to 'lift' tree stumps using it, back in the
'fifties and 'sixties; and my party trick was to stand on the stump and
fire the charge while still standing on it.)

More farming than gardening, but high explosive has been used to
plant fruit trees. A bang, a hole with fissured sides excellent
for root penetration, and any fumes just provide fertiliser...
fast, too.

Chris Bacon wrote:
[...]
More farming than gardening, but high explosive has been used to
plant fruit trees. A bang, a hole with fissured sides excellent
for root penetration, and any fumes just provide fertiliser...
fast, too.

I believe it's the standard way of planting in the port vineyards.

--
Mike.

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:
Chris Bacon wrote:
[...]
More farming than gardening, but high explosive has been used to
plant fruit trees. A bang, a hole with fissured sides excellent
for root penetration, and any fumes just provide fertiliser...
fast, too.

I believe it's the standard way of planting in the port vineyards.

Would that be gun ports, or re ports?

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:
Chris Bacon wrote:
[...]
More farming than gardening, but high explosive has been used to
plant fruit trees. A bang, a hole with fissured sides excellent
for root penetration, and any fumes just provide fertiliser...
fast, too.

I believe it's the standard way of planting in the port vineyards.

Would that be gun ports, or re ports?

The ones any of which is comforting when there's a storm outside.

--
Mike.

The message
from Chris Bacon contains these words:
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

Gelatine is a bit harsh. I could do the job for you using blasting
powder (black powder with a higher charcoal content than gunpowder)
without even covering-up your greenhouse with more than a sheet of ply
in front of it. (I used to 'lift' tree stumps using it, back in the
'fifties and 'sixties; and my party trick was to stand on the stump and
fire the charge while still standing on it.)

More farming than gardening, but high explosive has been used to
plant fruit trees. A bang, a hole with fissured sides excellent
for root penetration, and any fumes just provide fertiliser...
fast, too.

The only problem with that is that your gelignite (or similar) doesn't
leave the spoil tidily heaped by the hole innit.

I say 'or similar', because while still at school I made a small
quantity of nitroglycerine - by remote control - and the hole that was
left after a few mililitres of it went off at the bottom of the garden
persuaded me that the stuff was Bad News.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/