Henry Ford and Tory Bush

We are planning a ‘Biomass’ heating system at Tory Bush, where all our energy will come from wood pellets, the pellets used to be made from compressed surplus sawdust from one of N I’s biggest saw mills. Now because of the increased demand ordinary lumber is being used to make the pellets, no longer the waste-product of the mill and I am sure timber is being specifically grown for pellet production. I see a time, with this switch to Biomass, which includes wood burning stoves, that timber will become a premium here in Ireland and we will have to import it and the question will be, is that any better than importing coal and oil.

As part of my planning research for this switch from Fossil Fuel to Biomass I came across the following perceptive quote,

“The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit, weeds, sawdust and almost anything.  There’s enough energy in an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the field for one hundred years."

 Henry Ford 1925.

I just wondered if this was a correct statement so I did the following calculation.

According to Scottish Agriculture it takes about 112 litres of Diesel to grow and harvest an acre of Potatoes, Diesel has an energy content of 32-40 megajoules per Litre so conservatively 3600 megajoules of energy is used per acre.

100 grams of raw potato has 322 kilojoules, which is actually quite low against other staples such as Rice and Wheat, both about 1500 kilojoules per 100gms, but then ‘spuds’ are 80% water.

A kilogram of potatoes would have 3,220 kilojoules, or 3.2 megajoules and a tonne of potatoes would have 3,200 megajoules.

According to Wiki “Potato farms in the United States were the most productive in 2010, with a nationwide average of 44.3 tonnes per hectare^[62]United Kingdom was a close second.”

This is equivalent to about 18 tonnes per acre which using the energy value of potatoes is 57,600 megajoules of energy produced per acre.

So dividing the energy produced by the acre of potatoes by the energy required to produce them it gives the figure of 16, i.e. the energy in one crop of potatoes gives enough to cultivate the field for 16 years, not quite 100 years.

However when Henry Ford was doing his calculation it was probably based on 3-4 mechanical actions preparing the land, sowing the seed potatoes and then harvesting.

In modern potato farming there can be as many as 15 different actions in the total cultivation of potatoes, three or four of which can be the spraying of Herbicides, Insecticides, Fungicides (the dreaded Blight), fertilisers, stalk shortners, etc. I studied agriculture in the early 80’s and the policy was to spray by the calendar whether the crop required it or not, at least now a bit more attention is paid to the weather and spraying is more proactive than prescriptive. 

Mourne Mountains

Walk on the cobbles of Coronation Street, stand on the plinth of the Albert Memorial in London and your feet are on Granite from the Mourne Mountains in Co. Down however there is nothing like coming to walk on the granite slopes of the Mournes for real.

Made famous by the Percy French song, ’Where the Mountains Sweep Down to the Sea’, the Mournes are a compact range of mountains in the south east corner of Ulster about a one hour drive South of Belfast and under two hours’ drive north of Dublin. The highest peak is Slieve Donard at 850 metres, but appears more imposing as it does literally sweep down to the sea by the pretty coastal town of Newcastle.

Some say the Mournes are a walkers range of mountains in that they look and feel conquerable, the going is good under foot, and they are easily accessible from a number of points, and made all the more accessible by the Mourne Rambler Bus Service a hop-on hop-off service that travels around the mountains Tuesday to Sunday from May to September. The range can be walked in a day from Newcastle in the North to Rostrevor in the South a distance of 14.5 miles and if you choose the inland spine of the mountains you need never drop below 350 metres. Not to say that a day is all you need to ‘do’ the Mournes, many walkers spend a lifetime time coming back to experience these fantastic little mountains, with so many facets and links to history, literature and geology. The use of Mourne Granite as cobbles and kerbs in English cities has been mentioned and one of the interesting walking routes is the Granite Trail which follows the journey of the granite from the many Quarries in the mountains down the slopes on its own little railway to the harbour at Newcastle.

In terms of Literature, the southern Mournes where the inspiration for the landscape described by CS Lewis in his Narnia books, Lewis was born in Belfast and holidayed in the Mournes, and in Geology it was in the Mournes that the world’s first classification of Igneous rocks was determined. For more information on walking in the Mournes click on www.walkni.com and for accommodation visit www.discovernorthernireland.com

My response to a Tripadvisor review.

This blog relates to a review on Tripadvisor which praises my properties but warns prospective guests to be wary of the rules about bringing additional persons into the Cottages. We do have rules about Visitors to the Cottages to do with Child Protection, Insurance, Health and Safety etc., but this guest was challenged because she was seen to be bringing additional persons, carrying duvets, into the property and without the intention to pay.

Please read through the dialogue between myself and the guest from the initial booking phase to the correspondence following departure and at the end to the ‘Scan’ of our guest book  where the number of occupants is put as “LOTS”, and then make your own judgement on the rights and wrongs of the matter. ( I have tried to redact the identity of the guest, however if in any way the guest can be identified from the correspondence below  I apologise in advance.)

By the way we do permit visitors to the cottages within certain parameters and when arranged in advance.

On the 10^th of December 2009 this Guest initially booked two six person houses for the 12-14^th of March 2010  i.e. accommodation for a total of twelve people. The deposit was paid on the 15^th of January for both houses.

Subject:	Booking reference 650435
Attachments:	Directions to Tory Bush(733).doc Terms and Conditions(1213).doc
Mrs Karen Haughey Belfast Ni Dear Mrs Thank you for booking House 1 & House 2 for 12th March 2010 to 14th March 2010. I am pleased to confirm the details of your booking with you and attach a reciept of £96.00 for your deposit. Entry is from 4p.m. onwards at Tory Bush and we ask that you depart by 11 a.m. on your date of departure. I have attached all of the details you require for your visit however please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information. Your remaining balance of £384.00 is due on the 12th February 2010 and I will send you a further receipt on receiving this from you. Kind Regards

On the 5^th of February 2010 the guest emailed to say that their numbers hand reduced and could they cancel the two 6 person houses (numbers 1 and 2) and could they book instead the 7 person house (number 3) as no more than 7 persons would be staying.

Name:
Email address:     **** .***@yahoo.co.uk

---

I have booked houses 1 and 2 for the 23/13 March - can I chage this to one house only, No. 3. Please advise, and if we lose any deposit.

And I replied that they would not lose a deposit

Just a quick reply, that should be no problem, I will get a look at the booking system tomorrow.

 I am charged a percentage on transactions but as I am not making any refund and you still have a balance to pay I won't actually incur any loss so there will be no charge for making the change and I will carry the part payment forward to the new house.

I will make the change and sent you a new booking summary so you can see the deposit carried forward and a much reduced balance to pay.

If your numbers do creep up again, let me know and I could organise one of the apartments at a lower occupancy rate.

David.

Booking number: 650435 Booking date: Thu 10 Dec 2009 Document date: Fri 05 Feb 2010 Houses 1 & 2 - cancelled Arrival date: Fri 12 Mar 2010 at approx 16:00 Departure date: Sun 14 Mar 2010 (2 nights) at approx 11:00 Guests: Adults: 6 Children: 0 Infants: 0 Total rent: GBP 240.00 Refundable security deposit GBP 100.00 Property total: GBP 340.00 House 3 Arrival date: Fri 12 Mar 2010 at approx 16:00 Departure date: Sun 14 Mar 2010 (2 nights) at approx 11:00 Guests: Adults: 7 Children: 0 Infants: 0 Total rent: GBP 256.00

I agreed to this and the balance was processed on the 16^th of February.

The 7 guests duly arrived on the Friday 12^th of March and all seemed fine until the next day Saturday the 13^th of March and I looked out and saw two girls carrying sleeping bags or duvets into the cottage. I went over to the cottage and spoke to the lady who had made the booking about these additional persons. She told me that there was only one additional person, and that whilst I had seen two persons enter the cottage with what I took to be sleeping bags, one of those persons was her daughter who was already on site as part of the party of 7 and she was just helping the additional new arrival bring her sleeping equipment into the house. I had to accept the ladies word on this.

The lady did concede that she did know from at least the night before that this extra person was arriving, she also felt aggrieved that I had spoilt their weekend, which was supposed to be a birthday celebration, by challenging them on this issue.

I agreed that the person could stay, this despite the fact that they were now in breach of Contract and in our opinion had tried to obtain ‘Goods and Services’ without the intent to pay, a criminal offence. Had the lady intended to pay and she knew before the arrival of the additional person(s) then she should have informed me. I refer to the last line of my email above where I suggested I would offer a small apartment at a reduced rate if their numbers increased. On agreeing to let the additional person stay I said I would charge an additional one seventh of the cost of the weekend to reflect the extra person and this was cheaper than charging for two houses of 4 persons each which should have been the new contract cost.

Following their departure the lady sent the following email,

As we have now vacated number 3 cottage and hopefully you have completed your inspection I would be grateful if you would return my deposit of £50.00.  We did have a conversation regarding the payment for the extra person, however for one night there was only 6 people staying and then 8 people on the second night.  On average this is 7 people for the weekend.  If you do insist on payment for the extra person then it is for one person for one night eg  £256 / 7people / 2 night = £18.28.  You may deduct this from my deposit

I appreciate your concern with regards to insurance etc but I have to say that your attitude spoiled our celebration week end

Regards  

K *******

I replied with the following email which I think sets out my case fairly and reasonably.

K****,

I am sorry if my approach spoilt your weekend, but can you imagine how I feel when I see people carrying duvets into my cottages, we offer the cottages in good faith and the prices are based on the numbers of persons booked per house and the appropriate size of house or houses been allocated. 

If persons then bring down extra persons then they are in breach of contract and technically I can ask them to vacate the property at once and further if they do bring down extra persons and try evade payment then they are committing a criminal offence by availing of a service or product without the intention to tender payment.

However these are just technical issues, the main issue is that it really saddens and hurts me when I see people try to 'get one over on me' I try to offer a good product in a nice area and just ask that my business is treated with respect, you don't see people carrying duvets into the Slieve Donard or any other hotel or B and B.

I hope I was not rude or abusive in anyway, if you do wish to take the matter any further the Tourist Board have a department dealing with such issues, you can contact John Dickson or Niambh Bennett in the Registration Department of NITB on 90231221 or info@nitb.com. 

Re; the charge for the extra person I could have a different interpretation and base the cost of the weekend on two four person houses but I am happy with your offer as outlined below so I will be sending you back the £50 minus this £18.28 and the cost of the gas heating used which was £6.50, this a standard deduction as set out in our pricing schedule, and I do acknowledge that the house was left clean and tidy. I will do this by cheque as our system has permanently deleted your Credit Card Details to avoid hackers etc. 

Karen I hope we can draw a line under this matter; I am not in business for confrontations like this.

David Maginn

You will notice in the last line, having agreed to the ladies much reduced offer of payment I ask that we can draw a line under this matter and I got the following reply.

Yes David, I too would like to draw a line under this matter, But I do need to tell you that in no way was I trying to ‘get one over on you’.  The duvet was brought in to the cottage in full view, in daylight, and I honestly did not try to evade payment.  I believed that I had paid for the cottage not the number of people.  Obviously I will not be taking this matter any further as you have made it abundantly clear that we were in the wrong.

I wish you success with your business, accommodation of the highest standard, but I’m not sure that we will ever avail of it again.

Thank you   K*****

Despite the assurances of the lady that she would not be taking the matter any further then you can imagine my shock and disappointment some weeks later when a friend drew my intention to an unfavourable review on Tripadvisor, I had done nothing wrong accept try to manage my business in an appropriate manner and challenge what I believed was a flagrant breach of my Terms and Conditions.

The lady was clearly not under the allusion that she had booked the house and not the number of people, she had initially booked houses sufficient for 12 people, and when she cancelled a house I did not levy a cancellation fee, and when I gave her a different house I did so with the offer that if her numbers increased that I would provide a small apartment at a discounted price if it was not fully occupied, so she was well aware that the numbers of persons was the basis of my pricing regime.

The only consolation I can take out of her comments was that they were quite complimentary about my accommodation.  

Below is a scan from our Guest Register which all guests are required to fill in, I have tried to obliterate the names of the guests and the signature, but I trust you can see the date of arrival is the 12 of March 2010 the date of this booking, if you note the box with the number in the party, you will see the guest has written 'Lots', which I think can be interpreted in a number of ways, and interestingly in the comments box the Guest has written 'Great 50th Party' ,  which again  can be interpreted in a number of ways especially as we have an express condition in our Terms & Conditions that our properties are not to be used as a party venue,- for insurance and health and safety reasons e.g. we do not have emergency lighting or emergency exits in a venue used by the general public.

Rude rude owner.

Rude rude owner.

I have been accused of being rude, please read through and make your own decision, I have attached the booking form to show the hefty discount I was offering for two persons only. I have redacted any means of identifying the writers of the review.

These Guests phoned in July to book a house in August for two people, and I told them I only had the Eco-Loft available which slept only 2 persons in one bedroom and Apartment 6 which slept up to 4 but that I would offer a low-occupancy discount based on two people, they asked could they view them on the internet and I gave the appropriate details.

They came back a day or so later saying they would prefer a house that opened directly onto a garden as opposed to a balcony in the case of number 6, and that there might be more people staying.

I suggested I had house number 2 available but that it was a large house capable of sleeping 6 people so would cost more but that I would still offer a low occupancy discount and that they could pay for any additional guests on a nightly price of £20 per person. They send me a text saying their budget was limited to £360 and I replied by text that I would offer House 2 at £320 for two people and that they could pay for any additional guests at £20 per night.

They replied ‘Thanks, that’s great’ and said they wished to book.

I drew up the booking form below, which shows the full price of the house at £630 but with a ‘low occupancy discount’ of £310, (they were getting the house for basically half price) and emailed it to them on the 25/7/11, and asking for their address details to initiate payment.

I got the following reply on the 2/8/11,

“Hi there, Could you resent payment email. I am paying today but the email seems to been deleted from my junk folder. Apologies for the delay. Thanks K M”

I replied that I would resend the email the next day as I was out of the office. I also sent a text on the 3/8/11 asking again for their address details as it would not be possible to pay online as the Card used is checked against the address details.

I never got these details, instead I got a call a night or two later on my mobile phone from the husband of the couple, saying they were only going to pay the £320 and did not see why they had to pay the extra to have people come down and stay. I said ‘ G… lets cancel the booking and that I am sure that you can find cheaper accommodation somewhere else.’ At that point the mobile phone signal broke-off, I expected the couple to phone back but they did not.

Coincidentally the fact that they phoned on the mobile is significant, not only from the point of view that signal failed which may appear as I rudely ‘hung up’, but to make the mobile phone work in my office I have to leave it in a window and put it on speaker phone when someone calls and not move the phone. As a consequence of this I have a witness to the conversation with G. M. and they were quite shocked by the manner in which I was addressed.

Reviews on Tripadvisor.

I have had a number of Bad reviews on Tripadvisor, 'I' being the operative word as the critical reviews are more about me than about the properties, if anything the reviews praise the Cottages but have issues about my manner or the rules and regulations I use in the management of the Cottages. Any rule or regulation we have are for the benefit of the guests who have paid their money and chosen to have stayed with us. We see Tory Bush as more than mere accommodation for the night but a holiday experience, we even have people in their twenties now coming back to have their own children experience a place where they had a great child-hood holiday, when I see them bring their grandchildren then I know I will have been in this business too long!

I have no real issue with personal criticism, it hurts at the time of reading, but there is an expression that says, if amongst the people you meet, a third like you, a third dislike you, and the other third are indifferent then you are not doing too bad.

But what is upsetting is that these reviews are putting people off staying at the Cottages, particularly new visitors and visitors from out of the country. We have calculated, using Tourist Board figures that over the 16 years we have been in business we have brought £5.1 million into the local economy and at these difficult times we should all be doing as much as possible to support these primary enterprises that generate new cash for the country. Thankfully we have a high level of repeat business, probably the highest in our sector and that's because most people appreciate the way the cottages operate.

It is noticeable that the bad reviews I have had are where I have challenged people on some issue and it would appear that they are using Tripadvisor as a means of retribution. I actually think that this is an issue for Tripadvisor, and there is a view in the leisure sector that Tripadvisor has been dis-credited as a consequence of malicious, retributive or just plain false reviews. I am not alone in this, none other than Duncan Bannatyne of Dragons Den fame and owner of four Hotels is considering legal action against Tripadvisor.

I am going to post on this blog the contents of the Critical Reviews and let others decide if their is validity in them. By using the 'property right to reply' box following each Tripadvisor review I hope to able to direct people from the reviews on Tripadvisor to this blog, I don't think Tripadvisor would let me give all the background that let up to each review.

Selecting the tree species that favour red squirrels but are unlikely to encourage grey squirrels into the core area is of paramount importance. Favourable species include Scots pine, larch, Norway spruce, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, yew and hawthorn. Even a commercial plantation consisting primarily of the North American conifer Sitka spruce, can contribute to red squirrel conservation, providing that 20% of the tree cover consists of the above favoured species , where suitable site conditions prevail.

Woodland managers who require broadleaves for landscape or biodiversity reasons should use any of the following species - birch, rowan, ash, willow, aspen or alder. These species produce small seed and although they are not a favoured food source for the red squirrel, they do not encourage grey squirrel incursions.

The Irish Diaspora

I thought I would begin this blog with a photograph, partly to add content but also to test out a little bit of software. I have tried to upload photos before but they have failed and latterly I have learned that the file size may have been too big, just too much detail for blogger to handle, apparently an image on the internet does not need to be as 'intense' as an image for, say a glossy colour brochure. So my bit of software can reduce the number of pixels in the photographs so that they can be uploaded much more quickly but still be viewable.

As a consequence of being in the tourism business we get bombarded with information from one source or another, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board has three publications, The View, Tourism Eye, and the Tourism Spotlight, who these are intended for and how the content differs I don't know. We get another publication from 'TIL' , (Tourism Ireland Limited) which is the organisation charged with marketing Ireland on a whole Island basis, there is also Failte Ireland which is responsible for marketing the South of Ireland and I am sure that they have a raft of in-house publications as well.

What I notice is that the most important person in this chain is often overlooked, namely the visitor, is there any publication or E-zine that they can sign up to and be kept informed about happenings within Ireland north and south. It is a bit like the now infamous debate we had in our local council last month, the Tourist Board were admirably funding the erection of new sign-age for a coastal route around the Mourne Mountains, and it came before the local Council for approval.

Here, however, rather than welcoming this development, the issue became the language that the signs were to be in, the Tourist Board were funding signs in English only, but some of our Councillors in their wisdom thought that they should also be in Irish and just as readily a few more thought that they should then also be in Ulster Scots. I think the fundamental point was missed, if language was to be an issue, it should have been which language would most have met the needs of our visitors, German, French, Dutch perhaps?

Back to the matter of those publications, as mentioned TIL, remember who they are?, have a publication called Contact, and apart from the usual range of photos of people in suits standing beside pull-up banners there is some good information, as indeed there is in all the publications, just do we need so many? One article caught my eye, it is a campaign to connect with people of Irish Ancestry throughout the world using twitter, you can read more about the article by clicking on this link, apparently the best tweet will get a 140 hour short break in Ireland.

http://www.tourismireland.com/Home!/About-Us/Press-Releases/2010/Connecting-with-the-Diaspora-in-GB-through-Twitter.aspx

The magical 140 figure comes from the maximum characters you can use in a tweet, you would think I would know what I am talking about, but I haven't a clue really, however next week I have planned some training on social media. This campaign to connect with the Irish Diaspora, as it is called, ie Irish people spread across the world can be checked out on an associated website

http://myirish140.com/ or on twitter itself http://twitter.com/@myirish140 .