Quickthorn

If it's any help, most firewood contracts I've come across are on tonnage for both felling and extraction. They normally want to pay a roadside price and base it on weighbridge tickets or printout from the lorry. The figure I hear a lot is £20/ton at roadside, but that's in Lincs, so it will be pretty low.

I'm with the AA, and they've been ok, although I haven't called them out for a few years. From what I've heard though, they've gone downhill since a hedge fund or private equity company took them over. They cut the number of rescue crews down to save money. I run a 23 year old 110, and you have to be careful that such an old vehicle is covered, and that they'll take any trailer you might have. Not all of them do that, and I think some have a limit on the age. It'll all be hidden in the small print.

When you go for the CCJ, don't forget to claim statutory interest as well. Pay on Time ? The Late Payment of Commercial debts (Interest) Act - Pay on Time Glad you're going for it. I think a lot of people assume they can't do anything and roll over, and that's why these companies try it on.

That doesn't follow. Besides, I was thinking more of design and build quality. I've not used either of these mills, but if there's one thing I've learned in this industry, time and time again, it's that you get what you pay for.

Yea, I wonder how long it would last?

I saw a few plantation pine blown over while working on the site. We probably shouldn't have been there, given the strength of the wind. One one occasion, I felled one pine, which exposed the next one down wind, and over she went - quite slowly, as it happened.

Yes. If they join as "friends", they don't often leave as such.

Anyone still on 3 strand nylon? Now that would be out of date...

I seem to notice more people who are asset rich (ie house plus land all paid for) coming in to tree work or firewood from other higher paying careers. Also, it seems that more people do trees, logs etc. as weekend sidelines than they used to. All of these sorts of people seem to work for buttons.

I'm sure I've been told it's the whole tree volume, and that was by a FC member of staff on a timber measurement course. For an open grown tree, branchwood can be as much as 50% of the tree, so it makes a difference.. Best thing's to ring the local FC office and get it from the horses mouth.

How do you get it to site?

That link says 8000 lb with a snatch block, so it looks like they're saying 4000lb straight line.

From my experience of jobs where they want a lot of brash handling etc, i'd say it's worth £0 standing.

On that Lewis winch, it says it pulls 4000 lb on a 3/16 cable. Do they mean 2 tons on a 3/16" (4.8 mm) cable? I'd be interested to know what sort of cable they use, and what sort of safety factor they're working to. The only cables of that diameter I've seen have minimum breaking loads of around 2 tonnes.

That's what I get for NPTC assessments, and it was also what HMRC would allow..and I think it still is that.

Don't know about the swallow bit. I think he works on his own. I've never used him myself, he's just turned up on jobs I've been working on. He seems alright.

have you tried dave pickles? Based at Flockton, yorks (think it's near wakefield). 01924 848348

Cheers spud. That impulse part you mentioned was partly blocked. I'm hoping clearing it, plus new carb diaphragms will cure the problem (idled fine, but only gave 7 or 8 secs full power before dieing, then needed a breather on idle before you could full throttle again) It has got the plastic clip holding the boot on. Might follow your advise about liquid gasket. The piston seems fine, apart from a slight score on the exhaust port side, which i've known about for years now, but doesn't seem to be getting worse.

While my 346xp is in bits, i've noticed the 2" length of impulse hose has got a flat spot where it's been rubbing against something, so it probably won't last much longer. I want to replace it 1st thing tomorrow morning, but the nearest I've got is a length of fuel hose, which seems the same size and looks very similar material. Does anyone know if the fuel hose will do the job, given that it will probably be hotter there, or are they different materials? Cheers.

I'd say some of those could be 50+ years old. The big stuff's firewood or charcoal, as has been said. You can sometimes find a few walking stick blanks in amongst the sun shoots, and 5-6' blanks can be worth £1-2 each. I'd go for it, though, and pretty much clear fell everything you can, maybe leaving the odd rod for layering if needed. Hazel normally comes back well. They like a lot of light, though, and what can kill them is coppicing when they're already overtaken and shaded out by other stuff - sycamore, for example. Doesn't look like a problem here. The other threat is deer. They're so bad in some places that newly cut areas have to be fenced off for a few years after cutting. If you can't do that, then it's a good idea to make sure the areas you cut are not too small - I think they recommend to cut areas at least 0.2 ha, or half an acre. For what it's worth, the FC produced a little information note about restoring old hazel coppice. ForestryCommission Information Note 56

Yes, I think they're about the same, but yours has got a bit more optical zoom, which is always handy. Such a fast lens, you hardly need flash, even indoors. Those are some nice shots, rb. I like the water drops hanging off some of them.

That's news to me, I didn't think hazel would do that. We'll have to try that here. What sort of size rods did you use?

I've just bought a new camera. It's a Panasonic LX3, the slightly older version of the LX5. I'm finding the macro on it is astounding.. plus the image stabilisation. That one above was hand held; on any other camera I've owned, I wouldn't be able to hold it steady enough.

Well I think you're in the right part of the country - there's still a huge resource, lots of other people doing it to link up with (but not too many ) and good markets for produce. September to March is the sort of timing I'd go for. If the site is run for wildlife etc, they normally allow a shorter season. On my sites, they want everything doing by end of February, with one or two places now talking about the end of January Having said that, I know of a least one very well respected cutter near you who cuts into June. Most of my coppice ends up looking like this. This is probably a little higher than it could be, but the spec on this site tells us not to disturb any leaf litter on the stumps and to cut above it. On bigger stumps, I tend to cut at the level where all the stems meet. This ones become a big high because previous cutters have cut high. The reason you cut low is to encourage nice, straight growth. Regrowth from high stumps often has a "kick" or curve before carrying on straight. This bit's never much use in a lot of products, but can waste 6" to a foot in some cases. It would be good to see the pictures of your site. Something else to think about: a problem with neglected coppice is that the distance between the stools spreads as some stools shade out others. Ideally, you want not much more than 6-9 foot between hazel stools. If the hazel on your site is a bit sparse, you can leave one or two rods on each stool and layer them into the gaps. Layering

For training in Notts, you could try Notts P T C. They're the county assessment centre, but they might have contact details of trainers. Riseholme College, Lincoln is another thought. It is in Lincs, obviously, but not that far in.