detritus21

Poplar does burn fairly well when dry. I use it myself if I happen to have some thats dry. It does spit a bit but like has been said above that doesn't matter if its a stove.

There has also been a spate in Leeds my parents lost theirs off the drive. They are dead easy to nick and dead easy to sell or break. Look at all the parts on ebay for example.

I must say I was rather impressed. If your not looking too hard you can't really tell that much has been done but when you look a bit harder you realise its a bit of an artform

I was up at Dunham Massey on friday night and looks like the method of tree maintainance is to use coronet cuts virtually all the bigger reductions in the park used them to varying degrees.

Ours is a Aarrow stratford Tf50, I think it cost us about a grand for the boiler which isn't bad when you look at the price of Gas boilers. The rest of the system probably cost another grand for all the pipework etc as I fitted it myself including the new pipework. We changed from a combi boiler to having a hot water cylinder which increased the cost. If I had an endless supply of wood and a bigger house I'd go for the biggest stove you can fit boiler wise I know that aarrow do upto 90000btu which is large to say the least. If you are in a smokeless zone really you need to get one that is certified for clean burn with an exemption certificate. The one that springs to mind is the Dunsley Heat Yorkshire stove. Its worth having a good search on the interweb about stoves and stove fitting and see what will suit your needs. We got our stove from D roberts heating in chorley and there website gives you an idea of some of the stoves that are available. At the end of the day most modern boiler stoves should be very efficient and its down to the boiler size and whether you like the look of the thing.

We originally fitted a multifuel room heater just in the front room and that will bring the temperature up in that room to the mid 20's if you require if you set it up right and if you don't mind using a bit of smokeless coal you can get it to burn easily over night. This was a cheapo 200 quid jobbie. We then fitted one to do the central heating its cost a fair bit to put in as we had to redo our whole heating system at the same time. We fitted a Aarow Stratford Tf50 it has an output of 35000btu which comfortable does the equivilant of 10 radiators and the central heating. I've got it set so once the fire is lit the pump comes on and off for the heating dependant on the water temperature of the return from the gravity circuit. This ensures you have good hot water and you don't promote corrosion in the system. I burn mostly wood but also burn anthracite or other smokeless coal as I find it easier to get it to slumber overnight so you get up in the morning shove a bit more wood on and riddle the grate and its usually off and burning again. I wouldn't go back to gas. Even if I do run out of wood I find its still cheaper running coal rather than gas. When we had gas heating it was costing us 20-30 pounds a month to have it on for just 3 hours a day. Now we can have the heating on for 12 hours + a day and only pay out about 25 pound a month on coal when I'm burning a mix of coal and wood.

I would walk there as its managed. My local woodland isn't managed I've been in with the saw a few times to clear fallen limbs as the LA don't bother even if you phone them and tell them

I think parkland trees should be offered a degree more of protection and care particularly the ones that are getting to 100+ years old. Management is surely better than cutting the thing flush to the floor. I know that there are public liability issues with parkland like happened with the national trust and Dunham Massey, I think it was, when a tree fell and killed someone. In an age where you can assess the degree of rot etc to a trunk through computer gadgetry why can't these trees be "managed" though appropriate techniques rather than chopping them down. My local woodland has some seriously old Beech trees 5-6ft + diameter at the base these occasionally shed a limb or two but had you done a systematic check of at risk trees you'd spot the ones which are likely to shed a limb. Theres bits of that woodland that I wouldn't go in if we have gales. You also have to take into account the wildlife etc that a mature tree supports. Its compensation culture though that well see the end of mature trees.

How do you find the Grigri for descending? I use one and I find it very good on a dry rope but as soon as the rope gets wet it doesn't seem to let you descend as smoothly as you'd like. I use the grigri as an ascendor/positioner to some extent as well hence like it. I think if I were going to use something for just descending I'd be looking at something like a petzl stop as these are better designed for descending particularly in SRT. With the stop you don't have to unclip it from your harness either and risk dropping the thing where as the grigri if you are switching it on and off the rope there is a chance you can drop it which trust me isn't fun. Just a thought

pm sent

Tree wise its poplars. I feel exposed and to be honest don't trust the branch attachments too much so am constantly worrying about if I did have a slip whether my attachments will hold well enough.

Its not that bad chainging a bulkhead over. Just be methodical and tidy and you are on a winner

I've very nearly finished rebuilding a 1961 series 2 landrover and I can certainly say it takes a lot more time and money than you anticipate but is well worth it in the end. Looking good so far.

Subsidence claims and cutting trees down I thnk will come back and bite people. Cut down a tree and where does alot of the previously absorbed water go... into the soil which if its clay will expand then it will get warm and the clay will shrink and low and behold you get more subsidence not less. I ain't a professional and to be fair alot of people would probably class me as a cowboy as it stands presently but was it me or was there lots of bad practice in that there video

Oops forgot about the centre diff thing.

You use a swing meter or a Tarpley? meter to do the brakes on a permanant 4x4 vehicle which the 130 is. The reason for this is to prevent wind up in the transmission and significant damage like something will go bang or it will shoot of the rollers. What brakes have you got on the back. Have you got drums or discs. If you have drums you need to check that they are adjusted correctly and that they aren't contaminated with oil. You can upgrade to discs on the back and as far as I am aware there is a readilly available kit to do so. You can have th brakes tested on a rolling road if you drop the front prop for the back brakes or the rear or rear for the front. That would then give you an idea of whether they are working properly. I can hold a 45 year old landy on the foot brake with no servo and drums all round on a 1in3 by standing on the brakes. The rear brakes on the 130 should lock up they do have a bias so the front lock first but still they should lock up. The only reason then for you to slide would be the tires overcoming the resistance to the road and essentially skidding but it should be all for wheels that slip as opposed to just the fronts or just the backs. Hope that all makes sense

I hate the stuff for some reason our local farmer puts it 6 inches from the floor so unsuspecting dogs end up with more than they bargained for when they go for a pee

I'm well impressed with it all. Gives me some motivation to give more of it a try. Just need to save myself some decent lumps of wood rather than making firewood out of it.

That is well impressive and I imagine there would be a good market for that kind of thing as a commercial enterprise. There was me impressed that I made my first toad stool last week.

Not thought about that seems like a good plan to me.

I'm in the process of setting up around my full time job. Doing "Favours" for people anything from take downs to hedges jsut to gain as much experience as I can. Whatever I do earn is put back into buying more kit. I've always climbed whether it be trees or rocks. Just need to get a bit more used to getting out into the crown a bit further which I'll practice over the summer evenings in the local woods. I do a bit of firewood here and there as well. I've go the potential of a small yard for a tenner a week. I'm struggling at present as I don't have my land rover on the road but once its done then more work is an option. I've got a couple of saws and a silky, ropes and harness etc really could do with another rope and a lowering rope which is on my list of things I need. I'm looking at doing my trailer B+E jobbie and getting a 2 tonne trailer and doing more firewood as its a good earner round my way. Any brash will be saved and chipped in a mass chipping effort again till I've got the pennies to by a chipper. The most important thing for me though is I'm not affraid to tell people I can't do a job for one reason or another. If I've not got confidence in my skills for a job then I might not tell them but make up another excuse as to why I can't do that job. To get to where I am has taken 10 months or so. I need to bite the bullet at some point but I also need to pay the mortgage.

Just looked back over the thread and found your near Skipton which ain't too far for me to go in the grand scheme of things

Wigan I'm a few weeks off setting up need to talk to my storage place. Where abouts are you?

This is an area I'm seriously looking at. We have a supplier of split wood near us and they make a fortune. I have access to a yard for splitting and storing with plenty of other space I'm sure with the correct bargaining (money) would be of use. Only problem is is I don't have any wood as I'm not up and running from the tree surgery side as yet hence no wood. If there be any one out there over in the North West that has a glut of unsplit cord that they want rid of I'd be a candidate for taking a bit it off your hands for the right price of course.

I've got a Tf50 as well. Runs well and is doing 7 radiators and the hot water. All but two of the rads are doubles. I find though if I have the thermostat to cut out the air supply at 4 the radiators would probably melt before the supply is cut.