Chris Sheppard

Good find And for all of us non-arbs, there's even a forestry section found this one for the forestry lot too

That one of Stevies is a hell of a machine, it used to be mine and I only ever found one piece of wood it wouldn't split on the first go.

Left school didn't know really what I wanted to do, worked in a garage for a few months, then went christmas tree dragging, followed by some planting and then started putting chains on for the skidder followed by starting a bit of felling. Realised I'd found what I wanted to do but was already down to go to college for gamekeeping. Scrape through the course, picke up cs30 and 31 on the way and went straight back in the woods. about a year after leaving college went self employed, cutting for a few different estates, started picking up my own sites, bought a County, bought an alpine tractor, bought some firewood machinery but in the end got fed up of working on my own all the time. Tried hiring some staff, didn't work out so packed in and ended up on the books for a forest machinery sales company, did two years or so of that and decided I knew what I really wanted to be doing so left last november and been back in the woods since, feeling the best I have for a long time

proper gusty up here at the mo

I'm interested to see what suggestions people come up with as I'm looking to burn a bit of charcoal too as one of the woods we're working in at the mo is rammed full of stuff too small to firewood. Having moved a kiln a few weeks ago by hand, I'd say a quad could be a good move as we nearly got flattened a couple of times when the kiln hit bumps or we got to hills, though it was a fair size so a smaller one might be easier to handle I'd have thought a decent sized dropside trailer would be a sensible choice for behind the defender as then you can lead good amounts off site, though if you were to use a quad for extraction and moving the kiln into the position then you may need to look at a smaller traielr to use too, even if just on site. I've heard of a few people using firewood processors to fill the kilns too - rather than cutting by hand and stacking neatly, just bang it all through the processor and save a lot of time.

Bought a pair of these on Thursday, having pretty much just worn Husky/jonsered pro-lights I was a little dubious of going for something made of stretchy material that didn't feel that tough. A day in, and so far so good. Vents are really great, the first waft of cold air was a bit odd but over the course of the day really seemed to make a difference. Took a bit of getting used to them being a tighter fit and stretching as you move but didn't feel like they were a hindrance. Would like to have seen the thicker material taken right down to the ankles and round the back (like on the stihl ones) but can't have it all. Just hope they last as long as the old Pro-lights

looking good Hopefully we can have a couple of chickens if we get moved to where we're looking at.

That's expensive firewood then

That looks so wrong it looks right

You're more patient than me then - I'd want more CC's than that, ringing up's boring Personally I'd probably not go bigger than 15" on it if it's a bit tired

In comarison to other European countries, very small. But from what I can see it is growing all the time.

the 3500 is the small one, which I think is now the 360 - though chances are the 3500 could be a bit shorter. I'd be very surprised if that crane would lift 2 tonne at 2 metres.

Husky 357 for an all rounder, much lighter than a 440 or a husky 372 but bags of power still. Will pull an 18" bar in most timber at a good speed.

357's a funny one, I'd happily pick one up to cut the same trees I'd take my 372 to, yet it feels not that much bigger than a 346. But that said, I'd not put a bar bigger than 20" onto the 372, anything bigger and I'd be reaching for 90cc plus

That stack is by hand, the stack on the right hand side in the other photo were with the loader, generally anything that was to big to handball. We're still tryign to get sorted with a second hand trailer, but got more chance of finding rocking horse poo I've had a couple of Jonsereds in the past, that 2163 was my first saw and it was second hand when I got it, and ran perfectly in the few years I had it until I sold it when I went employed. What I did find though was although the ran like a husky, they just didn't feel the same, things like the front handles being slightly different angle and the triggers being a differnet shape - they just felt a bit numb.

You don't, the 660 is great Don't mind the 395 husky but prefer the 660. every other saw would be a husky though (can't comment on top handles as don't climb)

Stihl for show; Husky for Pro I'm going to be controversial and throw in a curveball - Jonsered Loads of the old guys round here used to run them as they were cheap to stay on track, if you squint hard enogh you can just make out the old school husky hanging off the winch, and the edge of my trusty 353 after some mild stunt felling. I've nothing against Stihl, and for big timber would take a 660 every day of the week, but for that instant zap for snedding I don't think you can beat a husky.

very little

absolutely. Round us, the price of a hilux load has only gone up around £10-£15 since I stopped selling logs and that was when roundwood was £17/tonne roadside

good point - I always was told it was something on the alternator that could damage and that was why you disconnected the battery (or put one of those surge protector things across the terminals)

Bang on

Are you mad? Maybe Should you do it? maybe Will you earn Arb money? probably not Will it get under your skin and take over you're life? Absolutely I've only been back in the woods since November after a couple of years doing other things and I'm loving every minute and don't know where the last 6 months have gone. None of the hassle of dealign with loads of multiple customers, no mobile signal most of the time, no one milling about getting in the way and most of the time the scenery is great This is what our landing currently looks like - the little landini is doing a great job but I'm really missing the old County

There is a two part adhesive that is specifically designed for fixing leaking tanks - oddly enough called "tank fix" never tried it on plastic but it reckons it will bond to most surfaces. I'd try repairig the outside rather than the inside, a bit of a rough up around the area with some wet and dry and then smooth a thin layer of whatever epoxy over it. won't look pretty but at least it's then got something to stick too rather than a shiny smooth surface. EDIT: Dean beat me to it

Bigger sprocket = more chain speed but less torque In softwood I run my 372 on full chisel, low rakers, 8 tooth sprocket and 15" bar and it's awesome. Can't help on the 346 though Ed - it'll be the same as my 353 but I run that on the standard 7 tooth. I would have thought though, if you can make a 9 tooth fit it will bog a fair bit with a 15" on it.