muldonach

You can get a mortgage type arrangement through a bank, in the same way as funding any other purchase. They will want good security and a clear payback method. Cheers mac

Unless already specified in the contract between you you cannot arbitrarily impose fines or late completion penalties. I suggest a site meeting with the fencer and an independent witness, get your concerns voiced and get him to explain how he is going to complete the job (or not) in the time available. Do not allow yourself to be "fobbed off" but keep it cool but firm and make it clear that if you are not happy with the response you get then you will be looking at alternatives. Following on from that meeting you may also wish to discuss the matter with your client and get an understanding of the implications for him if the job is not finished / invoiced on time. it is better to have this discussion before missing the agreed date rather than afterward. Alternatively can you bring more labour in to complete your side i.e. the planting and take over the fencing yourself if necessary? Even getting a couple of potential replacements along to discuss the job may get him focussed a bit more on your requirements. Cheers mac

In a word - no

Its a good video, maybe could be improved by some of the minor tweaks others have suggested. If you are felling trees as part of a hedgerow managment scheme could be worth a mention - get across that you are recyling rather than exploiting. "As good as Kiln Dried" is definitely the wrong message - but already covered in the thread. Cheers mac

Very good indeed - no doubt who the star is!!

I kind of guessed that something like that would apply - again the OP is thinking of selling logs ready to split so would not endear himself to his customers with the knotty stuff - nor will his back like handling the 2' diameter stuff mor than he has to. We find that the amount of stuff we actually need a splitter for is pretty limited and do 90% of our splitting by hand - irrespective of diameter, but we do not waste time and effort with stuff that obviously will not split by hand. Cheers mac

Firewood is one thing where it is probably a good idea to be VAT registered irrespective of how low your turnover is. All your inputs will have 20% vat on which you can reclaim - but you only have to charge 5% when sellling to end users - and non end users will probably be registered so not bothered by you charging them at 20% Cheers mac

If you right click on the photo and then click on "view image" it will save your neck a bit. Looks like a lot of cu metre bags on a small truck! cheers mac

I would not regard that as being unreasonable - asuming that by "we" you mean that two men are included. The way I understand it the OP is offering partially processed wood i.e. rings for his customers to split. I can certainly get a man with an axe for less than £10/hr and he will fill a cubic metre bag per hour with split logs. Cheers mac

What fuel or hire cost????? A guy with a decent axe will do 1m3 per hour without any hassle on normal firewood i.e. 10-14in rings. A little less on small fiddly stuff. Cheers mac

Surprised to read this - we would reckon to split easy 1m3 per hour so should not cost more than £10 to split a cubic metre of cut-to-length rings Cheers mac

I suppose it is a possibility although it does seem a little far fetched - it is extremely unlikely that it would be economic to have it taken to bits and repaired, if by that you mean paying an agricultural engineer to do it. It is quite probable that it would be economic to take it to bits and repair it yourself, we did this with a county which seized through oil starvation - it cost less than £100 to regrind the crank and fit new shells but we had to put a fair few hours in ourselves to get the crank out and back in. I would suggest stripping it out far enough to confirm the fault - preferably without spending any money - and getting some facts and figures together before making a final decision. Hopefully you can access the crank without having to lift the engine out. Cheers mac

Ok cheers - where would I find him?

Out offshore at the moment and keeping an eye on the bay - we could do with putting a harvesting head onto the digger and came across a tapio 400 which is the sort of thing we have in mind but maybe a bit small. Stone me if a 600 does not show up the next day and its in Scotland as well - got to be worth a shout thinks I. Just went to confirm end date and time and its gone - removed!!! Ah well another time cheers mac:blushing:

not a pretty sight - hope the processor is ok? cheers mac

If you want to tighten a bundle up and have a crane or other lifting appliance available then pick the bundle up with a choked sling and then apply your cordstrap - use the weight of the bundle to settle itself. The old boys used to use a bit of pipe or a fencepost to tension a wire around the bundle with one end fixed to a post in the ground before tying the bundle cheers mac

shoulder, neck and shank have multiple muscle layers and direction together with lots of tendon tissue - the longer and slower you cook them the better - you need to cook it until it falls off the bone but have to keep the temp down to avoid the meat drying out. Cook the girl some braised lamb shanks and use a port wine to enrich the sauce:thumbup: Cheers mac

Ah - thanks for all responses to date - to be clear - no interest whatever in log, chip or pellet boilers. My main heat source is, and will remain, in the lounge with a set of glass doors so I can look at the fire. The wet CH system is already installed and working fine, all I need to do is to install a buffer tank to the existing system in tandem with a planned changeout of the stove - and I might even line the chimney. cheers mac

We have a reasonably sized 4 bedroom house - part modern built and part older structure, insulation is reasonable to good and we have heated it using a Hunter 20 multifuel for the last 23 years using nothing but timber. The stove is coming to the end of its life and I am starting to think of a replacement and would like to incorporate a buffer tank to allow for timed central heating and hopefully a warm house in the mornings as well as the evenings. House is in a village street and is detached - I have enough space to build an extension on to the gable if necessary. We have our own timber supply but not really enough space for a woodchip hopper so prefer to stick with logs and a stove in the lounge Any of you chaps done anything similar and have any recommendations or tips / pitfalls etc. cheers mac

Call the Council back and ask which section or section of the Weights and Measures Act they think you are in contravention of and then take a look at the Act itself. The Act actually requires that firewood is sold by weight only - but only when a local byelaw to that effect is in place. Cheers mac

There is 4.5tonnes of hardwood in the trailer on the avatar, hardwood cord in Scotland should be about £45 tonne. I delivered 5.5 tonne of mixed cordwood last week and charged £275 for it - 4hrs there and back with the tractor so should have been a little more. The load in your photo is not worth £100 Cheers mac

Exactly if it is done like that - you have put up a photo of a grass field in winter with the leaf off the tree - now try to imagine the trees in full leaf and an arable crop in the field - the loss of light at the woodland edge and moisture competition depress the yield around the margins - even if you are just taking silage. Now imagine a modern silage chopper or combine trying to work around the edge of the field with all the expensive bits to knock off. It may not look like it to you but the production of that field is very probably reduced to a degree by the surrounding trees. Cheers mac

Its unlikely that a tree surgeon will have large quantities at any one time rather that they will have an ongoing need to get rid of penny packets - if they are close enough it works. If you want bulk delivery then contact the harvesting companies like Scottish Woodlands - could be worth talking to your local FC office as well since they will sell firewood in bulk but more likely to be softwoods. Cheers mac

A dose of reality is required here I think - at £500 a day I would be looking for a lot more than 2 men with a chipper - for 1 man day it is risible in our area. Sorry but I think you mentioned N Ireland, S Scotland - £20 per hour for anything to do with a chainsaw £10 per hour for a labourer dragging stuff about cheers mac

The honest answer would be no I don't know - but I would keep the LOLER records for as long as the piece of equipment remains in service. It is perhaps a leap of logic but anyone looking for records has to be happy with complete records for all equipment in service. Once the equipment is taken out of service there is no point in keeping the records - they are either scrapped or disposed of with the equipment if applicable. Cheers mac