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Sustainable heating using wood fuel at Coed Cae B&B, North Wales is a good read to sorting similar problems (but with a wood boiler.

It might be a good way forward for those struggling to get their own charcoal to market.

Couldn't get on with vertical splitters at all for doing billets but great for rings. We have a 12 tonne horizontal splitter sat on a stack of pallets which gives the best of both worlds and a big 22 tonne horizontal for loading with a jcb for the big stuff.

I tried to talk my way out of a speeding ticket but the dog gave it away....

A small list of the specialist woodland agents is at the bottom of the page on Woodland Crafts, Traditional Woodland Craft Courses and Woodcraft Training As I and others have found though rather than wait for the perfect woodland to come up for sale, it is sometimes more practical (and quicker) to buy agricultural land and plant your own.

As always it depends... It doesn't sound that unreasonable but it would be very much down to the condition of it. Blade? Belts? etc. e.g. it was just under £300 for bearings and belts for our Liner saw bench. A TCT blade was another £120. It was £80 for a PTO shaft for the Alko.... it depends! The best bit about an old table saw is they really are heavy duty so (in my opinion) they are worth doing up and giving a new lease of life.

I've just had a look at the books and our ALKO sliding table saw bench cost us £450 and we had a 150 mile trip to collect. It was in a bit of aa state so we refurbished everything apart from the metal table itself which we thought was not worth the effort and should be replaced. Never got around to it though so it is still going strong. RenewableJohn: We don't have many hills in our part of Lancashire so our table return mod is just a roof rack bungee strap. Works a treat.

I have had a go at some big onions this year as well. First time with onions ever and my biggest onion measures 21" circumference as of this morning. I was told that over 24" is the usual 'target' for competitions but I am pleased with it and it seems to be still growing albeit very slowly. If anyone has any tips for growing beans or onions I would love to hear them.

All the outdoor plants failed to survive the weather but I had four left over and they went into the poly tunnel. (Two of the four grew well but have not produced anything but the other two have been good). You never know one of the remaining beans might come good in time for the show. The seed was "clive bevan giant vegetable seed". I also tried his marrow seed but panicked and grew on the first marrows which set. Should have waited a bit. My own giant pumpkins are plodding on with the light levels being so poor but hopefully we should still get a big un. I had a 1138lb one in 2010 but just failed to get over the 1000lb last year. No piccie of the bean as I have taken out the seed for next year but here is one of the 2010 big pumpkin:

Unseasoned wood straight into bulk bags is more than likely to mould/rot very quickly so best to get them home and tip them out. I would extract on the bale spike, stack and season, cut to length as required.

Had a go at growing 'the longest runner bean' for our local show. The good news is that I have just cut a 27" bean (best last year I managed was 19"). The bad news is that the competition is a few weeks off and I doubt it will keep that long. Anyone else having a go?

There is a perennial debate about which way around you do things but we find: chainsaw to 1m lengths, split, stack and season cut to length on a saw bench is the best way for us to work and the safest. The days of clambering over a woodpile cutting rings with a chainsaw are thankfully over. The other good tool you might pick up in time would be a pto driven hydraulic pump. This will power a splitter all day whilst the tractor hydraulics are unlikely to be of much use.

1st thing to worry about on an old Kubota is the direction of the PTO. Some early models defied conventional thinking and went the "wrong" way so I would check this before spending on any pto driven tools. For all the media tut tuting I guess all the H&S has evolved by some poor sole finding out the hard way and trying to prevent repetition so if any new safety devices could be retro fitted it would probably make sense to do so. I have used pto saw bench and an old petter driven liner saw bench for a few years now and they both need some respect but, on the whole, I think they are far safer than logging up with a chainsaw. The best safety device I could recommend would be a tct blade, because as with a chain saw, a sharp saw is a safe saw and the moment you start to fight pushing stuff into it is when it can get dodgy.

I struggled for ages with very similar dilemmas and in the end bought the agricultural land adjacent to this Land for sale: 12 acres of Grade 1 agricultural land at Banks near Tarleton, Heskth Bank, Banks and Southport, West Lancashire / Merseyside and planted my own woodland around the workspaces I needed. I just wish I had done it years ago rather than wait to try and find the "ideal" property.

Please don't assume that it puts a buyer in a strong position.... struggling to find a buyer may well be the seller's trump card as if it turns out no one can afford to buy and comply they will have good cause and evidence to appeal the AgOc with the local authority. The seller is far better placed to have the condition removed and as the property would then go up in value 25-30% overnight it is most definitely worth the hassle and the wait. Price reduction held sufficient to remove farm tie: The council accepted that there was no realistic prospect of an agricultural use being re-established on the site and that an adequate marketing exercise had been carried out. However, it argued that the 30% discount at which the dwelling had been offered was insufficient to reflect the condition, maintaining that a discount of up to 50% might have been appropriate. The appellant argued that 30% is a commonly used discount on properties with an agricultural tie. The inspector argued that the council had produced little evidence to substantiate its case for a bigger discount…

Just ordered an automatic door opener/closer for our next batch of woodland chucks. Hopefully they will get the idea quickly and get inside as soon as the motor starts to make a noise.

Foxes? There seems to be no fencing to speak of... have you no problems or just hoping for the best? We have been very unlucky with ours even though we keep foxes "controlled" the damage they can do in one night is just sickening

Cracker. Can I spot a hint of naughtiness behind the left hand eye?

Great. It worked out and everyone is happy. Arbtalk wins again!

The responses have been triggered by the original post where it reads like someone should be be more than happy to let you have 20 x 2ft rings for "a drink". If someone has taken the logs back to their yard it is because it is part of their livelihood. I cannot foresee many being enticed by a cheeky post offering "a drink". A humbler approach with you explaining your needs and what they were for may have possibly brought a much more sympathetic response. I might be wrong and you may receive a flood of offers but a longer term relationship with your local tree surgeon would be the best bet.

Let's not loose sight of what happened... the kit was stolen by some scum bag. Whilst it is a mistake to leave the stuff on show it is the theif that has broken the law, is highly likely never to be caught and even if he was a slap on the wrist is the order of the day. Vent your spleen at the perp not the victim (even if he is an idiot.

We got caught (once was enough) with the paypal small print - you have to use a tracked delivery service. It is a very very simple scam and whilst paypal understand fully how you have been ripped off they will do nothing at all and take your money and refund it to the buyer. Shrewd 'buyers' presently have a licence to buy at will (the wrong delivery methods are still options on the ebay listing) and, if the goods are delivered in the 'wrong' manner can claim their money back through Paypal. I would also add that the scammer is fully able to email you to take the p155 as, in the court of Paypal, emails are not accepted as evidence. Only £45 pounds down but extremely frustrating and... you can't claim anything back from the Post Office as they have done what they were paid to do.

Don't know what all the fuss was about today because Eric found one of those at our local builders yard months ago. News Archive 2012 - The local village news from Hesketh Bank and Tarleton as reported during 2012

I had a little skirmish with the council about 1 x 20ft container. I said it was a temporary structure but they said I needed to apply to see if I needed planning permission. I said that until they could point at the rule book which said I definitely did need planning permission I was doing nothing. I complained to my Councillor suggesting the approach by the planning officer was tantamount to extortion and it all went quiet. What did come to light though was that it if there was any services to it (electric and/or water) I would have had to apply.

When diesel would last longer than a few months... diesel. Not so sure now. Unless it was a regular outage and kicking in quickly was a necessity I would probably now opt for a PTO unit. One less engine to service and at least the diesel is getting refreshed regularly.