Marko

£27 the floaters

Worked for me - we had a surge in orders for 10's and 20's of ash saplings and could not understand why. Now I know - cheers Arbtalk!

Thanks for the tips. The bit of coat hanger is working ok but it does get hot so I need to sort something proper out soon.

So guys..... if you had mislaid the cabled trigger from a WARN 9000i how would you go about getting it going again. I got quoted £125 for a new warn one which seems a bit steep. What would you do?

We tend to burn anything that I wouldn't want to sell... which ranges from odd shaped bits of hardwood, all the crap from around the splitter, any connie & willow and even sawn up pallets. It is very rare that we actually burn any of our 'for sale' stock. Because we burn so much 'arisings' it was difficult to know how much we burnt annually and I wanted to ensure that we held back / had in stock at least one years supply for our own needs. Rather than just bring it home and use it, a couple of years ago I ensured that everything went into crates so it could be measured properly - we used 18 cubic meters but the winters have been a bit harder since then. The quality of the stove makes a big difference - we have a small 12 year old Yeoman in the front room - when lit (more for effect) it uses as much wood / hour as the Morso but ony gives out a fraction of the heat. As it happens, today we are burning sawn up packing crates that had indian stone flags in. 24 degrees throughout the house... and dog v happy roasting in front of it.

<<<<< This Morso which eats 20 cubic meters a year and leaves us with a very small gas bill for cooking and hot water.

Great thread and great pics. Has anyone else had any success striking hazel from a rod? I tend to limit cutting to Nov through Feb but then we have not got that much to go at yet.

Showing my pumpkin - all 1138lb of it!

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So true. The people who call on a mobile splitting service have probably already had a go and know how hard it is. It is more often than not a one off hit for wood that they "own" so I see a splitting service as a way to get a long term new customer who, through their own efforts, appreciates that firewood does not grow on trees.

We advertise such a service but have only had two jobs this year, one was 'alot of wood' which turned out to be a lone cherry from the front garden but the second was 3 weeks work for 3 men.

No problem - a 'box' was the wrong word. Deano's "Booth" is what I should have said.

Bales around the edge of the building will help especially if you can steer the noise in a direction that causes less problems. Get a sheet of this FRFFB6 non-flammable soundproofing for noisy machinery and build a box around the engine - not too tight for obvious reasons!

Here's a simple fact My Santander Individual Savings Account (ISA) Statement Balance brought forward March 2009 £12,689.51 Interest £12.69 Balance at Close March 2010 £12702.20 Yes, that is correct, an interest rate of 0.001% on their flagship savings account. Has anyone seen this number plastered all over their shop window? It is all headline rates to attract new money but once it is in the coffers and your back is turned... and then they wonder why Joe public is baying for their blood. Scum. As they don't put the rate on the statement you have to work it out for yourself so if anyone else has a Santander ISA over one year old they should check the rate and really kick off if they find a similar stunt has been pulled.

Presuming you have permission, I would suggest selecting and moving 4-5ft ash whips between Nov and Feb/March. They are tough and should easly survive the move but if you know where you want to plant them then it might be an idea to Roundup a 3ft dia circle now in readiness for each tree arriving. A competition free patch of ground really does help in year 1 of a transplant. You will struggle moving oaks. For the lowest cost base it would be far easier to spray of a patch and plant an acorn or two. Good luck with your project

Neither. 130 if I was forced at gunpoint to choose between them

I only scanned it so may well have misunderstood but, from what I gathered, the paper was happy to pour scorn on the use of biomass as a fuel. I don't think anyone has claimed biomass to be the answer to the ills of the world but at least it keeps a few of us from making the situation any worse.

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Our Morso (in the avatar) knocks the spots of our old trusty Yeoman. It knocks out twice the heat for a fraction of the wood. It cost an awful lot more mind but I think it was worth it. I am saving my pennies for a Morso Squirell to replace the Yeoman.

A mog and trailer would make a unique and contemprary set of arse antlers

No I don't sell them - I just sit in front of one worrying about all the great big chunks of wood I am burning that could haave been turned into masterpieces... if only I knew how. I promise I will have a go at a mushroom this year!

Thanks for the info and the links. 3 years might be the optimum harvest for chip that is going to Drax where I believe it only converts at 20% of its full potential. I would still be interested to hear how any unharvested SRC looks at the 6 year point as I do think it would be easier to dry in lengths (not withstanding the extra handling and storage) for the maximum hit when burnt.

top work.

Has anyone had any practical exerience of SRC? A couple of (possibly dumb) questions arise... In order to minimise transport costs and extract the most energy from the harvest, is there a practical method to dry chip in these volumes on site Rather than chip it every 3 years, if left for longer could it be logged (every 6 years?) Is there a standard bed size / field layout?

I am sure at some point the scale of the heap may make a difference but when we tried it the extraction of the heat stopped the process. ie everything worked fine until the pump was switched on.