Saw-sick Steve

Fixed that for ya'

Cousin Jack will be along in a minute to criticise the paltry amount of timber extracted by the horse...

Conifer job was it? ...(gets coat)

Blimey, that saws bigger than you are! Always like yer pics Ace, nice to see the old gear still working - not referring to the old bloke in the photo! Do you have to shout to him to get heard?

Massey Ferguson built under licence in Yugoslavia, IIRC. Haven't heard anything too negative about 'em.

This will happen sooner rather than later IMHO, to bring us into line with the rest of Europe. There have been complaints that British farmers and fishermen have an unfair commercial advantage (ha ha) by using subsidised fuel.

And if you ran a legitimate haulage company, with all the associated expenses of taxes, insurance, derv etc, then you'd get more than a little p*ssed off if your main competition consisted of some $h1t kicker up the road running a fleet of Fastracs on Red.

Well, if it all looks as good as it does in the pic I reckon you've got yerself a bargain. Tractor alone is probably worth nearly that, let alone the processor. Must say, for a '97 machine it looks in bleddy good nick - far better than a machine of similar vintage I can think of...

If theres a grease hole, I grease it, they're put there for a reason.

Some brief points to consider; What trees are growing locally - age, species, growth type? How boggy is boggy? Standing water a.y.r or just winter? Any potential pest probs - deer, voles, rabbits etc..? An ''area of extreme exposure'' - in what way, altitude, coastal,frost? Grant led scheme, or self contained? Will try and reply to yer other points later!

Not a bad way of looking at things, if you can manage it. Sometimes, if starting up, it may be necessary to borrow but I'm of the same opinion as you. I run old gear now, but everything is bought and payed for - the reduction in stress is priceless.

I put in a boardwalk across a nature reserve, and to save money on tanalised timber we mounted the whole thing on Chestnut posts. Most of the tanalised timber has now been replaced but the Chestnut is still good for a few more years. That boardwalk was constructed in 1983...

Given the p*ss poor quality of 'tanalised' stakes these days, I'd comfortably expect to get twice the life span out of untreated Sweet Chestnut - just ensure its got plenty of heartwood.

How big is the timber you're extracting? Is this your main line of work or just a one off? For one off jobs I've done a lot of extracting with 3 - 4 tonne dumpers - small, compact, and can tip! Could always hand ball the wood into a dumper then tip into a bigger trailer on a loading ramp roadside. Hard graft but surprising what you can shift for minimum cost, 3 tonne dumper will run all day on a gallon of red.

Pete, I can only speak from my own experience, the vast majority of which has been gathered while working on the wetter, 'Atlantic' side of the country - mainly Wales, Cornwall and Devon. Points that authors such as Peterken and Rackham make are often applicable to the drier side of the UK, and aren't always relevant to the situation down here. Anyways, bearing that in mind, a lot of my work has been in Woodland management in one form or another, usually coppicing or coppice restoration, and wood pasture restoration. In Oak coppice, felling results in widespread seeding of Birch and Rowan on acidic, nutrient poor slopes, with the addition of Hazel, Alder, Sycamore and Ash on the more fertile slopes and valley bottoms. Established Oak coppice will come up through this, eventually shading out all competition (with a couple of exceptions!) as it closes canopy. Work on Wood Pasture restoration is really interesting, an area I've recently finished consisted of very mature Oak (quercus robur) that had grown up in an open landscape to produce trees of a glorious spreading nature - but relatively short compared to 'High Forest' types. The really interesting bit regarding natural succession has resulted after a change in management led to a cessation of grazing about 50 yrs ago. This has led to a 'free for all', with trees seeding everywhere. The result is a patchwork of different species, with the 'pioneer ' types mentioned above dominating as expected. However , underneath the Alder, Birch, Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Hazel, smaller Oak, Beech and Holly are coming through,. If we could accelerate the process by a couple of hundred yrs, I would expect to see a landscape dominated by Beech, Holly and some Oak, leading to eventual dominance by Beech and Holly. These two highly shade tolerant species will come up through anything, with the possible exception of Sycamore ( but will outlive that!). Left unchecked, most of our Oak woods would evolve into Beech/Holly stands. So how come more of our woods haven't evolved this way (and many have in Cornwall)? The answer lies in the missing component from so many of our woodland ecosystems - large herbivores. I run a small suckler herd for restoration grazing and the impact they have on selection of tree species is huge. Beech and Sycamore are particular favourites, and in winter Holly and Ivy, preventing their dominance and achieving a more 'natural' balance of species. Well I appear to have rambled on a bit, but its a subject I find fascinating(clearly:blushing:). To summarise, Oak will grow up through many 'pioneer' species but is just as happy on open ground, whereas Beech will come up through absolutely anything bar Holly and other Beech - and in my experience actually does better with other trees to 'draw it up'. Any other questions, fire away and I'll try not to bore the ass off ya'.

Particularly when they exchange shirts at the end of the match.

Your conclusions are undermined somewhat by the links highlighted. Any self proclaimed ''firewood guide'' that ranks Alder and Larch - two excellent burning woods - at the bottom of the scale, deserves to be treated with scepticism. I can't be assed to post links at this hour, but have a quick google re environmental damage caused by widespread planting of eucalyptus sp. in Africa and India. You might not be so enthusiastic in promoting its supposed virtues. Many indigenous species are available that provide excellent fuel and benefit wildlife - isn't that what we should be promoting?

. He said ''reliable''.

Have a search matey, theres lots of good info on the pros and cons of various machines on here.

Sez the man with the world's campest avatar!

HaHa, very good! It was a joke, right?

Yes, tragic end but then he was always one to burn out rather than fade away, and he made a helluva impression in his 40yrs on Earth. Apparently his home town came to a standstill on news of his death. Still make a great subject for a film though, after all, movies like ''Born on the 4th July'' are hardly cheery.

Which model? Toyed with the idea, don't they take much larger pieces of timber? How d'ya find it?

I had a wood fired system in a previous house and even with free wood you were forever carrying, stacking and seasoning wood. Nowadays I'd rather sell logs to buy oil - nothing like coming home after a hard day and getting heat at the flick of a switch! I reckon in a few years time there'll be a fair few wood fired cookers on the second hand market. Most people installing them have no idea of the sheer volume of wood needed to run such a system - I even met someone who'd installed one in a terraced house, with NOWHERE to store wood properly.