John Barleycorn

This was on Sunday night BBC 4 46 minutes into it is a stunning pair of wheels, no visible means of support. Watch it again! BBC - BBC Four Programmes - Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle

Split Sweet Chestnut. My brother uses some that I supplied. Cheap, more rot resistant than Oak, more eco friendly. Not full of toxins & residues like railway sleepers & treated wood.

But you need to inject it into the stems.

In my experience I would say the exact opposite. It is the split surfaces that spit, put it bark side up on an open fire. I have burnt well seasoned small diameter (3 inches or less) sweet chestnut logs in the round on an open fire and they dont seem to spit at all.

Get one of those lockable ram-proof bollards concreted in.

What amazes me is how many get away with not deducting the volume of their wheel arches from the "load", (or even that spare wheel chucked in underneath !)

Oh yeah, Yew is poisonous. Nobody told the deer in Kingley Vale West Sussex, just look at the browse line ! Its the biggest Yew forest in Britain (probably W Europe), but I dont see many dead deer laying around !

About 30 years ago I almost went over a cliff in a pickup when working on a rig in the Sahara. A wheel came off after somebody had removed all but one of the wheel nuts. I strongly suspect the Fillipino labourers who were narked-off after I made mix sacks of chemical in the night, but it was their shift & their job.

Is there any documentation regarding the long term use & alleged non toxicity of these bio-oils ? Just because its "natural" does not mean that it is safe. Cyanide, arsenic and crude oil are "natural" !

I thought that Horse Chestnut was a shite timber, only good for the fire.

Use a small soldering iron to engrave your name & postcode, then fill the groove with paint to highlight it.

£75- a load (1.2 cubic metres) seasoned mixed hardwood E Sussex.

You might well moan about it now, but just wait untill those b******s have flogged it off.

Sounds like a great project. Looking at an existing large site box. The top & half the front lift up, like an inverted L. The hinge runs along the top back, so when the box is bolted down against a wall its difficult for somebody to get to the hinge, which can be a weak point. This design gives good access to the shelves inside. Also the edges of the lid have a double lip (use 2 bits of angle or U section steel) so it overlaps the box inside & out, so even if somebody peeled back an edge its secure. Struts to hold up lid, or car type hydro to counterbalance weight. All internal faces reinforced with angle. Locking mechanism too difficult to describe, but basicaly a sliding steel rod locked in place. Small reinforced vents near base & top to prevent build up of heavy petrol vapour (you dont smoke do you). Lastly (as I have mentioned on this forum before) the dangers of cutting, welding or grinding on tanks that have held hydrocarbons. Fill with water as high as possible to the cutting point. I know of a case of a welder killed working on a small oil storage tank even after people had been inside & pressure hosed it. The oil ADSORBS to the surface of the metal & is released by heat

Yes it seems strange that loads of vehicles (including double decker busses) were run on it in the second world war, but now somehow the technology is largely ignored.

The best way to catch them would be sting operations organised by local groups.

Are you not confusing it with drinking the urine of reindeer who have feasted on magic mushrooms ?

Obviously works on beavers as well, because I have never seen one with cancer.

But Husqvarna chains are made by Oregon

Testing by the FC many years ago completely discredited the idea that charred wood is more rot resistant, if anything the damaged surface is more vulnerable.

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Landrover 101 & convert it to an off-road camper van.

Birch can be very slow to dry in the larger diameters because the bark is not very breathable. Logs should have been split lengthwise or the bark slashed. Dont leave outside more than a year as it will rot.

Might be worth talking to that bloke at The Agroforestry Research Trust http ://www.agroforestry.co.uk , I remember him saying that it was hybridising & spreading along the coast in the Westcountry. Said some of the hybrids had a low tannin content in their acorns & were edible !

Looking at the BBC Radio 4 schedules for this week, I think it was either "saving species, or "Home Planet". You can listen again on the BBC website. Think it was shading out plants & waxy leaves slow to break down.