Joy Yeomans

during summer months, i sell what we grow in our polytunnel, once all the sticks have gone out of it, go to farmers market, car boots, youll soon find a customer base - good luck dean - gas for gas heaters if need be, but i just pot some conkers and ornamentals in the pots and leave outside to break the dormancy and they grow really well in a cold tunnel - a good source of ornamentals is four oaks nursery, near jodderall bank cheshire - wholesale prices for trade, just show your letterhead and trade chq book etc

if something "did" happen, how will you get down, with no qualified person to help - also if youve not done any climbing how will you know what knots are correct and technique is correct - sometimes its best to wait and get taught the correct way , so was not to get into bad habits - even the best laid plans can go wrong , just my opinion - I wouldnt climb on your own mate, not even with Mrs Miggins watching

its a mix of both hardwood and softwoods, was try and move it daily as it just clogs up the tractors pto etc and usually it goes off for animal bedding, but we couldnt get the trailer back yesterday and the lads were in a "lets go mad and clean up" mood, so just piled it up with the manure to spread in autumn.

sorry !

when my grandad died, a few days earlier when he knew he wasnt well, he said when i die, ill be reunited with "Energy" his horse from during the war, an Austrailian Whaler, he had it in India with him in the Army for 12 years then had to shoot it when the Japanese broke into Burmah in the early 1943 I blelive - it stayed with him all his life and never got over it, but orders were orders then, and he had to leave his horse to fight the japanese with tanks, hed been with it 12 years before war broke out. we form such deep links with animals, when we were lambing a few years back, im pretty hardened to farm life i think but we both cried when one of the little lambs died after a few days that we had to bottle feed as it was an orphan.

, well its hard to show the extend of the swamp that we call "the yard" this year its extended into the field, last years pics attached kept the swamp in check a bit, but nearly lost a wellie this afternoon taking pics

if we make the soup lumpy enough it shouldnt come out the sides:lol: super cj:thumbup:

your good! , the pics arent the best as i havent got a macro lense to try and get them in close up focus

know what your going through, its a while back that we had to have our old english bull terrier put down, but she had bad heart and was only getting worse - mum still has her little shrine of pics and ashes! - whatever gets you through i say, they mean so much there not just a dog, theyre your companion all the best - it gets easier

some pics of today, the lads decided to tidy up the yard and some pics of the two trailers we are going to build into one "superTrailer":lol:

thanks hamay, didnt know what it was, just thought it looked nice, like coral almost, on the beech stumps we have at the gateway.

hope this post is ok on this thread - we impregnated some poplar 18months ago with shitake and oyster mushroom mix and this year has been brilliant for the mushrooms - however need some room back and can sell some of these if anyone wants them I thought £20 a ring? as the dowls cost me £180 to do. Can negotiate if anyone wants the lot - pics are taken today - going over now have had some nice ones on. only selling as dont have anywhere else to put them, have to move them, and they like a damp spot pm if interested

This is the amount of sawdust moved today, after 2 days cutting, this weekend! - cant sell it/move it quick enough, didnt get the trailer to load it back in time, so had to pile it up and will let it rot down, with the other piles of the same size, will spread it on the fields.

some nice fungi growing on the old butts that line our farm gateway

Todays job - move the pile of soil after laying some concrete at Christmas, and the lorry came this afternoon bringing 100 railway sleepers - the lads are going to make a track and some chip bunkers - got to be better than the sea of mud weve had - Rohan and Tony taking turns in the digger as going cold, although Tony found how to warm his hands on the fordsons exhaust:thumbup:

business link have downloads, and just change to fit your terms , they are quite helpful and usually advice is free - google contract of employment it should come up.

i dont think the ability to spell if i was interviewing the lad would come into it, my husband is dyslexic and if we were interviewing him for a tree workers position i would not spell check his c.v.. If I were interviewing him for a forestry foremans position as site safety officer than yes, I would want someone with more academic skills - so i think your spellings comments are to but it mildly harsh. but Jamie as I think weve all commented - try and get the basic certificates - we started our company with little more than £50 in the bank and some grim determination to succeed, we took any and all work that came our way, paying for ourselves at the same time to go through 2 year part time college courses, at the same time bringing up a family with a mortgage and other commitments - if your determined and youve got to be - you WILL find a way to help yourself - take on gardening jobs, hedgecutting anything, make yourself known to local firms, ask for any casual work that comes your way to help finance the courses, if you sign on to a part time course at college it doesnt cost that much and they will get you ready for assessment then all you need is to pay for assessment when ready? if you want to be in this industry YOU CAN but in this economic climate, it is difficult and no one is taking on new staff, so you have to persevere and offer something that they require - certification, but its like anything youve got to want it, and if you go to interviews showing that passion it will come across in the interview and help you get that job. - hopefully - best of luck and hope you get there

a friend of ours said that cheaper stoves made in this country are only made out of mild steel and coated? but some from the continent like morso are completely cast iron? could this be a cause of warping - also do you get a better singe off a continental stove I would imagine one from brazil would singe all over?

I dont want to sound flippant but its taken us 10 years of hard work to get all the information that you want in five minutes - i dont mind helping anyone, but it sounds like you want your business plan given to you on a plate - if your starting a business, its up to you to source what you should be doing, what you can afford to buy and what you can afford to sell it at surely. buy your wood off a merchant or forestry contractor, chop it up season it with a bit of salt and pepper to taste :lol:and away you go buy all your logs and sticks off me wholesale and away you go, dont bother with smelly old chainsaws and log splitters, let me do all that hard work for you:lol: - all youve got to do then is sell the stuff:001_smile:

you can have your combi can in a "fuelling up area" picked like you say in shade etc - more than this in forestry kept in a bunded secure tank where all fuels are kept, derv etc, and has a seperate compartment for all the oils and mixes and petrol. refill fuel in tree work, keep in truck in an approved jerry can.

Anything burns on a fire that's hot enough, it depends what you want from a firewood as to whether it's 'good' or 'bad'. i.e. fast heat/easy to light/hot coals/long burn/cheap! Ben very valid and good point ben

we must have some mystic pop and chestnut - it doesnt like drying nets, doesnt like the barn - bought some down thats been cut for 18 months, its burning but not brill more of a smoulder, mixing with some pine - ok wood, but wont commercially sell it as firewood - just my opinion

IMO, no real bad woods - just the time they take to dry out, poplar and chestnut take too long to dry out for us as firewood merchants - got some up the yard been there 3 + years and still wet, will log some more up and mix in with our own wood -compare it with some beech cut and ready to sell in 6 months

best weve got is through my cousins commercial vehicle garage he can get it for us at £200 plus VAT if we have about 3 barrels - which we do get through, alot!

thats good we get an interval in between