chilli

I sympathise with you butler, 31 is such a difficult age.You're no longer 'one of the lads' that you still strive to be & don't have the respect of your elders 'cause you're still a youngster. Press on & the years will quickly pass to your 40th. Then you can have fun, be the person you want to be without any pressures from other age groups. I'm nearly 60; reasonably fit & healthy though not as strong as I was, happy & fairly successful. I can comfortably mix with any generation. Enjoy the present. Do not regret the past. Look forward to the future with relish.

I've got PA1 & PA6A. Carry my NPTC card & have been required to show it on many occasions. But then, I'm a landscaper & maintenance gardener, not a 'treeman'.

How about some timber & corrugated plastic sheeting for a roof instead. Keep rain & snow off & let sun & wind through. No risk of sweaty mould as with tarp' covered logs.

Think they're referring to m2 of cizer Jon mate, as opposed to m3 of logs. But no worry, others talk of cm3 (cubic centimetres) of logs.

Up to the end of Nov' I was down on last year but since the weather turned more seasonal, it's gone mental. I'm now way ahead, a lot to new customers who all come by word of mouth. I have to admit that one of those 'mouths' is a stove installer & another is a chimney sweep!

I don't have a stove (yet) so on my open fire I'm burning pop, willow & all the odd shaped, nasty twisted bits left after splitting the best bits from some BIG old beech butts. I'm fussy about what I sell so all the 'odd' logs come home with me.

Pubs are great customers...burn loads & give you free advertising. I happily barrow & stack so that customers can see the nice neat pile. For a large open fire, burning for effect, I supply 14" logs of the softer hardwood variety. Burn easily without having to pile them on.

The problem with a client list from a 'one man band' is that a potential buyer will know that many of those clients feel allegiance to 'their man'. As mentioned in another thread, the personality, character & care shown by a one man operator is maybe as important as the product.

Huck, I read that as "one tone bag". Single colour bags. Guy near me advertises "one tonne bag of logs £35.00" I suppose that's a lot easier than saying..."Builders/dumpy/sand bag full of dry firelogs weighing approximately 200kgs and being a little over half a m3 by loose stacked volume in a bag constructed to be strong enough to lift 1 tonne".

Seasoned cord.....good luck. I'll be interested to see how many offers you get.

My single cab Ranger has a GVW of 3010 kg (so just into a class 7 MOT) with an unladen weight of 1800kg. No trouble with a payload of more than a tonne therefore.

I refuse to sell unseasoned logs, that way there's no risk of anyone saying "Chris sells wet wood". There are plenty of other guys locally who pass off wet wood as seasoned (and that doesn't mean three months ie one season of the year, as another member on here thought) & I happily pick up their ex custom. I can 'hand on heart' say that all my wood is dry when loaded & pick up a good bit of trade building log stores to keep it dry.

I've spotted the same (& been puzzled) several times around the country. At Capel when down for the show earlier this year & also at Wimpole Hall, a National Trust property near here.

Seconded. I was using one when the blades struck a lump of concrete. The machine bucked up & something struck my shin. Was never sure if it was the rear flap/stone guard or one of the blades. Very painful, boot full of blood, hospital & lots of stitches.

The only mushrooms I've ever picked & eaten were those that colleagues & I grew in the underground vaults of the bank we worked at, alongside the cash & customer valuables!

I'm such a nice guy, I assumed you'd service my kit for free!

Most of you will have heard the voice of one of my most regular customers. From his little studio in a lovely old cottage, he records 'voice overs' for TV & radio ad's etc that are digitally sent all over the world to whoever contracts him. When I was last delivering (bacon butties & brown sauce) he was recording a piece for a toothpaste ad' to go out in Abu Dhabi.

Well, you know what I mean Steve. Hardtop has already found the joy of a better running saw after a little bit of maintenance. That gives the desire to learn & practise a bit more. I always thought I was 'no good with machines' (long white shirted career in an office) but now, as a landscaper & logger, I'm a bit chuffed with myself for doing all the maintenance & many repairs on my kit, thanks to help from the likes of you & other sources. I think it was Aristotle who said...."what we learn to do we learn by doing". Anyway, I anticipate that lady luck will determine that fairly soon I shall have to run one of my saws down to you; I must be due a breakdown soon!

Hardtop, you can download some helpful guides from manufacturers sites such as Oregon & Stihl which will help you learn about chain & bar maintenance. The original handbook will also help (if you haven't got it, then download). Also, 'google' can be your friend in finding video guides to basic saw maintenance. As for the rest of it, you can filter out what is useful to you in the 'Chainsaw' forum. If it's just tlc that you want to give, then start with a good clean as said before. Bar, oil feeder hole, air filter etc. Half an hour on the workbench will give you the confidence to challenge Spud!

Never mind, I'll catch up with some of you guys (& gals) another time. Will watch out for the Whippendell trip next year, not far from me. The missus & I have a trip to Westonbirt to look forward to.

I had always assumed that the recommendation given on training, to wear gloves, was to reduce injury from a flying snapped chain. But, the only time a chain has snapped on me, it just dribbled off the nose. I suppose it depends on where the 'snap' occurs as to whether the pull of the sprocket sends the remainder of the chain, still under tension, flying or not. I only use Stihl chains & it was a well worn one on a 260 that broke.

*bump* Just back from hols' so missed Whippendell. Are we still on to meet at Grimsthorpe (castle) park on October 1st? As for Tony's 'Croft' castle, Herefordshire is a tad too far for me!

Stephen, I'm with you. There comes a time when, if you have the opportunity, it is good to do what you enjoy most & not dash around , disappearing up your own backside trying to make another bob. I was 30+ years in an office; suit, clean white shirt, different tie every day. Briefcase with sandwiches, umbrella & newspaper. Got out & went gardening. Never advertised anywhere. All work by word of mouth. Progressed into landscaping, both hard & soft; lot of maintenance work & then sold a few logs from the wood I'd collected. Now, 12 years on, my body wont cope with slabbing or high hedges like it used to but, I can go logging without my feet leaving the ground & in any weather. At my level, Gensetsteve says it's a sideline. Well, I pay the bills, cover my costs, earn a wage & make a profit from my three 'sidelines'....landscaping, maintenance work (grass & hedges) & logging. I think it was my comment in the landscaping forum that prompted Dave's original post in this thread. But, I have to disagree with him. I don't accept that a business has to grow to be considered successful. I firmly believe that there is an optimum size to any business & the defining factors will not all be financial but human/emotional as well. I'm sure Stevie blair is successful in what he does, as I am, but neither of us are striving to expand. Remember over the next couple of years that I said to keep an eye on Tesco. Very successful business, huge expansion over the years. How many jobs have they shed in the past couple of months? What are they doing with their Japanese operation? What are they doing with their USA operation? Still successful but not ever growing.

Another one this morning, in the ground where I was mowing. Farmer told me ant powder is good for getting rid of that sort of nest. Says it contains the same chemical as wasp nest killer.

But don't make the mistake of going on a Saturday, it'll be very quiet. Show's always on Sunday & Monday.