djbobbins

Fine, PM me if you have some arisings - I am actually in Hatton Station. I have had some stuff off Timon in the past but that was when I had a trailer and could fetch it from Arley. I’m probably alright for wood until about February time, by which time we will have burned some and made space in the logstore ready for filling again!

I am happy to declare myself as a goblin but only if stuff is stacked by the roadside e.g. by teams that have been doing DNO line work. Otherwise I have bought stuff (softwood mainly) or collected free from people who have had free work done. Early this year I paid £23 (if I recall correctly) for a pile of leylandii stems which did three full loads in an MPV, with the back seats folded down - this will probably do me for the winter, plus gave me some exercise to shift, ring, split and stack, so I reckon everyone is a winner. But... if any of you pro guys are in the Warwick area and want to get rid of some arisings, I’ll be happy to bung you a few quid (£20 for a decent sized load?) - clearly some nice straight ash, oak or alder would be lovely, but in reality I am happy with softwood. I will even take euc if it is green; I do my splitting by hand though so I’d rather not go near the f£&@ing stuff if it has seasoned in the round...

My other half and I set ourselves the challenge many years ago of going to see every European capital city. Up to now we have done most of the western side of Europe and are starting on the east. Of all the places we have been (Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, London, Dublin, Berlin, Rome, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Moscow, Bern, Monaco, Valletta) I would say: Lisbon for a winter break Rome for sightseeing (again, also good to go in autumn or spring) Warsaw for interestingness (contrast between old Poland, WW2 stuff, communist era then more modern, also good value for money) Berlin v. good overall including excellent German science and technology museum Baltic capitals are on the to do list; in a few weeks we are off to Montenegro to do Podgorica. We like it - hunt for cheap flights, find accommodation and get it booked, then the challenge of actually making your way to the accommodation. This part has got much simpler since the advent of smart phones and international roaming!

The end is coming then, the former log burner shop in Shipston on Stour closed a couple of years or so back...

Genius or insanity? I am thinking that the head will be out of balance and it’s only a matter of time before one of the links lets go, leading to a fast-flying chunk of chain. Also, as put together, the chain appears to be cutting on one side of the head using the bar guides?? I guess it is speed rather than sharpness which matters? https://youtu.be/QNxGD9yCc2Y

I have still got my Florabest sharpener, it doesn't get huge amounts of use but it still going after about 7 years so I reckon it has paid back the £20 or so it set me back.

I saw them in my local store (well, I say them, actually there was only one on the shelf) - £129 with an Oregon bar and chain, 40v battery - I was wondering if anyone had chanced one and could give an opinion on the power and battery life?

Thanks for that. For what it’s worth, that part of the line is on quite a sharp (for a railway) curve and at a station, so the trains are typically only doing about 10mph tops. Might be easier to get it done that I had feared.

This is the Google maps satellite image from last Spring. The trees in question are at the northern end of the close and effectively form the main boundary between the residential close and the station (the original timber fence being generally, to use a scientific term, knackered. The station has three platforms, the third of which you see the running tracks of in the shadow immediately north of the trees. As an indication of scale, the red car on the drive at the house on the left is a Nissan Micra, so probably about 9-10 feet long. It's clear they won't be able to be straight felled because of being close to the line, your insight into the rules much appreciated. I just wasn't sure if the LA would need to get a track possession even to bring in a MEWP and give them a severe topping / siding back (which would be the residents' preference, rather than felling outright, since it would maintain some visual / sound barrier.

So... at the end of my street is the local railway station and a footpath which is bordered by some leylandii, planted in about 1975 and now about 60’ tall, about 15’ away from the nearest house. The trees are about 10’ away from the nearest railway track. The homeowner has raised a concern because the trees are blowing around significantly when the wind gets up. The trees are on county council land but the CC are denying all knowledge / trying to do all they can to foist the work onto someone else. I am guessing this is because they think the work will involve a track possession order. Your thoughts welcome on whether this will indeed be the case, since if it is I suspect it’ll be years before anything gets done!

Personally I'm equally worried about them hiking the tax on kero for domestic heating. I am sure it will be popular with those that think only rich folk with AGAs use oil but conveniently forget about all the poor sods that live in old, cold, hard to insulate houses off the gas grid and which won't be suitable for installing air source heat pumps.

1) Sawing and splitting by hand some green oak, log-goblinned courtesy of the stack by the roadside left a couple of weeks ago by whichever crew was doing WPD line clearance work in Hatton. 2) Sitting typing this thread in the evening shade, birds singing, me looking out over the garden which looks a lot better than it did at 10am this morning when I started on it. 3) Travelling to Germany and staying in a nice hotel with a spa where they do the whole German sauna thing...

Cheers. They've not specified exactly what; I would have thought a couple of spades, forks, rakes and hoes would be the main things but I remain hopeful that parents and grandparents will have these lurking in sheds and garages!

My youngest's school has got a garden area where they get kids involved in seeing how stuff is grown. They've put an appeal out (so I'm seeing if anyone on here can help) for bark / chip to cover paths and the suchlike. They also want tools but I'm not going to be so cheeky as to ask on here for those ;-) The school is in Hatton, about three miles west of Warwick. If anyone is doing a job in the area and needs to get rid of a cube or so of clean chip, that would be great. If anyone needs more info, please feel free to ask.

Market economy and all that... M6 toll is no quicker / only minutes different than going on the M6 other than at peak times. Whereas if I was in Essex and wanted to get to Kent, the next toll-free alternative would be the Blackwall tunnel, which is going to take a while to get to and from. Therefore there's not a huge reason for people to use the M6 Toll much of the time, but plenty of reason to use Dartford bridge / tunnels. A former colleague of mine used to commute every day from Telford to Coventry and said that although using the toll road would have made his journey quicker, it would have cost him about £200 per month - about 10% of his take home pay at the time. (I accept this is a generalisation and specific people's circumstances may differ!).

I always found these trials amazing, however having had 2 eucs (not sure which genus) in my garden when I moved into my current house, I wasn't completely shocked. We felled ours in about 2008, at which point I remember being up in the crown and looking out above the pitch of the roof on our two storey 1970s house. I thought the trees must have been planted around when the house was built but no, my wife bumped into a previous owner of the house who admitted they'd planted the eucs in the early 1990s. Anyway, back to the trials: http://www.primabio.co.uk/Biomass/srftrials_enitensinKent

Not altogether surprised to hear that but it sounds like a bulls**t decision IMO - it's not like there are Countrywide Stores and MVF generally close to each and which would cause the market to be distorted.

Popped in at my local Countrywide store today to see if there were any bargains to be had, most stuff with 10-20% off (including mowers, blowers, strimmers and hedgetrimmers all 10% off). However I did pick up two 600mm pieces of heavy gauge matt black 6" single wall flue, had been £41 each, reduced down to £12 each according to the ticket, but were on a special code at the till and came up less than £4 each. Bargain if anyone needs stuff like that. Rough time for plenty of folk working in retail though - Toys R Us, Carpetright, Countrywide Stores, hear Claire's Accessories is in trouble too.

Unless you have got a loader / telehandler / similar equipment already, I would have thought it needs to be either barrow bags or loose trailer loads. As far as splitting and storage are concerned: - a few pallets for a base plus either more pallets or HERAS panels for edges then tarps and weights to keep the rain off - depends on how much volume you want to do and how much time you want to spend on it. If you are going to start only doing a few cube per year then a decent splitting axe (Fiskars X27?) will be a nice place to start. You could then upgrade to a splitter - it'll depend on whether you have got an electricity supply, also situation with neighbours, as to which way to go.

If only I was within four miles of TW16! I paid more than beer money for a tonne and a half of softwood in the Midlands at the weekend, which I had to collect myself!!

My understanding is that once the vehicle has failed a test, under the current arrangements, you are only allowed to (a) drive it home, (b) drive it to a garage for the necessary work to be done (and the vehicle has to have an appointment made for this, you can't just claim to be on the way to the garage when the rozzers stop you), or © drive it to a testing station after the repairs have been done. BTW, I used to think the same - i.e. that the old certificate remained valid, it was only when I got told otherwise that the logic of it shone through; if the vehicle fails an MOT today then test that it passed 11 months ago isn't really relevant.

Why am I not surprised to see Kwik Fit quoted in the article? Having been in their waiting room and heard how people being cajoled into getting work done, I reckon they must be thinking Christmas has come early... That 'light misting of oil on NSR shock absorber' which would have been an advisory in the current regime is surely at risk of being subjective when the oil starts to collect into something that might drip? And of course, that'll be both shocks that need replacing, according to their recommendation.

It'd be harsh IMO to class that undriveable unless you'd taken rear seat passengers with you to the testing station. For what it's worth as I've got older I have also adopted the "get it fixed at the place that does the testing" approach - however this is on the back of confidence that whilst the garage isn't cheap, I trust them not to take the proverbial.

Not necessarily true, you are mistaking enthusiasm for competence. Which puts us back onto the topic - undue enthusiasm, saws and heights wouldn't be a good combination in my opinion!

I'm not a tree surgeon, but am an Arbtalk member because of a general interest in the industry and particularly the biomass side of things. However, I find myself wondering - have you posted this in this tone just to attract grief? You have not been ripped off, as the title states, but have been given a quote. It is your prerogative whether to accept that or not, or to try and find someone local to you via your farming forum that will do it for a price you find acceptable. The Arbtalk community are, from my experience a generally helpful and supportive bunch, but the way you have written this may not elicit too much positivity. Perhaps if you'd posted the photos and asked if anyone was prepared to quote, without seeking to slate the industry, that might be better received?