djbobbins

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?

We changed from open fire to stove about 6 years ago. I can confirm it has made a big difference to the warmth of the house when the fire isn't lit - I remember sitting in the lounge one Spring and realising I could feel a draft under the door; it was the warm air getting connected up the chimney and out to the atmosphere. We used to burn a mix of logs and housecoal, I would say that we still burn about the same amount of wood, maybe even slightly more, but no coal. The house is warmer and when the stove is not being used, we can close the vents and stop the convection of air out of the house. I would say there are two things I miss about the open fire: (1) the stove running on logs does not give off the same fierce heat as the open fire did, and (2) the open fire was built of Cotswold stone and once hot would retain heat for a lot, lot longer than the chimney breast does now. Walking into the lounge on a morning and feeling the radiant heat from the chimney breast always used to put a smile on my face, but the stove doesn't heat the masonry in the same way so those days are gone :-(

On sale in stores today, £24.99. I have got one and Sod's law, the temperature has gone up by about 8 degrees so no need to light the stove! Reviews look pretty good though.

The company I work for runs a power station in Cheshire which abstracts water from a river for processing into boiler feed water (very high purity). The plant operators tell me that the chloride levels in the river water make it harder to get the right quality of finished water - so much so that they say they can tell when the gritters have been out.

+1 for buying shares via an ISA. My average return over the last 9 years has been about 8% although to be fair I have had some stinkers (lost all the money I put into Carillion, for example). Before my previous fixed rate mortgage came to an end, that was costing me 5.19% so we tried to regularly chip away at that too - the early repayment charges put me off doing it in a big chunk though. I thought that with the tax treatment on rental income, buy to let wasn't so attractive now?

Having lived in Germany for a bit and been mandated to have winter tyres, we have kept them and swap them on and wife's car between about the end of November and early March. I know of people that get the tyres swapped into the same set of rims but this means going to a fitter twice a year; we bought a s/h set of steel rims and had the winter tyres fitted - it takes about 45 minutes to do all four corners at home. The difference on snow is great (even though the tyres are down to about 4mm tread) but it's not just about snow and ice. Everyone know that feeling of driving on a wet, cold winter's night where the vehicle starts to feel a bit skittish? Much less so with winter tyres, owing to the softer compound. I have tried to make the same argument to our Fleet guys at work but all they see is £cost so they don't want to rock the boat. Once the winter tyres are bought, there's no real additional cost for my set-up as a vehicle only uses one set of wheels at a time. I can see, however, that owners of older cars might struggle with the cost of buying an extra set of wheels and tyres. Therefore, I personally think every new vehicle should be sold either with all season tyres or with a set of winter wheels and tyres. Even if manufacturers chose to do it as a spare set, the costs would be fairly marginal compared to the price of the new vehicle. It could then be law that every vehicle registered after [date] would have to be equipped with suitable tyres when the temperature dropped below 5 degrees. The winter tyres or all season tyres could stay with the car and be replaced like for like during its life. I doubt it will ever happen but I live in hope!

Alan Carr, Keith Lemmon, not much of a Michael McIntyre fan, Shappi Korsandi does my head in as well... don't get me started!

I used to help my mate out with his drain clearance business when I was a teenager, suffice it to say that sh*t was in plentiful supply in that job. One of the time-served guys on the gang would stick his bare hand into a sh*t-filled drain to grab the blockage if needed, screw that for a lark. Not a problem for me personally, but I particularly remember doing one job on a posh estate north of Macclesfield, the houses had been built a few months at a guess. The plastic drains had been laid in gravel-bottomed trenches with a chunk of brick about every 6 feet. Unsurprisingly, even before the trenches had been back filled, the pipes were sagging and getting blocked. We jetted the drain out and got it flowing, at which point the Cheshire housewife came out of her house and wandered over for a look at the manhole just where the foul from her house joined the main. She was just in time to see a huge 'Richard' sail down the pipe. Let's just say the look on her face was priceless! Evidently, Cheshire housewives don't think they have all the same functions as the rest of us...

Why not leccy chippers? More places are being fitted out with high capacity power supplies to meet electric vehicle demand, loads of torque from an electric motor, less noise and no fumes. I am not talking about a battery chipper, as I think the costs of the batteries would kill it, but maybe an electrically driven one that could either run off the mains or a genny, that sounds do-able.

P.s. Beyond doubling up the dose of over the counter anti-histamines from what it says on the box, the other thing my doctor recommended was a spray called Magicool Plus. They do a few varieties but the one he suggested was the green top one. It is basically a cooling spray with some form of mild local anaesthetic I think, but has been effective in dealing with the itchiness to allow me to get some kip for the last few nights and hopefully not get the bites infected by scratching the tops off them. Not cheap at £8 or so per can, although saying that, £8 for two decent nights sleep maybe is a bargain after all!

Still not figured out what the bites were but fortunately they are going down and the itchiness is subsiding, although not yet gone away. I won't scare the world with a picture of my chest, but this is what my left arm is looking like...

Not sure about ticks but I moved an old concrete coal bunker in my garden over the weekend; pulled it apart into sections and manhandled them. Two days later I am f'in covered in bites, all down the underside of both my arms and across much of my chest and belly. Each bite is about 5mm across and red; most have a hard whitish middle. Any clues what could have have been so keen to feast on my blood?

You'll be telling us next she just happened to bend over to get something out of the fridge...

Some people have fears of things that others find pleasure in, some may fear spiders, some snakes and some heights. i once had a fear of Horse Chestnut Trees....but i soon conquered it.

Wahey - the app is back! Well, not back, 'cos it's very different, but there's an app and it works!

No, iPad mini...

Took it into DC Burgoynes and they had it sorted in a few hours - cleaned the carb and fitted a new plug. Out of curiosity / for future reference, has anyone any experience of using carb cleaner on 2 stroke engines?

Anyone else having problems with the Arbtalk app? Mine stopped updating topics a few weeks ago; I have just uninstalled and reinstalled to see if it was some kind of hiccup; now when I try to sign into the app it says the forum isn't available??

I mainly use a saw for domestic logging so have got a Husky 235 for this purpose. It is about 6 years old but hasn't done a huge amount of work. Most recently, it has been stored - empty of fuel - for about the last nine months in my garage. Earlier this week, I bought some fresh petrol, mixed up 50:1 with Stihl 2-stroke oil, fuelled the saw, primed the carb and it fired on the second pull of the cord. It bogged down a bit during cuts and on a couple of occasions died after the end of a cut, but always restarted straight away. I was therefore thinking it needed tuning. Anyway, the next evening I got the saw out to do a bit more logging, tried to start it but it was having none of it. There is fuel getting to the cylinder, but when I took the plug out, earthed it on the cooling fins on the engine and pulled the cord, I couldn't see any spark - even in near darkness. I'm guessing that's the problem but wondered if anyone had any bright ideas?