djbobbins

In a panic and without phoning to ask for advice, he coughed up to Swinton (£1300 for fully comp, limited to 6k miles per year). I have found Direct Line will provide better cover (10k miles and with myself and my sister as named drivers) for a smidge over £500 and also got a slightly cheaper price quoted via Adrian Flux. I’ve persuaded him to use his consumer rights to cancel the Swinton policy within 14 days of it being taken out; there will be an admin fee to pay I think but he will still be about £700 better off, net. Worth it for a couple of phone calls.

Not a joke… My father has signed on the line to buy a crew van (6 seat) Vauxhall Vivaro. Main reason for doing this is to have a vehicle that my parents, my recently widowed sister and her 3 teenage sons can all fit in. He’s only now bothered to check insurance costs and is finding (possibly because he turned 80 last year?) that most insurers won’t quote. The one price he’s had up to now is £1500 a year. I have requested a quote from Adrian Flux but was wondering if anyone else has other suggestions? It will be max 10k miles a year, social use only.

No to fracking - it’d be yet another short term decision which results in long term dependency. Can you imagine the lobbying position of some of the companies - “you let us have this one project two years ago and we’ve invested in equipment, look at how we helped the country etc…”. IMO fracking now = still fracking in 15-20 years’ time. We need to incentivise and drive efficiency - particularly on housing. We also need to push more on daily and seasonal energy storage - that isn’t going to come from a few containers of lithium batteries here and there, it is going to need lots more wind capacity, green hydrogen / green ammonia / sub-sea storage, smarter use of EVs and heat pumps as flexible demand and V2G. All of those take time but the biggest screw-up was Cameron getting a few quid off energy bills in 2011-12 but consigning thousands of people to live in poorly-insulated houses for the next 20 years instead. It was obvious then what the effect would be and it boils my piss even thinking about it now.

I grew up near Stoke. It’s definitely gone downhill over the last 30 years IMO - I remember when some of the bigger pot banks were still open; H&R Johnson, Beswick etc. Plus a couple of pits. Now - and it’s a genuine thought - I just don’t see where the major sources of employment growth will come from, which might bring some economic prosperity. Stoke is pretty well placed for logistics I guess, but as far as I know warehouses don’t employ huge numbers of people, nor are those jobs particularly highly paid. Let’s hope Michelin and JCB keep going…

I managed to get my 8 years NCB recreated based on my company car driving time. That was with RAC; not all insurers will accept accident-free history when driving a company vehicle. The promised me that when the current year expires, they will send me a letter saying I’ve got 9 years’ NCB. The sensible part of me thinks I should just make a real conscious effort to rotate the NCB from two policies, year-in-year-out, onto the same vehicle. As the NCB is valid for two years, that way it ought to be possible to do that process ad infinitum. The problem is that I know at some point I’d get lazy and just not bother doing it, then regret it afterwards. But you’re right, I could have got cover for something more practical than my current car pretty reasonably with zilch NCB - serves me right for buying a 2 litre turbocharged Volvo convertible. I might give it a while this summer to see how things go - NCB will be valid until summer 2024 which gives me a bit of time to think about things. If I do buy a spare vehicle it’s going to need to be something pretty cheap to insure and keep on the road, as most of the time it’ll be gathering dust - company car and no excess mileage charge to me means that will become the default vehicle for normal use. Van will be for firewood, shifting bulkier stuff in etc.

You know, if you’re not a fan of them you could just come out and say it clearly!! ;-)

Thanks, will have a butchers. It also crossed my mind to buy a London Taxi; they have got stupid miles on the clock but can be had with MOT and reasonable looking bodywork for about £800. Can’t get four sheets of ply in one though…

Anyone got info on where to buy ex-fleet vans from? Is it worth it or are they likely to be f’ed? Background is that I’m going back into work car scheme (hopefully, if car ever gets delivered!) in a few months but am loathe to let my accrued 9 years NCB lapse. (I know, I could alternate it with another policy but I did that years ago and ended up cocking up!) So I’m wondering about buying a van for shifting stuff in / being spare vehicle / fetching firewood etc. Doesn’t need to be glam - but ideally Transit Connect or VW T4 size. This would then get insured and let me keep up the NCB.

Hopefully I won’t have to move the log store, but there is a risk that I might - hence the decision about not sinking poles into the ground / laying concrete. Any moving that will get done will be by hand only though. I think I’ll gather some wooden pallets for the sides and back, then lay out a few quid for plastic ones. That should give me enough storage capacity to lay up a couple of winters’ worth of wood. IBC cages and Heras panels may come at a later date. Thanks to your good self and everyone else who chipped in, much appreciated :-)

Having persuaded the other half that we have probably got space in the garden to keep some chickens - anyone got any suggestions on things to do (or not)? I have in mind buying a coop, but then staking out an outdoor run area it to go in - we have got panelled fencing on all sides of the garden so I’m hoping I could use the existing fence for two sides, then get away with doing post and chicken wire fencing on the other two sides. My family had bantams as a kid but that’s a long time ago, so any hints and advice would be very welcome!

I’m thinking of building a new log store and want to get the logs up off the floor. For reasons not to be explored here, the log store needs to be something that can be moved if necessary - so a concrete base and telegraph poles sunk into the ground are definitely out! What I was thinking of is getting some plastic pallets (seem to be available for £3 each on Facebook for the 1.2m x 1m) for the base, then normal pallets for sides and back, then a tarp or other covering to keep the rain off. Anyone got any experience of something similar - specifically, how robust the plastic pallets are? Next step would be to get some IBC cages and stack them double height on the pallets to keep the whole thing a bit more stable rather than needing to stack the logs v. neatly!!

Thanks all - it’s interesting to hear people’s views. I was genuinely wondering if I’d done something wrong in the ad, but as pointed out, it may be because arbs around here also do firewood. I live in an area where a lot of the houses don’t have mains gas so probably relatively high demand for firewood. If anyone does read this and wants to get rid of arisings (inc. softwood, I’m not fussy!) in the Warwick area, feel free to give me a shout.

And TBH I would also be prepared to collect from somewhere fairly local - 10 miles or so - but have only got a smallish trailer so I’m wary of feeling like I’m wasting someone’s time by needing to do a few journeys. I’ve previously collected softwood arisings from Timon (and left a donation to their work) but it’s about 40 minutes each way to get there, so I’m hoping to find something a bit nearer if collection is the only option.

Just wondering - does anyone use the tip site directory? I have had an ad on there for nigh on a year, for my site near Warwick, happy to accept softwood, hardwood, chip, plus recently edited to point out that I can take some brash. And I will either donate some drinks, pay to a charity or pay cash (by negotiation) for stuff being tipped. But not a sniff of contact up to now? Am I doing something wrong?

Unless you need it to move it around m, or are tight for space (which I guess not, if you’ve got separate saws already), I’m genuinely curious - what additional functionality would a flip saw give you?

Thanks, the idea of a flip saw appealed owing to space but you are probably right. Seen a SIP 305mm sliding mitre saw for sale locally secondhand; looks like it’s a bit vintage but solid so am hoping to go and have a look at that. The long term plan is to build myself a workshop so I’m hoping the mitre saw will come in useful for the projects along the way, then can be put in the workshop with a separate table saw or bandsaw.

Pizza paddle for the oven I’m building this spring. And it sounds v.dull but also some cash, which I’m going to buy either a flip saw or a sliding mitre saw with.

Days start getting longer again after Tuesday.

Just saw this video - never seen this happen in real life but I assume it’s a tree with a big crown that has collected water and the trunk has rotted from the inside?

If you want to fill it with as much mass / as few air gaps as possible, could you not crush the storage heater bricks? Alternatively it’s possible to buy sacks of ready-crushed firebrick grog.

I thought you weren’t meant to put two liners up the same cavity anyway. As far as stoves are concerned, before anyone comes up with any double entendres…

Just seen this on the local FB page for an area of Germany we spend some time in. €150 = pennies over £130, for 5 cube of seasoned hardwood (oak, ash, beech), cut into what look like short billets. Wish I could buy at that price over here!!

What’s the definition of “eye problems”?! That could be pretty much anything!

1981 MKIII DANGERMOUSE REPLICA - UNIQUE ONE OFF BUILD - SUBTLY MODIFIED (MX-5) WWW.EBAY.CO.UK Key Features of the MKIII include. Sequential LED rear indicators. The example has just one careful Furry owner from new and has never been raced, rallied or blown up. Tyre Repair System. Detachable United Colours Of Benneton roof & rain protection system.

I got one and used the saw to trim branches out of the crown of a cherry tree that was taking quite a lot of light out of the garden. Did okay cutting branches up to 2” with the saw. Lopper seems alright for stuff up to about three quarters of an inch. Happy enough with that compared to the other options of climbing / ladders.