djbobbins

I guess if you wanted to be really secure, you could sit the container on a concrete pad with a could of looped pieces of re-bar sticking up, then loop into them through the floor?? I would have thought the main issues would be some good quality locks for the doors, fire prevention and making sure no-one could get near the doors with a gas axe.

I don't (I've thought about it) but a guy I used to work for had a couple of containers for storage and they did tend to get damp inside. Incidentally from what I remember most of the condensation formed on the ceiling; I don't know if this was because there might have been standing water on the roof?? It would be interesting to hear of anyone that has put a pitched roof on one as to whether this reduces the condensation.

8 til 6 today with 70 miles each way before and after, didn't see much of the kids :-(

Given time commitments, something like the first one was along my lines of thinking - does this need to be licensed? And what sort of demand might there be in mid-Warwickshire? Likewise the pigs had also crossed my mind - something like Tamworths or Old Spots, i.e. tasty, but also pretty hardy so could be kept year-round without the need for artificial heating. But then with pigs comes the admin, registration, property holding etc etc...

I've seen some woodland for sale near me (it's a piece that the owner used to let me fell and retrieve wood from for my own use) in central Warwickshire. It is mainly alder, all mature, with 4wd vehicle access to the edge but not throughout (there is a fair sized brook in the way). There is about 12 acres of woodland and 6 acres of pasture, auctioneers guide price is £75k. To make buying it feasible, I would need to find some sources of revenue - I could either let the land out (for cattle or sheep grazing, it is under a SSSI management agreement so cannot be used for horses) or rear something of my own. However I was wondering more about what uses anyone could suggest for the woodland. By not needing to buy wood in, I will save myself maybe £200 per year, and of course have something to do of a weekend. I don't plan to go into firewood, there are others around here doing that already and I don't really have the time to get into it (day job, wife, two kids, DIY etc). So what other ways are there that it might make a few quid?

Well, it's now done and in. We went for a DRU44 multifuel 4.9kW stove, it seems to be good - throws out plents of heat for the amount of logs it consumes anyway, and the installer said he was impressed with the build quality of it. The install and building work totalled a shade over £1500 including VAT, which given that there was seven man-days of labour involved I thought was reasonable.

Try Deutsche Welle: Podcasting | DW.DE Also worth a look if you are thinking about going to Germany and trying to drum up work, ask general questions about life, banking, German admin & form filling etc is Toytown Germany - English language news and chat There are discussion boards for loads of things, including region-specific for adverts.

Lots of questions... Can't answer them all but the big biomass stations can definitely burn waste wood (e.g. from demolition). They even have to take into account the amount of paint / varnish on it and slightly reduce the amount of ROCs (green electricity certificates) that are claimed as a result.

I came back earlier this year from a stint working in an office in Germany (I'm a desk jockey by day). Clearly my experience won't be completely relevant, but things I did note are: - H&S culture is very different - in particular, I noticed that in any environment where work is going on around roads, traffic isolation and possessions are used much less than in the UK - I have seen road workers standing in the middle of two streams of 40mph traffic. - beer is cheap in the supermarket - culturally, Germany is much more similar to the UK than e.g. France (where I lived a few years back) - if you live in the Rhein / Ruhr area (Dusseldorf, Cologne, Duisburg, Essen etc) it is within four hours from Dunkerque, and a return ferry Dover - Dunkerque is only about sixty quid - they are much more set up for wood fuel - once you get away from the populated areas, you will see large woodpiles stacked up, and in the DIY sheds you can buy proper saws, 10t splitters etc. - infrastructure is good (public transport etc) Good place to live though, I enjoyed it.

Just to be clear, I meant it's the client's risk of ending up with a butchered tree, this particular example being a good one!

Eh? If a client picks a stupidly cheap price from someone because they want bottom drawer prices, rather than work from a recommendation, then that is the client's risk. However I don't see that it is the private client's role to check whether PPE is being worn, checking that safe systems of work are in place and risk assessments have been done. What next, client responsible for maintaining equipment? Note - for e.g. utility and trackside work, I think the burden of responsibility is different. But for private customers, who the law would not expect to know what was going on, the arborist doing the contracting must lead the responsibility.

Ah well, at least we won't be coughing up to stage it next year... (although I only found out this year that the reason we got to the final each year is because the UK is one of the "big five" countries that chuck a load of money at it year in year out). Bit like the EU then really...

Can't be, the radio's still in the car and not being touted down the local pub for £20...

Splitting wedges, lots of sweat and quite a bit of backache was how I did mine. It will be fibrous and a pig to split, even when wedges are a long way in. You will probably need some bigger wooden wedges to hold the gaps apart. It you don't want all of the grief of doing this, either pay someone to come and fetch it (skip company?) or, if you can, light a big bonfire and put it somewhere in the middle. If you can afford the time for it to rot (about three years if left to the elements), get the biggest long wood bit you can find - say 32mm or so - and perforate it all over with holes. It'll rot away to the extent that you'll be able to pull it apart with bare hands in 3 -4 years.

My father in law runs two diesels (one old Seat and a Ford C-Max). He says the Seat will drink whatever you put in it (it's one of the three cylinder things that sounds like a bag of spanners being thrown down a flight of stairs) but he's always said the Ford goes better on Shell diesel.

It can be nice beer, honest!

I tried to post this in Arbtrader but had three goes at logging in and it still wouldn't let me Is there anyone in the Warwick / Coventry / Solihull / Stratford area who could help me out with a decent sized ring / chunk of hardwood to use as a block for splitting on? It can be as knotty, gnarly and generally useless for anything else providing its about 18-20" across and about 18" tall. My faithful chunk of knotty euc is falling to bits and in need of replacing after a few too many summers of splitting. Happy to collect and either bung someone a few quid or some beers (whichever suits) and of course much gratitude!

I would probably have gone for an inset stove but we want to get rid of the 1970s stone fireplace which runs about 7 foot along one wall, then round the corner. Plus which, the stonework protrudes about 6 inches from the wall and is uneven, so I didn't think an inset stove would look any good. Including 904 liner, removal of old fireplace, hearth, chop out brickwork, supply and install oak beam, CO detector, certification etc it is going to be about £1700. The stove is available from a place about 45 minutes drive away at £640 including VAT. So... now I've resolved to get it done, looking forward to it being done and finished!

Euc is a pig to split, very knotty and fibrous. It is great firewood when seasoned but anything of a decent size (bigger than three or four inches across) will take three years at least to season, based on my experience. Whilst I can't "speak" for the recent winters (where we have seen minus 10 or so) because I had felled the two eucs on my land by then, I live in rural Warwickshire and they were both healthy and rapid growing. We met the people who'd owned our house years before (mid 1980s I think) and planted the eucs as small trees; I felled them in 2007 and they were 40 foot odd and getting on for 20 inch diameter in the base at a guess. That was under "standard" growing conditions and I know one of them had been pollarded at least once. Unfortunately I don't know the genus though.

Had three quotes which have made my eyes water a bit. Basically, including the installation and sign-off, it is going to be about two grand plus the cost of the stove. That includes lining with 904 grade liner... which brings me onto another question. I don't live in a smoke control area and would like the option to burn housecoal (rather than smokeless) as well as logs. I like the look and reviews of the DRU 44MF, the manufacturer claims it can burn coal, lignite, wood, peak or coke - which sounds pretty comprehensive. I just wondered what experience anyone had of burning traditional coal in a stove with airwash and using a lined chimney? I'm curious on how the airwash copes and what the lifespan impact will be on the liner.

Presumably in that case either (a) the person seeking the quote is telling a bare faced lie, or (b) the person who is willing to take away the firewood hasn't got a clue about the scope of work, has no insurance and most probably hasn't got the equipment to do a large dismantle.

We had a tenner's worth of bets, two £1.50 each ways for the adults and two £1 each ways for the kids... Wife's and both kids' got nowt but mine came home first at 40-1... £78 back against my original stake of a tenner. Might even pay for a tank of fuel provided I don't leave it until the warning light is on!

Looks like the link for freebies has expired... has anyone got a bar (542317 product number) and chain (PS56E) in good nick that they would be interested in selling?

Hope it works out well... digressing a bit, I have done a bit of interviewing & selection at work and I have found that an applied test (i.e. semi real-world scenario) is much much more informative than any CV, interview or standard form aptitude test. I can't say I'd apply much credence to a handwriting test to be honest, but maybe that's because my handwriting looks like something a doped-up spider dipped in ink would leave on the paper!

Call that drama? Never lived in Moss Side, have they?!!