djbobbins

Forecast to get down as low as minus 11 over here in Germany on Friday...

I used to commute mon-fri every week with a flight at each end. Tbh I would say it depends on if you are flying with kids etc, but my advice would be to sleep, then in the morning don't have any caffeine - that way you should be able to have a kip on the plane too, and will benefit from it later. Worked for me, anyhow...

Batch cooking is the way to go. We did huge pots of chicken stew, bologneise sauce, chilli etc when my wife was pregnant with both children. A 500g margarine tub full will serve two adults, so all portioned up and frozen. Out of the freezer before heading to work in the morning, then at the end of the day just cook a bit of rice, pasta or a jacket spud. Plus, it's a good way to save on electricity, which always helps.

Abrasive wheel on a big power drill if none of the above work. We did some cleaning up on a farm a few years ago and managed to get hold of a drain cleaning jetter, I.e. like jet rod or similar use, it was the mutts bits and even managed to take the metal paint off the wheels on a case 685. I reckon one of those would have your wall clean in a pretty short period!

Based on the size of that euc, I think it'll need a hell of lot more copper nails than that to finish it off. I have seen stumps painted with creosote which still covered themselves in new sprits of growth. I would have thought there is more risk of infection from the quality of some of those cuts... But at risk of creating controversy, I could understand the neighbour being aggrieved about the presence of the tree. I would be decidedly unhappy with a euc of that size so close to my house, risk of land heave, structural damage, leaf shedding etc. It's just not a suitable tree for that location. Not that this justifies the measures taken, but just my opinion...

In that case, congratulations!

Gents I mean this in a positive / constructive way... but if you have sold out already do you think you were underpriced or under-stocked? Or has it just gone crazy with people stocking up ahead of the forecast cold weather?

I got the same effect splitting some seasoned euc by hand, compared to alder and ash. I didn't do a great deal of the euc - maybe 2 or 3 cubes over the course of a week or so - but it was (sorry mods) a bugger. I'll swear the kickback in my arms and wrists has meant they've never been the same again. At least, that's the story I'm sticking to anyway... In the end, I sliced the really gnarly bits up with the saw. Stuff that for a game of soliders. If you are doing firewood regularly, even as a sideline, I would say spend 300 quid on a 6t splitter now rather than get to 70 and be knackered with arthritis.

I can't imagine there's much of a market personally, unless there's a pub or homeowner that wants one for decorative use! Mine has stood in the corner of the garage for about five years... Mind you I do remember me and father ringing up a 1 metre beech trunk with a big cross cut saw about 25 years ago!

I know that someone will come along and say "Clearview" or "Woodwarm" within a few posts, but I was wondering if anyone had any first hand or reliable experience to offer on a stove? I am looking for a relatively slimline, 4-5 kW stove. It is going into a 1970s house so I don't want something cottage style, but nor do I fancy one of these ultra-modern looking things with soapstone panels etc. I've been having a look around and saw the Hunter Kestrel stove, which matches all of my requirements in terms of output, appearance etc, but would like to know what anyone thinks of it in real-world use? Hunter Herald 4 stove

Function and Num Lock...

Happy Christmas everyone! Have a good one.

Thanks all, looks like we'll be back in the UK sooner than planned (i.e. part way through next year) so I've decided just to get the beast insured for the year again, saves messing about.

Coming at this from an independent point of view (I don't work in the arb industry, just interested particularly in the energy side)... I think £850 is cheap. I am guessing you can already undercut a lot of companies on here by not having to be registered for VAT (assuming the threshold for registration is still about £55k per year). Assuming you are all going to put in a decent day, I think you should work on £150 per man day, then something to cover fuel, depreciation, maintenance etc, and of course profit. Sooner or later if you go into it professionally, your staff will want payingthe going rate (and will need to have NI, holiday and so on). You wouldn't have the income from a full time job to fall back on, in the same way that the other guys on here haven't. That equipment that you're using will need replacing and you won't be able to borrow vehicles. I would say price as if you were set up and doing this as your living. Six man days of labour, all the material costs, wear and tear and so on feels like al least thirteen hundred sheets to me...

I think it's an interesting difference in culture that I have observed. I used to live in (delightful) Coventry and remember an incident a few years back where some scrotum got on the bus, abused the driver, got off after a few stops and then proceeded to throw a stone at the bus as it drove off. Little sh17... but for those exact reasons of (a) being half sloshed myself, (b) not wanting the aggro and © wondering whether he'd have a chib, I did nothing. Now in Germany, on the local trains and tram systems tickets get inspected only on a random basis. It's done in a very different way though. I have seen a few people riding without tickets get caught. I've never seen one of them be rude. Younger people tend to just get told to get off the train (like anyone under about 20). Anyone who ought to have more sense has their details taken and will get sent a hefty bill. The things that make a difference, IMO, are: (1) a different attitude to authority (although I think independent thinking and blithely obeying "authority" is a fine line); (2) the fact that the ticket inspectors work in groups of three... I think it's a good way of dealing with things though - in this case, the ticket wouldn't have been checked until the journey was underway (so no-one else would have been disrupted), the drunken lad would have got home safely rather than ending up with a busted up face, the tubby fireman wouldn't end up with a record for GBH (which I guess will be the outcome) and the train operator would get a thousand quid income by way of the fine for travelling without a valid ticket.

Reminds me of this TV advert, health warning before you click on the link that I'm pretty sure it'd be too risque to get past the ASA in the UK! video A strange butter advertising - love, sex, brazil - videos kewego

.....

€25 today for five foot of Nordmann, and that included a 10% tip. Guy even knew exactly where they had been grown, which I'm guessing is more than they would know down the local DIY shed... Mind you, he couldn't get his Dolmar to start to trim the base off it!

Quick query - I'm out of the UK at the moment, but when I am home for Christmas I want to be able to get my Isuzu Trooper out on the road to blow the cobwebs off it. It is currently insured but the cover will expire on new year's day; I am undecided whether to insure it again for another year TPFT, or to look for some short term cover just for while I am home. When I'm not around it is locked up, with a crooklock, behind locked gates, so I am not so concerned about security. Anyone got any recommendations for insurance providers either specialising in short term cover (couple of weeks in Jan) or that will do e.g. max 2,000 miles per year cover??

My father did hedge laying when he was a teenager and got some thorns in his hands. He turned 70 in September and still has a black mark under the skin in one hand from a thorn.

Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "dropping a log"!

Baler twine out of the drivers window and down to the clutch for a hand operated clutch... Tin foil folded up in layers to make a custom-thickness shim when the handbrake wouldn't adjust on some old banger or another, in order to get the handbrake effective enough to pass the MOT... When my missus was training to be a nurse, many fixes were done by student nurses using porous sticking plaster tape (you guessed it, it's pretty much like thin gaffer tape) including sheeting up a window on my car after some sod smashed it by reveersing a flatbed transit round a corner but forgetting thez had scaff poles laying in the base...

I don't know if anyone has already posted this on here, but I saw this website and wondered if it might be worth anyone that's had any gear pilfered keeping an eye on. I think the idea is that the police sell off known stolen property which they've not been able to re-unite with its rightful owners; in the "Tools" section there are chainsaws, grass trimmers and the lik (both the last couple of times I've been on there saws have been up for sale): Bumblebee Auctions

Damn, too late!

Someone had to do it... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg]Lumber jack song - YouTube[/ame]