djbobbins

Nowt to do with me, I'd be interested myself but it's too far to fetch: Firewood Log Saw Horse Frame Clamp | eBay

One of those on an 6 or 8 wheeler was exactly what I was thinking of. You would also need to devise some way of measuring the amount delivered to the customer. Much as I would prefer to see chip sold by weight, volume measurement is probably easier - especially if the customers go onto fairly standard sized hopper. Otherwise, you could partition out the truck body e.g. into 1 / 2 / 3 m3 multiples and sell it that way I suppose. That way at least you could do multi-drops. If the delivery rates are as claimed up to a cube per minute, the slowest part of the delivery would be the coupling up. I like...

No, that's just to help the customer think you are more trustworthy and reliable than the next guy down the road, so you can hopefully charge them a few more quid...

I am sensing an opportunity in the market here, and for years to come... Properties moving off oil and onto woodchip boilers, and suppliers with piles of woodchip around but no sensible way to load it into a truck or customer to buy in single digit tonne quantities. So... question is, is there any way to load it into (and out of) a tanker or corn lorry using compressor and flexible hoses? I think that will be the way of the future for delivery woodchip to hopper fed boilers...

I would recommend alder as firewood, although as has already been said it's light once seasoned so you will get through a lot of volume of it. I'd also suggest trying a few eucalyptus, I know it's not native but if you can get it to grow, the wood is good for burning (once seasoned) and you may get a quick yield dependent on species: Prima Bio - eucalyptus specialists - promoting new uses for eucalypts (That all being said, it is a pig to split though!!)

By the time you have got rid of the brash, used fuel, travelled etc it is more than just thewages for an hour and a half or two hours of saw work. I'd go with the recommendations for telling him to burn the brash (it'll be nice and dried out by bonfire night :-) ) and charge about £75-80.

I was thinking last night about building a firewood trailer and had a bit of an idea. I wondered if anyone else on here had done something similar in the past and had related experience or opinions to add. I have got a 4x4 capable of pulling 3.3t braked, and don't want to spend the money on having another vehicle sitting there. I only do firewood for myself and the owner of the land it comes off (at the moment, at least) so also don't want to weigh out too much cash. My idea was to get a tired out horsebox (there's a few on ebay all the time in need of a new floor), then re-floor it and ply line the front and sides. I'd plan to put some form of cage door across about 3 foot in from the back, to leave a working space and give something to hold the cut logs in place. The logs could then be removed via the smaller door at the front. All simple enough, up to now. Where it starts to get a bit more complicated is that into the "workspace", or hinged from the tailgate, I was thinking about building some form of processor - as a minimum, a steel X-form sawbench, but ideally with some form of elevator to drop the logs into the storage area. Strengths of the idea are: 1) end up with a single "package" for going logging with 2) cheap enough to build (trailers look to be about £300 tops, so I reckon I could finish it for £500 if the processor side of things is "basic") 3) a twin horse trailer will carry over a tonne of horse and I guess weighs another 15cwt or so, so I'd be able to get plenty of logs in (I guess up to 4 cubic metres or say a tonne and a half) Weaknesses / concerns: 1) are the overhangs too long, and chassis ride height likely to be too low to prevent me from actually getting the trailer anywhere usefully close to the timber (particularly compared to something like a Sankey) 2) Am I gaining anything by building in the processor / sawing horse, or do I just leave a bit of space free in the back and take a portable sawbench instead? 3) Would it end up being too hitch-heavy with a tonne and a half of wood on board???

Have you thought about writing a letter to the local paper as well? My recommendation would be to check your bank account next Friday and if the money isn't in there, go round and (assuming the business has its own driveway) park a vehicle across there at about 4pm. In doing so, you are not using force, not tipping any waste, not damaging anything, so even if the plod gets called you aren't likely to get into any bother. The prospect of not being able to get out of the office on a Friday afternoon should prove to be persuasive.

Anyone connected to mains gas would have to be tapped at current prices to switch to biomass. I don't really buy into the concept of electric heating whilst we are using fossil fuels for generating the power; the only logic for it that I see is those countries which have very large amounts of baseload or uncontrollable generation (e.g. nuclear, wind, run of river hydro). But I stand by my opinion that with the RHI, demand for chip is going to go up, and particulary in areas off the gas grid. I'm just curious if / how people are preparing for this, in terms of physical equipment, wood supply and links with installers etc.

I was just wondering if people are starting to see, or are anticipating, increased demand for log and chip with the RHI coming in? I'm curious - I work in the energy industry (electricity) and am interested in firewood / tree work etc as a hobby and for personal use only. A friend of mine is looking at moving over from lpg to biomass and I've had similar thoughts. We both have ample personal supply of wood but it struck me that if other people do the same there will be a huge increase in demand. A biomass boiler will use a lot more fuel than a cosy open fire that people buy logs for at the moment!! At my pretty well insulated, double glazed house, we get through about 1200 litres of oil a year (i.e. a tonne, near as damn it), maybe half a tonne of coal and maybe 3 cubes of dried, stacked alder (I guess another tonne or so). If I convert all that to wood, using the relative calorific values, I get to 5 tonnes per year of woodchip. That's for one moderate sized house, dounble glazed with cavity wall and loft insulation. Even if new biomass boiler penetration is low, I can only see demand and prices going up up up in the next few years.

But as a PS if cost is the reason for brewing, I'm in Germany at the moment and in the local supermarket you can buy a case (20 x 500ml bottles) of 4.8% lager for under €5... hic!

I made a Yorkshire bitter from a kit years ago which was good but strong, then tried another coupe (a lager and a Scottish Heavy) which were a let down. The lager I think because I went for a plastic barrel rather than bottling it (too lazy). Sloe gin is good, made a few lots of that in recent years. In answer to the question above, it is no stronger (the strongest ABV liquid most yeast can live in is about 16-17% I think) so it is just for flavour and body. Most recently I have gone back to making a few things from scratch and have tried nettle beer, rhubarb wine and a grape wine. The nettle beer was crap, tasted very very bitter. In an attempt to sweeten it, I dosed it with the recommended amount of campden tablets (to kill the yeast) then put some more sugar in. Long story short, yeast wasn't dead and I ended up with broken glass all over the place when the bottles exploded a couple of weeks later. Rhubarb wine was good, pretty easy to make and the result is excellent (albeit a bit sweet) - I would be proud to serve it to anyone as a dessert wine. The grape wine is currently in a demijohn in my kitchen so we'll have to wait and see! I used to have a homebrewing book years ago that had a recipe for weetabix beer in it, sadly the book has gone to charity and I can't find the recipe anywhere online. Anyone know it?!

Man City for me too, and before anyone calls "glory hunter" I was there when they were playing in the old third division against Macclesfield Town!!

Have you tried blackcircles.com They were the place recommended by my favourite tyre / exhaust supplier. They supplied me some winter car tyres on time, on price and with very good customer service when no-one else could (even though a few places claimed they could, wasted my time for weeks and then couldn't supply).

Point taken on the pollination but as already said above, if a wasp has its place in the world then all the better if it's a long way away from me! I'm sure it was only £25 but I think the guy was doing pest control as a sideline to something else - remember he was only there about 20 minutes, only came from about a mile and a half up the road and turned up in a normal road car. Fairly basic PPE, no special vehicles and the main equipment cost was a spray bottle like you'd do a bit of weed spraying with. But I re-state my case - watching through the kitchen window at the little sods swarming around when he was spraying made me glad I'd not opted for a DIY approach. My family is obviously getting softer with each generation; my father's approach to wasp nests is to prod with a sweeping brush and my grandfather used to smoke them out at night, then sell the whole nest down the pub to fishermen!!

How can you love a wasp? They are evil little sods with no purpose in life other than to sting! I stood on a nest as a youngster, got stung a few times and really hate them. Last summer I saw a few flying in and out of my coal bunker, lifted the lid and peeked in only to find a nest about 6" diameter directly in front of my nose. Dropped the lid and legged it, paid the £25 quid for someone to come out with protective gear on and spray it. They were swarming all over him when he was spraying, it was some of the wisest spent money I've ever podded out I reckon!

Am I allowed to dive in and say that a tree of that size needs removing (too close to the house, IMHO) and something more suitable putting in its place? Just my opinion - I guess the risk of damage to property depends on the soil conditions.

My best mate got married last year. He was really pleased that he surprised his missus (to be, at that point) by hiring a Rolls to pick her up from their house. When they got home that evening, some oik had been round to the back of the house, removed one of the sealed units from an externally glazed window and basically turned the place over. Old family jewellery stolen and the wedding day pretty much ruined. Anyway, they had strong suspicions that the culprits were one of the immediate neighbours, who'd seen the Rolls arrive and the occupants of the house leave en masse. This has left them very uncomfortable being in the house, to the extent that it's been on the market for about six months. They've now accepted an offer on the place and have found somewhere else to live, which is going to be a huge weight off their shoulders. So, my mate feels some "afters" are still owed to the neighbours (once all is sold, done etc) but doesn't know which to "deal with". Therefore, in the style of an exam question, "please discuss options available, specifically covering any retribution tactics and the persons against whom these could / should be exercised, timing etc."

Or, use less gas and install a woodburner!

Word of advice from someone who has switched in the past - make sure you get good evidence of meter reads on the day of the switch. I had a hell of a time (threatening letters etc) because I wouldn't pay the bill from my old supplier, seeing as how they were trying to invoice me for about £300 worth more of electricity because they'd estimated the meter read. I knew the readings were wrong but didn't have any hard evidence to prove so ended up having to pay the bills of both old and new suppliers based on the estimate they'd agreed between them. I didn't pay for any electricity twice, but did end up paying a higher (pre-switch) rate for some of the volume.

Reasons to get rid of it: Soil conditions? Risk of heave to the next door neighbour's house (which looks pretty close based on the photos showing the swing / climbing frame on the other side of the fence)? Personally I would be in the "get rid" camp, replace with something else and stock up on hardwood for logs!

I cleared an alder copse a couple of years ago and have got a friend with about 30 acres of mature alder woodland. As everyone has said, good firewood once it's dry, burn it within a year or so though because if it gets wet again it turns to pulp (a bit like silver birch, IMO). Very light when dry though, so you will get through a lot of logs in volume terms.

A few years back I had a driving job in a "fleet" of five different vans - two Transits, a LWB high roof Sherpa, a LWB VW and some French thing (Pug / Renault / Citroen). I'd rank the VW top, Transits second, Sherpa third and whatever the other one was last, purely on driving experience - however they're not really in the same class. The LDV was a twin wheel beast, underpowered when loaded up but huge. In our job, with lots of student drivers, they didn't get the chance to reach lunar mileages so it's hard to judge reliability. 28 mpg from the Caddy thing sounds a bit scary; I nearly bought the "car" version of one of them recently but at that kind of fuel economy I'm glad I didn't!

Not had ours lit for a bit but we have got cavity wall insulation and front of the house is SW facing so gets a lot of sun in the afternoon / evening. Working away at the moment though, 30 degrees (Centigrade) at 5pm outside today... Oh yeah, and the beer is about nine quid for a case of 20 x 500ml bottles of Warsteiner... :thumbup1:

Relevant for phoning or emailing you for ever more offering you some kind of "wonderful" deal on phone or internet access. How is it the Monty Python song goes again? Ah - I remember... "Spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam"!!!