djbobbins

I was going to say - I’m no saw expert but from a look at the photo, it was pretty clearly a different saw. More like one of these with a few different stickers on and a significant price mark-up... 52cc 20" Heavy Duty Petrol Chainsaw Two-Stroke Petrol Engine Tree Wood Pruning WWW.EBAY.CO.UK The 52cc petrol chainsaw with its powerful stroke engine. 1 x Chainsaw. Stroke: 2 Stroke. Added safety and performance features like anti-kickback, anti-vibration, and an automatic chain oiler will make the task at hand effortless.

Looks like the chancers that used to try to sell on eBay have now moved onto Facebook Marketplace. Anyone fancy this complete bargain of a Sthil MS460?! https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/371342300749762/

7lb for an axe, makes my X27 feel lightweight though!!

I couldn’t make out the writing but I think this might be similar. Given to me by my 79 year old father a few weeks ago, it was his father’s before him. I remember some reasonable sized stuff being felled with it at home when I was younger... Before anyone has a go, I’ve sharpened it since the photos below were taken!!

A very long time ago I did a Chemistry degree, mixed in with drinking - a common pastime for chemists, it seemed. Anyway, one of the lecturers pointed out that being a chemist is the only profession in which you wash your hands before you go for a wazz... Sounds like he was a bit wrong, but you get my drift...

Mine is a mix of work and personal stuff. Worst time I had was about 8 years ago - I’d been on a secondment to Germany, moved the wife and kids over there, then the company pulled the rug on it only about six weeks after the family moved. I’d moved to that job from a role I really liked, thinking it was the right thing to do. I ended up moving back to the U.K. into a job I wasn’t experienced enough to do, had no team and a manager who was useless. Blamed myself a lot for things that weren’t of my doing. I got through that but only after another person at work dragged me into a different job. In the intervening 8 months I’d lost nearly 3 stone and been prescribed by my doc for sleeping tablets and Prozac. The only reason I didn’t do anything daft was because I didn’t want to leave my wife with two young kids. Fortunately the new job worked out, I got back to being able to sleep and enjoying what I did. I stopped the Prozac after about 7 months. It’s hard to find the right words to describe it, but the best way I can think of saying it is that since then I feel like I’ve “broken the seal”. I haven’t been back on prescription meds, thankfully, but I have a heightened sense of what could happen and in a way I think that some issues which I would have brushed off 10 years ago will now cause me stress and sleepless nights. In turn that’s a bit of a vicious circle - waking up at 3am and worrying about work means I’m tired and sub-par the next day - so more risk of mistakes, forgetfulness etc. Not sure any of this helps you folks out there - but although exercise helps a bit (walking, cycling sometimes) I also find mindfulness really helpful. We had a big of a mantra at work - getting to the end of the day and consciously reflecting on: - what went well? - what am I thankful for? - what did I enjoy? Even if some of the things are really trivial, the act of consciously considering these things helps.

9. Must have lived a sheltered life...

Thanks! Less so when she’s howling at 5am but hopefully that will pass... Allegedly she is three quarters Staffy and a quarter Shih-Tzu, but popular opinion suggests there is some Border Terrier blood in there as well! Whatever the mix, she is indeed a bit of a looker and attracts attention. I am a happily married man but being in public on my own with a young puppy brings to mind the phrase “f@nny magnet”!!

Three lads get together after a big night out and are nursing their hangovers whilst comparing their pissed-up behaviour from the night before. First lad says - “I was so drunk when I got home last night, I blew Chunks.” Second lad replies - “that’s nothing - I was so drunk I fell over, cut my leg open and then set fire to the kitchen curtains when I tried to make myself a snack.” Third lad pipes up - “well, I shat myself on the bus, fell asleep, woke up in the bus depot and had to waddle two miles home.” To which the first guy responds... “I don’t think you understand. Chunks is my dog.”

‘Tis just down the road from me on the outskirts of sunny Leamington Spa! Sort of related, nominative determinism - I used to work with a lady called Sue Moore, who if the name alone is anything to go by missed her vocation in life. Can you imagine the TV ads on gobshite daytime TV “Sue Moore Lawyers can win you the compensation you (probably don’t) deserve.”

Less than four weeks ago my local Sainsbury’s was selling off mahoosive (well, for a retail supermarket) 16kg sacks of flour that they obviously felt overstocked on, at £3 instead of £8. Bet that’s not the situation if I nipped in today!!

Finished logs or arising? Hardwood or softwood? And are you expecting cash to change hands (in either direction)?

English as mother tongue and I can get by in French and German (both of which from living and studying / working in respective countries). I’m not in arb though; I’m in the energy industry. Interesting to hear the comparison about English, German and Swedish - I often think that Dutch ought to be understandable if I listen hard enough...

Someone bought a Vauxhall?!

Nowt to do with arb (other than maybe watching me saw and split firewood at some point in the future) but we put a deposit down on this little one yesterday - 3/4 Staffy, 1/4 Shih-Tzu. Should be picking up in a few weeks when she is weaned.

Good if you the OP has an adjoining / nearby building to house the boiler and tank. I would have thought it only makes sense price wise against oil (at the moment at least) if the wood is cheap?? For what it’s worth, I have a similar dilemma to the OP, looking at a 70’s detached house which currently has an oil boiler fitted, ceilings are too low to accommodate underfloor insulation and heating. There is space in the garden for a ground source heat loop, but does that give better output temperatures than air source heating?

+1 for dry. And free, if possible!

I was up all night wondering where the sun had gone... ... then it dawned on me!

Cheers folks; for some reason I can’t put my thumb on, I am thinking of getting a Toyota iQ (the one that looks like the b*stard love child of a Smart car and a washing machine). The ones I have looked at are free to tax and allegedly cheap to insure, plus will hopefully be more reliable than the Fiat 500 the daughter says she wants. Buying one will sting a bit at a couple of grand for an eleven year old car but I reckon they will hold their value pretty well, unless she mullers it (mind you, I will have had three years’ part time use out of it by then anyway).

My eldest was 14 a couple of months ago. As we live in a rural(ish) area I want her to start with driving lessons once she is 17. I was thinking last night - is it worth buying a cheap car, something with low tax, to insure in my name and build up some NCB? My thought was that if I had 3 years NCB on a policy, even though it is going to be a big hike in costs by adding the daughter as a named driver, the NCB might help save a few quid? She probably still won’t be the main driver, as the car would be used between myself, the wife and the daughter. Anyone done this / got any ideas?

Thing is, how much profit would the manufacturer make per unit on those and how many would they sell? Some committed sales into military markets might help but I don’t think there is enough of a market for utilities (a few for DNOs and BT, but meter readers are not going to be given 4x4s to do their rounds in). I reckon LR are going for higher priced cars and making more money per unit, as well as making more models to try and compete in different segments in order to sell more volume as well. Sad thing is, even the cheapest new LR is outside my price range!!

I have got a Niro “self charging” hybrid (apparently a piece of terminology manufacturers have been banned from using in other countries!) as a company lease car. It’s been okay but not faultless, however with a year left to go on the lease I am wondering what to do next. If I take the money instead of a car, I will get taxed and charged NI, so will have about £290 a month take home, out of which I would be obliged to source a car (must be less than 5 years old), insure, maintain, service etc. So I reckon that is out, unless I buy something cheapish like a two year old Insignia and hope it doesn’t make any major mechanical issues. I was already toying with the idea of staying in the company scheme, but going for an EV - if the BinK numbers are true, that definitely looks more tempting...