Big J

Very sorry to hear that. RIP.

I love birch as a tree, but have burned very little of it in the past, to be honest. Much of what I've had has been waste from the sawmill, so elm, oak, beech, spruce, larch, cedar etc. I honestly don't care what I burn so long as it's dry. The moment I get some land though I shall be establishing a birch woodland. For me there is no finer tree, and at least I have the chance of seeing it mature in my lifetime

Really sorry to hear that mate. Like everyone else, really hoping for the 40%. A school friend was given an 80% certain terminal diagnosis for breast cancer a few years ago and come through it. Her sense of humour about it all is humbling.

Cutting hornbeam at the moment alongside ash. Forwarding it out with a small machine on a steep slope, you really notice the difference. I need to take a few chunks home to accurately work out their density, but I reckon the ash is around 800kg/cubic metre and the hornbeam is at least 1100kg. I put a buttress chunk in the river and it sank like a brick.

It is Mike. We've had buzzards following us around for weeks now. They feed on the worms from the ground that we disturb. I walked up to take a picture and it flew off. It's funny, but you can get much closer when in the machine. About 10-12ft is as close as I've got

Yeah, not so low impact when you think about it! It's only the main drags that are bad. You can't easily tell where I've been in the stand. I'm going to be getting the ruts on the main track back filled when we are done. I've not been asked to, but I don't want to see tyre ruts in a woodland.

I'm not good at taking photos when working, but a couple from today. The first is the main extraction track within the stand and the second is the point in the field where this week's timber is being stacked as I can't get into the extraction point field for deep flat mud. I'll move it on with the tractor ?

So I've sold the little Iseki finally. It was OK, but just not suitable for working on anything other than flat ground. The Antonio Carrero HST3800 is doing superb work in the stand we are in at the moment. It's able to traverse the side slopes with impunity and has plenty of power to run the winch. On slopes like the one we are working on, I would only want an alpine. I think pretty much anything else would fall over.

Update: Work has picked up quite substantially, and we're booked through to about May. Combination of work for the forwarder, processor and forestry tractor. Also have a Valtra N92 with roof mount Botex crane, as well as an Antonio Carrero 38bhp Alpine tractor to run a 3.2t Iglund winch. The site we are on at the moment is testing the tractor and the forwarder to the max. Steep inclines, heavy logs and a lot of rain! Up to nearly 400 hrs on the Logbullet now. I've broken various bits of it, but I'm working it very hard. The manufacturer has been great with spares and taking onboard feedback with regards to improvements that could be made.

Hi Al, Yes, though only uprated to 3000kg. Can't go higher than that without a different ratio rear dif, which would mean a different front dif and it's just not worth going into. I'm bang on 3000kg when towing the forwarder, so I'm OK. SV Tech just need proof of the rating of the tow hitch and a few other details and they'll handle the uprating. Was around £275 if memory serves

Did anyone mention the need for winter/all season tyres? ? They make such a difference in winter. I'd only ever run all seasons on any vehicle I drove. I feel much better for my wife driving my kids around in these conditions on appropriate tyres too.

Cobblers Ken! I drove through your village this morning and it was fine! ?

I think most of those crashes involve someone starting off a bit too fast, seeing snow, thinking OMG snow, swerving and ending up in a ditch. I went to work in the Valtra this morning, taking the winch and trailer to site. I had to engage 4 wheel drive to get up a hill covered in sheet ice (still wheel spinning) and then grab the van at the farm at the top of the hill to go back down the same lane. 1st gear, on idle, in 4x4 and it was fine. The odd time where the speed didn't match the revs, but all good. I only went down that lane as I was late meeting the ag engineer who had to weld my seat post back on on the forwarder (who ate all the pies?). Amused to find out he was on summer tyres. Please refer to my last years mission to get everyone onto all season or winter tyres!

Driving home from site today, you'd think that the locals had never seen snow before! A teeny bit of slushy white stuff on the tarmac and everyone is down to 15mph and panicking. Makes me feel very northern!

Excellent. Thanks for the clarification, and keep up the good work!

I apologise for the pedantry, but that's only 68 trees per acre, which is about 1/15th of normal stocking density for hardwood. Is there a reason for this?

They are pretty exciting stopping in the wet also! It's a bit 'boaty' I'll admit, but I've certainly needed them on the site we're on at the moment. Even with them, I've not been able to get to where I wanted to on a couple of the wetter mornings. 3 tonnes of Sprinter and an uphill slope with no run up.

Agreed. I'm on Insa Turbos and I can do 60mph plus easily. It's just loud.

That does look the business.

I used to be vegan, from the age of 19 to about 27. My wife still is. With working in forestry, I couldn't reconcile the need to control species such as deer and squirrels with veganism. That was the main reason, but also I have a very fast metabolism and lose weight quickly. Being vegan nearly 10 years ago was tougher than now, and needing large, regular meals was a damned stress and gave me some anxiety about food. Anyway, I would defend the ecological benefits of veganism to the last. The sheer efficiency of it is amazing and the land area required to sustain a vegan population is much smaller than that of an omnivorous diet. We would all be much healthier too. These days, I'm just a massive hypocrite in this regard and eat relatively well, and relatively healthily, but not anywhere close to veggie or vegan. I accept that there are areas where arrable farming isn't possible (half of Devon for instance, it's too sodding steep) but you wouldn't need these areas if all the productive, relatively flat land was put into production for human food as opposed to feed for animals for human food. Such areas could be rewilded or repurposed as solar farms or alternative methods of producing energy (short rotation biomass for example). Either way, I think it's very important we all considering reducing our animal product intake if possible, but I fully accept that the idealistic view of a vegan food production system doesn't fit that well into modern life for many.

Not good agricultural though. Cabin was like they were trying to be upmarket whilst all the time having the running gear from a Massey Ferguson.

I drove a Shogun a few years ago and didn't like it at all. Almost the most agricultural vehicle I've ever driven. I'd obviously put a shout out for a 4x4 Sprinter, and I do love mine. I will probably replace it with an Iveco 4x4 later in the year when I need to tow the full 3.5t. With the serious slopes in Devon and the clay soils, a more off road focused tow truck is probably justified. For you in Richmond, something like a Landcruiser would be a good fit. Second hand vehicles are nearly always money pits, regardless of what you get. It's luck more than anything. The one thing I would say is don't buy a Navara. They are made of swiss cheese, made for builders and not for proper work. I know many more people who've been let down by them than have been happy with them.

I wouldn't worry too much about fuel economy. My sprinter 4x4, fully loaded with tools and fuel, towing for some of the tank, off road for some of the tank and zipping through back roads to and from site on mud terrains has done 16mpg on this last tank. Given that it's a short commute, it's working out at less than a tenner a day, so you have to think that reliability and functionality are more important. Fuel is a a tiny cost compared to lost production.

Ben Sutton, Sutton Timber, just on the Suffolk/Norfolk border. If it's good, I expect he'd take it.

A friend in Aviemore built his own house a few years ago, and has my old Bullerjan stove to heat it. Three logs every other day and it's toasty!