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Big J

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Everything posted by Big J

  1. Big J
    I suffer with what you described even when sat for long time I definitely think years of pressing has done me no favours The one limb movement that aggravates it most is any form of tucked elbow tricep extension. So, no tricep extensions or close grip bench for the time being. Tight left pec doesn't help either. Weight up to 114,2kg now. Got stuck for a good while at 113kg, which I hit first about 8 weeks ago. The flu knocked 6kg off, so it's taken all that time, and a lot of eating to get it back. Planning to stick to high rep, lowish weight for a bit on bench and squats to give myself a break. Not that 20 rep squats have ever been considered a break!
  2. Big J
    Quite a nice lump that. Hope it finds a good home.
  3. Big J
    Very nice. Silver lining and all that.
  4. Big J
    Hehe! I imagine that Dartmoor and the axles of the vehicles that dare work on her are well acquainted
  5. Big J
    What you need is a low ground pressure machine there Matthew
  6. Big J
    No thanks! Kiln dried is fine if you have no storage and or don't wish to store any at home. I'm in the 'fairly well organised, have 50 cube stacked at home' camp so I've no need to premium logs. I burn any old rubbish!
  7. Big J
    I commend all of you that can get that kind of price for your firewood, but having burnt 33 cubic metres so far this winter in our 20kw stove, I am rather glad that it costs me next to nothing. I understand that people's reasons for having a stove vary greatly, but I always think it's important to remember that no matter how pretty the logs are, how uniform they are, how consistently premium ash and beech, that all you are going to do with it is burn it. One of my best customers buys his firewood a year in advance. 40 cube of 2/3 softwood, 1/3 arbwaste hardwood. He has a large stove so all logs processed chunky and 16 inches long. He pays £43 a cubic metre as all I have to do is fill the crates (which takes about 10 minutes per cube on average, including the slower processing of the hardwood) and he collects them whenever he needs them. If only all my customers were like that.
  8. Big J
    Apparently, some of the more aloof residents insist it's a silent H, as in Sitterton!
  9. Big J
    I've let the petition die as I don't think that I worded it desperately well, but can I encourage people to think about the merits of all season tyres, especially in light of the winter that we've had. With the all seasons on the car, I've quite literally left other vehicles standing whilst driving in the snow. A hill on a main road about two miles from us had a good 6 inches of slushy snow on it back when we had the full fat beast from the east. I met a Transit reversing down telling me I'd never get up and left a Clio behind me, stuck. Our car continued on without me even noticing the snow. So, if you don't live on the south coast, do consider all season tyres when you next replace them. Not only will they provide you with better traction through the colder months, but in moderate snowy conditions you'll keep moving effortlessly whilst the cars on summer tyres can't.
  10. Big J
    Could be worse. My friend comes from this village in Dorset and they had to resort to a 1 tonne lump of stone for the village sign: That's his Dad with the new, theft proof sign
  11. Big J
    Will probably end up doing quite a lot of miles, and there seems to be a distinct lack of LPG stations in Devon. I'd guess probably 20,000 to 30,000 miles a year. I keep swinging back to the VX80 series Landcruiser too. I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure....
  12. Big J
    Rummaging around on my old Youtube account, I found the video from my last strongman comp in November 2007: And then this photo just popped up on my Facebook news feed of me aged about 18. Around 52-54kg and four years difference between the photo and the video.
  13. Big J
    Watch your elbows if you are squatting loads. Mine object to low bar squats presently, which I am most annoyed about as I was squatting pretty much every session. So I'm doing high bar squats (with considerably less weight) for the time being whilst the tendons and nerves in my elbow settle down. Started at 60kg, and now 65kg but for 20 rep sets. Very unpleasant. Pressing strength is up, with bench up to 115kg (horrible, grinding rep) and push press 90kg (more in there as I did 5x80kg right after). Enjoying trap bar deadlift as I'm able to keep my back fairly flat utilising leg drive. Been up to 195kg for a single. Hammering the leg press at the moment too whilst I'm unable to squat heavy. The main issue with the volume of leg work I've been doing is that I no longer fit into any of my trousers. Went trouser shopping yesterday and I've gone up from a 36 inch waist to about 39 inches and it's basically all in my backside and hip flexors. Hidden costs of weightlifting!
  14. Big J
    Dry powder snow falling here. Perhaps 1.5 inches on the ground, still falling. Minus 2. Bring on spring.
  15. Big J
    I wonder when the cash for ash scandal will hit the UK government (as it took down the Northern Irish Assembly). Totally unsustainable to be paying companies to burn timber on an industrial scale in a country that has as little as the UK.
  16. Big J
    It's a bit of a misleading way to describe sawn timber. The kind of oak that would sell for £1600-2000 a cubic metre (and 25mm would rarely if ever make that price) would cost upwards of £300-350 (and as much as £500) a cubic metre to buy in as opposed to £80-100. As has been said, selling timber is difficult. In order to be successful at it, you need to be able to hold tens of thousands of pounds of stock, have ample space and lots of complementary machinery to assist with the job. It's rewarding and can be a means of earning a living, but no one is going to be able to make a living from a small manual mill, and equally the type of timber you put through a firewood processor is not the same timber you put through a mill. I'm sure it's a fine little mill, but I just feel it's the wrong way to advertise it.
  17. Big J
    All of your timbers will result in quite a heavy shepherds hut. Best bet for cladding is western red cedar as it's low density and stability means it will work well for a mobile structure. I'd go with lightweight but strong softwood structural timbers too. Douglas fir or Lawsons cypress would be ideal.
  18. Big J
    That's where the 4 minute cubic metres start to come into play. Need a massive stove though, and even then, the logs are a bit heavy to handle (just physically hard to put lengthways into the stove, even when dry).
  19. Big J
    I'm in the process of pimping my new ride (Logbullet mini forwarder) and I have the option of a hydraulic motor driving a PTO driven winch. I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to have, as it would be demountable, only weigh a couple hundred kilos when on and would give me the full range of timber extraction options. So, which winch would you recommend? Would need to pull about 3t, weigh less than 200kg and be reasonably priced. Thanks in advance.
  20. Big J
    I don't think so. Probably an extra £2000-2500. Just wasn't 100% sure on whether it was worth the investment. That being said, it would mean I'd be able to extract more or less anything (up to 1000kg) from almost anywhere. The skidding winch would mean the machine could assist with directional felling of smaller trees too in a tree surgery setting. I suppose I could pop £25 on my day rate if I've got a winch bolted to the front!
  21. Big J
    It will cut and split a log up to 480mm in diameter. At that size, it needs to be quite straight to get through the machine, and unless you are splitting for a very large fire or stove, everything would need to be resplit at least once, even through the 8 way splitter. I don't think that the ram has enough power for a 12 way or more. The shorter and smaller the log, the more time it takes to process. I'm a great fan of stoves where you load the log so it's orientated front to back. Side to side stoves tend to take shorter logs, and they have a tendency to fall out. My stove (based on a Jotul design) takes 26 inch logs at 8-10 inches across (max), but my friends 7kw version will still take 18 inch logs comfortably, albeit with a smaller cross section. Longer logs have so many benefits. Less sawdust, fewer cuts, fewer splits and if hand balling fewer logs to chuck. I wish there were more stoves that took 18 inch logs. Would make life easier for us all!
  22. Big J
    And the cab is being expanded slightly for my lanky self! I'm thinking that in Devon there are a lot of very steep slopes, more than any machine could work on. The winch would give me the option of extracting just about anything. Waiting on prices and options
  23. Big J
    Update/question: I am speaking with Logbullet regarding the possible addition of a small skidding winch for the front of the machine. A two or three tonne pull. The idea is that I'll get most places with the 8x8 drive, but the timber that I can't reach can be skidded in to the machine. There is a little winch on the crane (600kg pull) but I feel that this would be too small for normal skidding, especially given that the machine can fairly easily load a 1000kg log. A worthwhile investment or just forestry bling?
  24. Big J
    We've got the semi automatic Trak Met processor and it's quite fast. It's got a large capacity, but only an 8 way wedge so if you push it towards it's maximum, at least half the logs need to be resplit. I generally only produce softwood now, so it's mostly straight larch processed. If I'm cutting and splitting for my stove (takes anything up to 26") then I'm doing 18" logs and producing a cube in 4 minutes if I have decent sized material (circa 30cm). If I'm doing standard logs (sub 12") then it's about three times as long as that. We never really do full days, so can't give you a day production rate.
  25. Big J
    Funny thing is that it isn't! The normal height operator looked quite at home in it. I am basically this guy:

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