Big J

I did not ask for donations, I offered items for sale, which went directly towards her care. At that point I was skint (happy to send you sales figures for January and February to illustrate that this is the very quietest time of year for me) and we were being told by the veterinary hospital that the bills could runs to thousands and thousands (which they have, albeit over nearly a year - last bill was 3 weeks ago at £198). The elm I have in the yard (and all of what is being offered) is stock that has come in in the last 4 weeks. It is not anything that I had in stock at the time - had it been, it would have been offered for sale along with everything else that was offered. Now I'll happily hold me hands up for things I fall short on, but this is not one of those occasions. I will not tolerate character assassination in any form, and if you will please PM me your bank details, I shall return you 'graciously' given donation.

Nothing dry, though a lot of 1.5" going in tomorrow. Elm is a tricky one for flooring though as it moves around a lot. I still have a slight surplus of Beech, though to get 30 square metres might be tricky. I did have another beech log come in today though which could bulk it out. The other issue is that the elm at 1.5" is going to make for some very thick flooring (expensive on raw materials).

I'm not quite sure I'm following your grievance. You help was indeed hugely appreciated, and I'm sure that you can appreciate that financial circumstances for the self employed change constantly. I didn't ask for any financial contribution and Katie (our Collie, who is very nearly weaned off her meds for Aplastic Pancytopenia) has cost us over £3000 beyond what our insurance covered this year. This coincided with us expecting our first child, so any sense of panic on my part stemmed from that. I'm really somewhat stumped - you send me (again, a very kind, but unrequested) donation in response to me getting onto Arbtalk a couple of days after finding out my dog is unlikely to survive the sudden onset of a life threatening condition, and then 10 months later begrudge me the fact that business seems to be going pretty well? I don't understand it!

Many thanks sir! I have fun, though I'm starting to think that the installation of lots of working lights at the yard isn't necessarily a good thing. The working days have suddenly gotten a lot longer! Didn't get the trailer as I had a chance encounter with VOSA not long after posting that thread and charged with driving without a tacho. Just outwith of the 50km radius (that is going up to 100km in March, and given that I've not heard from the PF, I'm hoping that given I was very honest and open, they've decided to drop it). Need to sort the tow vehicle with a tacho before thinking about new trailers. Definitely still on the cards though. Jonathan

Lots and lots and lots of elm here at the moment. Loads of unsawn logs, ranging from £10-18 a cubic foot if anyone wants it green. Otherwise, I've got two kiln loads of elm opening at the end of January, so there will be nearly 500 cubic foot of 2" and 1.5" at £30-40 a cubic foot (the pricier stuff will be the very pippy boards or the 14ft boards, 27" wide, 2" thick, one side straight edged and no heart as it's from a 4ft diameter tree). Mantle piece stock a plenty as well (albeit, it's not cut yet - could quite easily do a very full pallet load of elm mantle pieces for £14/cubic foot). All prices plus VAT.

Very nice indeed

Super quick pheasant slow cooker recipe (a grand term - it usually takes me 5 minutes to prep before work and it's done when I get back). * One whole pheasant, defrosted overnight into the slow cooker (slow cooker was £12 from Lidl I think). * Lots of cracked black pepper, sprinkling of salt on top, chili flakes and dash of oil * Roughly chop half an onion, a bit of root veg (ie, a carrot, a parsnip and a potato would do). Garlic clove or three and a bit of root ginger if you're feeling adventurous. Chuck it all in. * Liquid - stock cube in 300ml boiling water, 150ml red wine. Chuck it in. Set it going on the high setting (which in a slow cooker is very slow). Turn the pheasant over after 3-4hrs if you are there, otherwise it doesn't matter. Anywhere from 4hrs it's ready, though it will happily simmer for 10hrs. I usually have it with roast veg, and later strip off all the wee bits of meat and have the resulting broth/soup with bread a day or two after. I try not to waste any of it as it's bloody tasty.

The difficulty with turkey Oak (I say this as someone who hasn't milled it, but has had second hand info on outcomes of milling it) is that it's extremely hard to dry flat, and it has no durability or structural strength. You might well be able to produce a few nice boards from it, and I'd commend any effort at attempting to do so, but I'm almost certain that you'd see a better return firewooding it. Not that financial return is the most important thing mind you

Probably not. Turkey Oak will be difficult to sell.

About £135. That's at £30 a cubic foot. It might have been worth a touch more per cube if it was longer.

You could have scraped off the sawdust so we could see the ruddy timber!

Very handy looking 3500kg plated Iveco Daily, but the fact that the advert states it will easily carry 3000kg in the back makes me think it's a massive fine from VOSA just waiting to happen! 2006 55 IVECO DAILY HOOK LOADER WITH HIAB CRANE GRAB 3500KG DEEP SIDED TIPPER | eBay

Damn it, you exposed the fatal flaw in my plan! In all seriousness, like with any wood, as long as it's dry it will burn.

No, terrible. If you tell me where it is, I'll do you a favour and collect it all for free to get rid of it. Dreadful firewood

Keep us updated on how you get on!

I would honestly just ditch the machine and get a Lumbermate or something. They have toe boards if you spec them.

If it's of any consolation, I believe that what you describe above can be legally described as 'irreconcilable differences' in a court of law.

It does have Indespension units on it, rated to 45mph. If I were to tow that on the road, it would only be for short journeys I think.

Was it not possible to fell it from the ground?

I got the impression that all the big houses up there had either switched to biomass or were in the process of doing so. I guess I only deal with the ones that are organised enough to sell their timber to sawmills, so they tend to have the biomass side of things nailed as well. The closest estate to you that I know does biomass in a fairly big way is Alvie. If memory serves, they chip and dry (using an RHI accredited kiln) about 2000 tonnes of chip annually. Given the profusion of demand up there, it might well be worth speaking to them about their experiences. If you approach them the right way, they might be happy to show you what they do. Competitors can sometimes work quite cooperatively

That's Woodmizer for you! The sterling customer service is one of the many reasons I sold my LT40 and got a better mill for less money from people who actually cared about my business.

I have no idea. It's not for commercial use really, but to share between a couple of friends for splitting knotty elm. Other stuff I'd use my screw splitter on.

I'd be curious about that particular splitter as I've looked at it too.

It won't be accurate on a 25" bar. An 18" maybe, but not 25. I tend to use mine more for accurate cross cutting of beams and lengths of timber - I set up a jig to do this and it's very useful. For vertical milling it's a bit hit and miss I find.

Much the same here. I run mostly Ripper 37s, which are fine, but also have 5 Woodmizer bands, which are also fine. Whether they cut well or not is entirely determined by the person who sharpened them!