Big J

I've blocked them from my memory!

Hi all, I'm exploring all possibilities of how to close up my business in the UK before heading to Sweden in summer and selling the Vimek and Kranman is part of that plan. The processor is definitely for sale as I don't have further need for it. In short, it's a P25B, diesel 24hp Kubota, full lights, lots of spares, just over 800 hrs on the clock. An excellent little machine that doubles the output of a man when first or second thinning conifer (provided it's fairly clean) and increases the speed of the forwarding. Costs about the same as a chainsaw to run. It's £20k plus VAT, fully serviced and inspected. The Vimek is something I'm considering taking to Sweden. There is a dearth of used machines at the moment and I'm not quite in the price range for a new machine at the moment. I've bottomed out the customs status of it with both UK and Swedish Customs and due to the customs code it came into the country on, it can be exported without charge. It seems rather daft to take it back to it's country of origin, but needs maybe must. But in the mean time, I'll advertise it here. It's currently got 2760hrs on the clock, and it's in daily use. By the time I'm done with it on it's current job, it'll likely be 2900hrs. I'm presently on a job that is absolutely perfect for it. It's on a country park/caravan site, with small tracks and a need to be incredibly tidy. It's hardly marking the ground, being very productive (45-50t a day) and using very little diesel (about 35 litres a day - important to consider in these times). I can run through the financials of this machine, but it's got a niche that is fairly lucrative. The Woodland Trust especially love it and will pay extra to have it on site versus a tractor trailer combination. The machine is meticulously serviced and maintained and comes with a grab tank, a back up towable bowser (though it's a bit rough and ready), new band tracks, new wheel chains and cameras front and back. I can put you in touch with my mechanic who has been responsible for all the maintenance over the past year and a bit. The Vimek is £80k plus VAT. Please get in touch if you're serious and I can go into more detail of how to be profitable as a low impact set up in England with these machines. If no one wants the Vimek here, I'll just export it to Sweden and continue using it there

Well bugger that! 😬 I intend to spend our first midsommar there (which will be 2023) down at the beach with the kids. We'll walk the 5 minutes home and watch the sun set from one of the balconies overlooking the garden and forest. Though I'm not allowed to shoot the deer in the garden (of which there are many). My wife has forbidden it. Plus it's technically illegal!

Well I wouldn't say that I hate the place! 😁 There has been a widening of the gap between the richest and the poorest here in the UK over the past 30 years or so, accelerated in the past 10-15. It's much more apparent here in southern England than in Scotland (IMO). I think that the quality of life is dropping pretty quickly now too, with unprecedented pressures on personal finances, coupled with tax rises and public service cuts. I'm not sure what is going to be left in terms of government budget in a decade or so, if interest rates rise and public debt has to be serviced. I have no idea what the answer is really. Any notion that I think might affect reasonable change is too controversial or culturally incompatible I think. I just feel very lucky to be in a position to move to country where fundamentally everyone seems to be a lot less stressed and a lot healthier. That said, I've not yet been in Sweden for Midsommar, where reputedly several months worth of alcohol are drunk in one boozy, frog dancing evening!

Indeed. The joke (and it's always funnier when you explain it) is that no-one so visually impaired as to require Braille would ever need access to a Pilot's Lounge

Very true. Typo with a space instead of a B. I shall go and correct my error.

Bloody machine abuse if you ask me. That sort of thing never happened to me.... 😬😄

Is it not the case that the people of Ukraine have the right to self determination? This last month or so has done nothing but bolster the case that Ukraine wants to get as far away from Russia as is humanly possible. I fully acknowledge that all governments have their skeletons, all have their corruption, all have their agendas. However, sending columns of war machines into cities under the pretence of expunging nazis that don't exist puts Russia in a class of it's own at the moment.

This thread is pretty depressing. A whole load of keyboard warriors arguing about something that none of us really know anything about. Fundamentally, it comes down to one thing. Naive, misinformed young Russian men are being sent to invade a country under false pretence and a great many of them are paying with their lives. But worse than that, millions of civilians in Ukraine are being subjected to terror, displacement, injury and death for nothing more than the war games of men more powerful than them. This whole farce is so utterly without warrant, so totally pointless and such a stain on our civilisation that I struggle to see a way out. I cannot see Putin ever backing down, and given that Ukraine and Poland in 1939 seem to have many similarities, where next? With over 17 million square kilometres, you'd really think that Russia had enough bloody territory...

Sweet FA diesel available north of Exeter. What's it like in your 'hood? The bowser of red diesel is starting to look very appealing again....

The fire is running fairly cool. The flue thermometer is intended to be located on the flue, which should be cooler than the body of the stove. Resite the thermometer and try running it with the temp half way through the grey.

Bit blizzardy today from mid morning onwards. About 4 more inches of snow fell at low level. More further up the hill. Didn't affect the driving though. Igloo building to with the girls 😎

We've had a lovely day. Lots of sledging, walking and built a 2m tall snowman. It's to snow here for the next 24hrs too, so plenty more fun to come 😊

In Sweden this week. Left all that shitty wind and rain behind 😁

Send them into Helmdon Sawmills at Brackley. Steve will look after you there and it's very inexpensive. I've sent elm from Cambridgeshire to Helmdon in the past

My mobile network coverage vanished at about 10:00 and hasn't yet reappeared.

Do you know, word on the grapevine is that that could well be worth a lot of money! 😉

We just had a momentary power cut

We're flying from Stansted tomorrow and expect everything to be running OK. The wind is picking up here now. To peak in a couple of hours.

Informally yes. I kind of need three harvesters to work behind. Most of the operators in that area who do first thinnings use Rottne H8s, as they are very good machines and Rottne is only about an hour from us. They typically produce 12,000 cubic metres a year. I would like to extract 10,000 cubic metres a year. So with three to work with, I'd be pulling a little over a quarter of their individual outputs, and I think I can do this comfortably on 3.5 long days per week (Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri one week and Wed/Thurs/Fri the next week). This gives me more time at home with the wife and kids and more time to enjoy life and the income is easily sufficient to live comfortably. My wife (an architect by training) is going to spend the first 6-12 months doing SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) as she hasn't picked up the language as quickly as me, but she's also training at the moment, doing a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) so that she can teach English there. Most likely at the school in the village. We're moving the last week of July.