Big J

I had a Sprinter 4x4. It was an impressive machine and damned comfortable too. A bit heavy for offroad work in the SW, though pretty much everything got sucked into the mud there. A lot of people have smaller 4x4 vans here. Dangel converted Citroen Berlingos are very popular and as are 4motion Caddys. We don't have anywhere near the same mud issues here though. I think part of it is probably specific to me. I really, genuinely struggled to fit into any pickup if I had work gear on (chainsaw trousers and boots). I don't know why they build the cabs so small. Vans are so much more massive, internally.

How much play do you have in the head? The issue with Woodmizers is always the single post design. They are designed to operate with a bit of flex in the head, but as the roller bearings on the rail start to wear, you'll have more and more movement. As the saw bites into the wood, it'll pull the cantilevered side down. Check the rollers and adjust do that you have as little movement as possible. Then level the bed up to the blade, but perhaps make a slight overcorrection, which will allow for the head pulling down just slightly as it settles into the cut. We had an LT40 about 10 years ago and always found it a bit of a pig to align. Single post heads have their advantages, but accuracy and ease of alignment aren't amongst them.

You hardly see any pickups here in Sweden. You get reamed for tax with them here, and in all honesty, they aren't that useful except as a hybrid work/family vehicle. From my experience though: * A van tows far better. Much more stable. * A van also carries far more kit, and for someone very tall like me, a large van offers far more space for the driver. * Almost any car is a better family vehicle. More economical, quieter, more comfortable and often more interior space. I recall with the Navara being entirely unable to be a passenger in front of a baby seat in the back. I couldn't actually get my legs in. The only reason that pickups are so popular in the UK is the tax breaks. There are much better vehicles out there for actually working.

The winter 19/20 is what broke me actually. It was the final straw, the catalyst for moving to Sweden. At our house in Devon we had 1800mm of rain over 6.5 months with the longest dry spell being 3 days. It was absolutely grim. I'm sorry that it's resembling that again in the UK. It wasn't great here today either. Very mild (9c) with a couple of hours of drizzle. Feels like winter is on the way out now.

Yep. All plastic bottles, some glass bottles, all drinks cans. It's very simple - you take them back to the supermarket, feed them back into the machine, get a receipt and redeem it at the till.

I disagree. I'd buy the WRC, immediately sell it to a sawmill and then buy two loads of conifer firewood with the proceeds 😁

No. Their financial position was such that pursuing it would have been pointless. I sold my machinery here, and have one machine left in the UK which is being sold next month. It's all a bit messy and we quickly found that once we were no longer in the UK, people became less willing to pay us. But I suppose that's understandable given that we lost most of our avenues to chase (you need to have an address in the UK). C'est la vie. You try to do what's best for your family and for yourself. In almost all regards, we're way better off. Just not financially. Since moving here, I've personally been working on my physical health. With the 21,000km of cycling, restarting weight training, restarting table tennis, learning to ski and learning to ice skate, I'm actually fitter than when I was 20 (I'm 40 this year and I was a very fit 20 year old). As a family, our diet and lifestyle has improved immeasurably, the kids are close to being conversational in Swedish (it takes a while as everyone speaks English) and work is good too (albeit a little quieter than I'd like just now). Anyway, I've derailed the thread! 🤪

It wasn't plain sailing really. Between Covid and Brexit and actually emigrating, it's financially ruined us, but we're happy here and life is a whole lot better. I feel optimistic about the future, and doubly so for my children.

Plus 5c here and breezy. It's the first melt of the year.

Yes, I believe so. Construction started in 2021 and is due to complete in 2027 for a 2029 opening.

Even so. The engineering complexity is on a completely different level. Are you saying that the property purchases are where the extra £700 million per kilometre has gone? A million quid every 5ft, or so.....

I see what you're saying, but surely there must be fairly substantial environmental assessments for a seabed tunnel too?

Who'd have though it? Nordic Noir could get even darker. Though I'm sure they'll have lights 😄

I've just become aware of the Danes building a sub-sea tunnel from Rødbyhavn to Puttgarden (I'm a little slow - they've been planning it for over a decade). The projected cost for it (to be completed in 2029) is 6.1 billion euros, or 340 million per kilometer. HS2 will cost around £1 billion per kilometer, by the time it's finished. How on earth can building two train tracks across fairly flat English countryside cost more than three times as much as constructing a 4 lane motorway and 2 lane train tracks on the sea bed? And I bet the Danes finish the tunnel first too.

Fairly aggresively studded tyres on that bike (Suomi Hile Reflex). I use that bike when I'm more unsure of the surface conditions, or where I know it'll be loose/insecure snow. On my commuting bike (where the road is 50% normally clear asphalt and 50% normally smooth compressed, plowed snow) I use Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus, which have the same number of studs, but they're less aggresive and the tread pattern is smoother. The only thing you have to be conscious of is that on studs, you actually have more grip on good solid snow ice than on bare asphalt. They wouldn't be suitable for most UK winter weather.

A lovely weekend if weather for us. Sunny, a couple of degrees below during the day and a bit cooler overnight. Met with friends on the lake for ice fishing (we only stopped for an hour or so for sausages, hot chocolate and muffins). 21cm ice there now. Today we went skiing. Great snow conditions after a fresh dusting overnight. I then cycled 32km up to the swimming pool and reconvened with the family. All change tomorrow though as we go back above freezing. A bit of a thaw is needed though. It's been almost two months now with only a few days snow free. Eternally glad (from a weather perspective) to no longer be in the UK, as I believe you'll all be bearing down for the 9th named storm of the season.

Yep, though only when accompanied by sauna.

It's been a chilly month so far. Average low: -10.6c Average high: -3.0c Highest: 3.0c Lowest: -22.0c It's about 4c colder than normal through the day, and 7-8c colder than normal at night. We've only had about a week without snow cover on the ground since the last week of November. A proper winter.

Does anyone want me to look into importing firewood for them? It's really cheap here compared to the UK. I realise that Sweden isn't the most common country for it to be imported from, but there must be a market there. I did a ten second Marketplace search and this is listed in Oskarhamn (a harbour, 60km from us). Birch only, 600kr/cube (£45.60 at today's exchange rate). I'm pretty sure that it's impossible to produce it for that in the UK on a commercial scale at the moment, meaning there must be some margin in it for profit. Sweden (or at least our bit) is mostly spruce and pine, but even the minority area of hardwoods is still much more than the UK's hardwood stocks. And the population is minimal here, with most relying on heat pumps now. There is demand for firewood, but just not that much.

Morning all. Off work today, so took advantage of the time off and went for a skate on the lake with the missus. Only 2.5km as we're neither of us much good at skating yet. 13cm of ice.

Morning all. Minus 9c on my cycle commute to work this morning. Better than the minus 18c on Monday! 😄 Cold, snowy and clear skies here just now. Looking forward to skating and skiing later in the week with the kids.

I am rather glad that I was no longer there to suffer that. Flipping hate the rain (well, honestly, it's the mud. The rain's fine). In other news, it's minus 21c outside just now. Might drop another degree or two.

Even my 9 year old daughter stuck her legs in! 😄

The temperature has been dropping steadily since the New Year. We've had a fair bit of snow too (about 17cm level outside now). Minus 9c outside just now. Should be minus 15c by morning. Quite possibly minus 20c over the weekend. Lovely