Big J
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Everything posted by Big J
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Properly sub zero here now. Went out for 67km of gravel cycling this morning on crisp, frozen (but ice and snow free) tracks and gravel/sand roads. Between minus 2 and 4c all the way around. I think we'll see minus 10c this weekend, and maybe a bit colder next week. Good chance of seeing aurora borealis tomorrow evening too
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There is a large paper producing plant in the viscinity that takes birch and aspen, as well as spruce. But it's still not grown commerically in any great quantity. The Finns do grow it widely though. All chipped, I believe. Most of it feeds the kilns, some of it is sold.
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Whilst it's favoured as a firewood species, it's regarded as a weed in forestry. It's never planted, and always regenerates in clearfells, meaning that it has to be cleared several times before the first thinning with clearing saws (to make way for the spruce and pine). It grows very straight and clean due to the fairly minimal wind and consistently sunny summers. I'm not really bothered what I burn personally. I prefer a mix.
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Prices for firewood here are generally really cheap. This seller on Marketplace is doing 2 year seasoned birch for just under £50/cube. Minimum order 5 cube, free delivery on 10 cube. I did my own firewood this year, but I'll just buy it in for next year. It's not worth doing it yourself for that price.
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Yeah, very good thanks! Busy as hell between family, work and cycling over 1000km a month. We're all looking forward to the ski season (end of Dec/start of January hopefully). Spending a lot of time on the bike (much of which is commuting now, and I've got three cycle tours that I'm leading for a UK holiday company next year) gives me a lot of time to process the stresses of day to day life. I didn't have that in the UK, and it'd be hard to find hours and hours of traffic free cycling anywhere in GB sadly.
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Dropping to consistently below freezing by the weekend. Really chuffed about that as hovering around freezing means a lot more ice than solidly below.
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I guess so, but you'd see big efficiency gains, meaning you can charge more. Also a lot less annoying to operate. When I had the Vimek with the tilt rotator grab, it was just brilliant. Going back to a normal swinging, non-tiltable grab afterwards was awful. Glad to hear you're both getting on well with them. I have even seen 2t machines with them. They don't even seem to consider using a digger without one. The other thing which seems incredibly efficient (and I'm pretty sure it's illegal in the UK) is for wheeled excavators to run (often tipping) trailers. Coupled with tilt rotators, they are versatile machines for all manner of road work, reducing the staffing costs due to reduced machine requirements.
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Why does hardly anyone use tilt rotators in the UK? I'm reasonably handy on a digger, having dug out many forestry tracks, but only in the UK and only with 'dumb' excavators with direct mounted buckets. In nearly 1.5 years living in Sweden, I have yet to see an excavator without a tilt rotator, with most equipped with a grab on that rotator too. Watching theIt jm work, it quickly leaves you with the impression that to not have a rotator would be insane. It just seems very odd.
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A snowy commute to work this morning. I had falling snow for the first 5km and then it abated. There is something really lovely about cycling through the forest before dawn with good headlights. The ice and snow crunching under your (studded) tyres is quite enchanting.
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Finally a bit of winter weather. Minus 4 and fully sunny yesterday. Made for an excellent 60km exploring some new hills on the gravel bike. It dropped to minus 7c last night and has lightly snowed. Minus 3c now. Heading out on the bike again in a mo. I do like winter A few photos from yesterday:
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At work and it's starting to snow. Glad I've got the studded tyres on the bike! VID_20231116_104705.3gp
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Apparently there is a film from 1930 called:
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Quite a nice day here today. Bit of sun in the morning, which makes a bloody change as it's persistently drizzled for about two weeks now! But at least no storms or torrential rain. It's just a bit miserable.
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Haha! I am pretty much the only one in the village still cycling outdoors now. Everyone else has just gone onto the indoor trainers. I cycled down to minus 16c last winter, but that created technical issues. The Garmin shut off and I had two spokes snap. I've self imposed a minus 10c limit this year. If it's colder than that, I'll just take the car! 😄
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Been pretty dismal here of late. Not the kind of bad weather that stops you doing anything, but rather persistently grey with drizzle. 2-8c generally. Looking forward to winter and it becoming properly cold.
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First ride to work this morning on studded tyres. 0c and a light dusting of snow. To warm up tomorrow.
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I'm glad today for a day off. The road is lightly glazed in ice, minus 1c. Chance of snow later today. I shall be spending some of my time today sorting out my two winter commuting bikes with studded tyres (one for road, one for gravel).
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Some truly savage weather coming for Scotland tomorrow. The area around Dundee, Montrose, Forfar is in line for an absolute beating, both in terms of wind and rain. Stay safe folks.
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Generally very pleasant autumn weather here. Frosts on some of the mornings, and a bit breezy sometimes. Minimal rain. The autumn colours are stunning. The maples all seem to go a spectacular shade of either gold or red. The aspens, birch and cherries have all turned now too. Makes for some wonderfully colourful cycle rides through the forest.
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@Whoppa Choppa You're a recent addition to the forum, and your contributions seem to be largely limited to mocking and ridicule. If you have something that you'd like to add to the discussion, then by all means, please do. If you have nothing constructive to say and feel that the masacre of civilians is a laughing matter, then kindly f**k the hell off.
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Sunrise at the sawmill. For scale, the forklift in the distance is about 13t and that's the middle sized kiln here.
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