rustcutter

I guessed that was best plan to follow; still the logs don't look good for sale, I am not used to burning wood this "good" on my stove! The other comments about wood wasps; all the references to wood wasps seems to suggest they avoid hardwoods like the plague, is this wrong? I can say that there isn't any meaningful conifer woods land nearby to where the tree was or my store, although I do have softwood logs in store too.

I have been digging into the wood pile in the shed and come across some with large worm holes about 4mm, I split open a couple to find the holes go into the wood and there is larvae in the tunnels, however most of the activity is just under the bark where the tunneling spreads to more like area mining and all voids full of dust. Trying to evaluate the extent I realised that basically the logs are from a dead plum tree that I pulled out of a garden in 2020. The larvae are about 13 to 17mm long, white, segmented with a dark mouth. A close match when searched for something like that is on a U.S. site referring to Plum and Prune Shothole Borer; do we have them here? Are they a massive problem for my other logs? as they don't look good for sale, will they just stay in those particular logs. Any thoughts?

I just heard on the radio that all this new rules thing was to do with people burning the cheap prepacked logs form garage forecourts. Unfortunately with thinking like that becoming the norm, all reasonable argument is just superfluous.

It is a long story but I once got into a similar-ish situation. I suppose I might have been doing some paid work; hedge trimming, fencing, landscaping using sometimes my tractor and trailer, a vintage one, one of several. This was a fairly short period 2 months between one job ending and another starting. From my mothers property which was a 1/3 acre plot and although not isolated didn't have any close or overlooking neighbours. My mother did run a business from the house. However shortly after I had started my new job and was luckily completely, officially full time employed, 250 miles away, there was a visit from a council official; investigating reports we were running unauthorised businesses from the property. He agreed that my stored and mothballed tractor collection all like 30 years old or much more, did not constitute any form of business and that kind of pastime is in no way a problem in a rural area. However my mother was doing some dog grooming, mobile and in her home and had done for years. The official was most helpful and said that as long as the business does not require any special modifications to the fabric of the building that would really make it no longer a normal house, then that is not a problem. I don't see that your shed would really be anything other than a normal "household" shed. In fact the official played a blinder; he in no way thought there was a problem, hence the complaint was of a nuisance nature. He also let my Mum know that in fact; there was some kind of initiative at that time to promote her kind of enterprise and a grant was available to improve business. She did and got a few hundred quid; obviously she told all the locals that she mixed with, this made sure that whoever complained got to hear for sure!

Not for an open fire and only if you have the space and time to store it.

Personally, I leave Cypressus and similar conifer wood out in the open for one winter, the rain leaches the resin out of the wood and I suppose microorganisms feast on it too. If taken straight inside the resin never really goes away. I was gifted a pile of large rings which had been stored off the ground but otherwise open for three years; that was really supreme stove fuel but had just started in very localised way to rot very slightly by that point and any more time, another winter would have ruined it.

I can remember one of these "emergency" fly on the wall programs years ago; where a tractor driver had a close call when a piece of wire shrapnel from a flail hit his neck and managed to get into a vein and then into his heart. It just wasn't his day, he managed to raise alarm. To have been convicted I think the contractor must have actively done something like remove a guard. The flail machines inherently eject material, every now and again someone is going to get hit if they get too close, regardless of guarding.

only if your shed or house are built out of unseasoned Ash!

Will be ash bark beetles, the hole is not an exit. If you pare back the bark like peeling a spud you will trace the mine and find the culprits. The beetles are just mining out the cambium layer of the bark. They only seem to go for the freshest cut pieces and presumably standing wood. I think the larvae go into the wood but not a problem if the wood is just firewood.

Why not just ask at the nearest farm or residence who owns the land?

Laurel suckers and self sets like crazy; even chopped up sections of trimmed branches will sprout when left on damp sheltered soil. I would be looking to make friends with some one who has a laurel hedge which needs a trim and take some cuttings if suckers aren't showing. One of my friends has some lovely laurel hedges which were established exactly this way by scrounging suckers/selfsets from my mothers' garden.

3/4" or 7/8" wire winch rope on a Cookes 10 ton if you are going to be standing it up on the anchors; depends what you are doing. Depends on how much length you want, should do most of your heavy pulling on a fairly well wound out drum.

Don't you know someone with a tractor mounted winch; I would expect to pull out 8" conifer stumps as fast as my mate could be wrapping a choke chain around the next one. If I can't get a machine or redirect a rope in; an ordinary 5 ton ratchet strap can get some pull on matched with a root busting bar (as described earlier), I forged a blade on a 6ft piece of 1 1/8" round bar.

I have seen the Dyson machines but never closely; what happens to all the crap? Would anything with a tissue type filter need daily attention? Probably would in my house!

I have a problem with dust around the house which seems to be very fine ash from the stove/stove servicing activity and especially in that particular area. Has anybody ever tried an air filtering machine? something like a fixed hoover which is constantly but gently filtering the air near the problem area or coming on periodically timed but would have to be fairly quiet. There may be just such a machine available but I can't think what it would be called for the purposes of a "google" search. You may think just get a duster but the dustfall is noticeable within hours.