Squaredy

Well we stayed in a lovely quiet spot near the Needles (last drive on the right before the touristy stuff), but we visited a few areas of course. Best of all we were able to have a drink and a meal in a pub. Yes - IN A PUB! Us poor Welsh are not allowed to do that in Wales yet....

Yeah Brighton have managed to stay free of DED so there are apparently 30,000 or more healthy mature Elms there, and I guess the majority are English and Wych Elm. Must go and take the family to do an Elm tour there....how can I sell that to my little boys....?

I was on holiday on the Isle of Wight last week and I couldn't help noticing the number of Elm trees. Mainly they were just hedgerow trees, which I am quite used to, but it got me Googling, in case the Isle of Wight was a Dutch Elm Disease free area like the Isles of Scilly. It turns out Wight does indeed have the disease and has been devastated like the most of the UK, but I found some fascinating stuff about disease resistant Elms that they have been planting on the island since the mid nineties. I did not realise there are such varieties, but apparently Ulmus Lutece is not only fully resistant but also very good for the natural fauna such as the White-Letter Hairstreak butterfly. If this is true this is great news, and maybe everyone else knows about this. Why do we not plant loads of these? Maybe we do? I am not a forester so I would love some of the forestry Arbtalkers to comment. Anyone out there planting Ulmus Lutece all over the place? 5000 have been planted on the Isle of Wight and are looking promising apparently. Here is the link: Elm Trees - Gift To Nature GIFTTONATURE.ORG.UK Elm Identification: Click here for a handy guide from the lovely people at the Natural History Museum. Elms were once the characteristic mature trees across much of the Island’s... By the way I am not totally confident about my ability to identify Elms and not mix them up with Hazel - so here are a couple of pictures:

No, VAT on top but half of that can be reclaimed.

They may offer me the chance to buy the car but otherwise that is that. It is a lease not a purchase - my limited company are just leasing it for four years.

After a full year of waiting after paying the deposit, I finally took delivery of my brand new fully electric car on Wednesday. It is a Kia E Niro, and we call him Robert, of course. Early days yet, but I think I am happy. A lot of the technology inside is frankly ill-thought out and annoying. Even potentially dangerous in fact. But the overall package of an electric car which does a realistic mileage, drives well, and costs so little to re-fuel that it makes up for the crazy purchase price is a good one. The service from the dealer was appalling (Wessex Kia) and they are so incompetent that they failed to take my deposit last year, even though when I reminded them they assured me they had it! The leasing company I will be paying each month I suspect will be a little more organised.... If you are wondering, it was £2000 up-front followed by £345 per month for four years. A lot of money I would say (especially for someone who usually buys a 12 year old vehicle for thrupence and keeps it on the road as long as possible, patching it up as it falls apart). On the other hand, compared to my old car I am saving: £25 per month road tax; £10 per month insurance; £70 (average) per month maintenance and MOT; £150 per month fuel, so not so very different after all. Plus of course the financial risk of car ownership and hefty repair costs lies with the lease company not with me.

They will have to make sure they use dissimilar metals (aircraft aluminium and steel) so that they cause each other to rust. That was genius from Land Rover.

I realise I am a bit old fashioned, but why would anyone install plastic grass in their garden? Anyone who has seen the Blue Planet programmes in the last year or two will understand what a massive problem plastic is. Why deliberately fill your garden with it? Wood chip sounds like the answer. If only there was a website frequented by arboriculturalists who might even offer some free woodchip delivered if they were working locally.......!

UPS are really good, and DPD nearly as good. All couriers have their problems as has been said - it only takes one stressed or lazy worker to ruin a customer experience. Thankfully Citylink have now gone as they were by far the worst of the bunch I would say. If the person paying for the delivery always chose which courier to use the worst ones would have disappeared years ago.

Very beautiful timber. BUT very troublesome to dry, never straight, and cracks badly. I would take it off your hands, but I am too far away from you sadly.

Not sure I can advise you really except to say milling really old tropical hardwoods can be tricky. I tried some Jarra a few months back (on my bandmill) - only 7 inch width of cut and it was hopeless - even with a new blade. These mills are designed for milling fresh unseasoned timber - not dense woods that have been hardening for 40 years. Only word of advice I could offer would be to try and get hold of a sample and try it!

A lot depends on the condition of the beams. Even if they are full of holes and with nails etc they are potentially desirable. As you say, the challenge is finding someone willing to de-nail and mill them. Sometimes it takes so long the cost of this is as much as the timber is worth. And of course the other thing I am sure you know about is you need to find customers. And if it is a lot of timber, it may take years to find enough customers to take it all. Personally I would value both species at around £30 per cubic foot - but this is de-nailed. If selling as beams some people will not mind some nails of course.

Sounds lovely. And I bet it will sound lovely!

Much work needed? And you must tell us what size engine! Auto I hope?

Oooohhhh what a find. Do put some pics up here!

Interesting car what is it?

Beautiful trees.

Why wait? Timber dries mainly after milling so mill it and put it to dry.

Yes there will be precious little difference even when new. Slightly wider sapwood in Dougie Fir and a wee bit pinker. No one except an expert will be able to tell.

I smell a rat....

Thanks Les, doesn't look like anyone has any Cypress they want to get rid of. We will see I will give it another day or two. A few years back I was offered 50 or 60 tons of Leylandii but I only used to buy hardwoods then. They were clean and straight and £20 per ton. I know I won't get that now but I thought I would get maybe a few offers...

No-one got any Cypress they want to offload?

I am after some Leylandii (or other Cypress or Cedar) logs for milling if someone near South East Wales has some going cheap. I need about two or three tons only and I can collect. Must be cleanish - not totally knotty as they are for making new doors for my garage.

It is very difficult getting proper information about it isn't it? What is needed is a comparison showing the two types on similar logs. I am sure I read somewhere that the Lucas dedicated slabber powers the chain at a much higher speed as the gearing is set up for the chainsaw not for the circular saw. In which case this would surely result in faster cutting?

Suitably spooky. I bet one could take a great photo of this on a misty night....