Squaredy

I have just been contacted by a man who is purchasing a property in  Kent (ME13) and wants to find a contractor who can clear a ten acre cherry orchard.  The area is to be re-planted as a vineyard.

It is 400 or more trees around 18 inches diameter so will be a fair chunk of work for a small scale forester.  If you are interested please PM me and I will share the owner's contact details.

I do not have a lot of information about the job, and I cannot vouch for what is involved but the customer seemed to know what he is up to.  

Hopefully when the trees are down I might be able to purchase a lorry load for milling - it would be a shame if it all went for biomass.  It is a bit far from me, but I have heard that lots of lorries from this area head to Kent with logs for the biomass plant, so maybe one can make a detour and come back with a load!

1 minute ago, topchippyles said:

Best voice in cricket is blower ,A close run between him and richie benaud 

Yeah Richie Benauld was awesome.  And in his day one of the best Aussie players ever.

1 minute ago, Stubby said:

I used to like listening on the wireless !   Commentator - " This really is a splendid slice of Victoria Sponge , Oh look there goes a number 57 bus "  ?

Indeed, and don’t forget the butterfly with a limp!

16 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Any one enjoying  the test match ?   Jimmy Anderson did not look too good in his brief appearance .  Get Smith out and its ours I recon .  

I always follow the cricket, but as a sawmiller not an arborist I cannot afford Sky so out comes my long wave radio.  Aggers and the others are great anyway, but I do miss Blowers.

3 hours ago, Guy 11 said:

Who buys stems from tree surgeon. What sort of prices are people paying. Do you have a set price or dose it depend on the quality and size. Me an a freind are setting up a small milling buisness. So far we have milled some oaks up to 3" wide 3m long . I help cutt the trees down for the lumber. We have a kiln and small workshop

As a general rule you may be better off buying from forestry contractors.  That way you can get a whole timber lorry load delivered for around £70 per cubic metre or maybe a bit more for Oak.

I do buy from tree surgeons but usually only if they deliver to me  and then I pay around £70 per cubic metre.

And make sure you know how to calculate volume otherwise you will get into endless arguments about how many tons you are being sold.  I would suggest always paying per by volume not weight.

8 hours ago, Rough Hewn said:

Cut them a day or two before if possible.
At least 1" thick, 2" is better.

Yes agreed, that is the easiest way.  The surface can still dry but not the inside.  And keep them somewhere cool but with air gaps between them so they don’t start going mouldy.  Softwoods usually best as they won’t fall apart.

2 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

No I've never walked a beach covered in sanitary towels. Have  you ever been up to your chest in a river putting booms and pads out to try to stop a pollution spreading?

No indeed does not sound nice.  However I still think most people would be horrified if they knew how often we in the UK allow raw sewage to flow directly into our rivers and coasts.  And I know this is not a unique UK problem of course.

6 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

Combined sewers, a mixture of waste water and surface water are needed at the works, the storm tanks that hold many thousands of gallons dilute the sewage..pretty much every pumping station goes into emergency overflow in storm conditions. Anglian Water used to stand us down if it was pissing down, what's the point in trying to fight nature. The assets aren't there, if we want't them we'll have to pay, or renationalise some services.

Well I for one would happily pay more for such a basic human necessity as drinking water and waste water treatment.  If my bill increased by 35% it would cost an extra 80 pence a day, but across all customers would give Welsh Water many million extra to reduce rainwater getting into sewers.  Have you ever walked on a beach covered in sanitary towels????!!!!  I have.

2 hours ago, eggsarascal said:

Raw sewage is discharged to rivers in heavy rainfall, but it's massively diluted by the rain. Sewage works just can't cope with a 1 in a hundred year downpour, so they have to discharge or flood the works and all the plant. Another one of those things, unless we all want an increase in our water/sewage charges.

Yes, but what is shocking is that this happens surprisingly often.  For example Pendine sands (one of the UK's biggest beaches and a major tourist spot) had raw sewage discharged 317 days out of 365 in 2017.  Now I know Wales has a reputation for plenty of rain, but even Snowdonia does not have this much!  Link here 

Sewage empties into waterways 30k times

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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Campaigner wants more to be done to stop storm overflows getting into Welsh rivers and seas.

Much of the problem is that so many rainwater gutters and I would imagine street drains discharge into sewers instead of storm drains and soakaways.  My house is a good example.  It was built in 1925 and like every other house in the street the downpipes from the front of the house go to the strom drain which empties into the local drainage ditch; but the downpipes from the rear of the house goes into the sewer.  In this example it is fixable - not cheap - but then neither are the fines which we will end up paying if the Environment Agency ever get round to enforcing the law.

2 hours ago, LeeGray said:

Try cotton roots, we got organic  cotton stuff there with our logos 

Thanks for that, I am looking into them.  Ideally I would rather avoid cotton altogether, but at least it is organic, and they are reasonably priced and plain so ideal for embroidered workwear.

29 minutes ago, benedmonds said:

Whatever you do has some impact and while I applaud the sentiment to try to reduce your footprint there are so many unforseen consequences that make it is nearly impossible to make properly informed decisions. 

Yes I do agree totally.  I decided that when I buy twenty or thirty polo tops for myself and my workers I would make a more environmentally sound selection than polycotton, but it is proving difficult.  

I am am still researching and hope to find a good choice eventually.

1 hour ago, benedmonds said:

The Impact of a Cotton T-Shirt | Stories | WWF

The Impact of a Cotton T-Shirt | Stories | WWF

WWW.WORLDWILDLIFE.ORG

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Whether it’s reducing waste, saving energy, or being a conscious...

I am sure some one has worked out the comparative environmental cost of polypropylene vs cotton. But I would not be surprised if in the life cycle when you include washing and drying cotton will be worse than man made.. 

 

I have helly hanson lifa shirts that our 15 years old that I used extensively. No way cotton can take the same abuse..

The energy consumption of cotton is high, in fact as far as I can tell wearing cotton clothes has a huge environmental impact.  But at least you avoid the problem of tiny bits of plastic ending up in our food because it enters the food chain.  As an organic substance at least it simply rots away when discarded.  Imagine how much microplastic will be in the world's oceans if we keep washing plastic based clothes as we are now for a century or two.

4 hours ago, openspaceman said:

As one of the oil platform people on here have said that isn't going to be a problem for quite a while yet, anyway there are routes to all the plastics from organic means.

 

A while ago I asked @eggsarascal  if he could recommend a filter for the outlet of a washing machine to trap these small plastic bits. He hadn't heard of one at the time and I could only see them for sale in US (where the driving reason is to stop them contaminating septic tank workings).

 

I have not yet found a good report on their effectiveness in stopping plastic fibrils getting into the sewage system.

Washing machines need to be designed with a simple easily accessible little filter which is cleaned every week or so.  Maybe in a few years we would all be horrified at the idea of a machine without such a filter.

But at present we are still in the dark ages with sewage.  In times of heavy rain it is still normal for raw sewage to discharge totally untreated to rivers and the sea.  I know this is a different problem from micro particles but it shows how far even a developed nation like ours has to go.

4 hours ago, Stubby said:

Yea , it does coz a huge percentage of the worlds scrap/waste plastic is shipped to China .

WAS shipped to China.  They stopped this about two years ago and are now really cleaning up theirs act.

36 minutes ago, josharb87 said:

Engelbert Strauss do some, the bamboo gloves are better than the normal ones imo

Thank you for that.  I am struggling to find bamboo products on their website.  Do they do bamboo polo tops do you know?

4 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

Just looking into ethical clothing the other day. Not tried their stuff but came across this firm 

 

Men's Organic Cotton Shirts & Polos | Finisterre

FINISTERRE.COM

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Shop men's shirts & polos online at Finisterre. Designing functional and sustainable product for those who share a love...

 

Yeah I found Finisterre, and it looked good.  Bit out of my price range though sadly at £40 each polo shirt.

25 minutes ago, Alycidon said:

I did read on teh web that over 90% of the plastic in the worlds oceans emanates from China.   Dont know of thats correct but suspect it might be,

 

A

Not quite right, though not totally wrong.  The ten rivers that feed 90% of the plastic into the oceans are: the Yangtze; Indus; Yellow; Hai He; Ganges; Pearl; Amur; Mekong, Nile and the Niger.  So yes the biggest culprit is the Yangtze in whose basin 500 million Chinese live, but several other problem areas as well.  And China are making massive strides to clean up their act, like no longer taking other countries plastic.

I am trying to source sustainably produced clothing - polo tops etc.  They must be plain enough to put a logo on, and probably made from bamboo or organic cotton.  I have found Bam of Bristol, but mainly they are highly patterned.  Any of you fellow arbtalkers who are concerned about our planet know of a brand I could try?

I am looking for workwear to get embroidered and only need it for two or three staff, but ideally I want to avoid synthetic fabrics and get a more ecologically sound option than cotton.

Any ideas?

16 minutes ago, aspenarb said:

The fence is dog legged Catweazle so no damage , was a bit of a pig to fell because the fence was up against all four of them, seem to be having a run on Euc atm

 

Apparently so, its also used to make furniture. Dont know how they deal with it to stop the warping/splitting @Squaredy is referring to.

 

 

Was thinking the same, someone on here may well know the ins/outs of this. Anyone?

 

 

Heavy old gear J, the strops were creaking when I craned on the bigger stick, the telehandler could only lift one end so I craned it off and that's where its staying until we decide what to do with it. I am loathed to cut it . Its 26` long.

 

 

 

 

It is not impossible to use Eucalyptus for furniture, just not ideal.  More a case of why would you try when Ash, Alder, Beech, Cherry, Birch, Elm, Oak, Sycamore, Sweet Chestnut and others will be so much easier!  They planted it on a large scale in California many years ago and discovered it was pretty useless - too twisty even for railway sleepers.

This link details special milling techniques (quarter sawing) employed to minimise splitting in Eucalyptus, but still ultimately unsuccesful.  

Making furniture from eucalyptus wood

WWW.DOWNTOEARTH.ORG.IN

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Though scientists have developed a way to saw eucalyptus wood without cracking or twisting it, furniture makers aren't convinced of its utility.

The best Eucs for timber are apparently the old growth ones in Australia, which is not surprising I guess.

Having said all that I would love to hear of other peoples successful uses for Eucalyptus timber, if anyone has any.

5 hours ago, aspenarb said:

There are a few sticks of Euc available if anyone is interested, currently in Fleet, Hampshire in.Can deliver if need be.

 

Offers before it goes in the log pile.

 

 

 

 

Its heavy

 

 

 

 

 

Great looking sticks.  Such a shame they are Eucalyptus.  My limited experience of this timber is it splits and twists so badly it is barely worth milling.  Might have uses for crude landscaping milled into sleeper sizes, but the user will have to expect serious movement. 

Fun friday fact....Eucalypts are the most planted tree in the world, largely due to their extraodinary speed of growth and ability to find moisture in even the most arid conditions.

5 hours ago, Haironyourchest said:

Modern incinerators burn very clean. And produce energy as a by product.

Clean compared to just burning on an open fire - yes of course.  But burning plastic waste is just burning fossil fuels in a similar way to burning coal or oil.  It produces lots of carbon dioxide and lots of particulates.  Larger particulates are removed, but under a certain size they aren't even monitored.

So I agree it is better than dumping our waste in the rivers and sea, but we need to drastically reduce our plastic waste in the long run.  There is no truly sustainable way to deal with it.

2 hours ago, Locky said:

Hi all

I am trying to get some advice on whether to take out a small claims action against my local council with regard to some beech trees that they own.

My property is bordered by some large 50 foot beech trees and the roots have caused my patio to rise up considerably, the local council has admitted they are the owner of the trees and are removing them soon, I have told them they are liable for the damage to my patio and any subsequent damage to any other part of my property in the future.

They have simply referred me to their insurers. Their insurers are considering my claim!

This has been going on for months and I am getting really fed up with no progress or admission of liability.

Do I obtain a structural survey and arboritist report and go to the small claims in the meantime or give the council more time to dither.

Or maybe just accept that a few hundred pounds worth of damage has been done to your patio by a couple of trees and pay someone to re-lay the affected slabs?  Would you want to live in an area with no trees?  

37 minutes ago, EdwardC said:

Scrapping stamp duty and inheritance tax are radical for Labour. A right to roam, as in Scotland, is long overdue. Creating development corporations to build affordable housing is very 1960's. Stopping the sale of County farms will allow the next generation of farmers a chance to get a foot on the ladder seems sensible, (as seen on Countryfile). Better rights for tennants can't be bad. Tighter rules on lending is better late than never.

 

Nothing new in any of it really.

I have read some of it and it is quite radical.  I am no labour supporter but the people who are behind the report have my respect.  I suspect very little of it will ever be enacted but maybe it will help start debate.  

We we need to talk about the housing disaster that has befallen this country, and the extreme disparity it has created.  In the last twenty years house and land prices and therefore rents have spiralled out of control, which is lovely for many people, and a nightmare for the rest.

22 hours ago, G13469 said:

Hi guys, I need to re tip some of my blades. There's a shop fairly local but just wondering who do you use?

Mine is the 10 inch cut with 5 tips

It is very important to get it right.  I have had this done by a local saw doctor and even sent them off to Fuelwood in Warwick the Lucas agent.  The only people I would recommend are Tewksbury Saw Co.  They have vans covering much of the country and know how to do it right.  They transformed one of my blades that had never been right even when re-tipped by others.

25 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

 

Thieves cut through locks etc,

Kept two angry large dogs away, moved vehicle from in front of container, cut open strong box and stole about 30 saws,hedgecutters,blowers climbing kit etc.

Huddersfield.

The police seem to be taking this quite seriously, are following several leads.

 

Looks like a cordless angle grinder was used.

 

 

 

Ah you have my sympathy, I hope the police get somewhere.  Good luck with it and I hope you can continue whilst you get it sorted....or are you now kitless?