Squaredy

I have to agree with this. I save money because I don't work out the value of the firewood I burn which is all sawmill "waste". I enjoy my woodburner partly because I love a real fire but also because we use it as much as we like without worrying about wood consumption, whereas if we put gas central heating on we would probably only let it come on for a couple of hours each evening. And my house gets really cold in winter so it would be miserable. As a small scale firewood seller I would say the majority of my customers just love their woodburners - very few of them are expecting it to save them money. It is a luxury item like their fancy car.

Sounds awesome. I just hope your Garmin GPS is more reliable than my Garmin satnav.....!

Just to throw another fly into the ointment of Drax burning woodchip sourced from the USA, there is evidence that some of the woodchip is being sourced from clearfelling virgin forest. It is meant to come from low grade material that is produced as a by-product of the huge logging industry in the USA but satellite imagery has given very strong evidence that some of it is actually causing de-forestation. This is a problem that the USA will have to fix of course, and our government won't care - the stats will still show an improvement in the carbon footprint of Drax.

Yea close-up piccies would help. Anyone who said Larch however must have been looking at the pic on a very small screen....a phone perhaps. I have zoomed in on a decent size screen and I am way out of my depth. Certainly not a common native tree.

I agree with what Big J says, but would also add that a lot depends on the log and how it is cut so to an extent if a board wants to twist or warp it will. To avoid movement you need to quarter-saw logs, or at the very least saw into narrower boards. Also straps don't really help as they will loosen as the timber dries and shrinks. I guess they may help if you keep tightening them. Also think about where you are storing the boards - out of sun and rain, but with good airflow. But to a large extent a good straight grained log without knots will stay much straighter than a knarly old knotty bendy log when milled.

That is always the best way. But paying by PayPal does give some protection. It won't give protection against an item not quite being as it should or as you hope, but it will give protection against scams or indeed disorganised sellers who mess you around and fail to send your goods. It is always good to be aware also whether you are dealing with a business or an individual. The law gives quite a lot of protection when buying from a business including the right to return an item for a refund for any reason at all within 14 days (except for a few items like specially made or adapted items). From an individual however there is very little protection. On a PC it is easy to see if a seller is a business - on the right of the listing page just under the "contact the seller" link it will state "Registered as a business seller" if it is a business. On a phone I have no idea how you tell.

I hope you have not been scammed. I would recommend always being suspicious when buying something unseen and paying in advance. I would be even more suspicious when the seller asks for payment by bank transfer. I would suggest requesting contact details from ebay (this is a standard right you have) and this may give you an address and further phone numbers. Or if the item has been listed by a hacked account it will bring this to light if you try to contact the real account holder. Also it may prompt them (if genuine) to reply to you and re-arrange delivery. Don't forget you can open a case with ebay, even though you didn't pay by paypal; though sadly I don't think ebay will refund your money.

Or if you get lots of good size logs maybe sell them on for milling. I would offer but I am too far away from you. Or maybe they are not logs worth milling? I guess all this talk of large logs being ringed up for firewood makes me wince!

Here is a nice picture I was sent a few days ago, offering me these top quality specimens. I am not buying softwood logs just now, so if anyone is interested I will pass the contact details on. I am not totally convinced they are fully mature and ready for felling though. Maybe the owner should give them a few more weeks?

I can only say what I am currently paying. Small diameter Ash nice and clean and straight with not too many end splits I would value at £2.50 per hoppus foot roadside. Larch about the same size if it is nice and clean, maybe £70 or £75 per ton (which I would estimate to be around £2.50 per hoppus foot also). Larch has gone up a lot in the last year or so.

Yes the article quoted in the original post said he made six figure sums some years. That sounds like a self-employed wage not an employee's wage with benefits like sick pay and holiday pay etc. I bet lots of genuinely self-employed arborists would love to earn that money. For some reason plumbers have become very greedy in recent years. How often will a plumber work hard tracing a fault and rectifying it and simply charge you a fair hourly rate? More likely they will condemn your boiler and charge you £2800 to fit a new one. I am sure there are exceptions of course.

Yes it stinks doesn't it. It is only made possible of course by UK tax laws and employment laws being so complicated that you need specialists to interpret them, and even then those specialists often disagree. Maybe all income tax and NI should be abolished and we all keep every penny we earn, and then taxes increased on what we spend (ie VAT) to make up the difference. What a lot of time and administrative cost that would save. Luxury goods of course would be most highly taxed and essentials taxed least.

It usually only affects large landowners who have land or property they totally neglect or fail to use. In many ways you could say it is very fair that if you allow someone to use your property for 10 years and treat it as their own and take no action then maybe you don't really need it. In a lot of cases the land is unregistered and the ownership has been lost in the mists of time. Of course if you go back far enough how did anyone acquire land......just by enclosing and using it.

Here is an example. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3589749/Pensioner-s-anger-squatter-wins-right-400-000-house-faces-losing-flat-pay-legal-bills.html

You might be surprised how common it is. Here is some info about it. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-land-and-2-registered-land/practice-guide-5-adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-and-2-registered-land-where-a-right-to-be-registered-was-acquired-before-13-october-2003 There have been some very high profile cases in the news over the years, where squatters have eventually taken posession of a large town house because the council who owned the house failed to kick them out.

Actually no quite the reverse. You can indeed claim registered land. I think the timescale may be different but it certainly can be done. You have to prove posession for the required time. And you have to prove it is adverse - ie without permission. Funny isn't it that you can just start using someone else's property and if you get away with it for long enough you can make it your own legally.

Any camera can act as a deterrant, as long as it LOOKS at least functional. But the real key to yard security is not in CCTV. I apologise as you may well be fully aware of this, but the most important steps are to do with making sure kit is not left at a vulnerable site, and/or the most "nickable" kit is in secure strongboxes; and maybe even getting a locakable shipping container. I find the most effective way is to have kit that looks old and knackered....they don't bother then! My experience of having a break-in and having it all on CCTV is you show the footage to the police, they say they will circulate it and nothing more happens. Unless you or they have an idea who the toe-rag is then what more can anyone do?

Well if it is a council owned wood you should have a very easy solution. Contact the council tree officer and explain there are dangerous looking trees in their wood which you know children play in. It goes without saying they have a responsibility to keep their woods safe, so especially if you point out one tree seems to be moving. They will have their own professionals and sub-contractors whom they can easily employ to make it all safe.

Agreed; a bit of clarity would be helpful. And consideration for others when parking.

That is very interesting. As you say it is illegal to drive on the pavement but not apparently to park on it (outside London). So in theory the police could nick you for driving on the pavement to park on it. Funnily enough the police national database states that securing a conviction for driving on the pavement is likely to be problematic due to the need to secure witnesses. So it sounds like you were a bit unlucky to be fined for this! For my part if I am ever issued with a fine for parking on the pavement I will contest it and quote advice like this from the RAC website: If you are parking along a narrow road, where parking wholly on the road would stop other cars, and particularly emergency vehicles, from getting through, then it is a sensible option to park partially on a pavement, providing there are no parking restrictions and providing you are not blocking a wheelchair user or pram from using the pavement. Why do we make everything so complicated in this country?!

We have been chatting at work today about pavement parking, as it is in the news that it may be made illegal in more parts of the UK. I thought it already was......! Our street had a clamp down on it about four years ago and my next-door neighbour had a fixed penalty notice as well as several other neighbours. However, it seems the law is not at all clear. In London it is illegal currently - that is nice and simple. Also the local authority has the right to make it illegal in an area or a road, in which case they must display signs stating this (there are no such signs in my road). So what about the rest of us? I have been looking into it and found this https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q387.htm and the RAC website basically says exactly the same. My neighbour was certainly not obstructing the road, indeed by parking partly on the pavement he was leaving the road clear for any large vehicle that needs to pass. Could he have been issued the fixed penalty notice for obstructing the pavement? It is a wide pavement (2 metres or so) but he may have largely blocked the tarmac part and left the grass verge free. If it is the case that you can be fined for blocking the pavement then it is pretty much the case that it is already illegal to park on the pavement. Or could it be that the police officer who issued the fixed penalty notices had no right to do so? By the way, the street I live in works just fine because everyone who has no drive (or has too many vehicles for their drive) parks partly on the pavement. If all the vehicles parked on the road, then the road would get blocked as there are no yellow lines and so presumably people would park on both sides. Arbtalk seems remarkably good at clearing up these mis-understandings so please help me understand!

Well Philh I guess maybe the answer then is no. Certainly I haven't used it. Or heard of it's use for that matter. Will you enlighten us as to its uses?

Yes the South Downs are recognised as a factor, but I think also the local authority is credited as having helped. I don't know how to be honest, but as someone who sometimes sends timber by courier (very rare - usually we only deliver locally in our own vehicle) I am aware that there are local laws in place meaning I am not allowed to send or take Elm into Brighton. In fact here is a very interesting link giving details of how the local authority have helped https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/leisure-and-libraries/parks-and-green-spaces/elm-disease

Ah yes you have reminded me of a peeve - employees who stink. Had a couple of them over the years. Really difficult to deal with. Especially when they don't believe you when you tell them. Needless to say I no longer employ them....

Totally agree with you, very sensible. But surely there are some things that just wind you up.....?