Stereo

Welly boots will stink and smoke, Pallet wrap your flu will choke But tyres treaded or tyres bald Will keep away the winter's cold. Burning tapes and DVDs, Will cause your ecofan to seize. A gallon of petrol in the grate, Will put you in a terrible state. But tyres white or tyres black, Will warm your aching back. Plastic bottles, tubs and spoons Your neighbours will complain of fumes But tyres old and tyres new Will finish them off with acrid plumes.

I wonder how much wood those guys burned to heat that oven for 8 hours. I've toyed with building a similar oven just to finish off logs before burning but you would have to have a long bake and that in itself would need a lot of fuel. Seems inneficient to me unless the heat was a by-product of something else.

None to speak of.

I believe I will be buying the full Windows 8 pro model when it comes out purely as I run several PC specific packages for my business. It ticks all the boxes for me. If I can click on the keyboard and plug in a mouse when I want to do serious work and then just have it as a tablet for browsing on the sofa then that's me done. I love my iPad but it's not a PC replacement for me, just because it won't run certain things I use. I expect a lot of people are in the same boat. I can't really see the cut down one they just launched doing massively well though.

We have a CO alarm and save our very best dry lumps of ash for overnight in our Esse W23. I always make sure it's raging and everything is fuly up to temp before I shut it down. The worst thing you can do is to chunk in a couple of lumps of wet oak which will dry slowly over 4-5 hours on the embers and then explode into flame after coating everything with tar. I wouldn't try to burn our Villager A Flat over night.

We have a CO alarm and save our very best dry lumps of ash for overnight in our Esse W23. I always make sure it's raging and everything is fuly up to temp before I shut it down. The worst thing you can do is to chunk in a couple of lumps of wet oak which will dry slowly over 4-5 hours on the embers and then explode into flame after coating everything with tar. I wouldn't try to burn our Villager A Flat over night.

I think I will give them a call and get them out to advise.

Thanks, that's worth knowing.

I've got about half an acre if wood which is 90% elm, much of which is dead or in the process. There is a little syc, ash and hazel too. I want to fell it all so that hopefully some of the elm may sucker and the others will coppice. I plan to fill in with ash, oak and hazel where there are gaps and long term have it as a coppice with oaks (probably not in my life time!). Question is do I need a felling licence to fell all the DED elm? The remaining broad leaves will fall into our quarterly allowance but all the elm will take it way over.

Sorry to go back to elm but are you saying that as it suckers then the tree doesn't evolve (as in distribute new seed for new trees). Surely elm must spread somehow. Not challenging, just trying to understand. Controlling ded has not worked so now we must just wait until the species can beat it through evolution. As it thrives as a hedgerow tree then I thought there was some hope this might happen in the future.

And if they did it properly you would be paying a lot more. These sort of services are the last thing to be prioritised. All the otherwise unemployables working in your local council offices have to be over paid and have their gold plated pension sorted first.

That's interesting and changes things a bit but you have to remember that wood is not usually as controllable as gas. We have a wood stove linked to an accumulator tank so in theory we should store excess heat in the water and then use it when the underfloor heating cuts in. But sometimes the tank gets too hot and the fail safe starts pumping water into the bathroom heating circuit to get rid of the heat. Wen we go to bed we stoke the a stove with dry ash and it must run the heating for a couple hours but the night is long and cold in the winter and I always hear the gas boiler backing up in the morning. Maybe our heat store is not big enough. That may be it. But for us, we can't get by without gas at the moment and I would assume that is the same for most households. To truly heat your house with wood means investment in a serious system. Probably a big heat store and a gasifying boiler. I'm sure our woodpile saves us a lot in gas and I cut it myself so no cost as such (I consider the time as time I would otherwise spend in the gym or just chilling out). What I do know is that my gas combi would power our heating in an extremely efficient way if I wanted it to and I would have very little energy wastage.

What's the nature of this disease? Elm still prospers here as a hedgerow plant but can't survive as a mature tree. I hope in another 300 years, elm will beat this disease and return. The ash thing is very worrying. I'm looking at planting out a couple acres for new coppice and ash was going to be a big part of it.

I've noticed that whenever you visit somewhere public and a new path has been created with trees planted around it, it always seems to be birch. Very pretty trees but why are they chosen? Purely on aesthetics or are there other reasons such as lack of branch drop etc.. We are about to create a tree lined walk and are looking for a good mix or single species to use.

Not too cold in Devon today, not as cold as some recent days but it's getting cold tonight. Will be lighting the stove in the lounge in a min.

I think the problem with the whole log industry is that it kind of doesn't add up. According to most sources, a 3 bed house heated exclusively with wood will use up to 16t per annum. So what's that? 25 cube at least of hardwood. Probably 30-35 soft at a guess. Some basic maths tells us that even at £60 a cube for hardwood that's £1500 a year. That seems a lot to me. Maybe it's not. But £60 is way too cheap as far as I can see. If I were in logs I would want to be charging £100 a cube. That takes it to £2500 - £3500 a year for heat. The problem with wood as a fuel is the sheer amount of handling it needs. I suspect the answer is some large scale mechanisation of the firewood business. Or chip everything into briquettes.

Is it fair to say that cord left for a year and then split will dry faster than fresh cord? So, say I fell an ash tree now and log is right away, I believe this will dry slower than a tree that was felled 12 months ago and logged now. Not sure why, just my experience.

oops, double post

It's a funny thing isn't it? There was a programme on last night about summat and some old boy was talking about mining slate in Wales back in the black and white days. One thing he said struck a chord with me. He said (paraphrased) 'It was a happy place. It was hard work but everone knew everone else and we were just happy to make a living'. Happy to make a living. Most of us live to a far, far better standard than we would have 50 or 100 years ago. Yes we have problems but healthcare is generally excellent. We have loads of recreational stuff and most of us have sound roofs over our heads? So why can't we be happy with that? Hmmm. When I've worked it out I will let you know. I've got all that. A detatched house in the heart of South Devon with a stream at the bottom of the garden. A lovely wife and 3 smashing boys and yet I get stressed. When you look at some poor buggers in the world..... It's a state of mind. I'm sure of it. A fine balance to be achieved. Count your blessings and be happy but never lose your hunger, ambition and drive.

I thought the emotion bit was a bit contrived really. Not the guy who lost his son (been there and never recovered), but the main guy. Lots of staring off into space. Anyway, what do we think about the coppicing? I think his pile of brash is a bit large. What's he going to do with it? He has to leave it now doesn't he? He cant burn it as there will be all sorts living in there. I would have thought a few smaller heaps for critters and chip the rest? Thoughts on that would be good. Also, I like the guys 'inventing' kiln dried timber. Reminded me of percy in blackadder discovering 'Green'. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZFuKHXa7w]Green Gold - Blackadder - BBC - YouTube[/ame] I like this series overall. You can pick fault with it and I'm sure you pro guys could tear it to pieces but hey, the guy is bringing a wood back into productivity so that has to be good.

I always use a mesh visor on my Husky helmet. Are goggles / glasses a better bet?

What about the hazel for interior stuff? Is that just a no go? Would it just split up? We've got more of that than anything else. I'm hoping to avoid too much wood treating to be honest.

My two pennies on this. As you are surely aware there is an iphone app similar to this already and while it's good, I find it falls down on the fine detail. When you are trying to identify something you really need images of why it is what it is. For example why an alder is a black alder and not another type. The existing app I think doesn't have enough in this respect.

Yeah, it's a thought I've always had but that has inspired me a bit. Aside from all the poo related stuff of course.

Thanks for all the answers. I feel I want to build a frame in oak and then go for straw bale for walls and then clad in other woods. It's supposed to be a shed but really it's a .....shed. With a small burner, lighting, a desk and an armchair. Would sycamore be a good choice for floorboards? Cladding and roofing I think will be chestnut.