Stereo

When we put in a supply to our barn conversion we hired a digger and did all the trench work ourselves to spec. They even gave us the cable to lay in and all they did was come out, inspect what we had done, connected it at each end and supervised the back fill and warning tape etc. This was a while ago but it cost very little, a couple or 3 grand I think. On the subject of planning, my advice would be to link it in some way to some form of enterprise, especially if you can provide even temporary work to others. There is now a presumption in favour of sustainable develpoment and what that really means is that you have to show that you are bringing productivity and hopefully employment to your bit of the countryside. If you can throw in some form of public ammenity, even better. The best approach would be to do up a business plan showing why you need each cabin and why you need to live on site. Just buying a field and expecting to get a house on it is pie in the sky in most parts of the UK I'm afraid. I have a field which would be a dream place for a cabin and we are trying to plan out how we can do the above within the regulations. As a parish councillor, I can't just bung one up and go for certificate of lawfullness in 10 years time, tempting though it is. On that note, the law has been changed on this so that a certificate can be refused even after 10 years if the planners can show that you have deliberately concealed the breach (like putting it inside a barn or planting high trees all around it and then cutting them down after 10 years, so take care on that on. It's a new rule so not any precedents yet I believe. As for planners being envious busy bodies, I can see why people think that and surely some are but many are fair, decent people. My motivation for joining the council was not so much to tell people what to do, it was more to make sure we didn't get a council or people who had only moved into the parish 6 months ago. Our primary aim is to keep our nose out of people's business as much as possible. My final point would be that these cabins are stunning and I can see the appeal. But. 20 or so years ago, my Dad gave up farming in a big way and sold off a huge chunk of the farm. Many fields around us have ended up as 'smallholdings' or just people putting caravans, yurts, cabins or whatever on them and to be honest, 90% of these places look like junk yards and are a disgrace and there is little or nothing anyone can do. You cannot blame the planners for not wanting to see this all over the countryside. People dream of owning a couple acres and usually it ends up as a dumping ground with the mandatory shipping container, a knackered Landy and a few rotten tarps floating around the place.

Ah, Son of a Birch, it is a Black Alder. Alnus glutinosa. It has the little cones. I think most of our Alder is grey alder? Dunno, it's not the same anyway but like this, it grows like buggery. Good firewood although these fellas are far prettier trees than our standard ones.

Mind you, the one thing that I'm confused about is that it's not like all our other alder on the farm and we have a lot. It has that indent on the top of the leaf. What does this signify? Alien trees?

The point is that I'm being told it's Birch. But it's just not.

Don't kid yourselves too much. There are a LOT of other business sectors in exactly the same boat as Arb. Everyone's saying 'Hold your prices' but there's no jobs coming in and the leccy bill needs paying. It's the same all over at the moment I'm afraid.

Please tell me what this is.

It makes me sick to hear somebody berating an employer for offering a job in a free market. Do you realise how hard it is to employ somebody? Most business owners don't get sick pay, don't get 6 weeks paid holiday and all the other rubbish but in return work 3 times as hard as most of their staff. I've employed a lot of guys and some have been excellent but NONE have worked as hard as me. NONE have cared as much as I did. NONE have seen further than 3 months ahead but all have been keen to take their allotted holiday WHATEVER the state of the business. Employing people is not US against THEM. Or at least it shouldn't be. Employees sometimes maybe need to have a think about the people who pay their wages. What are your bosses giving up in these hard times to make sure you are still in a job? You might just be suprised. I would expect that 99% of bosses are caring and fair people, not out to fleece their staff for every penny. Their staff probably get paid before they do. I know mine do. This 1970's socialist crap needs to be consigned to the history books. It's just not like that any more in my view.

Yep, you can find just about anything there. I've just found out that it was started about 5 years ago using a couple batteries in series but not left running as the rad is shot. So it goes. No idea what the transmition is like but I reckon OK. Bound to need some brake linings, joints and probably seals in the hydraulics etc. but maybe a grand on panels and it could be a nice useful machine. Dad reckons he's got the log book somewhere as well.

I've had a good look at it and spares on the web and yes it needs virtually every panel replacing so a good few hundred but that would be ok if I can pull a reasonable mower, run a splitter and skid bigger stuff out of the wood. I don't really need a big tractor with the land I have. I was looking at a cheap 780dt which is what we had for ploughing etc but on 40 acres it's overkill. I guess i need to drag it out and see if I can get it running before I work on the looks.

I can have it free if I want it. Do you reckon it would run a reasonable grass mower and hay turner?

It's diesel. I used to drive it as a lad with a bale spike on the back. As far as I know it was a runner when parked up about 20 years ago. Is a machine like this useful these days or is it better to put funds to a cheap old 4 wheel drive tractor.

I made a cleaner for down the side with just a bit of bent profile steel which is long enough to slide in flat and then turn down. It's rigid so you can scrape along the sides well. I'm thinking of investing in one of those hoover chamber things you can get which go between the hoover and the stove and catch all the dust. Clarke do them I think. In terms of return water temp, our accumulator stays at min 40 degrees as the boiler is set to cut in then. I guess the water at the bottom may be cooler than that. I think you are right, it's all down to having super dry timber at the end of the day. When it's been cleared out and burning bone dry ash it's a dream to use.

Thanks I'll give them a call. Like John, I am generally dissapointed also with the engineering of the stove. It's a little crude in places. For example at the back of the space between the ovens there is a ridge in our stove between the oven and the bottom of the flu chamber so sweeping it with the rake is a right pain. The hotplate tappings don't line up properly on mine which means you have to tilt the hotplate up to get the right hand on in and then sit it down to get the other one. I can also see flame past the fire door and always have been able to, just a tiny sliver but it doesn't seal properly. The door catch is a joke on mine and kept sticking up until I had to dismantle and machine it down a bit. This is our second Esse as the first one came with a hole drilled right though the boiler where the top cover hinges had been tapped out. I could go on but I won't. It's a lovely machine when it's been cleaned out. Wish I had bought that Wamsler though.

We have most of this. We have an Esse W23 hooked up to an accumulator which has fittings for solar but we haven't got that far yet! At the mo it's the Esse backed up by a gas combi boiler through a coil in the tank. Works OK. My only issue is that we are heating a tank of hot water all through the summer to provide only domestic hot water using gas at the moment. That's where the solar comes in......

We have an Esse W23 and it's WAY too fussy on fuel. Anything but super dry wood and it gums up and needs a full clearout. I'm not happy with it to be honest, wish I had gone with a Rayburn. I'm also not convinced on the heat output of it. I have no real way of measuring this so I maybe wrong but for the amount of super dry extra fussy wood I put in it, I think it should cut more off the gas bill. It's off at the mo as it gummed up again and I can't be bothered to clean it out again as it's not cold enough so we just light the big old Villager A flat in the lounge of an evening. A stove / cooker should not be this much hard work. They say in the manual that you can get good results from reclaimed pallet pine. Try it. Good for a week and then you'll be poking a brush up it's nether regions to stop smoke coming out of every orrifice.

Our esse w23 has a SS grill just above the fire which heats up and causes the gasses to burn off as they pass through apparently. But it's no more than 18 inches above the fire.

Not much tope of that the way you lot are going on.

Mk3 Spitfire. Always wanted to go on a road trip in one.

.... Run out of puns

Not Sure if this will come out ok. It's the desktop image on my pc. Snapped with iPhone into the sun.

I love Land Rovers and have owned many. I will never make the same mistake again. For the last 15 years I have owned Toyotas almost exlusively. Only excursion has been to Mercedes Benz. I'm not going back. Land Rovers have something. They are great off road. There is something truly British about them which draws us to them. But at the end of the day, they are crap. That's about the end of it.

Let me tell you that every Tom Dick and Harry is doing anything they can make a quid out of. It's not jsut tree work, it's the whole economy. Sign of the times I'm afraid. Things will get better but these are times to hold on tight.