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Mattsnaturalrivers

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Everything posted by Mattsnaturalrivers

  1. Sorry for a long one but I have a couple of unexplained incidents. When I was a teenager I lived in an ordinary detached house not particularly old or interesting etc. Once when a friend came round whilst looking at a painting on the wall he flew back into the sofa, he claimed that he was pushed. Now my friend at the time did like to tell porkys so even though he must have moved 5 foot back from the picture I put it down to balance loss and exaggeration. At the time I was convinced the house was haunted. A couple of years pass and then whilst laying in the bath relaxing an event happens that I can't rationalise. We had a plastic mesh clothes basket next to the bath with a lid on it and on top of this was a small make up bag. Whilst I was in the bath the basket slowly squashed down which then led to me running downstairs naked (thankfully house is empty) and into the garden (thankfully no neighbours in the garden). When I finally gathered my courage and went back up to the bath room the basket was popped back up as normal. I then thought that perhaps the make up bag may have weighed it down but it took me to lean on it before it would squash down. Since that incident sometimes when alone in the house I would hear noises upstairs in the attic like somenone moving around. This would then involve me having to open up the attic door go upstairs armed with a torch and loft hook bricking it thinking someone was breaking in. The noises would continue until I would get to the top of the ladder and then go quiet. Sometimes when the door was closed back up then the noises would start again. In the end it stopped bothering me and I just ignored it, having spoken to my parents about it, dad never picked up on anything but mum would hear the same noises. Then more recently me and the missus are in our 60s council house relaxing on the sofa in the evening and something in the corner of our vision catches our eye and we turn round to see the wooden chair at the computer table rock back an forth as if someone had tipped it back as far as it would go without falling backwards. We both saw it and again I couldn't explain it.
  2. Waitrose do some great ciders, their reserve ciders great and nice and strong too. My favorites their vintage perry @ 8% couple of those and your well on your way.
  3. Found a flowering cherry a couple of weeks ago and saw dragonflies mating today as well as loads of ladybirds and wasps flying around, seems like springs here already!
  4. Thanks for the info. Just interested in the potential for river restoration sounds like Robinia could be the future for works on wetlands, could be an extra market for the land owner as well as his supply of firewood.
  5. Depends what your using the posts for. How does Robinia stakes do in water, (chestnuts excellent and just gets harder), and is anyone producing them commercially and if so at what price would they go for?
  6. Thanks for the responses so far especially the Sparsholt avenue thats a great idea, will put the word round a few assessors as well. Spoke to the other keepers again today and they reckon that on the site is about 100 of these poplars dotted around with most of them being 4-5 foot width at butt which they would be keen to remove.
  7. Thanks for responses, I understand where your coming from am just putting it out there, not all land owners are wealthy some are land rich but money poor. The trees aren't on the river bank but in the meadows surrounding and the brash wouldn't need to be chipped that would be taken care of once the trunk was processed / possibly having the keepers on site to help remove brash. In terms of felling and processing it would be reasonably straight forward with no major obstacles around, we could potentially do it ourself but its the time taken that could be better spent on other work and we wouldn't have any use for the materials. Looks like they may well be left standing for a while yet then.
  8. Been looking at one of our fisheries recently and we have 10+ large Poplars that the land owner would be keen to see gone, however they would in an ideal world like to see them removed and them recompensed for the timber. Would anyone be interested? Access is reasonable but may involve going offroad to get to the trees do-able in a 4 by 4. Cheers Matt
  9. I recognise the camel thats from Durnford Estate in Wiltshire, the lady of the manor reguarly rides that around the countryside (the real one not the horse shoe one).
  10. Spot on thanks for that I'l give it a try, regarding the wood used for the rack does it need to be seasoned before drilling etc or can it be bored out, sanded and left indoors to season/varnish? Not had any experience of wood working/milling etc.
  11. Forgot to update this thread, ended up buying a Ford Ranger crew cab which I'm very impressed with both on and off the road and has certainly paid for itself many times over. Thanks for all the responses and help its much appreciated. Matt
  12. Have also been interested in making one of these after meeting them at game fair, I have a petrol powered wood drill which I think would be ideal for the power but not sure on the technique and drill bit so if anyone has any specifics?
  13. Thanks for help, offered land owner £500 and he's happy for us to take as many trees as we want.
  14. Hi Paul Thanks for the fast response, just had a look and the prices sounded rather expensive, I was more thinking that as the trees weren't ideal for commercial use, planking, logging etc (excluding the ash perhaps) and access to remove them for those purposes would be extremely limited so I was imagaining £20-£30 ton ish?
  15. Hi hope someone can help with this. I am in the process of planning some river restoration works soon and part of the proposed plans involve pegging whole trees into the river to deflect the flow and re-inforce eroding banks. We have spoken with the land owner who is open to the works but would like some renumeration for using his trees. ~The trees in question are mainly multi stemmed alders and willows with one or two ash as a possibility, the trees are about 50 foot high by a foot and half wide or smaller guessing that if logging would probably get a couple of loads of logs out of the bigger trees. Any idea what price we should be paying him as a guideline? If anyone could help out that would be much appreciated. Cheers Matt
  16. I think Kingcombe Aquacare carry out courses for removal of Himalayan Balsalm and may well provide the training for Knotweed.
  17. Elwell is a great billhook look on ebay
  18. As I said in previous post I would be interested in woodland around wilts/hants area, my line of business is coppice and logs and although its never going to be a get rich scheme it does provide a way of managing the land and making a reasonable living off it. My main aims are to have somewhere that could be made grade 1 coppice in time that I could bring the family into as well as work. There are many potential streams of income through woodlands and land in general depending on drainage etc but I find the large costs of initial outlay mean that if loans are taken out your already fighting a losing battle, so to me subdividing means not spending beyond your means.
  19. Have you ever thought about playing woodlands.co.uk at their own game and forming a co operative with like minded individuals chipping in to buy a patch and then splitting it up according to what was paid in? I for one might be interested if the woodlands were around Hants or Wilts
  20. I coppice hazel all year round, my woodland is renown for variety of rare butterflies so this is the main species of concern for the owners not the bird population so they're happy with this as they want a nice mix of cycles and the woods too big to make a noticeable effect with only winter coppicing plus access is often limited at times. From what I understand the products that you make from hazel last longer if cut in winter but hurdle and spar makers often cut all year round as well so it can't be that bad.
  21. I agree with Rob, the deer will still graze the shoots as they grow up through the brash laid on the stools and they won't grow straight but crooked (might not be such a problem with chestnut but if you were using hazel for weaving rods not ideal). When I worked for the council they used to dead hedge the hazel coupes but would end up using almost all the materials gained from coppicing to make the dead hedge and it would take days to make. Have used orange plastic mesh that they use on road sides to protect people from road works and attached that to 3m posts and this has worked fine detering the deer and can be moved along to the next coupe. Have always been told to leave the coupe messy with all the fine brash laid on the floor and apparently deer don't like walking on the loose brash and this deters them.
  22. I've been asked to fill in a extensive Health and Safety and Environmental form for a client and theres information on there that I've never had to provide for and I'm clueless. If anyone could lend a hand it would be much appreciated as this is something I have a feeling I will need for future clients. The bits I'm not sure on are as follows 11. Please provide details of the accident or environment incident reporting and emergency procedures to be adopted for this contract 15. Please enclose details of the criteria you use for assessing your company’s health, safety and environment performance 16. Please provide details of how often and by whom safety and environmental inspections will be carried out. The works proposed are a mix of felling and installing trees into the river etc.
  23. £100 plus VAT per day including NPTC Test with Tony Darbyshire around Hampshire area, would highly reccommend him a great teacher and thoroughly good bloke. Helped me out many times over with contacts for work.Looking to carry out medium trees with him next year at same prices.
  24. Don't count on it I was promised the same deal 9 years ago when I took out my student loan that I wouldn't have to pay until I owed over national average now in process of paying it back after they moved the goal post back to 15k. Still I had a good run:001_smile:
  25. Thanks for all the replys so far, been very helpful and shattered a few preconceptions about landys and hilux. Will have a think and a look and see whats available out there.

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