john k

It's broken on my phone running iOS 8.3. Was there an update to the app today?

Yes, it's excellent and lasts very well. Anything less than 3" will normally have too much sapwood, but anything over that will be fine. Over 4" and you can cleave (split) them and get two or more stakes out of each length.

How did they manage to charge too much? The prices they quote are automatically calculated based on the information you enter on the web site...

If you've got regulars you want to look after, how about contacting them when it looks like you might be going to run out and giving them first refusal?

Give some thought to the amount that you could take out each year, and work out what it might be worth. In forestry the amount of growth that trees put on is referred to as the Yield Class which gives a figure in cubic metres per hectare. This varies between species and from site to site, but for the sake of some back of an envelope calculations you could assume something like YC10 for your conifers and YC5 for your hardwood. Your 40 acres is approximately 16 hectares, so 6ha conifer at yield class 10 ~ 60 cubic metres per year 10ha broadleaf at yield class 5 ~ 50 cubic metres per year So you've got ongoing potential for an average of around 100 tonnes a year - that's only five artic loads. Is there an approved management plan in place, or standalone felling licences? Depending on whether you are thinning, or clearfelling stands the actual amount each year is likely to vary enormously, as will its value. Clearfelling should generate short term income, but you'll need to allow for restocking costs and that area won't be productive again for decades. Thinning a stand of oak could give you some relatively high value saw logs for instance, but you're unlikely to be doing that very often, whereas you may thin conifers more frequently but at lower value. If you wanted to get into it in a bigger way then 40 acres would give you a good core of work to start a small scale contracting business, working your own woodlands but maximising the return on any machinery investment by working on other woods too. You could look at ways of adding value too by producing firewood, charcoal and other forest products, or by milling, but don't underestimate the amount of effort that goes into producing these products, and just as importantly marketing them.

I've used Speedshift a couple of times and they've done a good job at a competitive price http://www.speedshift.co.uk

I use a tree jack a fair bit. It's a heavy old lump to lug around the woods but it does come in very handy. I wouldn't say it's by any means idiot proof though, and it will provide an idiot with a multitude of new ways to get himself into even more trouble. Particularly on soft ground!

Give Andy Wright at English Woodlands Forestry a call (01825 890381). They manage a lot of privately owned woodlands in Kent and Sussex and can help with as much or as little of your timber operation as you need. They are part of English Woodlands Timber and are very knowledgeable about the local timber markets. Do you have approved management plans in place for your woods? They can help with that too, and have plenty of experience of working with farm woodlands and understand the grant implications. Good luck. It sounds like a great opportunity to get a lot of woodland back into production.

Have you had a look at the FC Practice Guide on Managing ancient and native woodland? http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/FCPG201.pdf/$file/FCPG201.pdf It should give you some good ideas.

That's correct, although it will roam onto any network so you may get through even if your phone appears to have no signal. 999 and 112 are identical in the UK by the way, there's nothing special about 112 except it's a universal emergency number used across Europe.

Only if you don't have a lock on your phone. Most people with smart phones have them set to auto lock so any would be rescuer won't be able to access the contacts. On the iPhone there's a medical app which allows you to add emergency info that can be seen even when the phone is locked.

Grand Vitara if you want something a bit more road-friendly than a Jimny.

When I went into my local (Stihl) dealers to pick up half a dozen cans of Aspen they told me that they were now recommending Motomix instead as it is much more pure than Aspen. I reckon that's a load of guff and they are just pushing the Stihl product. Anyone else one across this? As far as I know the two are as similar as makes no difference. God knows, Aspen is expensive enough and there's no chance of me paying even more for Stihl's branded version. I'd did get a free litre bottle to try though, so can't complain too much

I'm very impressed with the amount of effort he has put into creating something so useless!

There are, but they don't really mean much. As with anything it's worth precisely what someone will pay for it, not a penny more and not a penny less. Most arb businesses don't really have any value apart from some assets and maybe a nominal amount for goodwill and a list of past clients. Maybe a bit more if they have guaranteed long term contracts. If you do buy or sell a business it's well worth investing in a good solicitor to write your contract, especially if there are any stage payments or ongoing involvement of the seller. It will cost a bit, but in my experience it's money well spent.

The sticker on a recent 550XP that I used a couple of weeks ago said no decomp and fast idle for hot start. It wasn't particularly clear though and took a bit of decoding!

Try Speedshift http://www.speedshift.co.uk/

There's absolutely no reason to kill off the coppice. Any young growth is equally susceptible to Chalara. The advice about not coppicing came about because more mature trees don't get affected so easily, so in the short term were best left uncut. All you can do now is wait it out and see what happens. Depending on how quickly the disease spreads westward you might even get another rotation out of your coppice.

I used plastic "skin fittings" from a chandlers. I've had them for 5 or 6 years so far with no problems.

Those are the saws that I have too. I tend to only really use the 346 if I'm cutting understorey or small coppice these days. I know someone who runs a 550 with an 18" bar cutting hardwood though, so it will definitely punch above its weight if it needs to.

+1 I was using a "problem" 550 last week and found that using the decomp on warm starts was a bad idea. However putting it on half throttle (flip choke on then off) and not using the decomp meant it started easily every time.

I would say that 2, 3, 5 and 6 are "conditions that might affect a tree" rather than "periods in the life of a tree". I might be over thinking things though...

I would have thought that you're on the money with your first one (throw in "biotic" and "abiotic" for bonus points), and that the obvious other period is late in the tree's life when it starts to decline and lose vigour.

The mods don't have any authority over our thinking, but they absolutely do have authority over what we post. Like it or not, we all take part here by invitation and not by right. If you have a genuine complaint then a PM to an admin is probably a better bet than washing your dirty laundry in public. If that doesn't get the result you want then you have the choice of either going with it, or going somewhere else. It's not a democracy and publicly arguing the toss on any forum is rarely likely to get a good result. Arbtalk does seem to have an unusually good track record of people wising up rather than flouncing off though, which I think is a great credit to the forum.

560XP mostly on 18" these days, sometimes on 15". 346XP on 15".