ThrustSSC

Been running a Vision 500 for about 5 years now. Wouldn't swap it for anything else. Just fitted new baffle and ropes, and got a spare set of bricks ready - although I reckon I'll get another couple of years out of the existing ones. It's been truly an eye-opener. Superb stove. We light it in September and it stays in 24x7 until May, without a hint of trouble.

Esther & Abi Ofarim singing Cinderella Rockefella. Yes, I know: who?????!

Talk to Joy at Yeomans. She's on here and they do kindling delivered in quantities like that.

Wot he said ^ !! Love my 576XP-G. Pull, cut, don't fanny about. Handles get a bit hot, mind... ;-)

It is, and thank you. I process by saw and axe, but it's mostly pretty straight, too. I've grabbed it as it is ideal for my needs and affordable, but I did want to check with folks as I thought roundwood prices were falling - and the last thing we all need is prices being artificially elevated by small players like me who are able to pay a premium.

How's prices looking now, folks? I'm stocking for next year and getting quotes around £60/ton delivered, which seems a bit high. Admittedly good stuff: pure ash, and clean (unlike 3 loads I had last year that were covered in dirt and left me forever sharpening the saws).

The two top tips for starting a 550, especially in this weather. I ran out of Aspen and had to revert to pump fuel for a bit - God it was the pits for hot starts in the hot spell! Stank, too.

To kill its "live" prey?

Not really advertising it yet, Jonplogs, but I've got a couple of wedding orders to fulfil imminently...

One thing I've learned with my 550XP is never to push the decompression button on a hot day once the saw has already been used - or it will never restart!

A bit of salt here and there doesn't harm. It's nothing like the quantities put on roads every winter - to the extent that seaside plants are now working inland along the road verges. And enjoy the cutting. Spraying did the job for me very nicely - in fact I'm absolutely delighted with the results on my land this year. Wish I'd taken that approach 5 years ago.

It does. Mowing or pulling turns it into a perennial. So if you want to get rid of it, you either need to spray (autumn then spring with Headland Polo has worked well for me), or you have to ragfork and treat each hole with rock salt to kill the roots. The latter is incredibly time-consuming. Mowing or pulling-without-salting are just emergency control measures that simply aggravate the problem in the long term if not followed up effectively.

You did well. I reckon 55m3 for an artic of ash and alder, but down to about 45m3 for beech.

75 sold, 15 orders to be fulfilled, and about 20 left in stock. Slightly up on last year, but it's just a sideline and one that's being grown slowly. Not sure I can do much more volume, I feel for the guys for whom this is their only income. Even though I'm up slightly it's felt like a hard year.

Indeed. It's generally reckoned in the industry (I work with them in my real job) that it's bottomed out. It'll bang along at about $50-$60 for a while now, and will only creep up slowly to maybe $70-$80 over the next 3 years. By the way, the cause of the slump isn't just a slowing of the growth in China and the Indian subcontinent, combined with a reduction in demand in the West due to efficiency measures (home insulation, eco cars, etc.). It's also due to the increase in US production from oil shales. Saudi is trying to strangle investment in shale production by forcing the price down by refusing to cut production. There's also the Russia element at play - Saudi isn't happy with Putin, to put it mildly, and are effectively using their sovereign wealth fund to hammer him. Interestingly $115 is what you get when demand exceeds supply by 1%. $45 is what you get when supply exceeds demand by 1%. It doesn't take a lot of movement in either number to move the market quite drastically. The knock on effect for us is what happens when the hedging deals of domestic energy suppliers end. Their best prices will then fall - the drops so far have been in the "default" deals which are not tied to hedged contracts. At that point many of our customers will be expecting cheaper logs. By the way, I hope that anyone who supported Ed Miliband's idea of capping energy prices now realises just how stupid it was. Many of our least wealthy are paying higher prices as a result. Where's the emoticon for a d*ckhead?!

Worth recalling that after some hard winters, customers all stocked up last year and had half of them left at the end. Once they've used those they'll be in the market for more - let's say around Christmas. And even if last year's logs were crap, after this summer they'll now be well dry. So expect the junk merchants to stand out a mile when the customer suddenly finds they've gone from good dry logs to dripping-wet rubbish. And those selling good logs should clean up the market.

Just the one?????!!!! ;-)

When are you going to fill the "Evesham gap", Eddie???!

I got the predecessor version, 8x4 with mesh sides, non-tipping, built to carry plant, for £750 barely used. It's been superb. I just rebuilt it after several years heavy abuse. The only thing I'd say is it had some weaknesses at the back end - mostly due to the tolerances being shoddy and it being thrown together in a hurry, as all these things are. Because I let it go a while with wobbly bits it started to fatigue. I had to add shims and stiffening to sort the issue out.

OIIII! Where you get that pic of my missus!!!!!!! :-)

Just a thought... How hot does that bit of the casing get? I've got some aviation-industry glue I use for jobs like that. It's stronger than the original metal if you do the job right (which is tricky - good prep is essential) but it denatures and lets go if it gets hotter than you can hold. It's worth trying, though

Did you get an answer? My interpretation of the HMG pages on this is that our Defender+trailer is C+E and therefore no CPC is required in any legal configuration, but a tacho is required when the Gross Train Weight gets over 3500kg if we're using the combination commercially.

The whole thing is a money-printing, box-ticking exercise in expensive bureaucracy. I've got a C+E, but from the end of this month I can only use it for personal stuff because I haven't done the CPC. If it was something I could study in my own time then take an exam in a few hours, I would do it. I'm not unaccustomed to studying - I got 12 O levels, 5 A levels and a degree from Cambridge, FFS! But these courses are a "one size fits all" job, and the pace of the training will be SO slow it's just not worth taking a week of leave from the day job and paying good money to be bored sh*tless! Of course, many of the near-retirement old guys with years of experience will simply not bother and will retire. We can therefore look forward to a peak in serious HGV accidents as the remaining workforce try to meet the demands of the reviving economy with so much valuable experience lost. And no doubt when that peak occurs, we'll be told by the EU that that UK has clearly done a poor job of the training...

Surely the answer it not to filter out drivers by age, but by ability? If we made folks retake their test on every birthday ending in 5 or 0 up to, say 60, then every 3 years to 75, then every year [insert your own intervals and inflection points as you see fit] we have much safer - and less-congested - roads. The poor drivers would simply be de-licensed or required to re-train. I don't have a problem with that. I see driving as a privilege, not a right. And if someone things they can still drive safely when they can't, or if someone is not keeping their skills up, then they shouldn't be on the road.