difflock

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My pancrease may disagree! And oddly, the odd time I indulge myself with a 2nd beer or bottle, I do not enjoy it as much as the first one. Plus! I ud get as fat as a fool since alcohol still gives me an appetite AND lessens my rather needed calorific restraint. Cheers!

Unfortunately only an Erdinger Weissbier today, but a full trailer load of the Queen of Firewood? being Quickthorn /Hawthorn. Very very straight(for Hawthorn) and quite thornless. From tidying up the roadside verge where the Ash had to be removed. I reckon they will sprout from the stumps and be cuttable with a tractor mount hedge flail when needed. They had simply got far too tall due to zero cutting for too many years and were badly overhanging the road. I may even plant more Thorn quicks to form a proper hedge. Just because.

The beauty with a "cord" of wood, is like many US ways(thinking of the building trades, working across language barriers) of measuring stuff, it is easy to learn, visualize and measure.

Eggs, I did, yes energy is getting stupid expensive, and since oil and gas are both a declining asset with ever increasing demands this situation will not change. Unless nuclear and coal are brought back. Which will take years. And "renewables" rely on mucho fossil fuel to be installed, subsidized and maintained. And the Government did not help with QE! Nor did the vastly expensive and unneeded overreaction to Covid. Nor did the war in the Ukraine. The difference with the feckless in the past compared to the present is they are now aided, abetted, excused and encouraged by a sector of our political leadership, plus they create lucerative employment (taxpayer funded, natch) for those who "care" for them. Here in N.I. it is probably worse, which means I see more examples of blatent abuse of the system, again aided abetted and encouraged by the politicans, for votes. Which all costs those who work excessive taxes. Tough.

Kevin, But OYFB. What I see is roads still busy with cars NOT on needed runs, and coast roads and car parks stuffed full, pubs still busy, expensive carry out food galore, etc etc. Plus stupid expensive building sites in Portstewart still selling at 1.5M Quid. No shuttered bookies shops either. So if the better off keep getting better off and the feckless remain feckless there could actually be a reason for this. And if our Politicans continue to pander to the feckless, to buy their votes, reassuring them that "it is not their fault", well perhaps iffen their great grandmother/grandmother/mother hadda kept their legs crossed more often it might not be. It is simply HOW a lot of the population choose to spend their money. The factory I work in a couple of days a week is a revealing example, workers talking of needing more hours, but also blithly relating about how they spent the weekend in a hotel(30 mile from where they live!), and planning to hire a camper van etc etc. Plus the younger ones blowing about excessive drinking, taxies, tattoes, motorbikes, babies by multiple women/fathers etc etc etc. Nevermind the woman on benefits with umpteen children. It is simply unsustainable. I am past caring how unpalatable this opinion is to some. Marcus

Since Will C has already swerved this topic, I will try and bring it back to timber related, but unrelated matters. Like when I had McClellands in last month cutting roadside Ash in pissing rain, you would have sworn his cherrypicker had had a hydraulic leak, in that the roadside puddles looked discoloured by hydraulic fluid. Ian said that was the sap from the Ash, mixing with the rainwater. mth

Best wishes in your new venture Will.

It were so fornicating perishingly cold walking along the prom though. Be glad to soon be back in the 30 odd degrees in the garden Room. Cheers. Last drag of Ash home this evening, such a pleasure to be working in the dry clean footing, and with the yoke sitting on the verge of the (very minor) County road.

And the Guinness bes quare an guid, Sur!

Currently on the way to the Harbour Bar, Portrush, for a stout.

ALMA= Ah Love Me Acronyms!

Another full load of Hawthorn and Ash home for firing, and sitting with a superb bottle of Belfast Black beer enjoying the crisp Sunshine. Plus also enjoying ogling my mostly Ash firewood pile.

Guessing CSS=Cut, Split and Stacked?

Bethany, There is nothing wrong with Willow, IF it is dry, BUT it has shocking high moisture content when freshly felled, and then when dry it will be lower density and therefore require more frequent replacement in the stove. I have burned Willow with no problems. Even Ash needs splitting and drying, but it has a lower natural moisture when felled, and can therefore be burned straight after felling, in an open fire(hence its "best firewood" reputation) where it will hiss and spit as the moisture gets boiled off. Any wood has about 4kWHr of calorific value, based on bone dry weight, but the density obviously varies with species. Softwood actually has slightly higher calorific values due to the resin, but less dense(as per Willow) so gets a bad reputation. Softwood/Conifer is actually easier to light and the finer splintery pieces(IF DRY!) make good kindling. Some woods(Sweet Chestnutt for one) "spark" more than others, but if burned in a stove this is no odds. All wood dries vastly faster if split and exposed to the wind. Stacking in a tidy hand built fashion will really aid exposure to the drying wind. It is ALL very physical and time consuming and needs space to store both the unprocessed timber and cut/split firewood. It is also very messy/untidy! Good luck.

Scattered Cloud here yesterday, with about 6 pickles of snow blowing in the wind, then brilliant brilliant Sunshine from a piercingly clear sky. Only 30 deg in the garden room, while noticably colder outside. To be the same brilliant Sunshine today.

Apart from a pair of wild Duck, courting and seriously looking for a nest site on Sat morning, I disturbed a Coot/Moorhen this evening in the dusk, she merely flitted to the other side of the pond and disappeared in among the vegetation. Fingers crossed!!

We are old enough such that birth control is no longer needed! Why do you ask?

No!, Don't be stupid, I just showed her the video clip and asked her to explain the mechanics.

Well, DOH, kinda obvious innit. Pure applied physics. I even checked this out with the wife!

Ya couldnay mak it up iffen ye tried! N.B. Oops, I just went and read your OP Billhook, absolutely truthful, insightful and merits a serious discussion. But AINT GONNA HAPPEN! Thank you, Marcus

I fitted 2 Morso stoves in 1997, the first in the dining room was run 24/7(autum/winter/spring months for about 5 years until I finally got the floor laid in the living room) then the one in the living room was treated in the same way for about 10 years until I switched to burning conifer after which I let it go out at night and relit each morning, and then got another 5 years running like that, until we moved into the garden room in about 2017. So the middle Morso got 15 years of hot and heavy burning(like the flue pipe glowing dull red on a few occassions) and the CI carcase is still perfect, but it did need couple of alcohol induced replacment windows, perhaps 2 new baffle plates(I think) and a set of the side lining fire bricks, plus 1 change of the rope seal. But the stove itself is still good for another 115 years. And like with a car I would regard these items as normal servicing or wear and tear items. Except the 2017 Morso is fornicated after 5 years of light and gentle use, in that the top plate is badly cracked, so thanks East Germany for your shitty exported CI.

So what would it take to start and run a 30HP DOL motor, then add another 10HP DOL motor?

When we signed for our new single ph supply back in 1995, it was stated in black and white that NIE would only stand over the 230V at a heady 8kW loading. We were and are on a dead end spur from the village that was provided to supply 1 dwelling only, then others were subsequently added. Anyway I queried this since our Belling cooker could have drawn 13kW, plus lights, plus 2kW electric kettle a 3kW immersion heater plus 8kW electric shower. it did not add up. I did note when I filled in the paperwork for the 3Ph application, that they now quote 18kW instead of 8. But still . . . I will wait until I get the kit next Wed, and check out the motor sizes, to see what I need. It must be said would prob prefer the simplicity of an inverter.