difflock

O.K. So I read enough of this thread to now feel all grown, sensible, mature, restrained and grown up, well relatively speaking leastwise. So thanks for that. marcusthehat

Welcome Durruti, my only comment (and being NI based and conifer burning, I know nowt about Exmoor hardwood availability) is that your preferred specification is rather tight(and will therefore likely be priced accordingly), and why single species? What I can say, is that for preferred your log size spec, conifer will be a better, or more likely supply option, and conifer/softwood will burn absolutely cleanly in a stove, providing it is properly seasoned/dried. And once split it is fast drying. You will soon get a "feel" for whether your logs are wet or dry, but a decent moisture meter is a cheap investment for your early day doubts. Having felled, cut, split and burned Sitka Spruce and Lodgepole Pine for 20 years without any problems at all. Yes, you will need to store and bring in a greater volume due to the lower density, BUT the one key fact to remember, is that almost regardless of species, hardwood or softwood, has the same calorific value per dry weight, except most hardwoods are "heavier". The internet is full of data re the various conversion factors for volumes and weights of firewood, of all species. good hunting marcus

Well yes Socialist/Markist "lefties" to loosely define the mindset.

I would counter-argue that a lot of the shortage of housing is due to benefit cheats, i.e. those who claim to be living apart, to double(or maximize) their benefit income, in the case of married couples, or daughters getting pregnant to blag a free home, and extra benefits, while still living at home. And the shocking number of divorced couples, requiring 2 dwellings instead of 1. Never mind the trashed/burned/wrecked houses due to substance abuse and downright wanton spiteful badness. Never mind the unpaid rents and disproportinately high repair bills (like 2 new kitchens inside of 9 months, the first being sold for cash by the tenant) in the private sector. And I could take you to local examples if you wish. How can any reasonable society provide for these "needs" ? It is a bottomless pit.

Ah Ha Sir! Shrewdly well observed comments, especially the observation re the clear differences between most siblings. P.S. I will try and find the link to the triplets, put up for adoption and deliberately separated by the authorities(in the US), one placed in a poor home, one in a working/middle class home and the third in a wealthy home. To explore the ongoing nature/nurture debate. Marcus here we go, see link att; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Identical_Strangers

That sign would indeed frustrate new log customers (per the thread title) very apt!

Chessa, I am reasonably certain, that that book you quote, was written to support a particular point of view, in that it, or at least the parts you choose to quote, absolutly fails, or refuse to mention the backsliders, the absolute neerdowells, that simply must exist in any given society. Also the $11000.00 per year accomodation (Utah example) cost has to be falsely low. i.e. it may reflect the bare rental cost but zero maintenance nor utilities. Ditto for the African example, though oddly, since most Africans know what actual true poverty is, they might actually better realize the value of the cash hand-out. As before my opinions are based on my local observations, which definitively reveal that some families from solid family backgrounds will work their way down, some are genuine alcoholics/addicts, some simply feckless with money and some gifted individuals from plainer/rougher backgrounds will refuse to better themselves, and some indeed progress. Regardless of the "free money" so blythly disembursed. (that someone had worked hard to earn) While most in the community knuckle down and survive, which is not easy for them, but they make themselves do it. There are no easy "one size fits all" answers. And any easy-money solution will attract criminals and con-persons(i.e. the Grenfell fire) , such is life. But to deny these facts is not a little disingenuous P.S. I am aware that "shit happens", however most such shit is caused by poor life choices,(or indeed others poor life choices) some/most(and I worked with quite a few examples) refuse to accept that their poor choices were in any way to blame, ergo their lives will not improve. And they continue to blame Society instead. Perhaps that is the basis for the expression "charity begins at home". P.P.S Our son works in a Post Office, involved in handing out benefit payments, staggering sums of "free money" are already being disembursed, to individuals, on a weekly basis. Never mind the equally staggering sums(but always sub £800.00, in each individual transaction) being MoneyGrammed back to Romania Marcus

A lot of maintenance work with water power, probably more so on a smaller scale since the leaves and twiggy debris that could easily flush through a larger installation(persumably), will rapidly clog up a small one. Since my father ran 3 Blakes hydrorams at one time, and they need weekly and bytimes daily(due autumn early winter leaf-fall) cleaning of the intake grills. Oops, I forget to mention, the Physics teacher wife ran a project on micro hydro, it simply proved impossible to harness the power of the river without engineering works. Ergo associate impact assessments, paperwork and cost and ongoing maintenance.

For whatever reason, I was thinking of the plight of the homeless this winter, perhaps triggered by an account from our son, describing a bloke staggering about in the busy street outside the shop he works in. I could not help suggesting that the bloke was looking to blag a spot in a hospital bed for over the Christmas period. That and the charity who booked a 1 night stay in a hotel for a group of homeless, I can only presume under some pretext/cover story, only to have the booking cancelled by the hotel, presumably when they found out it was for the homeless. The Hilton group then stepped in. I did wonder why this charity, or its staff, did not perhaps put the homeless up in their own homes, for Christmas? Perhaps they do, but it was not mentioned, and the cynic in me doubts it anyway. However, all that aside, how do you help those who will not be helped, or cannot be trusted to look after, or are incapable of looking after(their) accommodation, bedding and utensils. For whatever mental health/substance abuse issue(s) Money, or relative poverty is the smallest part of their problem(s), simply because no amount of cold hard cash can fix their lives. And paying people to do so, only, mostly, creates more jobsworths, middle management and overpaid Executivies. Whether such organisations are run Government, Council or Charity, no bloody odds. marcus

I seriously seriously considered the GSHP option the time I put in the grant aided(50% on the installation costs with a relatively low ceiling) logwood boiler. It would, in hindsight, have been the sensible option, but I allowed(the younger fitter) me to be seduced by the "free" firewood I had available. Also re-considered it under our RHI scheme, but the installation costs were significent. Perhaps I still should have, BUT with 2250l of Kero lasting 2 years, probably not cost effective, since the domestic RHI only got 7 years payback. Anyway my pond is now where the groundloops would have been. mth

Exactly the same way as I have always run our kero heated underfloor, only there for background/baseload heat, the living space temperature being "tweeked" by the wood burning stove. The rest of the house can be colder(15-18deg) Net result was that a 2250l fill of kero lasted us near 2 years, in a large 1995 built house, built to the then only moderate insulation standards. Big "J" Bloody Hell, you got an intelligent wife, my (Astrophysist model) wife always berates sealed passive house design for being positively unhealthy. And your architect wife agrees, I like that! Btw Smelly arsed dogs(and husband?) have nowt to do with my wifes firmly held opinion. Cheers Marcus

"J" You are 100% correct, and your postulation reflects my critique of our (now redundant) logwood fired boiler. And I probably talked more people out of heating with wood, than I ever encouraged. This despite my limitless free firewood only a field-length away. I.e. I should have sold the wood to (more than) pay for the kero needed instead. However I still rate a decent logburner located within the living space. BUT To leap ahead, surely take a look at the Nth European/Scandavian model, and build a well insulated open plan dwelling with a(more) centrally located wood-burning stove. And only use it when needed. Or install underfloor supplied by a groundsource heat pump. Marcus

I was and still am pissed at the "knowledge" (O.K. from 10 to 15 year ago) which "stated" that one sized the heatstore volume on boiler output, not the firebox size= total heat output, and there was considerable variance in firebox sizes in the 30-50kW boilers I was looking at. And simply because of the £ cost and footprint of the heatstores, they=those quoting for the work, always kept them as small as they could get away with. Ditto for flue heights. So I ended up with a 2200l on a 40kW, and in hindsight reckon double that would have been better fit. Ditto for the 5.5m flue height.

Whale Oil beef hooked. Obviously! Like.

O.K. I score 2 out of Vesp's 3 essential court appearances. 1 in my late teens, the other in my late 50's Does that make me a bad person? marcus

As the old country adage states; "As the days do lengthen the cold it do strengthen"

I simply used a single leg ripper/subsoiler at about 20/24" deep which both gave me straight lines,(and I simply stepped out/eyeballed the distances between trees) , plus it bust the very well established sod and loosened the soil/subsoil, which made the planting a doddle. This was in 10-15 year old untended ungrazed pasture, and I needed some help before setting too with a spade. marcus

Bob, Indeed as I alluded to with my Factor Of Safety comment re the old winches, i.e. overpulling past their rated loads until something fails, and where did hydraulic winches ever be mentioned by me? I have due respect for older tractors and technology, but HP is HP, and pulling power is pulling power. The one thing about an older dedicated winch tractor, is like the "beware the man with only one gun, for he knows it well" it, the winch tractor, will be a well known quantity to its owner operator. And untwist yer knickers re yer supposedly worthless opinion, I for one, rate your vast and empirical knowledge, cheers Marcus P.S. Some of the local farmers who had local Bogland re-claimed back in the grant aided 50's or 60's still reminise about "Tugtug" a local winch equipped Nuffield, running an 1" wire rope, used for recovering stuck diggers/bulldozers.

Hmmmmm, slow and powerful or fast and not so powerful, though the 2 speed Boughton type, mitigates some. Re the height of the pulley, I see no significent difference between the Boughton and any Continental forestry winch with a low mounted pulley. And, bluntly, numbers count, 10t is 10t, though probably the FOS of the Boughton was higher. And if the Boughton is coupled to an older, relatively asthmatic tractor . . ., it must be down to the gearing , so it must be bloody slow. Marcus

Biochar=Slash-and-burn, sadly, realistically, historically, Hmmmm? Perhaps think about that first.

First to see will buy no time wasters honest old thing

I got to check to see if it still fitted . . .

https://nypost.com/2018/12/24/us-huntress-facing-scottish-firearm-charges-for-shooting-farm-animals/?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral

https://nypost.com/2018/12/24/us-huntress-facing-scottish-firearm-charges-for-shooting-farm-animals/?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral

As an old married man, that statement could well be misunderstood!