Daniël Bos

Who actually are they? I've heard some not that nice things about their bussiness and strategies...

You guys never seen a badger with a billhook? I haven't either! Sorry, I'll get my coat...

If I (a husband) am alone in the woods and say something, am I still always wrong?

It's guys like you that make me want to give up before I've even started:biggrin:

Not a single one? I just asked questions based upon the info available. All I did was ask a load of questions, wich I would have were I to be in the market for one of their machines. This gives him a chance to answer them and put (potential) customers at ease as well as clarify why they acted as they did. Mr James has now done so and hopefully fixed a bit of his (in my eyes damaged) reputation by clarifying why they made the decisions they did.

I'm no expert on chippers or bussiness management, but... Surely leaving someone else to sort it is a much worse recipe for disaster. You say you didn't want to touch it because of the risk of oil spillage so you(the experts?) left it for someone else(probably not the experts?), seems like avoiding responsibilities to keep a clean record to me. What is so difficult about putting some spill protection in place? Could you not have put some oil-absorbant mats, (or a sheep-footbath, works well on small machines), was there really no solution? And finally, if you really could not fix it where it was, why not help the guy recover it to where you could fix it, or at least give hime some advice on how to do it?

Sheesh Rob, how many trees do you want in your house? I've been self-sufficient in x-mas trees for 6 years now and I've only got through 2.

Sorry to hear that. It's often this sort of injury that goes on for a fair while as well, affecting your peformance and thus income for potentially years. I really hope you'll get a fair deal and make a swift and full recovery.

We use them a lot in the Netherlands. The land of my youth is very very wet though I've never put up a fence in a lake. The robinia we've used I've never seen fail, ever. I've pulled up about a mile of fence from a recently (couple of years) flooded area (change of watertable for greenie purposes) and they were all rock-rock-hard, getting the staples out of them was hard work for all of them. I've even resorted to the angle grinder for some. I heard somewhere that the Americans say: "It's as good as steel, but lasts longer" It was first planted here in the UK to produce beams better than oak in quality in much less time. They found it's near impossible to get it to grow straight though, something not that relevant for firewood or posts. Anyway, the thread is about coppice for firewood and I reckon you won't find a hotter burning wood growing in the UK. Add to that that it coppices well and presto, I thought it would fit the bill.

Now there you have a nice contadiction. Robinia coppices well, grows fast and produces better fence-posts then SC. Eucs can grow fast and produce good firewood in little time. There's countless argument for and against non natives, but that's an entirely different discussion.

Slugs I think. Edit: Damn and blast the one-finger typing technique; too slow!

You'll be in competition with skip companies. You know, the ones with proper lorries, waste licences, qualified staff etc. Yes they're quite expensive but they are completely no hassle and you can normally get them wherever you're working (as in wichever village hamlet or town) they normaly have quite a large operating area and overlap with others so you're always covered. Why not go and talk to some of your local skip companies, see if you can come to an agreement. They place the skip, customer fills it and they dump it at yours. You'll need a license of some sort no doubt (not my area of expertise) but you'd need that anyway. The skip company will save some money not having to pay landfill sites and may aquire a few customers extra (if you do a bit of networking with your local arb companies etc) and you get the wood to process to firewood and chip to collect for biomass.

Something makes me think Surrey?

I disagree. a Coppice of Syc/ Ash/ Robinia can all be on the same rotation, oak either on double that time or left as standards, same with cherry. Ash and hazel combine ok-ish if you cut the hazel at 7 year intervals and the ash at 21. Yes it would give you a crop of hazel rods, very nice. But he's after producing his own firewood?

Here you go! 2001 Yanmar C30R-1 tracked dumper with 1000kg hiab,2.5t | eBay On the subject of tracks, I've found steel to be quite inferior tbh. I used a 13t 360 on really wide (1.2m) plastic tracks (they were not rubber, they were some sort of hd plastic, in blue) with massive lugs on (30cm's) They were awesome, we were clearing small trees from a site with 6m of peat, the watertable level with the soil. had a grab ont the digger, just plucking the trees out, great fun.

Most of the wasps I encounter at the moment (a fair few as juicing apples for days on end) are queens. They're out of the comforts of their nest, no more pampering entourage and looking for a place to snuggle up to overwinter. As they are the only thing of a colony that lives through winter they're (understandably) a bit more cranky, the future of an entire nest rests on her srtipey shoulders. They also seem more annoyed usually when it's around the temperature they'd wished they'd stayed inside.

They're like snowtires. If you've never tried them you will simply not be able to believe how much difference it makes, simply awesome. Great talking point too btw, as everone who sees it wants to know...

Could be true, more likely from using old engine oil as chain oil though.

I'd put some oak and cherry in as well, as well as some robinia. Alder and birch are worth it, as they can grow quite quicly and when seasoned under cover make very nice firewood. Theoretically neither coppice that well but at home (in NL) we've been trying to stop birches growing for over 30 years in some places and no matter how many times a year you cut/graze the buggers, they keep coming back! Robinia coppices well and makes sublime firewood, can melt inferior cookers! It does throw up suckers though, wich can be hard to dissuade but if they're within your coupe it's all good. I'd put the Oak and Cherry in as they both make very nice wood as well but could add a bit more variation, especially if you leave them standing a bit longer. Oak coppices well btw, but requires a longer cycle so would not be so easy to mix in. Not sure how cherry likes coppicing...

Where are you selling it, who's your market? How have you advertised your goods? I'm sure that even if you may not sell any now, by the time the market runs dry (as it seems certain it will) you'll be laughing if you still have stock to sell and can pretty much name your price. If you're reasonable price-wise and your logs are dry(enough) you'll be able to build up a customer base and things will get better over time, If you say you can get wood for little money then what's the rush, leave it, it will sell eventually.

Aparently, there quite a few fake discs and pads on the old bay, mintex being one of the favourites to copy.....

Dunno about hats, can't be good for those already thinning up top though... Overheating of the testes definately damages the swimmers, they hang on the outside for a reason! Having said that, you do fire millions at once so there's always a chance even amongst the thickest of them one will find the way. (otherwise I would have never been born would I, has to be some luck involved). I wear a kilt most days and when me and her decided to multiply it took just one attempt, and now we have twin girls so I'll never do that thing again.

I reckon it's all in your head. You're splitting and you're happy. You're happy as at your age every ring split is a victory. You ride this wave of victory and it feels great, it counteracts the tiring feeling in your body. But then.... You hit a badly knotted bugger, your axe bounces off. Mildly confused you try again but again the log defeats you. You've now fallen of your wave of victory, straight into a bad defeat, and every following blow you give it will be another blow to your self-confidence. Now you feel like a loser the tiredness override is switched of as well, you're double buggered. If it does not split in two blows, put it to the side for the saw or an angry moment!

Gerrit, this is excactly what I was trying to avoid:biggrin: but now I've been drawn in...here goes: 1 The good HÖkers of Grolle are blessed with your knowledge and kind generosity in offering them your advisoury services for free:thumbup1:. 2 It was meant ever so slightly sarcastic, see Sarcasm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 3 now I've allowed myself to be drawn in, I'll put some self-restraining measures in place to refrain from re-entering this discussion: I'm out to go and have some fun with the kids (half-term)

I have no lust to enter this tit-for-tat discussion, but it does not look like it's realistic to retain does it? Even just the position it's in. I know one could move the road but in real life... Anyway, I love the snappy title of the thread:lol: