woodland dweller

keep my chickens mixed corn in a metal dustbin and during the summer a squirrel managed to lift the lid and get in (its quite a tight fit). Shot that one and lo and behold next day it happened again, shot that one, this went on for several weeks in the end i had shot 8 that had got into that bin by lifting the lid, i now have to keep a block on the lid but when i forget about it the lid is often left off. How can that many squirrels learn to lift the lid off ? Never happened before and why did they leave the bins with the layers pellets and wild bird seed in that have lids that will come off easier.

Woodwarm for me, got 3 in our house 6KW, 9Kw and a 12Kw. Similar to the clearview but cheaper. After seeing ours running about 6 friends and family have now got one. Well recommended .

Hi Treesnakey, I thought it was illegal to carry knotweed of site.

Just wanted to add a couple of points:- First to raffle you say money was not the point but i thought that was the point of the program, Each week the voice over would say how over a year he was trying to make the woods pay for themselves. So he cut down some trees and got around £250, he made and sold some charcol and made around £250 and sold some bean sticks and made around £250 so in the first year for all the hard work he made £750 before expenses. Secondly to breezeblock he was out of the rat race for a year and after i bet receiving a good wack from the program makers he's back in the rat race writing again. If he was giving up his life to do it full time like say Ben Law then i would respect him more. And thirdly to Bearded munch although those chairs were a work of art do you know anyone who can afford to pay £500 for a chair. No one i know for sure. After all my gripes about the program i will miss the series now its finished.

Hi all, if money didn't matter i would spend all day pissing about in my woods, nothing i enjoy more than felling my trees and clearing up, hard work but enjoyable, wont pay the bills though. I suppose being a furniture maker is about as enjoyable as my work gets, it just about payes the bills but always under pressure to get jobs done by the end of the month to get some money in. I always tell my kids to get a proper job that payes well, atleast a regular wage takes the pressure of a bit, or better still marry a millionaire. If i did not have kids or wife then i would live in a bus in the woods and just take life as it comes with no pressures. Having enough money to pay the bills takes the edge of the enjoyment side of life, so saying sod it i'm going to do what i enjoy is a privalige that so few of us can have.

Hi Woodworks, nice frames, shame to stick them up in the air, how many people will walk under them and not look up to see the time,skill and detail thats gone into those joints.

Hi Woodworks, i have been making my living as a furniture maker for the past 26 years now, so can i offer some tips. Years ago when i had a chap working for me i would always go on about how the work we did had to be PLEASING TO THE EYE, meaning picking the wood out so the grain and colour matched , the v in the grain pointed to the top, and where the knots and character was in relation to the rest of the piece. No good all the character in the lower area of a cabinet and none at the top. And the same for knots no good clusters of knots to say the right hand side and the left side free from knots.As once the item was in the customers house they would not see all the hidden joints and how much time they would take to do but how lovely a piece would look. Also another very important point is proportions and sizes of timber, like for example the bottom rail of a door should be wider than the sides and top and a cupboard door will look more pleasing if the styles and rails are 2 1/2 inches instead of 1 1/2. Try it. Save the character for door panels and table tops, where it can give the most impact. Nice box by the way i would be pleased to of made it.

Hi Facecord, that looks like a cooker you would find in IRON MAN'S kitchen, i bet that would cost an arm and a leg.

Hi sharkbait, your tip is way to blunt, the clue is in the name SCREW SPLITTER, look at an ordinary wood screw have you ever picked up a blunt one and found it will not screw into wood, well the same for your splitter. The tip needs to penetrate the wood before it can pull the log into the metal wedge. The more pointy the tip the easier you have to push the log before it grabs. I have had the wood smoking on wet beech which is really steam, just knock the log back of the cone and try another side.

Hi chaps, i really can't see how you can catch any clothing or any thing else on the cone as you should not have any part of your body working near it, you should only push the rounds onto the point and let go when it starts to pull, it will do the rest on its own, only hold the log like you would do with a female breast so if it spins it will just spin away from you hand. Have a hand axe near to hand so if a log gets stuck you can knock it back off the cone or to separate two halves of a split log thats still joined by a small slither of wood. Been using mine for getting on 20 years and so far not a scratch.

thanks for the offer catweazel, i will probably go for a rayburn as every one on here has rated them. A lot cheaper than the esse models. Next problem just got to find the money.

nice to see some proper woodsmen on tv not like that muppet on in the week.

Thanks guys for all your reply's, shall be taking a trip to dean forge at buckfastleigh devon to have a look at their rayburn and esse wood fuel cookers tomorrow.

Hi anybody had any experience with these ? as on another thread i'm thinking of giving the old aga the boot , it never worked properly and i cannot afford all the oil they consume. I need something thats going to cook, heat up the water and warm the house as i have no radiaters , all the things the aga does. I have 25 acres of mainly 50 year old Douglas so the fuel would be free. They seem to be very expensive to buy, around 3,000 to 4,000 mark. Has any one got one fitted and are they as good as i have been reading about them. It would be good to be oil free. Are their any grants available for their purchase as i don't have this sort of money to hand. Or any government paybacks that i have read about.

catweazel, you can't convert an aga to burn wood, as the flue is small and cannot discharge the smoke quick enough. Unless some one on here has got over this

Hi backandpack, i use a set of reamers to clean out the carbon from burner and pipes they work a treat. Reset the oil flow rate ie 8ml on high setting and 4ml on low, adjusted the BM valve to give oil depth using hacksaw blade method, relit and all was going well when 2 hours later the burner cought alight, some how after balancing everything up to much oil entered the burner. I have now given up and after cursing the thing since moving in with it with the enormous oil bill we have finally decided the do away with it and look for an alternative. Will be starting a new thread regarding alternatives bottled gas / electric or wood fired ranges.Thanks to every one for the input.

hey steady on their TY, the bloody thing was in the house when we brought it 25 years ago, but all that time its been a pain in the arse and costs a fortune to run about £325 every 8 weeks i wish i had the income to go with it, but alas as a woodworker i have not. I would rip it out tomorrow if i could find anything that not only cooks but does the hot water and as its on all the time makes the house nice and cosy. When its turned out the place is freezing no central heating. A calour gas or electric range would not do all this. Maybe i will start a thread some day asking what method is the cheapest. Just fired it up again after re calibrating the oil flow and the oil depth in the burner, fingers crossed.

Hi farmer rod, yes cleaned the carbon out of the elbow.

hi catweazel thanks for replying,no fire valve fitted, yes new wicks,have heard of problems with oil, but had a refill 8 weeks ago and been ok up to now so ruled this out.

Hi any aga people out their as i'm having problems with mine at the moment. Its an old conversion and i have been doing my own servicing for several years no probs, did a service 3 months ago and last week it suddenly lost heat down to 1/4 but had not gone out. Removed the burner and it was coked up, cleaned it out checked the oil level with the hacksaw blade method and it was high lowered the BM valve and got it running again but did not check the level again. But it would not get up to temperature, i Kept turning it up at the BM valve but this made no difference, so turned it out to have another look tomorrow.I cleaned out the filter at the tank which was really filthy, have not checked the filter at the valve. Surely if the oil in the burner is to high it will produce a yellow flame and soot not keep the temperature down, any suggestions ?

Hi all, i'm sitting next to my woodburner full of douglas and its baking in hear, to hot really,lovely stuff when its around 18 %, been selling it and using it for the last 25 years, chucks out the heat more than any dry hardwood, but as mentioned before use a flue thermometer.

Hi all, as the ash was hung up on a smaller one why did't they cut that one down as well, the bloke is drying to make money from the woods, he sold the usable ash for £250, but when it came to extracting it the horse team must of cost cost around £200 and £25 for the chap with the tractor, fuel,1 days labour etc etc good job he's got a job as a writer to go back to. Trouble is them townies will think this is forestry.

Hi all, i hope insurance company's dont put on a levy for woodburners as we run 3, and with our thatched roof the cheapest premium this year was over £600.

Hi alex, did you choose the peter pracownik picture, years ago i used to do picture framing for peter, just as he was starting out. About 27 years ago he was selling nick nacks in the Taunton Antiques centre where i had a stall. He used to pay for any work i did for him with pictures or prints, i have loads of them. Sorry cant help with work tho.

Hey AROB dont get me wrong i like watching the program and others like grand designs, but they all follow the same pattern like all the house building programs every one runs out of money half way through, they then run around feeling sorry for themselves then hey presto they suddenly have some more to continue. When i have spent the day cutting and clearing in my woods i a'm covered in sawdust sweat and sap, not looking like i have just walked out of an arb catalogue. 2 pigs running around for a season wont kill off all the bracken and brambles, you could see when they took them away their was loads of it still untouched. Anyway its good viewing and gives us a laugh