openspaceman

Now why doesn't that surprise me

Yes Surrey is a hotspot for them, I regularly find the grubs and re bury them in the hedge with a lump of wood, I have noticed a loss of so many beasties in the last 50 years, no more slow worms, common lizards, hedgehogs, most of which I put down to increased traffic but also far fewer songbirds that I dread the years when I don't see stag beetles, so far they return most years at this time.

When is the video coming? I wouldn't have thought it worth risking the Lucas slabber bar for this, an old 100cc saw with a 36" bar will get through most things, with maybe something to guide it at the correct width. Anyway much better than getting Daisy pushing it through the mud.

I was pleased to have this lady visit, a bit surprised that she was hovering in front of my desk well after the doors were shut for the evening. A bit cold but I popped her out so her suitors could battle it out for her.

Are you comparing the growth rings of eucalyptus with Scottish/Scandinavian eucalyptus or softwoods? The thing is oak and ash tend to be better quality (higher strength and elasticity) when fast grown whereas softwoods tend to be better with ring counts of 14 ish to the inch. What evidence is there that nitens will be a poor structural timber?

...and the whatever reason is most likely one side cutter is less well sharpened than the other. A worn bar when well dressed to remove any burrs will cut surprisingly well if the chain is good, it shows up on awkward and horizontal cuts but can cross cut well after it's useless for felling.

@Ian C I have downloaded the spec sheet for those valves (https://www.phoenixhydraulics.co.uk/file.php?filename=WebCat-002a006300010010/VRF Barrel Flow Control Valve.pdf) and they are adjustable so you would only need to match the fittings' threads and insert them at the diverter.

Are you sure you have not simply sheared the brass pins where the handle attaches to the spigot

I remember those, never used one though, just replaced bar when it got that worn.

I thought you said there was a diverter to the rotator circuit? If so you want them after the diverter else they will slow the other service. You need to talk to the supplier and tell them what flows and pressure you have and what you want to limit them down to. Also what the hose and fittings are.Yes you need a pair and they must be fitted with the check valve free flow on the outlets. You want the crack off pressure of the check valves to be low, less than 15psi.

You need a pair of check valves with a flow limiter (small hole) in parallel. The need is to let the rotator exhaust with no back pressure but limit the flow in from either direction. I suspect you could make them from ordinary inline check valves and a file. BSPP, Barrel Flow Control, With Check, Threaded Hydraulic Valve [P22125801] - £16.51 : Hoses Direct WWW.HOSES.CO.UK BSPP, Barrel Flow Control, With Check, Threaded Hydraulic Valve [P22125801] - Request Tech Sheet No. 10537 for...

Dunno wot one of those be leaf looks like vine leaved maple. The name Eames is a blast from the past, a pair of brothers round Dorking.

Naughty and deprecated More of a manual balance pond, set the tap at the bottom to constantly drain at an acceptable rate in the winter, shut it and use the water in the summer. A heavy rainstorm will be dumping 1.5m3 of water on a 50m2 roof with 1" downpour and my water butts only take 500 litres each. Basically you have to prevent water coming in to the garden and buffer the amount that falls off the roof to empty between downpours. Put something heavy on any sewer inspection covers in the garden and consider raising a mound around the garden.

The thing is how long has the neighbour been there, he may not know when it was taken down. In England you can build a shed or outhouse under permitted development and occupy it as a spare room as long as the facilities are in the house. Before I filled my shed with junk I had a sofa bed in it and my mate with the narrow boat would stay in it when on business locally. Mind you'd be in trouble if the council thought it was being rented out. Makes very good sense to buy a cheap place for while she's there.

I have never managed to watch one of his

I always preferred sweet chestnut and my felling partner spent the rest of his time harvesting, cleaving and erecting chestnut fencing. Mind I must have cut far more softwood 5'6" stakes from softwood thinnings at 35p each than he ever made. I also wonder if the softwood got advantage from MAFF grants (essentially because of fraudulant claims for longevity). Anyway far easier to process softwood through a peeler pointer and into the pressure tank than to cleave and point chestnut. We as a society don't think things through, chestnut lasts about as long as the wire around here, softwood, poorly treated about half that time and leaves a residue of chromated copper arsenate long after its useful life, the organic copper stuff that replaced it doesn't last hardly at all.

I think many people fail to appreciate that loss of dry matter (energy) is occurring all the time from felling until the wood is below about 18%, even though the fungus or woodworm can survive below this they are hardly active until it increases again. The volatile solids are lost first and I think these are what gives a lively flame, hence why doty wood just smoulders (think of what touchwood is and why it was used to catch a spark or carry fire). I had the job of extracting some ash this season but was stopped (unnecessarily) because of lockdown, I know from previously extracting ash that had lain for a summer season that it will have deteriorated. Worse from a sale point of view it will look stained and grey, whereas freshly converted ash is dry in a season and much more presentable. Thinking about it this is a definite attribute of fast, high temperature, dried timber, remember for most buyers logs are a luxury lifestyle item. I'm actually short of logs for my extended log store as a result of lockdown so if you hear of anything 25 miles to your west

Yes much of the gill woodland we used to work was over age hornbeam coppice used for charcoal. because it is dense and hard as a wood so is the charcoal, which made it good for blacksmithing in the days before coal became prevalent. It is also highly perishable but cut and split then stored for a summer makes very good firewood, left longer it gets as worm ridden as ash.

I find a sheep shank quicker, still with a twig. Trouble with knots like this is they considerably reduce the breaking strain of the rope so many turns round a fixed bollard is safer.

It was to do with my trying to give you my understanding of the relationship of regulation to free enterprise and you seeming not to understand the point and returning in a combative manner which wasn't relevant. Too long ago to cover again but you should appreciate the laws and governance we have have evolved over hundreds of years from the realisation of the thinkers in the population that they have to defend their interests from the more successful who would else exploit them without mercy. It is those that nearly made it but failed that form this opposition, whether it be successfully like the barons at Runneymede, Lenin and Stalin or all those failed coups it is never the working classes that achieve better conditions it is the also rans realising that co operation against a successful elite preserves some power else we all become slaves to the wealthy. As to wood drying I don't think I have an axe to grind but I do try to be objective. I air dry my own wood but generally we don't have a culture culture for this and cultural changes take generations, so it is reasonable IMO to expect low mc wood to be delivered.

Yes, sorry about the insulting reference, it was uncalled for, yet my conclusion remains the same.

This is why it's not worthwhile debating with you, you belong in a period several hundred years past. I just hope no one pokes you in the eye as you would become totally blind.

No that is what you were suggesting. The current legislation is aimed at reducing the pollution which the government feels is caused by the burning of wet wood, hence they have intervened in the trade by regulating the sale of wet wood and the sale of stoves which don't meet a standard. I'm not sure you mean perimeter, possibly parameter or ring fence?? Either way the customer dictates the market and then regulation seeks to control the bad effects it has on the common good. It's not ideal but its what we've got because of businesses' psychopathic tendencies. You wanted to Nanny by legislating against kiln dried wood , not me. As I suggested that's a bigger picture, there are many factors at play that have little to do with the way UK firewood producers dry their wood. I have often pointed out wood can be air dried satisfactorily in a couple of summer months. On the scale firewood producers in this country dry wood once you are into the realms of thousands of cubic metres a year air drying is not attractive, mainly from labour and cash flow considerations. I have never understood why a large non local producer could out compete little local producers but that is a fact of business life and a different matter.

That's the centralised decision making fork, are you turning pink in your old age? The customers buying the stuff set the market, if educated to the environmental impact they may make their decision partly on pollution/carbon issues but mostly in a freeish economy price will rule. Regulation only cuts in when the choices of the few lead to the detriment of the many. In this case the common good is the air quality, so the issue is whether this will be better by regulating sales of wet wood or not. The issue of whether a fuel should be used to do this is only regulated by the pollution of that. If regulation is used to reduce the net pollution of drying then it would have to apply to all fuel use, if this were not done globally then it makes it worse for home producers. As has been pointed out much of the kiln dried wood is coming from poorly regulated regions and we can expect their pollution to exceed what we would accept here. Therein lies a bigger issue of requiring high standards here making the production uncompetitive with places with lower wealth and poorer standards. It's good that some of our wealth is exported to these places to alleviate problems there but for the fact their environment deteriorates and their economy is more imbalance as a result. In fact dominant economies demand free trade to the detriment of poorer developing economies, UK has fallen foul of this since 1992 because no one questions US protectionism of its economy whilst demanding free access to other, UK governments simply don't accept we are no longer a dominant economy and hence will not benefit from free trade. This is exacerbated by leaving a trading group which was on a par with US ( but whose leaders led it down a federalist path which was unacceptable to many of us). Back in the early days of NFFO one of our quangos was trying to re purpose itself in order to keep all the former civil servants in their cosy jobs until taking their retirement packages. There was a very high incentive to burn wood for power, just as later for solar PV, wind turbines and RHI, to kick-start renewables. at the time dedicated biomass biomass burning power stations were too expensive to be long time viable but there were a few coal powered plant near end of life. They could not burn green wood, so in order to claim the subsidy grain dryers were bought, additional oil burner added and the woodchip was dried with gasoil from 45% down to ~30% and fed to the boilers. This was massively inefficient in thermal input because the air was not saturated (typically grain is only dried fro 23ish% to 17%. These grain dryers are cheap and low cost because they are only used a few weeks a year, a more efficient dryer , such as were built for ARBRE, using waste heat has a high capital cost). That was indefensible but when converting wood I suspect 5-10% waste is produced, what better than to use this for drying?

They haven't changed much for many of us, anyway he's right, chavs won't social distance or shop at Waitrose ?