codlasher

Coming from a Forestry and Sawmilling background I am always surprised that folk use water. Until the advent of the portable mill I had never heard of using water. The standard Stenner drip feed is an economical device and it only needs filling twice a day. codlasher

Folk think a hedge will get going well when they simply bish, bash, bosh one in. Fair enough some like landii will do well in this situation but a well planted 'other' like hornbeam, beech/holly underplant. Note how these never loose their leaves. Similar good old mixed hedging will do just as well, provide food & shelter for all manner of wild birds, AND outlast all the evergreen types if there's ever a drought. Thuja is fine but laurel is a perfect habitat for flies hence I've never planted one. (old fashioned warning!) codlasher

My dad sold a 22 acre piece of woodland in the 80's to a private owner. First all the timber trees were felled, then all the good firewood trees. No re-planting of either. Finally the owner decided that 4X4 events were the thing to have and the whold area became a boggy, rutted mess with any and every 4x4 owner sneaking in at every opportunity. There were even scrap vehicles abandoned (about the time when the bottom fell out of the scrap market) So all in all a horrible mess. The local village residents became more and more frustrated at this once lovely piece of woodland became more & more damaged and eventually got together to fund a community purchase. Both parties were eventually satisfied as the owner trebled his original investment and the new owners got their woodland back. The downside is there are still scrap vehicles and deep rutts there but at least the damage of twenty years uncaring ownership has stopped. So all in all, get the 4x4 wheelers in, trash the woodland and sell it for a massive profit as wrecked and fund your retirement to the Scottish islands! codlasher

We originally had a 76 and were one of the first Ferrari users in the South of England. Ferrari came out to take pictures for their brochure in the late 70's. The 76 had an 'accident' whilst doing its job weeding the lines of young trees; Diesel & Rosebay willowherb fluff is an explosive mixture and there wasn't much left of the machine except three wheels! (I'm sure I could still find these, still buried in a Buckinghamshire Beech wood) This machine was replaced with the latest model, an S registered '86' and this new replacement continued to work right up until it was sold at auction three years ago, so from 1977 to 2013, not bad eh? The only major things replaced were the pivot bearings and a set of oil seals on the steering pump. This was an interesting excersize in its own right, as the machining was so tight inside that the heat generated from my handling of the components would not allow me to re-assemble until all parts were all the same temperature! (I helped with a little squirt from the C02 fire extinguisher). I like the reversible seats that are fitted for todays market and will offer one warning for articulated machine drivers in that if your front wheels go over a big stump, the back will surely follow and the resulting flick may throw you out of the drivers seat, just be careful! codlasher

Ferrari Tractors | Lamberhurst Engineering I'm not sure if one of these are within your buget but you never know! codlasher

Roof pitch makes or breaks a building. Also you need a minimum of 8' from the bottom of your cold water tank to the shower faucet for a reasonable shower pressure. Higher is better but not lower. Consider a downstairs shower if you are constrained with height! codlasher

Wow! That's quite a tall order. Start with the scale. 1:50 for detail and 1:100 for elevations, plan & outline/overview. Decide what you would like to build then research this. Personally, I like wriggly tin roofs so thats a start. Do a 1:100 rough of your building and then look closely how it would work. Aspect is another point as you want to gain maximum sun in winter and present a low profile to the North & East. Decide if you want any renewable system. Again I like solar hot water and unbder-floor heating be it wet or electric power. Allow for a minimum of 185mm of insulation in your roof, 100 in the walls and similar in the floor. Footings should satisfy the local regs which is normally 900mm deep x 600mm wide. Do you put this on a stone plinth or brick. What DPC should you use, eg plastic or Staffordshire 'blue' bricks. Then your timber wall structure; log type as in a Canadian cabin or uprights clad in weatherboard with insulation etc. Similar the roof and wriggly tin of the colour of your choice. Oh, and will you make nice structural trusses in your roof for all to see? Drainage runs, mains water, gravity hot water system over mains pressure system....... That's just a start. I built a 24' x 36' cabin in Tasmania, 25 years ago, on a stone base with os toilet in an old engine crate fed by a spring water syphon & a hand-pumped solar hot water system on the out-house roof. Hope this helps! codlasher

Barge racing. Old bits of wood can go quite quick! Sailing Barge Association - sailing barge matches codlasher

In my opinion Snap on are too shiny and easily dropped when dirty, plus 'borrowed' on a permanent basis too, so ebay items may well be in a similar situation.....Facom are good, Stahlwille too. I have no personal experience with Halfords but they seem to have a good rating. Hazet are another and I have a feeling that they may be made by Stahlwille.... There's no substitute for quality tools in the long run. codlasher

Everything on our Ferrari 86 was either made or adapted. Todays advantages are the advent of mini tractors and their attachments that will fit straight out of the box. In 1976 when ours was new there was nothing available. codlasher

I have always avoided laurel as it harbours flies. A good traditional 5 hawthorn/3 field maple/1 dog rose/2 hornbeam/1 holly hedge, well planted will be as quick as anything else. You could throw in some wild service too as a nice gesture! codlasher

My friend Dave at DC Rogers Motorcycles is not a great fan of the modern triumph, although we agree that there are 'things' that you can do to them to improve their performance. Servicing is fiddly, which is its biggest downfall. I have an airhead GS 1000 (c 1987 model) and it has been pretty faultless for the 25 years that I have owned it. That's a plus to start with! It is now worth what I paid for it in 1990 which is another plus and it took me for a 300 mile run recently with a fresh tank of fuel having sat for a year in the shed. Another plus. You are TALL so a newer GS would suit you but you'd have to do a lot of leg work to find a nice one. You'd love the ride and performance too. Try both and see? There is a big movement in custom motorcycles which means there are lots of specialist bits and pieces around to allow you to fettle your bike to exactly how you want it. codlasher

I'm a Ferrari fan. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ferrari+vineyard+tractor&sa=X&biw=1910&bih=810&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0CCAQsARqFQoTCIibvZm528YCFUaXHgodQrEJ1A Lamberhurst are now the main agent for this fantastic machine;Ferrari Tractors | Lamberhurst Engineering codlasher

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=concrete+paviors&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CD8QsARqFQoTCPu5pKfu2MYCFcrMgAodqlYKvw&biw=1910&bih=810 You have the base already. You just need the edges and 20mm (maximim) of sand, a wacker plate and a hydraulic cutter. It is surprisingly quick whan you start although you'll wear holes in your boots! codlasher

My old 020AV went walkies so I bought a new 201T. I was worried about the oil consumption at first as it took three tanks of fuel to one tank of oil. It seems to oil the chain better now that it has been used a little more now. It is a great improvement on the old one I must admit. codlasher

Likey likey like! codlasher

Hornbeam? Ha Thuja or leylandii/Lawson cypress. codlasher

Good to hear Jon! codlasher

+1 for Koni. They have been in business for more than 40 years so they must be doing something right! codlasher

I have a friend who has the latest robotic mower. He loves it. It lives in its little dog house and mows his lawn. Job done. This is the third machine in fifteen years. He proudly showed it to me when I visited for a cuppa recently. The good ones are not cheap but when you have something approaching 3000 acres of grass to cut for animal feed, you really don't want or have the inclination to cut your lawn after all that! Horses for courses..... codlasher

The last pile of big beech I sold consited of eight similar sized pieces. I sold them for £1 a cube. I was happy because that was the price I was always given for quality saw logs. Bonkers! Still, they were sold rather than rotting away. The sad part of this, in my opinion, is you have left them way too long for any good timber and they are only really scrap wood for the odd bit of 'spalted' turning. They will make nice firewood though...... codlasher

They certainly don't like Easy-Start ether and acetone! codlasher

I have a 2.5 litre can of acetone for this and other similar jobs. Available from boat-building suppliers. Just go careful with this stuff! codlasher

I can remember the monoculture beech woodlands before the 1987 gales. Nothing grew under the canopy. The gales came and destroyed this. We cleared the timber and left the stumps in 1988. In the winter of 1988/1989 the 60 acre area was replanted. The following year I was asked to cut rides, for the shoots beaters, in the dense brambles & willowherb, with our Ferrari vinyard tractor, and cut down Wolseley swipe. My colleague & I took it in turns walking ahead of the machine to make sure it didn't fall in the very deep holes the fallen trees had left. We only fell in one over that week...... The following year the job was so much easier as Yorkshire fog grass had replaced the heavy undergrowth, making the job easy, and we continued to follow the same paths for the next five years. As the young trees grew up, forced by the alder nurse, the paths became a pleasant way through the new young plantation. By year ten all that remained of the devastation was the mounds of earth formed by the heave of the beech tree roots as the timber itself had rotted away. The holes had also disappeared. You will have some interesting species change if you cut your paths over the next few years. The final result will be mostly grass but you could introduce some primroses or other native species to make the routes interesting.... codlasher

Morso 3610 here. Keept us warm in a run down farmhouse for eight years! My wife would not be happy with trying to put in logs bigger than 20" long and 8" across as she just can't lift them. That's worth considering too. She feeds it when I'm away working. codlasher.