Pumpy

The only "training" I had with a chainsaw was in the forces in the 80's, it was an irking great big hydraulic saw for underwater use, 5 mins at most, the "instructor" spent more time showing how to clag the kit together and start it, 30 seconds demonstrating how to avoid kickback, I don't even remember it having a chain brake. Since then I'd never used the chain-brake on saws, I thought it made it harder to start from cold too, until I recently employed a climber for 3-4 weeks, I did all the groundwork. I noticed he always activated the brake, so I asked about it, after 5 mins of chat/tuition (cheers Collin!) I saw the light, decided it was a habit worth taking up, it just makes sense IMO.

Thatcher put Britain back on it's feet. No-one could afford a car

I love a bit of fingerpicking, Simon & Garfunkel and other folky stuff, keep meaning to get a listen of Ralph McTells new album, apparently good stuff with lots of fingerpicking. I almost went down the ragtime road a couple of years ago, but a resident banjo player down here got me into flatpicking, I woulda stuck to dueling banjos if I hadn't seen oh brother where art thou, once I'd heard Dan Tyminski I was hooked on flatpicking I do like the look of the new Mariner "the cutter" purdy little thing!

Business advisers and bank managers might have a valid point though mate, I'd suggest you do some basic market research, search ebay for a start, over 400 came up just on "log store" plenty of competition, search the sellers history and/or completed listings, see whats selling and how your products fit in the range available, then move onto google/craigs list/specific site etc. An ebay shop might be a good way to test the market before you invest time/money in a website. A day spent searching the web could well provide the answers you need to make an informed decision on products/prices etc. Hope that helps!

Did I spot a couple of acoustics in between all the axes on this thread Almost, cept Gnome cut their heads off I was going to post mine, an EJ200 in sunburst, and a nice classical semi acoustic Gremlin with high tension strings for Spanish stuff but I was intimidated by all the newfangled electrified axes any flat-pickers in the house?

Who's your target market? Would they know the difference between untreated wood, treated wood (like that cheap crap they spray on cheap sheds) and tanalised wood? If not they would be going on price if two stores "look" the same. How many woodstore buyers out of 10 a) would recognize tanalised wood b) are going to want to pay for the quality it needs to be for it to last 15 yrs? Given the relatively small size of these stores, it is unlikely knowledgeable buyers who use wood for primary heat would want one of that cost/quality IMO, which leaves unknowledgeable (is that a word?) buyers who installed a woodburner because it's "green" or because it looks good when they light it only on public holidays, now there's probably a lot of those folks about, but would those folks recognize the difference between your posh 1.8cu £315 store, and a crap 2cu M £120 treated softwood store? ignore me I'm a cynic

From "Teaming with Microbes - Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis 2nd edition" (fantastic book) "If there is abundant Carbon in mulch but not much nitrogen, or a ratio of 30:1 or greater, then the decaying microbes use up the nitrogen in the mulch and, once that is gone, will take nitrogen from the soils touching the mulch. People make a big deal of this nitrogen 'robbing', but it usually only occurs at the thin interface between the soil and the mulch. Although it has a real impact there, it usually doesn't affect the rhizosphere or the bacteria and fungi that reside there. Still, there is no reason to court problems. Experience has taught us that the chances nitrogen will be immobilised in the soils under wood chip mulch can be reduced by making sure the chips are 3/8 inch or larger. This prevents much of the bacterial colonisation you would see in smaller wood chips, and -- where mulches are concerned-- it is primarily the bacteria that tie up the surrounding soils." Seems the idea behind aerobic bacteria dominant/even ratio/fungal dominant soils is down to evolution and how certain plants prefer their Nitrogen in Nitrite form, and some prefer it in the Ammonia form. Most veggies and annuals prefer bacteria dominated soils (nitrite), most grasses prefer an even ratio, most perennials shrubs and trees prefer fungal dominated soil (ammonia). If you look at a succession of plants from sea shore to mature forest in an evolutionary sense, those at the shore end of the scale prefer more bacterial dominated soil (nitrites), move through the prairies where it is about even, to wood boundary where more fungal dominance is preferred, into mature woodland where a heavily fungal domination is required. But it's not just the preference for a particular form of N, it's also the soil biota the plant has evolved in, it is assumed all plants form symbiotic relationships with at least one form of soil biota, so to get the best from the soil, a plants symbiotic partners must first be present, and also have the correct environment. If you were a shrub with a symbiotic Mycorrhizal fungi, sat in a bacteria dominated soil, your "sole mate" may have been out competed for food by the high bacteria ratio. Conversely a cabbage sat in a fungal dominated soil may find most of the Nitrogen in ammonia form, so will not perform as well as it would sat in the soil biota it prefers, it may not be able to fend off pathogens as well as it might etc. So you would tailor your mulches and aerated compost teas towards the preference of the specific plants. Veggies would be better mulched with a higher ratio of greens than the forest garden, which would be better to mulch with a higher ratio of browns. Mulches dug in a bit will support a bacteria dominant soil, woody/brown dominant mulches left on top will suit fungal dominant soils, taking into account the ratio of greens/browns for preference of the plants. I can't even begin to go into the details of the book, far too much info to do it justice. for more specific (academic) research on woodchip mulch use the term "Ramial chipped wood" (RCW) here's an example Regenerating Soils with Ramial Chipped Wood The problem with conifers/pines is the waxy coating on the leaves/needles takes an awful long time to decompose, I tend to look at it as a "stability" issue, until there is a layer of humus formed at the soil/mulch interface the potential for N robbery is high (unstable) so I would compost pine chip before using it as mulch. There is a good online film all about growing with woodchip, look for "Back to Eden" (if you can get over the heavy Christian promotion in it) HTH.

Write stuff down, I think this helps re-enforce the memory, and if you still don't remember check the written stuff I've never found an ideal (cheap) suitable pocket book that has it's own pen, so I tape a tube on the spine of a pocket size notebook to take a pen (so I don't forget where the pen is ) I tend to draw a lot of diagrams with dimensions, so I like to use a pocketbook that has printed 5mm squares. I've been doing this about 8yrs now, started taking notes about a house move, filled a half dozen notebooks by now, I actually call the book my "brain" HTH.

Have you tried the local scrap dealers? There must be a dozen or more sets of forklift forks on my local scrap yard (WJ Redden Wellingborough Northants)

"You Just can't see him from the road"... Chris Ledoux

I've done this with a new untreated sleeper, I used a 1" gouge all over the visible sides to "rustic" it up a bit, looks proper old school (took a while mind), quick bit of sanding to take the sharp bits off/smooth it out a bit, then applied an oak colored wax, looks even better 4yrs on. If you need to return the sides to make it wider at the ends for a false chimney breast cut a slot with a decent circular saw for a hardwood stringer underneath and glue it up well, sleepers still hold a bit of moisture and may spread/crack at the join otherwise

cheers Alycidon, good to know, I'll send you a PM rather than derail the thread:thumbup1:

Can you retrofit a back boiler into the Ironheart? and if so how much are they? I can recommend the Ironheart, had ours in for a few yrs:thumbup1:

Yeah no dig all the way. I break new ground with spuds in a lasagne bed, flatten weeds down, double cardboard layer to start, then multiple layers of part done compost, or any organic matter, chicken manure, leaves (paddock sweeper is useful) whatever, between layers of straw, up to a ft deep, finally top with a thin layer of soil, (water each layer well while building it) then cover with black DPM, cut 'X' holes for spuds and plant each with a couple of handfuls of soil. Harvest is easy as you pull the DPM back and all the spuds are on/near the surface. This establishes the beds, subsequent yrs I move the DPM along and repeat. Once DPM is moved I dig the paths out on contour, use the soil to raise the beds either side, paths are quite deep 10", and filled with woodchip, intend to let the chip compost down on the paths and move it onto the adjacent beds in winter, cover beds with a layer of straw to prevent weeds. I make the beds wide enough so I can reach the middle from a path but not wider. Digging the paths on contour helps drought-proof the beds. I've only had access to a lot of woodchip this yr (thanks arbtalk!), so I'm changing mulch practice to take advantage of it, straw is the best mulch IMO, but it is expensive, once I have a pile of composted chip I'll be using that on annuals too. Perennials are deep mulched with fresh chip. With 6" of straw as a mulch weeds have long thin stems so are real easy to pull out, I leave them on top of the mulch to add organic matter. There aren't many weeds make it though the cardboard/lasagne bed, I get the odd nettle or cow parsley, that was there before, but these get taken out when I dig the paths and establish the beds proper. Deep mulching on no dig beds has to be the easiest method of veg growing I've ever done, it does mean you have to start the plants in a cold-frame/propagator/greenhouse though, then pull back the mulch around the planting site to plant out. There's a good film online about using woodchip in the veg garden, "Back to Eden" (if you can get over the bible bashing in it!) Pumpy.

I don't know if he has a Forest Garden, I suspect so, if not I suspect he uses some of the principles as he does have clearings in the woods where he grows veg. I bet he has more personal experience of perennial edibles than me, the few of them I have tried leave a lot to be desired in the taste department! I planted my forest garden 3yrs back. If you consider succession planting, and the amount of time it will take the canopy to close, there is plenty of scope for lower layers IMO, then you have clearings and forest edge type micro-climates where they would flourish If we're comparing yields to trad veg plots we'd have to count all perennials Vs annuals IMO, e.g. stuff like strawberries, Asparagus, woody shrub fruits, trees etc. and the less traditional stuff like borrage, good king henry, and maybe even bi-annuals like burdock. I don't think it a fair comparison unless you include labor for maintenance in there I like my perennial onions from a labor POV but they won't yield anything like annuals. I grow a lot of annuals too though I have Martin Crawfords big book, Roger Harts book is good too. I'd love to visit Martins agroforestry research trust, but it's bloody miles away! Edit: If you think about a tropical forest garden, the canopy would close in about 8yrs, understory crops yield less than in open light, but they still yield! Pumpy

I have one of these Globe shredder/chippers which has a gravity shredder that takes everything from blackthorn hedge trimmings (<1" dia) to solid compost, to whole rootballs including the soil, it has a side chipper for anything over 1" dia up to about 3.5", it has two different size grills for choice of finished chip/shred size, 40mm and 20mm. They're meant for nurseries so they can process their own waste into potting soils. I don't use mine much at all these days, it's much less faff piling it up in the field to compost down. They are expensive new, and rarely come up on evilbay, mine owes me £800.

Should be a good day, I love Bens structures. Could you ask him to point out the swale that's pictured in "the earth care manual" and see if you can get a picture of it, it's probably overgrown by now, but you never know. I wonder how successful it was? I'd also like to ask him which edible perennials he favors in a woodland setting, and which to avoid

we use http://www.shellplant.co.uk/ never had issues getting parts for our old kubota machine

I don't think you need to provide the whole P&L accounts, just the totals. for millage there are allowances that include wear & tear, depends on the vehicle see... Travel - mileage and fuel allowances

I think the changes come after December 2013 see this

There's also a limited liability partnership, so liability shouldn't really be a consideration for going Ltd Co. I think the benefits of Ltd. Co. status are more for multiple owners, to do with legal requirements of the directors, protection in-case it all goes pear shaped between partners, e.g. if one director decided to sell assets/empty the bank account and do a runner, you'd have legal protection as it would be theft from a Ltd. Co. but as a partnership it would be civil law and a long legal chase.

Think this is the pre 2002 model This is the post 2002 model

Another option to think about for tax efficiency is loaning your company the dosh to buy the land, any repayments the Co makes back to you are subject to corporation tax (20%) but you are not liable for tax on any repayment received, which could work if you pay 40% personal... Disclaimer: this is not tax/legal advice. Only for purpose of discussion, seek professional advice etc. blah blah

I think the mulching thing depends on what you are aiming for. I've seen cricket bat willows planted as 10-12ft whips with 3ft in the ground do well with no mulch. In 2009 I planted beds of Salix Triandra from 2ft sets (Black Maul weaving var), the mulched beds (composted dog muck & chip) went berserk, the non mulched beds struggled for the first 2yrs. I also planted a hybrid Viminalis (Bowles Hybrid) aiming for logs, with no mulch, only 10" in the ground with 2ft above (thinking they'd be above any grass), out of 75 plants only two have fell over so far. I cut them back to 2ft after the first yr, and mulched them all after seeing the results of the Triandra. Unless you are going for single stems from long whips, a la cricket bats, I'd mulch every time. I also think claims of yield from hybrids are exaggerated.

I meant in relation to exploring adverse possession, with no apparent owner I'd be tempted to move the fence line and claim the land 12yrs hence, but it needs some research. I was not suggesting cutting the roots, presumably client would want to retain the TPO'd tree and just have it pruned if he could move the fence. The council are unlikely to want to spend on the legals to claim the land as they are then responsible for maintenance, either way the client either gets the land, or identifies a "new" owner responsible for the maintenance.