Tagger

My local shed company sells wood stores. Not as pretty as yours, but solidly built, and the back comes as standard, as does roofing felt. The smaller size (will hold a cubic yard) is only £199.

So at that price, you're looking at the posh end of the market, rather than at somebody who doesn't mind a shed sitting on their patio.

You'll need to contact Openreach, rather than the retail bit of BT, as they own the lines.

Contact us

a "shoot vehicle" being made in that program involving the indian guy and the Londoner which basically bodged cars together. Im sure someone will remember the name...

Chop Shop Chop Shop Garage London - Raw TV Ltd

I went to have a look at the woodland advertised by John Clegg today. It had

• a tiny block of mature broadleaf trees next to the road,

• a couple of blocks of conifers, perhaps 16 to 20 inches diameter, and

• a block of mixed small broadleaves which looked like a mixture of planting and natural birch regrowth

I'm guessing the reason that the conifers haven't been felled is the access. The wood ends at a good road, with a layby. But the only access into the woods is via a steep narrow track. A decent 4x4 could get up it, and I might even give it a go in my Freelander in dry weather. But there's no chance of an artic getting anywhere into the woods.

I spotted a bit of woodland on the John Clegg web site that looks interesting (just over 9 acres, £65k). It looks like it's mostly conifer.

As a potential small woodland owner, would there be any money in selling the standing timber to a contractor?

I've thought about it lots of times, but I've never worked out how to make enough money out of a small woodland to justify the cost of buying it in the first place.

If you're planning on installing it yourself, have a good read of Building Regs Part J http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADJ_2010.pdf

I bought 10 sackfuls of the small pellets from a local joinery a year or so ago. The small low-density ones are nothing like the usual high-density heat logs. They burn quite rapidly and don't last very long.

I wouldn't use them in place of firewood - I would have to open the stove and chuck in another handful every 15 minutes or so.

They are very useful, though. They can be mixed with softwood kindling to get a good fire going, and they are great for perking up a fire when a big log has decided to just sit and smoulder.

I thought I'd give the tyre trick a go recently. Picked up a free scrap tyre from a local part-worn tyre place.

It's a lot better than having logs flying all over the place when they split. The tyre also helps to stop the axe so it does less damage to the old scaffolding boards I stand the logs and tyre on - especially when I miss the log I was aiming for.

There's a ready-mix concrete company here in 1066 country called William the Concreter

For voluntary groups, BTCV insurance is probably the easiest option (note: they now call themselves TCV, rather than BTCV).

My local group has been affiliated since the group was started in the 1980's. The cost of the insurance depends on how much work you do, and whether or not you want to be covered for power tools or just hand tools. Allow about £150+.

Unfortunately, their web site The Conservation Volunteers is down as I type this.

As an alternative to a removable steering wheel, consider a substantial disc lock (such as the DiskLok) which covers the whole wheel. Mine has the scars on it from when somebody tried - and failed - to remove it with bolt croppers.

If you don't want to cut your firewood to length, how about getting one of these?

This Ridiculous Stove Can Burn an Entire Tree Trunk (wired.com)

It's a stove that you just slowly feed a whole tree trunk into . I'm not sure quite how I'm going to manoeuvre a tree into my living room, though.

Heat Holders Heat Holders | The Ultimate Thermal Socks | Welcome are great when new. Very warm, soft and fluffy.

The main down side is that they do lose their fluffiness rather quickly. Plus, every time you put them on, you have to take them off again to pull out the lump of fluff that's come detached inside, and makes the sock feel lumpy.

Quite frankly, if I had 22 tons of oak to split, I'd invest in a powered log splitter!

Just over 4 miles from Battle Abbey, the site of the Battle of Hastings.

Why only 21", do they not do a 600mm/24" any more?

Without getting out of bed to check in the shed.

I've got a 24" Bahco saw, and a cheap no-name 21" saw with a cheap no-name 21" blade.

When sawing firewood, the 21" saw does it easier. In my experience, it's best to use the shortest saw that will do the job - the blade will be less wobbly and it will cut straighter.

I've used Silky saws while volunteering for the National Trust. I'd still rather use a bow saw for things a bow saw can do. I'd keep the Silky for working in awkward confined spaces.

Bow saws do tend to produce bent cuts, particularly with the harder woods. Tensioning the blade better may help, but not eliminate it.

You can tension any decent bow saw. If you look at the blade, it will have two holes at each end. At each end of the bow saw, there will be a hook/bolt/rivet/knob that hooks through one hole to hold the blade in place. If the blade is too loose, open it, then move to one or both of the inner holes on the blade. When you close the handle up again, the blade will be tighter.

And if the blade is blunt, get a new one. One of my pet hates is trying to chop down trees with a blunt bow saw. A blunt blade will still have sharp points, but the sides of the blade will be worn to a mirror finish. A new blade will have a yellowish protective lacquer on the surfaces.

I haven't the foggiest idea what that means.

For £145 (+ £12.30 P&P) I could buy an awful lot of bags of kindling from my local petrol station.

we have been looking at these, the testimonials seem to be ok but I never know whether to believe them!

 

Electric Radiators & Electric Heating | The Economy Radiator Company

 

The biomass route is a no but I will look at the air source heat pumps.

 

WorcWuss, what type of heaters are they, can you let me have a website to look at?

 

Cheers

They just look like electric panel heaters with a built in thermostat. It looks like they are not convector heaters, and so act more like oil-filled radiators.

As Woodworks pointed out, ALL electric heaters are 100% efficient. The only difference is how they deliver the heat.

Here on the coast of East Sussex, it's been alternating between sunny and foggy all week. It's a lot warmer than it has been, though.

If it's all just volcanoes, then why are current CO2 levels higher than they have been at any time in the last 650,000 years? Why are they still rising year on year now?

Climate Change: Evidence

Why did CO2 levels start rising just about the time of the industrial revolution, and have risen faster and faster since then?

Human Activity and the Environment: Annual Statistics: Chart 1.2: Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations,*1010*to*2004

Natural processes have always been pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, and natural processes have been removing it again. The difference is us chucking about 4.7 tons of CO2 per person each year into the atmosphere. And there's 7 billion of us on the planet how. That's about 33 billion tons of CO2 a year.

If you're planning on taking the common "1 a day" antihistamine tablets, then I would suggest:

1. Buy cheap generic ones from the supermarket. They are a fraction of the price of the well-known brands, and are the same medicine - often manufactured by the same company.

2. There are several different ones. Find out works for you and stick with it. I take Cetirizine, because it's the only common one that works for me.

Try looking at the CO2 trends here Trends in Carbon Dioxide - scroll down to the graph headed "Full Mauna Loa CO2 record".

I'd love to know how a single volcano in Iceland has been making atmospheric CO2 rise steadily ever since 1960.