timberonabike

+F first aid qualification if you want to work for any big organisation signed up to FISA.

Curlew above is good if you just want cover. Be aware that not all frames have the same length legs and some manufacturers are easier to extend. Long time since I worked in marquee industry, but a lot of kit that gets shifted on will have expired fire tickets if that is important to you.

Must be flat soft ground. Don't know anyone have anything below £10/m around Mid Wales recently.

Coed Cymru or one of the many forestry management companies like Pryor and Rickett could help with some ideas. Depending on crop age Continous Cover would be worth a look, Pro Silva/Phil Morgan as mentioned above - smaller physical and financial inputs/outputs for a gradually increasing crop/land value. Depending on location, your friends wood may be in the Phytophthora pluvalis area which impacts on W.hemlock, just another form and NRW visit to get movement licence.

Big digger, can rip them out and re-bury them on a bit of site not being built on. It's what I've done for forestry tracks anyway, 13t minimum for 2' sitka stumps.

Tripod ladder on top of the patio table then 😆

Not had a harvester in for a while, but 1000t used to be the tipping point for them to turn up and not cost you if they are also marketing the timber. Fuel rates have gone up a lot since then though. Possible to do by hand cutting, just a little slower. Try Aron Roberts, think he is working for Pearsons these days in North Wales and they have small scale forestry kit from memory.

Whatever cut resistant ones I can pickup when the previous ones wear through. They don't go through between thumb and finger or at the finger tips as quickly as regular gloves. Cutting on the saw I have some Mechanix CG that look pricey at first, but better value on cost over lifetime for something that is actually hand shaped.

We have an oxdale for the stuff which is too big or too knotty for the processor. On the floor works well for putting big rings under it. Keep meaning to get some longer hoses for it so that I don't have to take off whatever is on the back of the tractor.

Having had a block of Lawson Cypress, it's not that bad. The piles left behind by a previous forestry operation 30 years before were certainly pretty hard when we encountered them. We also milled some for garden fencing, dried it and sent for tanalising. We were quite happy it sucked the tanalising tank dry, the owner wasn't 😄.

I've made use of cattle grazing to keep bracken and brambles in check. Bit weather dependent as they could easily trash the ground. Usually come to the woods as they come off the hill at end of October and have until the weather turns. We get 10-20 of the heifers on a 30ish acre site. Where we let them in affects where they tend to congregate and graze. Need to be something quite hardy, our neighbours stock spend the summer on the hill and love stripping bracken. Think they are Belgian blues? Another tenant has Dexters that can stay out for longer as they are lighter, but also don't graze as much or wade into big thickets.

I used to have a 4x4 Octavia, that combined with high miles and being dirt cheap meant it seemed to go many places with only a tendency to tear the flexi for the full rally experience. Don't get the petrol 1.8t, it was less fuel efficient than the Porsche 944 we had. In seriousness, cars are easier to get hold of, nicer to drive, generally had an easier life and easy to insure.

On the plus side of being behind, I get to split in the sun rather than the rain. This lot went in yesterday, need about the same again to fill it and then repeat for the next 2 bays.

I know someone that built some log stores the same size as the French Doors on his house. He just lifts them into place in front of the doors with the tele handler. 3 cube of wood available 4 steps from the fire with an insulation improvement for the single glazed doors [emoji1]

Based upon Kelly Kettle performance I would go with Larch brash and Lawsons Cypress as they have given us the easiest lighting and quickest boiling times.

Have you asked Ed at Powells Forestry between Pontrilas and Hereford? His yard always seems to have a few secondhand winches when I'm over there.

If you're keeping the 8', why not go bigger than 10'? Dont know your usage, but a 12' allows us to get a tractor and implement on which a 10' wouldn't. 16' does start to get a bit cumbersome behind our 130 if in tight places which is also why it's a twin rather than triple axle.

In terms of prep, if you aren't keen to spray, you want to reduce competition for the tree whip, so any combination of turf lifting/rotivating and mulching method. I would avoid any individial guarding if possible. Planting in rows or a grid will make it easier in the first few years to control around the trees until they are taller, particularly an issue in bracken and bramble that will swamp and squash young trees. A formal pattern will also make it easier to spot losses if replacements are needed. Randomise your species as they go in and over the years as you thin the block it will look less regimented. Don't know what the weather is like your way, but trees need to be in the ground before the sap is moving and trees are budding. You could probably get some chip for mulch off someone on here and just leave it in a corner to rot until you are ready for it.

All good ideas put forward so far. Just to fling more ideas out there; Could plant north west side of the blue service as a woodland and the south east side as an orchard. This would be less imposing around the northerly building as well as allowing you to keep an element of the flower meadow and fruit trees that will benefit pollinators with their blossom and you with apples for cider. Could probably find someone to mob graze it at the end of the summer to remove the grass growth once everything has gone to seed? Would need to guard the fruit trees for first few years against stock. As for the woodland, look at those around you for what grows well, probably wouldn't pick more than half a dozen varieties as it is a small site. Being a small site it may be too small to attract grant funding. Planting whips will be easier and the trees generally establish better, just spend some time on the prep and initial care to get them away. Birch will help give some instant effect and draw up other trees, treat it as a nurse crop and remove after 15 years or so to leave other trees go and start to create some openings and mixed layers. Makes a good firewood harvest too. Consider if you want/need a firewood source and something that will coppice well and locate it where you won't batter the rest of your good work whilst you harvest it.

If it's a larger volume you need, you could use Heras fencing for the sides and tarp over the top. Any pallets to get it off the floor will do, as you've gathered wooden ones will rot and plastic ones degrade.

We felled some years ago in a woodland and most of it went for garden sleepers due to it being oversize. The heartwood of bits left behind from first thinning were still pretty solid when it came to pushing them out the way. We milled some for ourselves for some picket fencing, when we sent it for tanalising after drying, it sucked the tank dry and were were told not to send any more. The second load had a wrap of Sitka around the outside to hide what it was. 😂 Fence is still sound. I think the smell is more pineapple, not got many left to see if there is a ginger aroma.

130 and 110 Hi-Cap have the heavy duty springs as standard which makes a massive difference to towing stability. Had a regular 110 with tipper conversion that was like a bouncy castle with a bit of load on. 300tdi is good, but dated now. The new 6-speed TDCi's pull harder and travel faster but aren't so great at creeping along on tickover. If you're going to look at Daily's, look out for the 3.0l - used to have one towing an 18' trailer at a marquee company and we still had to slow down for cameras when loaded to at least GTW going uphill 😅

@Chipperclown - your best bet would be to talk to the Rangers at the property where you would like them, they should know their sites and planting ambitions whether individual and up to landscape scale. This does vary from property to property as Rangers can be focused on anything from site presentation to monitoring to full-scale forestry as it's a generic job title. Memorials should be kept logged in a local book and through talking with the person that will be doing the work, you will know where they are. I've done memorial plantings from 1 - 1,000 trees. As for fruit trees, I've been discarding my apple cores for years in the hope of not having to bring apples in for my lunch 😂

As someone with a post 97 licence it was annoying that I had to do a test for towing considering how much I do. However, from the mixed group I've worked with, I am more concerned by the driving of those with automatic entitlement for things such as poor loading bias and abandoning vehicles whilst they went to find me to manoeuvre it. Best of all was the one employed to sit with me when I towed on L plates in marquee industry. The second time he towed for us he spun the whole outfit and barrel rolled us over a hedge [emoji23] Never had any concerns like that from someone that did their B+E. I would rather they kept the trailer test but raised vehicle weights to 5.5t.

Friend has just reminded me that I managed to wedge 2 bulk bags of firewood in his regular 110 pickup with the tailboard up, but it's not something he wants to repeat [emoji1]