spandit

Some of the red oak logs I was given looked like they'd had had ink spilled on them but when split it went all the way through the grain. Is this natural or the start of some rot?

Did a bit of a tidy up this morning - chainsaw ran well for a change. Mainly cut the thin branches to length but did split a few of the large red oak rounds. Fortunately I had already removed the tailgate from my Hilux after exploding the rear window, which made loading easier... Added a couple of feet to Holzhausen Number 3. Doesn't look like much but it's about 8 feet across

I've offered a free tip site here for a few years now and have been inundated with logs and chips by generous tree surgeons. I'll take anything and normally it's leylandii or one of the lesser hardwoods (willow, horse chestnut etc.) but 100% of it is burnin' wood and although I always ask for the next load to be well seasoned beech, I never turn down anything. So earlier this week I had a text: "Taking down some ash and oak, do you want it?" Too bloody right! The stuff in the foreground was added to the pile in the background. For scale, the large round in the top right is 3 feet across. The ash is a joy to split - took out some of frustration at life in general with the maul and it took a feather touch to send a beautiful log spinning off. I've added a few barrow loads to one of the Holzhausens and due to the way it was tipped, new bits keep being found buried in the chip! Wife isn't happy with the amount of toil it's going to generate so situation normal there. She pays a subscription to a gym - I do a workout and come out with a load of logs Thanks all!

No harm done, just letting off steam.

He'd need to use silver bullets

I see the accusations of tax evasion have been edited out. I'm doing nothing illegal, we have just minimised the liability when the day comes. My wife owning her mother's share was the easiest thing to do. It's all been done through solicitors and despite me feeling like I've been screwed, it's all above board. As AHPP said, it is only a hedge and although it upsets me, it's relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

Bingo. Just trimming some back today - it should resprout again, at least I hope so

Be more specific...

Unfortunately, my wife sides with her and we do still have to live together. Issuing a bollocking does not make for a happy atmosphere and as I work away quite a bit I dread to think what I might come home to if she was set for revenge.

We've discussed cutting it lower but she wants it gone, apparently being against it from the start. The view beyond includes a power transformer and the corrugated iron siding to our neighbour's compost heap as well as a couple of his sheds. She murmured yesterday about cutting down a mature hedgeline so that she could see the sea more clearly on the two days a year it's clear enough to actually see with binoculars. We'd have to see about getting the South Downs relocated too but she could just sit on them

That is a good idea, but she'd do it anyway and I'd face the brunt of the planning department - it's happened before. She feels entitled to do what she wants because she's widowed

Wilderness is absolute anathema to her. She likes things twee and formal. Before she got going the garden looked like a Monet painting. It now looks like a Bovis home.

Reading that in a Geordie accent

No. You'll kick yourselves when you find out

Is that from Anne Summers?

Not exactly. Due to my father-in-law's ill health, we sold our respective houses and bought this one together. Due to a slight c*ck up in the conveyancing process, they're not listed on the deeds despite having put in 30% of the money. My wife thus owns 65% and I own 35% (despite paying £90 a day to live there... :o). This doesn't exempt them (or her, as my father in law died suddenly last year at the age of 62) from inheritance tax due to the GROB rules (gift with reservation of benefit) but because the initial investment (£250K) doesn't accrue interest, it stays below the threshold and is thus taxed at 0%, so effectively it is tax free. If she had retained a legal 30% stake in the property, then due to the rise in house prices since we bought it, her estate would be over the threshold and we would be liable for inheritance tax when she dies. Unfortunately, just after my father-in-law died, she got an inheritance from someone else so now has loads of cash which she is spending like water on stuff to make my life miserable. The best analogy I have found, which holds up pretty well, is thus: Imagine I were to gift you the car of your choice. Let's say you fancied an Aston Martin DBS. It is yours. You can have whatever colour you like and whatever interior you like. It's sat on your drive right now, gleaming bodywork just catching the last of the sunshine. Gorgeous. Your friends must be very jealous. There must be a catch, right? There is, but it's only minor, I assure you... The car has a constant smell of dogshit. Sometimes it's almost imperceptible, sometimes it's overpowering but most importantly you can't forget that it is there. You might try to use the car to pull someone you find desirable, but as soon as they get in, they'll start sniffing and want to get out again. You might find that you want rid of the car and thus advertise it for sale, but who would buy a car that has a constant smell of dogshit? Costs a lot to upkeep, this car, and I never said I'd contribute towards that. You're stuck with it now, sunshine. Enjoy.

Not buddleia. It's only about 2 inches across.

Legally no (for tax reasons) but morally she has a stake and tends to just do things whilst I'm away.

She has a father and son team who take her money for not doing very much so they'd do it or she'd hack it apart with various G-Tec electric tools. We live in an 1870 farmhouse and I'm convinced she'd put astroturf down if she could to match the plastic flowers she's put in to replace the beautiful old lavender that was growing several feet up the well

I know what this is having just cut it down but do you? Wouldn't have known it looked like this inside

About 4 years ago I planted a hawthorn hedge along our field up to the gate, to stop people coming up the drive and going in. We've since put gates in further down the drive and my mother in law, who unfortunately lives with us, is complaining the hedge ruins her view (of another hedge). She is adamant that it will be grubbed up (I've managed to delay it until the winter but she's frantic to get rid of it, out of spite, largely). I've even checked with the council as I'd read that hedges bordering fields were protected but sadly they don't have a problem with it being removed. Just makes me so effing angry that my hard work and expense are going to be destroyed so she can look at more of the field than she can already see. I won't even post pictures of what she's done to the garden (we bought the house off a florist and it was stunning, now it looks as if ISIS have paid a visit) and I've lost count of the number of mature shrubs she's hacked down. Just having a rant. Sorry.

Got plenty of oak seedlings growing in my barn gutter but they're not sizeable

He goes by the name "Ye" now. It would keep me out of a woodland...

Must get out there with my machete to cut down some of the brambles as my brush mower struggles to knock them over. Blackthorn prick looks nasty...

I use Tegera 17 - maybe not quite as puncture proof as the Ripeur ones but a quarter of the price