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matelot

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Everything posted by matelot

  1. matelot
    Perhaps people visiting the trees is a good thing as it means they will lobby politicians to look after them more? I've been to some amazing world wonders. Should I have been prevented going because my presence would have damaged them slightly?
  2. matelot
    How about working out a price for the work and then adding on 10%? If you get the work give the 10% to a tree charity.
  3. matelot
    I love burning "small stuff" in my parents open fire. It just seems a cheerier fire. It might be my imagination, but the smaller stuff seems to spark less. Would it not be cheaper to use a branch logger compared to a chipper? I can't help thinking the logger would use less energy and the logger would be easier to maintain compared to a chipper.
  4. matelot
    I'm a buyer of firewood. I'm not trying to pick an argument, but when you professional firewood sellers give your relative prices for softwood/ hardwood the hardwood always looks better value.... The calorific value of wood is fairly constant at circa 5300 kWh per dry ton. However the density of beech is about 50% to 100% more than spruce... A builders bag of spruce would really have to be half the price of a builders bag of beech before it became better value... Like others here I would love if we burnt more spruce. Wood Densities http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/FC-BEC-InfoSheet-Wood-as-Fuel-TechSupp.pdf/$FILE/FC-BEC-InfoSheet-Wood-as-Fuel-TechSupp.pdf
  5. matelot
    We'll never know when the amazingly hot HR girl offered treatment for his condition he resigned. eggs, I laughed at your ex colleague
  6. matelot
    It is an OCD compunction for some people... My employer offered him treatment for it, but he resigned instead.
  7. matelot
    The weirdest workmate I ever had had an OCD compulsion to "pleasure" himself when he was sat at his desk in an open plan office of about 50 people. When I first met him I shook his hand... it still makes my flesh crawl.... Has anyone ever had a weirder workmate?
  8. matelot
    Does anyone else remember getting ready to go to the newsagent to buy a porno mag? For me i would have to go to a newsagent a bit far away (so I wouldn't face him the next time I bought a newspaper). I would also have to get my money ready so I wasn't messing about with my wallet with a copy of Fiesta on the counter. Before I went into the shop I also had to check behind me to make sure no one else would enter the shop. The amount of pints of milk I bought was unreal
  9. matelot
    My dad had some spruce cut last year. About 30 tonnes of oversize is just sitting there tbh, it wouldn't surprise me if it was there in 10 years time... The relative strength of sterling has a lot to answer for.
  10. matelot
    I'm thinking of going on a cruise. The guy that I lodge with swears by them. I can see the plus points in that everything is laid on and travelling between destinations should be quite enjoyable. However I'm concerned that it will be a pensioner fest with too much talk about playing golf and what type of BMW you drive. Anyone been on one?
  11. matelot
    What have you got against dollop?
  12. matelot
    I spent 2 years in the Middle East. They don't take building control/ safety very seriously... A friend of a friend smelt gas in the apartment block he was staying in, he informed the gas authority over a period of a week and nothing was done about it. He wasn't happy about it and moved out. A gas explosion then killed 4 people. Fingers crossed for the people in the hotel.
  13. matelot
    Why not find your ideal woods then find out the owner? You can speak to the land registry to find out owners of land. Failing that you could approach the "Men of the Trees"(aka International Tree Foundation), the local branch of the Royal Forestry Society, or the big land agents like Knight Frank/ Tillhill etc.
  14. matelot
    My MSc was in water resources. I understand that forests mitigate flooding (as opposed to farming) as forest soils hold more water. Forest soils hold more water as there are no animals/ tractors continually compacting the soil. Forest soils also have a lot more "spongy" organic matter that holds the water. A couple of hundred millimetre of decayed spruce needles holds a fair amount of rain...
  15. matelot
    I understand forestry reduces flooding as forest soils are "spongier" and hold water. I think anyone digging a hole beneath a larch tree will testify that this is true. However I agree that digging drainage, for forestry, in peat soils will increase runoff I'm a fan of dams to reduce flooding as there are other benefits to the dams - they can provide a source of hydro electric power and they provide a source of water in summer (global warming is meant to increase droughts as well).
  16. matelot

    Ideas

    matelot replied to Bird's topic in Firewood forum

    I think if you want to earn more money you have to learn new skills and/or get a new profession. I work in road construction, some of the tar squads earn stupid money.... How about joining the territorial army? A hobby and part time job rolled into one.
  17. matelot
    If they need to build houses on flood plains they could build the houses on stilts. Where I stay they built houses on a field that flooded. The council then had to spend millions on a flood storage scheme... I personally think the answer is storing the flood water in dams and more forestry on upstream catchments.
  18. matelot
    I planted another 90 today - I guess I shouldn't give up my day time job anytime soon... As a matter of interest how many trees can you plant a day with one of those tractor mounted planting machines?
  19. matelot
    If people wanted the cheapest method of heating their house would they not just put the gas central heating on? imo many log consumers would rather buy logs produced locally than logs trucked in 1500 miles... I get our logs from a charity that supports disadvantaged people 3 miles from my house.
  20. matelot
    I'm a hobby planter. I planted 90 Scots Pine today I'm planting a total of 300 Scots Pine, 105 alder and 105 oak. How many do you professionals plant a day? I guess I could plant circa 500 conifers a day or 100 hardwoods (with tube and stake).
  21. matelot
    today I was admiring some twenty foot ash that I've previously planted. I hope you're wrong about ash dieback. one of the reasons people like log fires is that it's a "green" energy. if they knew it was getting trucked in 1500 miles from East Europe they might be less keen to buy them.
  22. matelot
    Mendiplogs, If you want advice on air rifles why don't you ask here? I'm sure there are many people here with air rifles. What do you want one for? Target shooting? Pest control? Holding up a bank?
  23. matelot
    a few years ago I went to Chernobyl for a visit. Nature really is taking over the thing I remember most is feeding the fish in the cooling ponds, some were 6 foot long. Regarding the logs, I think it's wrong to import them when there are so many trees in the UK...
  24. matelot
    yeah, if I was PM we would be getting that Severn Barrage.
  25. matelot
    Battery storage is getting better, but it's not going to be good enough to really be useful for the National Grid anytime soon. I also think the mining for the "rare earth metals" required for the batteries is a whole can of worms.... 100% agree about using less energy. I think when we all get smart meters it will mean a big difference to how we use energy. As it now stands wind farms are sometimes paid money not to produce electricity... With smart meters the National Grid could drop the price of electricity when it's windy and all us consumers could "store" the electricity in electric storage heaters

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