ccharlie

That sounds like just the sort of system that I was picturing and, yes, it sounds far too large for a domestic installation!

Yes, you read that correctly. Does anyone know of a boiler that can be fed whole logs (not sure what size) and for the feed to be automatic? I can picture some of the design difficulties of such a contraption but surely someone must have come up with something... My research has led me to only one such system: Timber 25 Auto-Feed Wood Boiler (Timber Auto-Feed Wood Boiler - Lopper North America). But, as their website states, this system can only handle a few days' worth of wood. I'd like to have a huge storage container and a month's worth of wood at least that could be worked through.

Yep, a quad is my go to solution at the moment but in these rains the ground will get way too churned up!

I love the look of it but it would be impossible for me to use with my crutches!! I've got a pull around garden cart for use on the flat like the one in the attachment below but it would be terrible on the hills! I can even tie the handle to be belt and still use two crutches whilst towing it behind me.

Sorry for digging up an old thread but a friend has just told me about these guys' Stick Stove (http://www.blackmountainwoodfuels.co.uk/woodTech/pdfs/stickStove.pdf). Some of what they are doing is quite interesting. Any recent thoughts of the world of Arbtalk?

I've just found it: Evoc Trail Builder 30 L Here's a better link: TRAIL BUILDER - Backpacks, Bags - EVOC - PROTECTIVE SPORTS PACKS The downside of the Evoc rucksack, in comparison to the Dakine one, is that it doesn't have the two large side pouches for fuel and oil. It also doesn't have the wonderful promotional video!

Yes, but the handles are only 8 inches long: not long enough to wear as a backpack.

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I'd love to hear of anyone's recent discoveries re: smaller chainsaw trousers. My other half is a size 8/10 and its time to get her kitted up. Any of those who posted on this thread two years ago got a review of the kit they got? The strengths, the weaknesses? How it has held up? Any things to keep an eye out for, particularly when limited to the smallest trousers available?

Yes, the more I think about the more sensible using an old rucksack seems to be. I just don't want to get it covered in oil!!

Hi Sean, I'm only just starting out in the chainsaw world and am hopefully off on my maintenance and cross cutting course in the next month or so. (Felling trees will be tackled once the trainers have seen what I can and can't do). But, for now, I'm just chopping up small bits of timber for our fire at home. We had about five ash trees recently felled as they were about to take out a phoneline; I want to get trained up and prepared for dealing with that timber, cutting it to appropriate length and storing it on the hill for a year or two. Getting my kit 500 metres up a hillside is one of the many things to be overcome! I reckon I will do a lot on my knees. I've cunning ideas about setting up a line from a tree some distance behind me and to then walk to my work area and use the line to give me some extra support. I've used this technique with fishing, painting and shooting. It all comes down to the quality of the line and having a decent harness that supports and pulls in a useful and safe direction. I'll let you know in a couple of months' time what I and my trainers have come up with as solutions for my situation!

Hmmm... cool idea! I'll have a look.

btw, I was wondering about getting something like a Stihl Chainsaw bag (Stihl Chainsaw Bag) and tying/clipping it to an old disused rucksack but this would end up being such a bodge job!

I've got a Stihl MSA 160 electric chainsaw and I'd like to find a way to carry it on my back. My logic is that it would be great to be able to carry the saw, a spare battery, toolkit, thermos and other bits of kits in a bag to site. I wish to do so as I've got to walk with crutches after breaking my back years ago and carrying a saw in one hand and using crutches is a bit of a clunky affair. I've found a couple of images on Google of people using chunky rucksack frames to carry massive chainsaws but that's just way over the top. I'd much rather find something a bit like for climbing gear where a 3kg chainsaw can be clipped onto the back of a rucksack. Any ideas?

Interesting to hear.

Thanks all! I've emailed all of them for details of their next suitable courses.

I'm looking to do my CS30/CS31 training and would love to find someone nearish to Exeter. We're just southwest of Exeter so any near the following would be great: Chagford, Bovey Tracey, Newton Abbott, Teignmouth, Exminster, Dawlish, Exeter, Crediton, Okehampton. Any thoughts? I remember seeing a few people on Arbtalk recommend someone in Newton Abbott but today I can't find the posts.

To sum up some of the tips so far: Training organisations The Silvanus Trust - The Silvanus Trust is working through partnerships to regenerate the woodlands in the South West for economic, social and environmental benefits - Welcome to The Silvanus Trust Lynher Training (Tavistock) - Lynher Training | Check Availability Devon Rural Skills Trust - Devon Rural Skills Trust National Hedgelaying Society - NHLS Home The Arb Academy - Arb Academy - Home The Sylva Foundation, myForest management plan - Sylva Foundation • home Kit to consider Silky saw Easy lift harness

Superb tips! Many thanks.

Thanks for the offer. Very kind! Alas, I've now moved down to Devon so rarely will I be up Gloucester way. (Time to change my earlier post re where I'm based! Eeek, just tried but it appears that posts from last year can't be edited).

Do you use others land to run your courses? What sort of species / woodland type / access do you normally look for? Is there a going rate for such a use? Hi-Line are coming by on Friday to discuss using our 10 acre wood for some of their training. I'm curious to find out what sort of fees are normally paid or are arrangements made where works are offered instead?

Thank you all for your wonderful advice last year. So... I've now bought the wood in Devon (7 miles SW of Exeter, 10 acres) and am now very, very keen to find a local training centre/firm for me (with my physical restrictions) and my girlfriend (with no such problems). There's so much for us now to do and time to get on with prepping a wood storage area and then thinning out the unmanaged woods.

Great to hear about! Nice one for coming up with a cunning solution.

Loving the sound of that ingenuity!!

There are loads of places around the country offer just CS30 training... I see that you're in Kent. Hadlow College run a course: Award in Chainsaw Maintenance & Cross Cutting (002003) | | Hadlow College, The outstanding land based college Expensive though at £410 but that does include the assessment, which I believe is the more costly bit.

Wow, thanks guys for the amazing replies!! And so quickly too! I'll read them all again properly tomorrow. Just wanted to say that I currently live in London but am in Bristol and Salisbury a lot. The woodland in question is in Devon, just SW of Exeter (but I won't be based down there for a while yet!).