Welshfred

But stuffs burns really well when it's been dried out by excess heat. Arsonists don't have much fun when it's pissing down...

Not every asylum seeker wants to come to the UK, European countries already have high numbers of settled successful asylum applicants. But consider if part of your family is here already, plus you speak English but not Italian, Greek, french etc. Having got as far as Calais you have probably been subject to risks worse than the concept of crossing the channel. If we could process claims in France the 20% who aren't eligible would never arrive because the smuggling business would break down. The 80% who are eligible get to come and contribute to society here. Add in a program of affordable house building and we wouldn't need to house anyone in hotels/barges/camps. Alternatively the government could actually process some of the existing claims. It seems they'd rather create outrage by spending taxpayers money on hotels than do their jobs and process the claims. Because that's a pull factor apparently...

But you can see them with the naked eye presumably! Grain weevils? I had a bag of whole wheat for the hens absolutely infested to the point the bin of feed was getting hot! Hens didn't eat them either, I was squashing them in they're droves , hunting them round the henhouse. They congregated in the lip of the metal feeders. That was in autumn so the cold weather sorted them out eventually. And yes I got a free bag to (partially) compensate for all the hastle.

I've found 12 wasps nests so far this year, all within a couple of acres on brambly south facing slope. I think they're in old tree stumps mostly. I've been clearing around young trees on the slope, only been stung once but serious paranoia... Hard to get away quickly when the vegetation is waist to head high! I've never known so many.

Four things have improved my chainsaw milling experience over the last year, each pretty much as significant as the other, each a massive step change for the better. 1. Handcrank winch 2. Lo pro bar and chain 3. Battery powered respirator 4. Aspen fuel This is on a relatively small setup, ms 660 with 30" bar. I keep the ladder on for all cuts too to reduce friction and avoid cumulative errors.

My woodland in West Wales was one of those 50s experimental FC plantings. J larch, Douglas, noble fir, lodgepole, cryptomeria, hemlock, red oak, beech, poplar, spruce, Corsican pine and a small patch of cypress. No one ever thinned until I started in the 90s so the cypress never got to sawlog size. Maybe not the best site for it too. Dry south facing slope. The timber I got though was beautiful straight poles, perfect for pole frame building, very durable heartwood in ground contact and cleaves well when not spiral grained. Oh and lovely and lightweight, easy to handle. I've felled it all now and replanted with chestnut but there is some regen. I had assumed that meant Lawson if Leyland is infertile but are people saying that's not necessarily the case? I find it very hard to tell the two apart visually...

Nice boards. Make sure you keep them very dry! Debarking might be worthwhile too.

This ties in with what I was thinking. I think it is chalara I'm seeing as the mycelium under the bark and the brown staining in the timber are just like that I've seen in youngertrees which have succumbed very rapidly. Those trees at about 15cm dbh were brown throughout and saturated with water. Even when completely dried out the logs had no calorific value, they burnt without heat in the stove. This year's stuff is bigger at 20-30cm dbh and it was interesting how the fungus kicked off in the cut logs. I'm still undecided whether it's worth milling, even though it looks ok fresh the fungus is in there. Lurking... On a slight tangent, I've yet to see a mature tree completely break down and have a concern they will rot below ground and topple rather than break down from the top. I've seen young ones rot out at ground level but so far I've not felled a large tree with active fungus at the base. Although it is there as demonstrated by the cut logs.

I've been splitting some rounds for firewood off a dieback Ash I felled late last winter. When felled the lower trunk looked normal, nice and pale, no sign of fungus. Left lying in lengths for 8 months and now the wood is full of brown staining and mycelium under the bark. So the tree must have been full of fungus at felling time even though only visible in the crown wood and it's got going very nicely in the felled timber. I was thinking of milling some of the trees still to be felled but I'm wondering if it's worth it, the trees are a year further down the diseased path and it seems the whole thing is infected. Perhaps if the boards were stacked dry and perhaps debarked the fungus would die off...

Getting it bad in west wales now. Just back from a drive through llanwnen, llanllwni, brechfa, nantgaredig. Very bad, really horrible to see. In my woodland there seem only a few trees that are unaffected as yet. Does anyone have any info on how the larger branches break down? I plan to leave a lot standing for ecological value but have concerns about safety near tracks. Ash which died of other causes up to 10 years ago still have good standing inner crown structure but chalara seems to make the twiggy growth very brittle. How does this translate to larger branches im wondering? Any thoughts? Cheers...

I have 2 lovely benches at the kitchen table from very similar timber, legs cut from the same stock at full width. It really is beautiful timber, very hard though. Nice boards.

Actually, with a chainsaw mill... I use the ladder for every pass to avoid cumulative errors. The larch is very slow grown, planted in '56, any thoughts on whether that affects stability? Instinct says better stability...??? cheers

Good advice, thanks.

Yes, planning 25mm thickness. I like the idea of starting now in an ideal world but I have grant aided work to finish under contract which will keep me busy in the woods up to early winter 2018, then I can start on felling for building. First priorities will be roundwood framework and studwork, hopefully all from my own timber. Some long length 6x2 etc will have to be bought in in, then i'd hope to get on cutting cladding. Kilning? For exterior use? Other threads on here suggest using green or with minimal seasoning and relying on the fixings to studwork to hold the boards flat, full seasoning in situ from autumn onwards. Bearing in mind the op concerned through and though cut boards from centre of log so less prone to cupping. Given common tree sizes here these will likely be 6-10" wide ripped down to 8" max probably. I plan some experimental cutting this autumn though and could follw up with some experimental mounting. I have a shed to build too so good opportunities for practice. Cheers!

V Yes, if the timber is available, but most of what I have is too small for quarter sawing. What larger trees I have may need to be reserved for larger sawn sections or roundwood framing poles. Its all 50s planted Japanese larch, unthinned till the 90s so not many stems have reached good size. This thought had been niggling. Aiming to secure the boards at suitable intervals, prob 600mm would help keep them flat I hope, and not create gaps for wasps etc to enter the wall cavity. Concave could well be better structurally. I will look for some real world examples locally... Not cutting or building for a while yet (2019 probably) so hopefully plenty of time to work all this out. cheers!

Thanks both. Thats all good to know. I will have some larger timber but its prioritised for other elements of the structure so hope to get the large amount of cladding done out of my commonest tree size. I would imagine boards cut from a larger log, away from the core will run a higher risk of cupping due to the grain orientation - any thoughts on mounting these, convex vs concave to the outside? I reckon convex to reduce the risk of gaps opening between boards... cheers!

Hi, I'm hoping to mill cladding boards from larch but quite small diameter, 12inch dbh max. The boards will therefore contain heartwood, is this a problem? I've heard boxed heart can be an issue... Bit worried about warp across the board too (cupping?) or do you think this risk can be sorted with good drying and fixing? Have done a search, lots of good info but not quite what I need to know. Cheers!