Puffingbilly413

Bloody hell. There are loopholes in almost everything - but hardly surprising in the circumstances. I wonder where travel insurance will stand re those folk that don't get money back? I see over here it's been made harder (and a longer process) for tenants to be evicted. It's being done for all the right reasons but as we know there are those who will take full advantage. Glad you're managing to still work safely - rural France does make it simpler I suppose to work in isolation. Was doing some ground clearance for a mate in the northern Ardeche two weeks ago. Seems like a lifetime ago already.

Stuart - out of interest how does the French government's financial package work for you over there (or not..)?

I'm in the same position as you Spud in that I can eat into savings etc. I don't qualify for any of the grants on offer or for Universal Credit etc. The wife is a teacher so for all the shit that she usually faces on a day to day basis at least her wage is secure. If I really had fuck all to fall back then I would hope that the state wouldn't let us starve. But I've always made sure I've kept enough put by to tide us over for a bit regardless. My guess would be that for those still working that aren't key workers, that option will be legally taken off them in the coming weeks. What a bloody mess.

You've moved on? Hopefully to a position where you've stopped work and observing some form of lockdown like the majority whose work is not essential to beating this thing back. Sooner you get it, sooner we can all go back to work.

I do hope you get the irony of your post...

Sorry FM is First Minister. Couldn’t be arsed writing it but now written loads more! I like the India sticks approach. More needed along that line really. 6 weeks of total hardcore lockdown and this could be done. Albeit we’d need to keep borders shut. On a more positive note I’m seeing so many more species of garden bird this year. Probs due to sitting on phone conferences looking out the window having switched off to the dull pish in my ears!

I must state right away that the FM is not someone I would normally even bother listening to (none of them really) but I think just now she has been pretty good at providing as much detail as is possible. As she's said, it's not possible for them to second guess every possible working situation. So basically the choice comes down to stopping everything less basic real life support or doing what we're doing and relying on people's good judgment...

Interestingly up here Andy it seems to be unless your work contributes to the C19 area then it's deemed non-essential - definite differences in detail between Holyrood and Westminster in what's specified. But at the same time Sturgeon also stated that window cleaners and gardeners that could work without coming into contact with other could do so as they will assist the elderly / others who are isolated etc and hence deliver a necessary service. Saw the same kind of thing but the other way round in a Confor note that someone (sorry forgot who) posted the other day saying that firewood and other fuel-related processing activities could continue. Again, up here it seems to stretch only to biomass and pallets etc ie fuel that's not deemed essential. So if you sell logs to a family with a log boiler then in theory you can keep going.

This does seem to be one of the gaps that the support for business has left. If you're self-employed there is something (potentially). If you're paying business rates then there's a £10,000 grant. But if you're a small Limited Company with the Director being the sole employee (guess who) then it starts to look less rosy. And if you've not been taking a salary in order to help pay back start up costs, then at the minute you get rod all. Granted, I could apply for a loan but as I've managed to get my running costs right down (I've pretty much cancelled everything save the landy insurance) then I hope to weather the storm with savings and whatever other cash comes in over the coming months, it seems to be the cheapest option. TSB are still asking for an affordability questionnaire to be filled in before they'll give me an overdraft. Can't see that going well! But the wife's teachers pay and a small pension will keep us going. It's just irritating to know that the last 5 years of planning and hard work might end up as nothing (or minus tens of 1000s). Still - there are many people in a hell of a worse position than me. It's them I feel sorry for.

Just to update my earlier post. I have now mothballed my firm. It owes me about 37k of start up money that I put into it as the director (it's a Limited Company). I will start up again when I can. I would just like to ask Gardenscape why you deem that funny?

I expect the state has been reminding banks that they themselves have needed help before. That and seeing the enormity of the issue in Italy and Spain has probably brought it home that everyone needs to be in it together (but from a distance!)

That's good news Mick. I think banks realise that they need people to stay afloat - it's in everyone's interest. I might be wrong but Macron seemed to get the scale of the financial problem and how the state would need to support all aspects of the economy very early on. We are catching up but still a way to go. I'm hoping my bank will come good - reckon they've got a few bigger fish to fry than me first though! Ed

I should add - personal money is ok (small army pension and wife is a teacher) so we won't starve. It's just the firm that is going into suspended animation. Reading others' posts on here, the situation could be far worse so I am more than grateful for small mercies.

I fully get the idea of continuing to work if you can do whilst remaining isolated (milling, firewood, all of that). But, as unlikely as it may be, the very fact that you are leaving the house presents a risk. Say you break down on the way, injure yourself at work and need an ambulance or hospital admission etc etc? That places an extra strain on the NHS and other services at a time when they simply can't afford to have it. I'm staying in for the duration - other than the minimal once a day walk that the rules say we can take. And even that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable for doing it. Today I arranged a payment break for my yard rent (I'm lucky to be in that position), and have cancelled my insurance and SORNed the landy. If there's no work coming in, which there most definitely is not, then there is no point having these fixed running costs. The bank promised to look into an overdraft but has now gone on radio silence and it looks like I won't qualify for any of the grants available for small businesses. When this blows over I'll look to start up again. Till then it's hunker down and make ends meet. Good luck to you all Ed

Still not the example that I came across but this from Teufelberger ( for Ocean polyester) hopefully explains it well enough: The product‘s service life may be up to 3 years from the day the product was first taken out of the undamaged light-protected package, and the product must be retired after no later than 3 years of having been used. It is assumed that the product is taken out of the package at the time of the purchase. We recommend that you keep the original sales receipt which is the proof of purchase. The theoretically possible total product life (correct storage prior to first removal + period of use) is limited to 5 years from the date of manufacture. So in this example, you'd only get 2 years from your rope it you'd bought it 3 years after it was produced. Noting also that if you get it home and unpackage it then that is in effect first use, not when it is actually first used (eg if it were bought for a rescue kit or other scenario where it wasn't used immediately). There's an old thread here that discusses this issue: In short, read the manufacturer's bumpf and go from that.

Sorry yes you're right, bad example to choose - I'd taken the segment out of context of the rest of it. That cord can do 10 years in service but has potentially 15 years from manufacture to being 'done'. A better example would be a rope with a shorter overall life, whereby the time on the shelf eats more into the working life. Like I said though, this wasn't the example I was thinking of. I will find it - just can't recall it at the moment. The point I was trying to make earlier is that we shouldn't assume date into service is by default the date to go by. Date of manufacture can have an impact.

'The total maximum life of this rope (storage before use + lifetime in use) islimited to 15 years. In good storage conditions this product may be kept foras many as 5 years before the first use without affecting its future durationin use.' That's for Yale Silverstreak prusik cord but it wasn't that example I was thinking of earlier. In the above example, it is possible (albeit one would hope unlikely) that a rope could sit unissued on the shelf for 5 years and then almost immediately need to be retired.

Some ropes, other textiles, webbing etc. Depends on what the material composition is, where and how it's stored, tolerance of UV etc etc. Like I said, depends on what the manufacturer stipulates. I'll see if I can dig out a specific example - one certainly came up recently as that's what made me comment.

Unless the manufacturer stipulates the item's working life starts from date of manufacture of course

I still wouldn't say it's a luxury using logs if mains gas is available. At least not if you're serious about moving towards renewable energy, which gas is never going to be. In fact, the RHI scheme is supposed to encourage exactly such a move. Gas central heating is def on its way out I think within the next decade or so.

It was the Eco Angus case studies I looked at - I'd have to check back but I think for a large detached stone house they were using 12 cube a year, but that was to maintain the house at a constant 20 degrees (the family in the study had a newborn at the time I think). They had a small wood, joinery business offcuts and also bought some fresh cut logs in to season. Like others have said, a lot of this comes down to room, but if you have the space to dry 12 cube from green, then it clearly would be cheaper. Even at £100 a bag that still less than what I used to pay for gas and electric heating the house the conventional way. Add in the RHI element and it's paid off soon and would see you break even at the very worst. If you have your own wood source then even better. My heat pump was £14k (inc installation, new rads etc) but packages for gasifiers start around 5k). I only wish I'd known about them before we went the route we did.

I wouldn't say heating your house is a luxury. Wood still remains the cheapest option for many, especially in rural communities. I heat my house mostly on wood (albeit it's all arb 'waste'). There are some good case studies on using log boilers - they certainly seem to be a lot cheaper than the air source heat pump we have (a bad choice, wish I hadn't gone down this route but there you go). I see nothing criminal in a scheme to incentivise people to use renewable energy sources - granted the RHI scheme is bady designed and implemented though.

Interesting. I've certainly had a few examples recently where, although clearly still within a garden, small woodland would also be an accurate description. They would also not have been able to claim the 5 cube exemption due to their small size. Thanks for your comments - I've been operating under a few slight misconceptions of late when is a garden no longer a garden and will be more circumspect from now on.

Ah - I hadn't realised the exemption detail was contained in The Forestry (Exemptions) (Scotland) Regulations 2019. Scottish Forestry also have a guide which is useful. It seems that a private garden is still exempt then. Who decides what constitutes a garden under the new rules though?

Jules, This one has got me a tad confused now. It used to be the case that private gardens didn't require permission for felling (TPO, CA and planning conditions aside). But reading the new legislation I can't find any reference to gardens being exempt (and you don't mention it in your article either). Have I and most of the other tree firms up here been taking trees down illegally for the last 12 months?! Ed