Steven P

A great start, someone will be interested. So sell yourself..... Do you have any experience so far, apart from the assessments - not necessary, someone will be interested if you have the right attitude What about grafting first before you do anything interesting, a few months doing the boring jobs - lifting, carrying, sweeping up, making a brew, could get you a foot in the door and show your work ethics ....and a million and one other questions... So over to you, sell yourself (remember that this is a public forum, no personal details, they can e-mail you if they want to know more). At 16 years old no one will be expecting a 20 page CV but might want to know a bit more about you as a person, would you fit in to a team, would you be an asset in a years time or a liability, what are your interests when it comes to working, what would you love to do So sell yourself... (and if it all goes wrong no one in the area, this forum is pretty good with helpful tips, but they will get distracted within about 6 posts)

I forget the Terry Pratchet quote on his definition of suicide, included insulting various fictional characters in his city, the US has suicide by police (or something like that where they can't do it themselves so goad the police on), perhaps this is the Russian version, suicide by Putin ?

Not sure I would be making my first statement "fully insured" - I'd be operating in a way such that insurance is the last thing I'd ever need. A sign is all good till you get a toddler out for a days walk wandering over your land (it happens every now and then), or a dog (happens all the time) - can't read and could be an admission that what you are doing is dangerous (same with 'Dangerous Dogs' signs, 'Dogs Loose' - an admittance you know they are dangerous, all it takes is a child climbing the fence to get a ball back....) Not into air rifles... got an axe throwing range, the thrower has visibility as far as they can throw an axe for, there is no access to the sides (carefully cultivated brambles....), whoever is overseeing the session is trained and all are briefed. For what it is worth it is private land... but anyone can walk through a gap in the hedge... point is that they would be noticed and the session stopped.... and so far as far as "fully insured" yes, but a session would never get as far as that being a consideration for 3rd parties. Perhaps a far better way to think, rather than "I have an air rifle range and am fully insured" but "air rifle range that we operate safely" Just going off on one, perhaps too much red meat for dinner. Whoops

I'm thinking that price is a bit optimistic. For a wood turner they'd have to produce products retailing at about £300 to make a profit (£100 cost, less their time, 10 hours? and add on 1/2 extra for retailers profit). For planks, not a lot of wood in there. For firewood.... probably have to give it away EDIT: Got some time to add some details to my earlier answer: The shorter log, is not 1 log, it is 3. The black ellipse for a side branch / log and the red ellipse for a lengthways split. These 13" diameter breaks down to 1 off about 6" diameter, 1 off about 4" diameter and taking into consideration the side branch coming off it, the last one is about 5" diameter. Blue circle, the ends of this log has 3 or 4 marks on it which might indicate a weak spot, once it has been sliced to useable lengths and the support of the wood around it will spit. Might be wrong - I don't work a lot of wood but split a fair bit by hand for firewood and this is how I would look at the log. Split along the red circle, split off the black side branch, and the last one hit at the perceived weak spots. Usually quite good at spotting the weak areas these days.

South Africa jail system is odd compared to ours, I think money talks over there, am sure he would have been out sooner - if he wasn't famous (11 years and I think that was them making an example of him too). Fairly sure I read one that some serious crimes (murder serious) and you are put in house arrest rather than jail (was about 11 years ago I was reading that, coincidence? but my memory might be wrong)

Send the text to 1000 people, if 1 replies then it is working - a numbers game. I reckon after a replying 1 in 100 will give their details enough to be scammed? Send 1,000,000 texts, you get 10 scammed people at what, £5k a time? Better than working for a living? Even at that anyone who replies will be added to the suckers list (don't need to put in your details, single pixel graphic in the message can confirm if you have opened it, a active account). Just need to get the right 'in' to get the suckers details. I treat all unsolicited messages as if I was walking down the street. If I was stopped and asked "You might have paid too much, what are your bank details?"... would I reach for my bank card to give them over? Don't click on the link but go to a computer and type the link into the browser. Note that the displayed text is not necessarily where you get taken to by clicking on the link, get the details that the link points to. Scam.

I understand that but are many fans direct drive now?

Another vote to the slow and steady, and if I can't see the road edges have a think about another route. Engine air intake is at the top of the engine, battery terminals at the top, the only things I can think of lower down that might not like being flooded are alternator and starter and the exhaust. For the starter and alternator these are above the door sills I think in mine, so as long as my feet aren't getting wet should be OK. (However my limit for thinking again is about half wheel height)

Just done the survey and while I am sure the results will influence someone, as you suggest the questions are quite narrow with the answers. "Yes" and "No" answers are quite broad but adding in "Yes, but... " "No, but... " "Yes, but..." "No" answers limits what you can say if you are outside of what they thought off that we might say.

Not sure it would make the land unusable for ever more, or would protect a woodland - see a lot of old cemeteries turned over to parkland, houses or big gardens in converted churches. All the bodies have to be rehoused I believe so that means have to contact relatives for permissions where possible, but they can reuse the land. Trickier though. I might be wrong but a grave is sold as a lease, 100 years I think and then it can be reused no problem, so I suppose getting all the permissions to move a body is mostly that someone else is the lease owner of that grave and you can't do stuff to it while they still are. Natural burials and who would own the ground, if no change of ownership then the land owner could do as they want I think. Ashes far better.

Have to point out that we can't burn supermarket staff. ... I don't think we can burn supermarket staff.... ....can we...?

I'll put another in, 1kg bag of Gram flour in the cupboard that was out of date (but reduced when I bought it) 38p: 360kcal and if the internet works well for me, 9 bags is the same as 1kg silver birch... similar heat to that warehouse kiln dried logs (and also organic so no nastier fumes)

(not sure if I can put a shop name in there, but you know the DIY warehouse store I mean....) Just browsing the internet instead of doing anything productive in my holiday, noticing that a pack of 'kiln dried hardwood logs' are priced at about £2.50 a kg, and then noticed in the shop winter clearance some engineered solid hardwood flooring for an extra £4 a pack and I reckon that is cheaper per kg (reckon a pack of flooring is about 20 to 25kg?). Better value there then, going to burn discounted hard wood flooring this winter...... So to start a thread for a bit of fun, what else can you burn that is better value than a petrol station / DIY store / supermarket pack of kiln dried hardwood? (Noting of course than this is a thread for fun and you should of course follow the manufacturers recommendations and your legal obligations as to what you burn... since we all always do that anyway, not sure why I wrote this sentence).

As above, posting the axe head out might be the way to go. I'd normally always recommend popping in somewhere in person but some of the road trips suggested might be quite a trip (if you want convincing of the finances, my car costs about 25p a mile fuel I think, 4 mile round trip to the £1, courier postage might be £5, so anyone further than 10 miles away (10 there, 10 back) and post would be cheapest option). However I am sure if you get the right handled sent to you you can do it. Noting that I put a new handle on a hatchet this year and really struggled to get a local supplier,

That's just posh mince 'n tatties.... (mince, potatoes, veggies) - though the bramble jelly is a new one to me

London is a long long way from me, I have been there once. Lots of shops if you like that type of thing. However my comment is not on the specifics whether it is right or wrong, but for the occasional visitor there could be a new local rule every time you visit. Might not be an issue in another city but suddenly in the same country, the same car, same set of national rules, you can get fined because of a local rule that only applies in a single city. Either make the rules apply to all, everywhere, or apply to no one. Similarly should apply all other restrictions evenly and fairly to all instead of a single politician going off on a crusade or a whim (here is the chance for the Welsh to jump in with their 20mph speed limits, we should all have that as standard, or none of us should). The last time I drove in London, had to used the Dartford crossing, and pay for that online (no booths to pay), but at the end of a 6 hour journey, no idea of the website to go to. Haven't been back since.

We did this with our Scouts couple of ££ for drop off, a couple more to collect - the village didn't have a council collection, a couple of years at £100 a weekend for the group... and then the council jumped in and did it for free (supply and demand I guess, we showed there was a demand?) The Scouts dismantled the trees and they got burnt - having a chipper would have been a good idea though. If possible get one 'donated' by a local tree surgeon. We did ours in a day and so having a van + logos and chipper parked up on a Saturday would have worked well. As for when - depends how much space you have, which might be the decider, they take up a fair bit of space whole

Aesthetics - it looks better, loads of converted containers out there, loads of knowledge what to do with them, you can buy windows and doors for them, quick and simple to get the internals water tight, logs insulating them from wind, able to insulate under logs, standard sizes and machinery to move them so easy to demonstrate they are temporary structures for planning. I'd be tempted to do similar if I had containers to use semi-permanent domestically

If you are going for a couple more details, if you can get something of the chimey installation above the roof perhaps with a bit of the surroundings in it - any nearby trees, where the roof line is and so on, and approximate height. For the stove itself a reputable brand stove, should work well, if they were known to smoke there would be more questions and over a rane of fire heats. Just one check that the baffle plate is fitted properly - though your sweep would have fitted it as it should have been at leas once in the life of the stove but a quick ckeck only takes a couple of seconds. Last question from me for now, it is a wide door stove, does it smoke into the room continuously or is it smoke dragged into the room as the door is opened and then nothing?

When it comes to draw in the chimney I wouldn't get too hung up about flue temperatures, hot air rises and a candle should create a draw upwards (bit of a tip. if the fire is proper cold - after a weekend winter away for example, I'll burn a couple of sheets of newspaper in there while I bring logs and kindling in just to start the chimney drawing a bit) Temperature is an indication of efficiency of the fire, too cold and slumbering it is inefficient, too hot and again inefficient. Not a perfect measure of course, I bet I could get wet logs and the firebox glowing red hot.

That is pointing more to the chimney (flue / chimney) installation. At the stove end of things, decent clean fire, kept at a decent temperature, plenty of air, nothing in the room to cause a negative pressure into the room. Might need a couple of photos showing how it is installed but I also think that the end result of this thread would be "get an independent installer to have a look" and noting that a lot of sweeps also do installation so a word with them when they do the chimney later in the year to check the installation. However a decent sweep would have highlighted this already if there was a blatant problem. Certainly a taller chimney might help, adds something to the installation to provide firm fixing points

Reading the recent answers - it sounds like you are running the stove well and as you can see, thinking about the installation. Has it always done this? If it is intermittent are there weather conditions that make it worse (noting that we had quite a windy weekend, and then you asked the question....) Chimney height shouldn't make much difference - you get them on narrow boats with a much shorter chimney, but clearance from things around it does (air vortexes and stuff). One thing that came up a few months ago but not applicable here is if you have the room doors shut there night be enough draughts to allow the fire to burn but it is working hard to suck the air in - if the room is sealed, the right weather then the pressure differential can b a problem. So last question for now, do you keep the room door shut?

Apart from that bit of course

Just so much wrong... On the plus side I guess that most will be discarded once the chain gets blunt

This is true, we only have the photos to look at, I guess the OP could come back again with a couple more details and perhaps a couple of closer photos (perhaps the rings that have split). As above, I don't think they have been ripped off based on it being poplar / willow, probably cheaper than running the house on electric heating. If it is something denser / more energy dense then it becomes better value.... however from the photos in the doc. I'm not so sure.