Steven P

However, all might not be lost, once the flu if hot (hot enough for any potential acids to not condense on it), then you might be able to burn a mix, have a bed of anthracite as a base heat and logs on top to keep the fire going - at least till you use up the coal you have. As above a little experimenting with the fuels you have will get you a nice fire going. I've also used smokeless coals similarly, about 3-1 mix smokeless to anthracite to use it up. (alternative might be an angle grinder to the grate to give a better air flow, but not sure anyone would recommend that, it will lower your wood burning efficiency a bit)

I'll just take the stove out then and have an open fire. Fuel will burn at 1/4 of the efficiency, I'll use 4 times more and emit 4 times the pollution.

Anthracite is a bit of a specialist coal, it needs a good air flow and a decent start. I have 2 fires, the stove multifuel grate has half way between coal and a flat bed sized gaps, sort of best of neither but it will burn wood Ok and it will burn house coal or smokeless OK... but not enough airflow for anthracite. Upstairs is a traditional open fire, the grate has larger gaps and anthracite will burn on that. It is never a roaring fire, more a steady burn - with the blue flames. On larger steam engines, much better air flow and the fire box is a lot hotter generally and anthracite is good on them. Right to your problem them. Ignore the sulphur thing, it is only really an issue if it condenses in the chimney as an acid (sulphuric acid?), as a gas it will go up and out. If the chimney is warm you'll be OK. Get a good wood fire going to start, you can try making a bed of coal and lighting the fire on top or you can try wood fire and adding coals on top of that, both ways should work. You need a decent heat in there to get the coals to light - letting the wood nearly burn out will be too cold. I found it works best with a thin bed (not a thick load of coal) but you do need to add more coal more often. If at bed times you have a decent red / orange fire going then you can bank it up a bit for overnight. As above, keep the grate clear of ash, riddle it ever so often to keep the air flowing. Not a lot of volatile gasses from Anthracite, so it works better with more lower air than top air

Main roads it is off the back of a truck, on the side roads it is dumped out of a parked car window, MuckyDs style. This week seen it where lots of wind blows all the little stuff about - so it looks like loads of domestic waste but that has just been blown from hedgerows on the smaller roads - around here anyway (I littler picked my road before this weeks storms, spotless, after the storms and I don't think I should have bothered - all wind blown)

If only there was some sort of mower thing that could be swung out the back of a tractor, say 1/2m to 1m over the grass verge and cut a strip at 30mph. Leave the bit in the middle for the wildlife

Which I think is the point. If the employer is willing to stand in a court of law to prove that the employee was suitably trained and is certified to say so, then the employer could issue any certification that they want to, or use any other organisation to do the training and certification. I don't think there are many employers out there who would be willing to do that. Goes back to who is going to ask awkward question after an accident, I would say the insurers would and the HSE. HSE are going to be as vague as the regulations as to the training standard and certificates, but the insurers should be able to say what the minimum they would accept is, and that is what I would use for a groundskeeper (as a minimum)

It is like most health and safety requirements out there regardless of the industry. Very little set in stone along the lines of "You must be qualified with this or that ticket", but a little more vague "suitably qualified", "experienced", "competent" and so on with no minimum requirements. If you could get one to do this, a local tree surgeon watching the groundskeepers fell a tree, and then issue a certificate of competence complies with the regulations, if the employer and employee are happy with that.... Not sure I would want to work for them though. Not sure the insurers would either. Golf courses, lots of trees, lots of groundkeepers, I reckon this is not a unique case or question to ask, but for insurance purposes a call to their insurers might be the way to go.

Not a surprise, when Elizabeth was still going strong - several years back - I could have predicted she'd live till her 90's, and them predicted that Charles wouldn't get the job till well into retirement age and getting on towards average UK life expectancy. Not hard to predict that his reign won't be a long one. I'd have said a few years ago that 10 or 15 years which isn't that long for a monarch really. William will be monarch for 30 to 40 years, so will his boy afterward. No psychic abilities to predict that just maths.

I was going to post in making the news today, but not sure if there is an immanency. Harry and Beatrice have popped in to see him, which might be Charles passing off some duties to lighten his workload as he recovers. William hasn't been reported to be flying in to see him yet, and there is no stream of minor royals passing by either. Suspect he'll be making 'promotions' to their duties and Harry will come back to take on some role or other

Just making assumption here but there was a quote that he thought the government ban was "stupid", he says he didn't believe the government. Or the many press reports recently of this breed attacks. I shouldn't judge on appearances and the photo the press found but...... 'Some of the puppies' were still in the house, so others had been sold on, which at what, £1000 a pop explains the bling at least. Suspect he was a breeder. I might add my opinion... As for the breed of dog, what I had read was that most of the XL bullies have the same father or grandfather (or both) which is reputed to be a bit unstable even for this breed - an American - something like 90% has its DNA. The look of the dog and power doesn't suggest Mrs Miggins as owners, but someone who wants a status symbol (noted we've seen all the press reports, a lady saying "these dogs are harmless" yet the man who wants the status symbol is kept out of shot, the photo above might be why....). They are a new breed, new breeders who are breeding for the look and not the temperament. If we want dogs to live in a human world we need to breed them so that they can, and train them the same, otherwise we are just breeding them to be put down prematurely. Seen so many recently - since about lockdown that are aggressive and poorly trained, the wrong breed for the owner and accommodation that when they get to the park all they want to do is chase, run, and get rid of built up aggression. Which puts everyone at risk. We don't want to be adding a new aggressive breed into this mix

Another comment to the OP.... not every tree surgeon uses the tip site, but a quick google map search shows a firewood company on the same screen as your house, I'd bet they are paying for their wood, which might be a reason. Get some beer tokens on offer, not all tree surgeons want ££ (cash kind of works but you need some handy all the time just in case, cheques and a trip to the bank might wipe out all the time savings of coming to yours to tip), but in an area where everyone wants logs for free, the ££ sign might help you stand out. How much? Up to you to make an assessment on what unprocessed logs are worth - take the going rate for logs delivered, take off the profit margin, delivery costs, storage cost, yard rent for processing, processing machinery, kiln drying / seasoning the wood, wages and all the other costs and then you get the sort of base level of worth a load of wood, and what you might want to offer. Might not have to be ££, (or even could be a token amount), many stories of people giving away beers, coffee, cakes, biscuits or even ice creams. Last load I got was coffee at the local cafe and some craft things made out of the wood EDIT Forgot.... add in a beer for Steve, he sounds parched.

I reckon there could be a couple of things in this. First is you are not guaranteed to be given anything for free, signing up to a listing is not a contract to be given stuff. Second thing you might do is type "Wokingham" in the tip site search, a quick search just then suggest that there are a lot of other tip sites near you. On the flip side, tree surgeons will look for a tip site if the job is away from their local area, locals will usually use what they always use. Might be in a congested tip site area your site hasn't been the closest one to tree surgeons working outside their usual area. Final thing is that the tree belongs to the customer. Unless it is very valuable the tree surgeon will take it away as a service, but a lot more people recently are assuming they logs are valuable and keeping the wood - there is less to be tipped (not necessarily true, the value in logs is added in the processing, storage, drying and delivery of firewood)1 So yes it does work, it works often at the discretion of the tree surgeons not the home owner, but you might not get enough to heat your home for free by only putting a listing on the tip site

f'king immigrant birds!.....

A weed is only a flower in the wrong place. Right about the membrane, mums new place has it (soon to be gone), the roots have grown through it, all she can do now it trim off the green bits every few weeks. Have to scrape off the slate, cut out the membrane, pull up the weed to do any more (and at her age, bending to weed is out). In the right place I'd say it has its uses. For example a small garden where a lawn mower is as large as the grass area put stones down and planters, maintenance would be weed killer and blast every living thing there.

Not a fan of lifeless new build identikit pig-ugly houses, for the garden though I'd also factor in that it might not all be soil under the turf - left over bricks, cement, all sorts, usually a thin top soil - from round here that all gets scrapped off the plot first thing, and the slop suggests to me heavy machinery driven all over the garden to create that.. so perhaps factor in a little extra digging time and perhaps something for compacted poor soil.

War is very profitable.

Shhhhh, some of the members are like Beatlejuice, speak their names 3 times.....

In those terms they were both tolerated for that reason, when things went out of control a bit they were removed.

Yup!! Do you live near me? Got it spot on

Meee Meee Meee Meee Meee Meee

Happy to be corrected but the trees arn't going to be dropping branches all the time, mostly they will stay as they are, you should notice which trees are suffering in time to make an assessment of what to do.... chances of something falling onto one your boys is probably remote. It is a chance I'd consider if I had a good offer of a woodland. Other factors such as the cost of manging the ash die back might come into play more.

It is not necessarily a bad thing to be different mentally to others. Given the right guidance, as the link suggests, can be very successful. Many very successful people would also be diagnosed as psychopaths (just not criminally minded), I think Richard Branson is one - and am not going to US politics, but he is too.

Nothing. Arbtalk cannot concentrate on the original topic for 4 pages, you should know that by now!

Waste of time when they are that young.

Autism and the jab - Autism tends to start showing itself at about 18 months, the first measles jab is at 15 months, people put 2 and 2 together to fond a reason. As far as I know there is no scientific link (other half has a couple of degrees in psychology, and children being her speciality, so I'll trust her opinion over google and facebook). More of it or less of it? I know kids who are autistic, some are so blatant that I can spot them, others not so and the 'not so' would just get through schooling and learn to adapt, lead a productive adult life - in some industries it is an asset in fact! (other half came off the phone today to a computer programmer "He is so autistic"... and that was on the phone yet his product going to make thousands). It is a spectrum - from barely noticeable to Steven can notice them too. Suspect that the increase is a lot to do with it being easier to spot at the mildest end of the spectrum.