Steven P

so.... new build house sounds like the developers scraped off all the top soil down to the clay. Big impervious patio area Artificial grass - not sure how porus this is but it has a nice big drain hole in the middle for all the rain water to run off into,... which is where the tree is. That's where you are at? My view is that all the rain water isn't going very far and what drainage it can find it is filling up - the tree hole. Looks like you need to add some sort of drainage to take the water away from the garden and not leave it in a hole in the middle - a trench part filled with gravel and then soil on top sloping away and to somewhere suitable to accept it. Are you able to peal back the grass around the perimeter to add drainage in there?

I'd be tempted to take out the palm tree which will give more light to the garden and house, Might need more description of the cracks, are they just cosmetic - like plaster or is it the brickwork cracking

Assaulting a member of the production crew or something like that

If I was going for another petrol saw I'd be going 260 too. If I was replacing the 180 I'd go 36V battery*. Not sure I'd go mains powered, I'd worry about being tied up in cables * Other manufacturers exist...

The Danger of Death label will tell you what it is but yes, it is going to be something in that order, maybe 3.3kV - still enough to cause some 'issues' to the driver, the truck and perhaps the wider local community if you strike it.

Will they let a courier pick them up if you arrange that? They would need to box them up.

You're telling us that the driver wouldn't unload there and looking at the photo that appears to be an obvious reason why. Not really a thing to be arsy about. And in other news today I've just read was the Window Cleaner whose poles got to close to the overhead 33kV line causing a flash over, still in hospital, lost a leg and an arm I think.

Do you have a budget in mind? Second question is would he be cutting firewood all day away from the house (petrol saw), or for short periods of time closer to home (battery saw).

Pole mounted transformer to the left of the log pile in the photo, to the right of the gate another pole - yellow "Danger of Death" sticker on it, looks like 3 insulators on top, also a power line, and though I can't see it I would be guessing that the power lines run from the gate pole to the transformer... and right above the drive.

As a project, you might be able to pick up a spares or repair model and mix and match them together - some spares or repair are "can't be bothered with it", you might get lucky (I have 2 hedge trimmers, both spares or repair, both worked well (one doesn't now since I rebuilt it - a winter project) ). Not sure it is worth a lot spent on new parts but is nice to get something working again.

He'd have to factor in demolishing the house though....

My mortgage is 400 a month, bills less than 100, tax about 100...

One of those great firewood measures, loose stacked while not grammatically correct is used, same as a 'load', 'Tonne Bag', 'Builders bag', if you are selling it and the customers don't come back then the measure / price is all wrong. However on the drive with fresh cut logs it is tightly tacked together, very little movement, when it is ready to burn the stack has a lot more movement, the logs are more loose... loosely stacked

looks right

Got to agree with that. They know their stuff and asked nicely can often get special orders in. I know I am being anal about this..... but how shiny are your work boots in the top pic!! (assume in the workshop you have your boots on)

Defer to the expert here, isn't forced rhubarb grown outside for a year or so and then moved into the forcing sheds to produce the crop? Supermarket rhubarb always looks a bit disappointing to what I can get out the garden.

I am a home user I guess - an occasional bigger tree or larger logs, and the 181 does me fine - still going well 10 years later - but as above and like all machines you need to keep on top of the routine stuff - cleaned (wiped down at least) every chain sharpen, decent oils (home user, for what it costs every so often, this one always gets Stihl stuff), spark plugs as and when and air filters, and it gets started at least once a month even if it has no use... I think where the ebay and similar stuff falls down is never had the routine stuff done (why would you if it is a few logs twice a year), petrol left in the tank evaporating or going stale in the petrol can and the carb left dry for a long time but it is expected to start 2nd pull. For what it is it is a good little saw. But got to appreciate what it is. Having said that, for a home user I think I would suggest a battery saw, a lot more pick up and play. Probably wouldn't recommend a cheap supermarket one though. For the OP I'd be checking the spark plug, is there a spark. If the piston is a little worn or scored it should still go but just be down on power? Are you using new fuel?

You might need a little more than that to sell yourself. For example, do you have any chainsaw tickets / qualifications? Or is it experience from around a farm or even just chopping up your dads firewood pile. Things like diggers, again any qualifications, drivers license (clean or otherwise). Carmarthenshire area... but can you travel freely in that area - car, bike, bus or whatever, or would you need picking up in the mornings. Are you happy to start at the bottom rung, dragging brash, labouring, and use the machinery as and when you get the relevant tickets to use them in a contracting profession? Essentially you are asking someone to give you a few hundred ££ a week on the basis of 26 words? Give them a hand and persuade them why. The folks on here are generally more than happy to help out, but they do need something to go on.

Loads of facebook pages "Scammers", it doesn't take much to ruin a good reputation with 5 minutes of 'revenge'.

I'll second AHPP - even a second hand 'needs a bit of work' forklift is going to be what £3k+ ? A fair investment in what may or may not be a business, so what else do you have that could be used or do you have other uses for new equipment that can also lift bags? Fair bit of garden? not sure of this one, but ride on mower with an attachment?

For the truckers hitch (I was told it was wagoneers hitch, same thing though), it is a pulley system without the pulleys - handy to know. Where the pulling rope doubles back on itself you can often hold that in place with the thumb while you tie it off with the other hand. Anyway point I was going to make, depending on the rope, daisy chaining them together I've found that the first /earlier hitches can double back too tightly and bind the rope if you add more anchored to the same point. If possible I'll have an anchor point for each hitch to so that the pulling end isn't doubled back too tightly. Remembering that the same force applies at each end, I've known a single anchor to pull out before what I to tension fails. Tended to think something like each additional hitch doesn't double the available force due to frictions, only adds something like half as much again. Dead handy though.

Garlic.... I broke one up from the supermarket years ago and planted that - the bulbs have never grown large but I am guessing I have about 50 of them growing just now from that single bulb. However Mrs P doesn't do garlic so it is destined to grow and grow, same with the horseradish, planted a piece from the supermarket and last year dug up a 1m long root - and again, Mrs P doesn't do horseradish (however, Garlic and Horseradish on a Sunday roast.. I can go with that)... same with the gooseberries... anything useful that she likes do nothing (carrots, beetroots, normal potatoes (the weird ones did well)...). I suspect the veggie patch just doesn't like her.

Though to be honest, saying "I did this as an extra subject" sets you ahead of the crowd regardless of where the ££ to pay for it came from, and if the boy is interested now then I think he should be encouraged. Certainly do more courses later in life, but I don't know his aspirations - might be a university or college course when that extra GCSE at 16 will be a bonus to get in.

OK - share might be the wrong word here, but you get what I mean (I'll add English in there too, considering our language has roots in French, German, the Nordic languages and of course Roman - all the people who have come here to live)

Going back to the beginning, I might be wrong but the option is history OR Computer Science / Latin, not take 4 GCSEs in total. The Boy likes all 3 of them. Remembering back to how it worked when I was at School the subjects were in blocks, A, B, C, D.. ..or whatever and you could pick 1 from each block. Not every subject was in every block, I suspect the same applies here.... so History is in the same block as Latin / Computer Science, cannot take all 3 together. So how to do a history course outside of School. Latin: which other languages you learn at school are not so important, French at 16 years old is fine but might be at 50 you work in Spain - however the ability to apply what learnt then is more important and help you learn in future life. Latin shares a lot of stuff with European languages, word structure, common words etc (Romans did that for us), so I would say probably as useful as any other language,