Steven P

Etsy, I have sold a couple of hundred ££ worth this year - all firewood turned into stuff. By the way does anyone want to buy any stuff? No? Oh well, asking on Arbtalk if people wanted wood is a waste of time? What I have found is that fees, they take a flat 10%, plus a listing fee, plus if they feature it on an advert (at their discretion) and it sell there is another 10%... so I count on them taking 20%. What I make is small stuff, Royal Mail small parcels at £4 a time, which can be another 10 to 20%. Then there are incidental costs to me - wood finishes (varnish, oil, wax), packing and so on which are harder to cost per item, and of course tools (got to count for them, they will need to be replaced). So finances, I think taking 50% of the sales price as cash into my pocket is reasonable. E-Bay is similar, a bit cheaper but not a lot. The platforms do advertise, so you don't need to do that so much. What I do is just for fun. They are a congested market, got to find a niche, but a niche market isn't popular. My gran isn't going to want a hand cart, be tricky Christmas present too (however the owl should sell?). A niche market can be more profitable (I have 2 similar lines, one is a niche, one competes with mass produced from India and China, niche adds 25% extra just because). Last word from my experience is I am avoiding international sales like the plague just now. Wooden projects and have to check each country import laws (US for example needs heat treated certified wood... apparently), but for what I have sold, 4 international orders, one got as far as the front door and delivery driver just gave up and went home, 1 was lost completely and replaced (FOC) - a £25 product gone, plus another lot of postage and the last I screwed myself with the postage (made 20p in a £35 order!). So I am going to stick with it, make projects for fun, and if they sell they sell but I am not banking on paying the mortgage off it.

So the vermiculite chips around the chimney are to keep the liner hot, the tar won't cool and condense as much and leads to a cleaner chimney (plus fewer nasty chemicals on the liner it could last longer). Often seams to me that the stove industry tells us a lot how to burn wood efficiently and send that heat straight up and out (insulated bricks, heat stays in fire box, insulated chimney, heat stays in that). Insulated chimney doesn't do a lot for house heating. Our master bedroom has the chimney breast and uninsulated chimney it can get nice and warm - never had a problem with that room being cold. I think heat going through the register plate will help heat the chimney brickwork so you get benefit higher up, and noting that I think both ends should be reasonably sealed - so convection currents don't go straight up and out. It is a thought I had before, was going to put a lower plate in nearer the base of the lintel to reduce that void a bit but as above the hot air there is a bit of a heat sink for late evenings, and the fan helps too. Insulation... one test I did once was throw a load into the fire - solid (polystyrene and phenolic type), sheeps wool, rockwool and glass fibre. The Rockwool was fairly stable, then glass fibre which melted quicker, sheeps wool burnt and the solid type burn quite nice. Probably OK to use Rockwool near the liner, might leave a gap though just in case. The reason for burning it? Traditional layout semi- house with 1 stair case, insulating under the suspended floors, and I didn't want anything that would be a raging fire in case of a problem - we still need to escape. We have rock wool under the house, and no solid insulation below the bedroom ceilings height. So might be you can pour vermiculite down the chimney if you want some insulation there?

I've had a few insects in the past and think Moth would probably be best in a mix rather than neat, furry bellies might not be so good (spiced ants are good by the way - think ant + smoked paprika)

I thought that national defence is still under control of the individual countries involved? So all is good with the EU and Italy (and would have been good also if we were still in and collaborating with that the Commonwealth - Canada, Australia et al)

A tip I learnt from steam engine boilers... never touch the handles! I'll use the poker for that

Oh, no, I can do 5 a day.... (6 and emptying the whole box would just be greedy)

Always been my way of thinking about it too. If I can easily identify the source, it is good "xyz comes from abc" (Beef comes from a Cow, flour from wheat, sugar from sugar beat, Aspartame comes from the errr....errr....)

Vegetarian and vegan food isn't always brilliant for you, can still have the same fats, sugars, salts, and so on, and can be a lot more processed than a lump of meat

Did you look under the sofa, when my boys lose something it is often there. Apart from the TV remote, I'm looking for my TV remote in the Glasgow area anyone? What you might do is give a hint what type of wood and where in Essex, collection, delivery, how many cords, you know, the other little details that stop others asking these same questions. I assume for firewood purposes, but maybe not?

Likewise, I prefer to have a few kinds of wood.

Because it has worked so well for smokers for the past few decades...... Can't fix it, tax it.

If it is wet ground I would consider that more than the species perhaps, 100 middle ground trees not thriving or 100 fast growing water loving trees thriving? Wet loving trees - Alder, silver birch as above, and if willow and hazel are going well why not stick to what you know does well?

Trying to work out how you would bend a bar lengthways then. Into the wood and not going straight down but a very gentle curve maybe? With the lever probably applying enough pressure to bend the bar? maybe? Left to right bend of right to left would suggest the direction of the curve but my head is hurting trying to work out which way it is bending

Yes, that is going to be a problem in about 15 years - the UK population is predicted to fall, and of course the fall will start from the bottom upwards leading to an aging population (same too with most of Europe). The solutions are not popular though, increase the retirement age to return our retirement length to about 5 to 10 years, pay more into the system in taxes, import young workers (who can work and pay taxes), or cut services and maintenance of the country (like roads and so on)

which direction is the bend? top to bottom or lengthwise?

I might add.... it is a long time since I had a school meal - the systems have changed since then

Yup, if they got an increase in budget to cover the meals then all is good. My thoughts on this is that you know 63 get free school meals, probably could identify which ones too, don't think we should be able to do this. At secondary school the 'free' meals got tokens, we paid in cash and knew who was 'poor' - I think this is an added pressure to kids that can be avoided by keeping payment or not discrete from the children. If the catering staff are there and paid for regardless, the kitchen is there and paid for anyway, then the cost of a meal is just the cost of the food? So the paid for meals can be 'at cost' - and all can get a school meal (parents pay, school pays, state pays, however)? Economies of scale should make a school lunch cheaper than you can make at home.

£52,000 on drugs!! So that's got your attention... but it is the system we have, free at the point of use, the premise of the national health service, as a society we club together to help each other out in their times of need. If £1k a month in drugs - free at the point of use - is too much then where do you stop? Very soon you'll be suggesting that the NHS becomes a pay-to-go service. If you can afford it you get treated, if not, well, you can just die.

Never convinced that keeping it by the fire is a good thing by the way, OK once in the fire it is more efficient but you still loose that heat energy evaporating the water in the log that is next to the fire.... and all that water vapour makes the house damp or goes up the chimney anyway. Yes, been so wet that the logs are re-abosorbing the moisture, usually it is just surface moisture now, dries up with 2 clear days and some wind.. but yes, they are more wet this year

I knew a policeman who used to get his snacks from the pharmacist on his beat - he reckoned that the shop emptied in about a minute when he walked in! Up here we get them for free, always feels like I am stealing when they just give me stuff (hay fever tablets, paracetamol, and so on)

Was that the one Pam Ayres was on? She sounds all sweet and innocent,...

I can't understand why governments can't own a company out right, but why they can't own that company as a profitable company. Lets say they bought all of National Grid, it makes a profit, keep the regulators with the same power... and the profits... straight back to the treasury instead of to some rich American insurance company. Could do the same and set up a wind farm company, profits back to the us, or perhaps set up a solar panel manufacturer, make no profit but we can buy them cheap for our homes (and with that, deliver their net zero carbon stuff) I don't understand why they can't use our taxes as investments and make more money

... absolute power corrupts absolutely.... Totalitarian regimes, left, right, centre, with not opposition have never come out right. However when I rule the world it will be different

Immigration.. when it comes to that... The UK population is an aging population, more people than ever retiring and living longer, the burden on the 'natives' to care for them will increase. The UK population (the 'natives') is also a declining population, few people born than die, in a few years fewer and fewer young people supporting more and more old people. The pensions model that did work needs readjusting else pensioners will get nothing worthwhile... and so we need immigrants to feed into the work and tax system to keep the pension system alive.. anyway, point of this is that it is all an integrated system, change one part radically and another will be greatly affected too. Going back to a recurring theme of mine, the houses that they are building now, the ones that makes the builders lots of profit, are not the ones that are needed, but they are the one needed by the powerful band of voters..... My gran doesn't want to live in a 5 bedroom executive home and an acre of grass to cut, but is tied up in one cause there is nothing to move into. My children want to buy a property but can't afford a new build executive home, and what there are prices increase till they can't afford anything. Both ends of the scale need something smaller, with transport links, local shops, community facilities, perhaps a church but as far as I see none of that is being built and the market stagnates. To move you have to offer more than the other guys, prices rise.

There are loads of ways to readdress the housing market, but nearly all of them will get the politicians sacked at the next election, and this is the over riding consideration with all national projects... will it be good in the next 4 years to a general election, not the next 25 to 30. (limit mortgage borrowing (to 6x salary)(demand will say "We want to buy your house, but this is the top price"), extend mortgage terms, offer tax breaks for first homes, make starter homes more future proof - don't need to move to a bigger home at 2 children, tax green field developments more and use that to subsidies the new owners (not developers) of smaller homes, solar panels on every house (make living there cheaper), 2 storey flats instead in 4 storey blocks, more busses to reduce need for a parking spot with every home, tax profits on any sale within 5 years of purchase to deter empty investment properties, set up more tax efficient saving schemes for house deposits... however I can't see any of these ideas being popular with the typical Conservative voter or the same voter who Labour are wanting to tempt)