petercb

Hmmm. Well I took my pension money when I could as my final salary scheme went pop and also basically brought my company down as well. If you remember the talk was about people getting their money and buying Lambos. Having suffered the extortionate fees levied by our pension managers well if anyone was gonna have a Lambo with what was left of my pension (thank god for the FAS) it was gonna be me! Didn't buy a Lambo put it into property which we had started doing when my company was struggling. We buy modernish properties which require refurbishing. New bathroom, new kitchen usually, new carpets and decorate throughout nothing fancy. We let at reasonable rent preferably to families and while most just pay monthly after referencing we have taken people with bad credit ratings who are up front about it and put 3 - 6 months rent up in advance. The vast majority of our tenants have either owned their own property and can't handle it or don't want to take on the commitment. Most are okay, some are great and some are have been b******s. We don't get close to tenants but as my wife quotes "we've fed kids, cats, done the washing up, cleaned the place and ran relationship or financial guidance sessions". We're not perfect but we try to help where we can. If we weren't renting places out I don't know where most of our tenants would be as they mainly couldn't or wouldn't buy and the local councils/housing associations are snowed under. We're not all scum and neither are all tenants but its gutting when you walk into a property which was clean, well decorated and homely and its been neglected or abused and you have to start over plus the tenant lies their head off about the state of the place when they took it on despite photos to the contrary. On the other hand we've got some lovely tenants who have improved the property and look after it as if it were their own BUT it is THEIR HOME and that's how we play it. As for the bombardment of unsolicited letters from letting agents saying kick your tenants out and we'll get you more money - straight in the bin. The rent money obviously pays for repairs, insurance etc but the balance goes back into buying another place and providing a nice home for people who need it. If we get wiped out by a 40 ton truck one day our tenants have the security of a couple of years before executors can sell up plus first refusal on purchasing at a good discount. In a perfect world everyone could have whatever home they wanted no problem and England would thrash the Aussies at cricket every time. So we're not all rogues with angels for tenants and like arborists there are good and bad examples and we usually only hear about the bad. Letting ain't easy, you hand the keys over to a stranger on something worth nigh on £170k and hope! If you would spend your life worrying about it - don't do it. Think I might write a book about it one day but no-one would believe half of it.

+1

Can I have first dibs at checking how secure that load is? Alright I'll join the back of the queue.

I suppose next you'll be telling us she drinks too much and ends up legless!

Erbauer excellent quality and value Two year warranty. Drill and impact driver set really good. https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-eri742kit-18v-2-0ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill-impact-driver-twin-pack/9478T?tc=IB6&ds_kid=92700022882492560&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1244066&ds_rl=1249796&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249484&gclid=CjwKCAjwsfreBRB9EiwAikSUHUhi91e_Vbip9-phx64opDVwoV6RW1eKE62SWgC4mdtxZDBfLkRglBoCDJYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

What a lot of tosh so I have a stihl chainsaw and have had the handover by the dealer and now I can't buy an air filter without another safety lecture? Or am I missing something?

Finding the spindle in flower in our wood. Sorry about the poor photos.

Great PR from Stihl piss off your regular repeat order customers. Mind you domestic market is probably much larger than the pro.

Wonder if the Belgian Air Force have a 'you break it you pay for it' in their employment conditions!

Was just about to ask the same question as saw it on birch in wood yesterday. thanks for the interesting info.

So how many of you would feel OK if next time you visited the dentist the guy said that he'd bought some gear off a certain auction site and he'd watched others doing it and the training's all crap anyway so nothing to worry about who needs certificates. Yeah right f***ing big strides down the road! I learn useful things on here to add to my knowledge and experience and learnt some new skills on my training course but as much as anything I feel good that I've tried to improve my skills. Why not have some pride in having your tickets and being a professional? Right tin hat time I think lol.

From PUWER While the ACOPs are not law, they were made under section 16 of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSW Act) and so have a special status, as outlined in the introduction to the PUWER ACOP: 'Following the guidance is not compulsory and you are free to take other action. But if you do follow the guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law. Health and safety inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to this guidance as illustrating good practice So if you don't follow the code of practice then you would have to convince an inspector that what you do is as good as or better. Good luck with that one! Over and out.

PUWER Approved Code of Practice top of page 34 and if you don't follow that then you had better be able to show an extremely good reason why not. Had dealings with HSE when young and green a discussion was ended with the words "Either do it my way or I issue an immediate prohibition notice" Code of Practice not technically law but issued under HSAW Act so basically as good as.

No if you have not been trained you will be in breach of Health and Safety at Work Act and also PUWER. Quite clear on the HSE site I linked in my previous post and the use of chainsaws leaflet you can download from that site.

The definitive word from HSE - as Dirty Harry said do you feel lucky? http://www.hse.gov.uk/treework/safety-topics/chainsaw-operator.htm

Our woodland is a PAWS with mainly Norway and corsican but with a lot of Elm and Ash. Don't fell much above 450mm max. and that's rare, mainly 200 to 300mm. I run a husky 450e and stihl 251 both with 16" bars plus a stihl 026 with an 18" bar for the bigger stuff, never needed anything bigger. My instructor when I trained advised keeping saw and bar as small as possible otherwise you were lugging weight around for the sake of it. My saws go through dead Elm of 200mm in seconds and not new chains. We have 129 acres and I manage it single handed other than boss lady helping with bonfires, planting and sedge grass mowing. Have to say sooooo lucky to have escaped from manufacturing management to a life in the wood even if only part time.

Pity it didn't fall a bit straighter - a mangled chipper and truck would have been karma.

Will take some more pictures over the next day or two thanks

On an old Elm stump not up on fungi so don't know what it is not seen it before in the wood

Concentrate on the arb and forestry first and get some practical experience as well. Brexit may well affect where you can work anyway. If you learn a language now it will probably be the wrong one for you in two or three years time. Pick up the basics easily enough but the technical terms are the hard part. Japan is a fascinating country to visit but I found the people very polite but totally ignored any requests for information etc. Also English not widely spoken or understood. Plus still a male dominated society! Good luck with it all and I hope you live your dreams.

B) MS 661 C-M Only a rough guess of course, think that I'll enter two more times with the other saws just in case.

NFU do insurance for our farm buildings some of which are just pole barns with corrugated sheeting.

Mine is an 09 rising 150k lots of dings and dents but hardly any rust. Drive shaft oil seal only repair needed - so just your luck by the sound of things. Will probably go bang tomorrow! LOL

Main thing is to make sure any PPE you use is comfortable, suitable for use and you use it! Also no gloves or other PPE will offer full protection. Most important thing is training in safe use and operation of a chainsaw, they are potentially lethal and even pros have been seriously injured or even been killed by them, recent post on here about a climber killed working with a chainsaw. Don't assume 'just cutting a bit of firewood' makes it any safer, saw chain at full power is going at over 17 metres per second. Presume you have other PPE as well? Cringe when I see people using saws in trainers, jeans and no face/eye protection. My advice is go and have a look at a choice as like the other guys have said some gloves are awful on grip I had some Oregon's that looked similar - grip was awful, kicking around in the garage somewhere now. HSE chainsaw use link http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg317.pdf

Have you checked vent hole in oil cap is not clogged? If that's OK and oil passages are definitely clear then there is a fault so return it to Screwfix. Had an air leak develop on one of the Titan petrol hedge cutters replaced no problem or hassle. Don't forget it's a 24 month warranty.