Mr. Ed

No plans, but I'm very interested because oddly we have a very healthy 1 acre plantation of it - only ten years old but going like a train. It was planted quite widely here in Ireland recently (as well as thriving on river banks and hedgerows and so on). It seems that its principal virtue is that it's easy to work and fairly light in weight. It's neither strong nor durable, which is why it typically has such a bad reputation. I'd love to find a use for it in our house restoration we're having a go at - it seems like joinery is the best hope - it's too soft to use as floorboards. Come to think of it our architect has just specified vertical tongue and groove (very tight so you can hardly see the lines) for the interior walls instead of plasterboard, and it might work very well for that if we could get enough of it together. Because there's quite a lot of it in a similar stage as ours, there is some work going on to try and find markets for it here - Exploitation of small diameter alder - Teagasc | Agriculture and Food Development Authority WWW.TEAGASC.IE

Baby's first hardwood: a 2 metre length of hedgerow oak. I tried to clean the bark as much as I could, but obviously not enough. Stair treads for our rebuild, here we come. (I hope).

What use do you have in mind for the alder, if you don't mind my asking? I have a couple of fair-sized ones in my inbox.

Understood. Very overstood. And I assume they would indeed be very wonky, sticking out like daffodils in a bunch. Lots of first rate firewood though I assume. I won't complain about my weekend work, which is trying to get as much firewood out of our 10 year old ash plantation before it all gets mulched and replanted. Being done under Ireland's Reconstitution Scheme. Six inches at best.

How big is big?

Lovely photos Idiot! Nice to see you made it through the winter.

Fred is still smoking but he’s a good worker.

Herself has just come in from a therapeutic session in the shed turning a bit of spalted birch, and has had the joy of seeing these wonderful unfaded colours. Like a fresh mackerel (well not much like a fresh mackerel in fact but you may get my drift).

Thank you for all this lovely tree totty Mr. Rough - very enjoyable How quickly do these beautiful colours fade? Days, weeks, months, years? Or not at all if you use some special unguent? I have a feeling you're going to say that they all sell the day after you mill them, so you don't know!

let's try this compressed one. incompetent workman.mp4

hmm, that vid don't work

The ceremonial opening of my compost bin was compromised by an incompetent tractor driver. My wife’s laugh is particularly cheering. IMG_1358.MP4

I’m slowly getting the hang of steering this thing and I still have both thumbs. Whoever said they smoke a lot was right - it’s no good for my asthma...

But sadly naming rights have gone to this chap, who paid for it. Fred it is. Fred the forkéd ford. For fook's sake.

Fork Handles we'll be needing then.

And we paid 4,000 for it . . . (Euros, mind)

Oh and we bought this, the mill, a lathe and all the apparatus (herself is now a mad keen turner as well as potter) and some other woodland toys by selling a family heirloom - a painting by her ggrandfather who was one of the first generation to paint the Australian outdoors as it is, and not as a version of the Home Counties. Fred McCubbin was his name so the tractor is Fred. Fred the Ford. It’s slightly against nature - to sell a lasting cultural good (these things don’t wear out) to buy machinery, but he specialised in woodland scenes and would very much have approved of our mission here (that overstates the case, but forgive me). And she has another one of them ...

I think those after market kits use the loader mounting bracket slots so might be difficult to use together. Also I’m such a muppet with machines I’d need to pay someone to install it. I’ll probably break my thumbs first, put my back out, demolish a couple of small walls, and then get it done later! In the meantime I’m getting a transport box today and will try loading it up with boulders to see how it helps. Any ideas on how best to pick up big sticks of wood with the loader? Slings and chains? Big tongs? The bucket spikes are clearly not going to be strong enough for much above brash.

IMG_1167.MP4 Khriss - that is a top tip. Thumbs inside wheel. The way it felt the first time I drove it I thought I’d need a block a tackle to turn it but it’s a bit better already. I see people offer add on power steering to them - anyone have any experience? And yes I think the Massey does have that second clutch thingy. one weird thing is that if you turn the starter key past setting 2 you get a great bang and the lights go off! 1 is fine; 2 starts it, but 3 makes you think you’ve killed it for good.

The little chap arrived yesterday. I hadn’t realised how heavy the steering is, but I dare say I’ll learn how. I will try using the dung spikes (is that what they’re called, or are they silage spikes) to move smallish timber but will probably have to use straps for bigger bits. Do people who can’t afford grapples ever use big tongs on loaders? On the subject of other toys I’ve been learning to use the mill by cutting up Leylandii to make compost bins. Apart from breaking my back by hopping up and down each pass it’s going alright - I’m only using wee bits rather than ruin substantial sticks.

So they set up the wee bridges for the muskelids (is that right?) to concentrate their traffic? And then place the traps there? Cunning.

I can’t contribute much to this clutch-bag of mechanical heroics except to find one side of the handbrake of the Suzuki jeep (all 4wd vehicles here are indiscriminately jeeps) seized on. Hitting it hard on the outside did the job, but not before I’d managed to move quite a long way sideways.

What I really wanted (but it was a long way away and I couldn’t view it) was a real value for money outlier - a Universal 4wd for about the same money. Abandoned Italian tooling, built in Romania. Apparently impossible to kill. But we went mainstream - easy parts and easy fixing.

Good spot. Yes I think you’re right - the one here is missing its tines and I see they’re quite substantial. It’s probably too needy for me at the moment - I have my hands full.

On the subject of 3 point forklifts a Hyster has just come up locally for a few hundreds. It looks like a pile of metal sticks and hasn’t been used in years. Needs forks. Any good?