paul1966

I've been registered on the tip site for about 2 years, out of the blue today a get a call from someone working locally and wanted to tip some ash. within an hour I had over a ton of ash dropped on the drive for £30, so it does work if you are lucky. as already said a bit of payment too does help.

for those that sweep their own chimney what rods do you use, its a bit of a mine field looking on google with reviews saying the rods damaged the liner.

spent most of today splitting some up, it actually splits quite well so I could easily split it into small pieces but is quite dense compared with the softwood I have, just need a good summer now I guess.

Thanks, it is an emergency supply just depends how fast we get through what I already stacked. just hope it splits easy.

Just had a delivery of pear logs to split and season, looking online I can only find mainly American sites where they say the seasoning time is 6-9 months. If I split it into reasonably small pieces is this time scale realistic?

My dad does have savings above the limit you mention so we are having to pay for all the care he is getting. To be fair the care home he is in is more or less brand new and is more like a posh hotel, having said that at 1300 a week it should be.

We arranged respite care as we have to sort out what he needs to enable him to stay at home, he could not be left alone. I do not know if social services have been in touch, the emergency carers were not too good, one came one evening when dad was already in bed so they decided he did not need a carer in the evening, we got the impression they wanted to do the least they could. When i say live in carer i mean that when dad is back home there is a carer in the house day and night to keep an eye on him.

some background info, dad has been living on his own with no problems until last week, he is 92 and a bit wobbly walking now, he fell at home and was took into hospital overnight, he was sent home the next day without a care package which we now know he should have had set up by the hospital. The next day he fell again, again an ambulance attended after waiting 7 hours, they assessed him and said he was ok to stay at home but they did set up a care package that day which meant the following day we had emergency carers 3 times a day. He was given walking aids but refused to use them! we set up web cams to keep an eye on him and we saw him try to walk unaided and fall again. At this point we knew he could not be left alone as he was not using the walking frame and would fall again, we needed to do work on the bathroom so using building work as the excuse he agreed reluctantly to go into respite for two weeks, he does want to return home and asks every day when is he going to go home. Hence we now need to find a live in carer to stop with him so he is not alone at night. All this is new to us as up until last week every thing was ok and as we want to get him home asap we need to get something set up.

Has anyone experience with live in carers, my dad is currently in a private nursing home due to having repeated falls at home, we don't think he will be safe on his own especially at night, the carer industry is a bit of a minefield anyway and it seems live in carers even more so. The agencies seem to pay the carers they hire about £700 per week but the agencies charge the clients £1300. At the minute we are a bit lost really.

Just watched the before and after video of when the storms hit on youtube, they were certainly hit hard but I'm sure they will recover from it. You can see the video here if interested- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV0MbciohT0

The X25 arrived today, had a quick go before it got dark, first impressions are - its a lot lot sharper than the maul , the handle being hollow doesn't look very strong but I am sure its stronger than it looks, it cut's very very well, i was a bit concerned about the length of it when i unboxed it with me being 6ft tall but it feels very comfortable to use and if anything being a bit shorter I seem be be more accurate in placement than before. Very pleased with it so far, just need to get another load of wood delivered now.

that's good to know about the X25, i was torn between the 25 & 27 but amazon don't stock the 27 so i went for the 25 in the end.

I have just ordered a X25 from amazon to replace the roughneck maul i got from screwfix, hopefully it will be a big improvement.

Thanks all, 4mm file has been ordered, Trousers gloves and mesh visor arriving tomorrow.

Looking for soft or hardwood , space to tip on drive way

I am looking at buying a sharpener as well, the one i have linked, the chain on my saw is 3/8LP pitch and 1.3 mm gauge but I cant work out what size i need to select , can anyone advise? Stihl chainsaw filing kit in tool roll – FR Jones & Son WWW.FRJONESANDSON.CO.UK

Thanks Rob, looking at the chainsaw trousers in your link, i am a 38 waist do you think a large would fit, they have a sizing chart on the site but its not opening for me.

Thanks I'll take that on board and reduce thickness of logs for the other half

I think it was just a lack of concentration really, i was using a saw horse with a clamp on the end to hold the saw, i was struggling cutting a log due to the blunt chain so i lifted the saw to rotate the log and at the same time the log went to fall off the end of the table so i went to grab it and just touched the chain as it was stopping.

I have looked at sharpeners but there are so many different types its a bit of a minefield, can anyone recommend one that's not overly expensive?

made a start splitting logs today, lessons learned - splitting logs is hard work but good fun, the wood grenade and a sledge hammer make a good combo, blunt chainsaws are probably more dangerous than sharp ones, it was only a graze but lessons learned and a new chain is coming tomorrow. Still a lot to split but I'll do a bit each day.

finally finished then log store today, now just need to get it filled.

i wasn't planning too but now you have mentioned it i'll see what wood i have left and see if i can do it

Ok thanks for that, i arranged the pallets so mines 3ft deep and 8ft wide. Finished doing the cutting today and started staining the wood, i need to get some felt for the roof then its finished.

How deep is your log store, the one i am building will be my main one but i am not sure on the depth, i was thinking about 3ft so i can get about three logs end to end to maximise storage but looking online most are 600mm deep.