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? 

8 minutes ago, headgroundsman said:

Care provided by social services is chargeable after a means test. Roughly speaking if you have more than £23500 savings then he will need to pay for all his care needs privately. You need to get him assessed for a care plan asap. It is not unusual for care plans to be set up in hospitals but i only know about people that have been in for many months  due to spinal cord injury, Speak to CAB

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.

17 minutes ago, john87 said:

ok,, Well you have been right royally bullshitted to..

 

First, the hospital would not devise a care plan, but they WOULD have wanted to be satisfied that he was being discharged to a safe environment.. They would have asked him and he presumably told them he was. They would have no reason to doubt this unless they suspected that he "lacked capacity" [MCA and all that]

 

Did you tell the hospital that he was going to live with you on his discharge??

 

Second time he was admitted, the hospital obviously contacted social services would would have done an emergency assessment, hence the carers..

 

Now,

 

1, who arranged the respite care??

 

2, What is stopping him simply leaving and walking out??

 

3, where are social services now?? You need to be contacting them a bit sharpish as YOU do not need to do anything, THEY do though Your dad needs a proper S9 care act assessment.

 

I would imagine that he will not have had one yet as social services have a POWER but not a duty, to just provide services without having done a proper assessment.

 

I do not understand what you mean about the live in carer, it is for the care home to find staff not you.. What kind of a care home is this?? All sounds VERY strange to me..

 

john..

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.

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?

7 hours ago, Ben Pinnick said:

And so it begins... You need to get some PPE if you don't have any 😂 Sorry but its true - even a small electic saw would be a life changing accident if it had gone worse! Decent set of gloves, and some trousers would be the first port of call (Im assuming you have some face/eye protection already as thats just bloody annoying not to have). These are cheap for Chainsaw trews. Not going to be the best of course but they meet the certs and since you're only cutting at your house, then you won't worry about whether they're the nicest to wear all day.

SIP Protection Boxer chainsaw trousers Type A, Class 1 (Green) – FR Jones & Son

WWW.FRJONESANDSON.CO.UK

SIPs come up big - Im a 34" waist and have a M pair (another style, but SIPs). 

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.

1 hour ago, Gav73 said:

I was about to ask the same thing!

Also looking at the pieces you’ve split and stacked in the picture - I would suggest you do some a little bit smaller too.

I was once told 12 months per inch thickness to season. It’s not going to be the case on all firewood as species, air flow, sun and weather will all play a part, but as this is your first self sufficient load it’s worth splitting some smaller to make sure you’re not caught out come winter with the firewood not being seasoned

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.

26 minutes ago, Stere said:

Can't it be sharpened?

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.

6 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

are u splittingt the 8ft into 2x 4ft sections??

Doesn't take much even just some 2x2  4x1 from floor to roof so ur not losing a lot of space

 

Be easier stacking and makes it easy to only use 1 sid at a time and refil the other side again when empty

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.

On 19/01/2022 at 13:46, Logdaft said:

Just got some Larch, Leylandii, Birch & Ash from a next door neighbour who wanted the trees down as they were blocking the sun in her garden. Have stacked it for now & will split it in a couple of months time when I use up my seasoned logs in my log store.

I built the log store out of long pallets that carry Gyproc + steel roofing sheet & flashings, all were free & I had the fixings. All in it cost me about £35 for Ronseal & mini guttering. My wee Burley stove is very economical & doesn`t use that much wood in the evening + the house is well insulated, so I turn off the central heating & let the stove heat the house at night.

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.

we have pallets!!!, I came up lucky on facebook, can finally start doing some log store building. The stores are going to be about 8ft wide, not sure about height yet. i have 4 8X4 pallets that are slatted both sides but the gaps are a bit large so I am thinking of removing the slats off one side and fixing them in the gaps on the other and possibly using them for the roof and backs of the stores.