Muddy42

Sorry I mean the opposite. My stove has a rectangular vermiculite baffle in its roof. Originally this baffle was of a size that left about a half inch wide gap for smoke to exit. I had some spare vermiculite board lying around so I made a smaller rectangle to give a bigger gap. All experimental and totally reversible. The flue has a 5 inch x 7 m liner fitted so plenty long enough. Yes what I do is lay the fire normally then put some rolled up newspaper on top to provide a flare up. People talk about 'bottom-up" or top down fire lighting - this is the best of both! Don't worry I've tried all the tricks - this eco design stove is just a bit sh!t compered to my other older stoves.

No its fine when the flu is warm or used the day before. I've also adjusted the stove a bit to help with the through flow or air - smaller vermiculite chimney baffle to help expel the exhaust and open up the air intakes with a dremel. Yes I've used an electric heater before to heat an open fire flu. However I then fixed that flue permanently by reducing the size of the fire opening with a glass strip.

To be fair that job description contained a lot of waffle and nothing about the hard manual graft of annihilating rhododendron. My issue is a broader one, that there is a lot of public money being thrown at the highlands of Scotland to try and "restore" or "improve" it. This new vision of the landscape is drawn up remotely by people behind desks to make the highlands look good for visitors. Yes it provides jobs but the majority of those jobs are again the managers, ecologists and funding farmers not grafters living on the ground. One of the aims is growing more trees. Either this is on a commercial scale which means a monoculture of sitka spruce and huge loss of biodiversity. Or this is Caledonian pine and oak forest which, current thinking requires the extermination of deer by professional contractors at huge public cost. As an example if there are less deer, traditional estate stalkers lose their jobs guiding guests on the hill plus a whole raft of jobs down the line. To that end the Scottish government has a campaign of land and housing reform to end private involvement in the rural economy. A whole way of life is at threat in some areas.

another 'magic' public money rewilding job. Please share with the traditional stalkers, gamekeepers, ghillies and estate workers that are loosing their livelihoods.

Talk to your neighbour, walk along the boundary and agree which branches legally he can cut. As long as you agree on the boundary, this should be factual because its anything overhanging that boundary. Then if you want to control the process and make neater cuts, make this clear and ask his permission to do the work on his side. Find out what is making him tic (lack of sunlight, leaves, the need for firewood etc.) Maybe it would look better to remove some trees entirely and leave others rather that create a 30 ft hedge. There is no point worrying about the past, the branches have zero value and the only people that win from a legal approach are the lawyers..

Agreed, yes I have an old Charnwood that is excellant. Agreed, I use this trick once its going a bit. Don't get me wrong, I can get the eco deisgn esse going eventually with all the usual tricks - lots of paper and kindling, window open a crack to neutralise the air pressure, as its also a nightmare for downdraft and smoking into the room when first lit. The flue is long and fully lined. Its just not the same as my older multifuel Charnwood or Clearview. With these fellas I literally put logs next to a twist of newspaper with one piece of kindling ontop, open the ash tray, open both air vents, door open a crack and they roar like a steam engine on nitrous oxide in seconds.

This doesn't sound right? Going from copper wire to fibreoptic cable will definitely increase your maximum potential speed. Keep bashing away at the Openreach and your ISP. Find out exactly what connection you have, what speed you are paying for and what you are getting. Do you have modern equipment within your house? Changing ISP is a good way to get a new router and the new 'mesh' equipment for bouncing the wifif around the house is great. Use ethernet cables if your house is massive. As above, totally agree

Gotcha, apologies i misunderstood. FTTP will be faster. Myself and many others have had the same experience as you. Just phone them every couple of days and bombard them with repeat emails. Often the engineers just have a handheld machine that you can sign on, just before the work starts.

Sorry I don't understand what work this "permission to work" form is required for? Either you have Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC, the cabinet is the telephone exchange or a green box on your street and then it uses older copper wires to go to your home) or Fibre to the premises (FTTP or to your home). FTTP is the best. Going from FTTC to FTTP would require landowners consent to put in cables, but simply switching providers shouldn't require any permission, and I'm afraid for you in my experience switching providers doesn't result in a speed improvement whatever the fcuk-ers say. Think about it, the cables and infrastructure are the same?

That's once of the reasons I don't like my one modern eco design Esse stove. I'd much rather have an old Clearview with masses of fully controllable air flow and ability to give it a quick blast once in a while or when lighting it. I have to use bellows to get the modern stove going for crying out loud.

The problem with cutting ponticum with a petrol saw is you are permanently putting the saw down to untangle and move things. Id go with an electric saw for this. Even one of the smaller one handed ones in whatever cordless system you already have. I have a makita one like this for bonfiring Beyond that, everyone should have a 50cc petrol chainsaw.

I have tried both supposed 50cc equivalent electric saws and I just cannot see how they can make that equivalence power claim? I think the problem is how electric saws get used - lighter/quieter so treated with less respect, maybe even one handed, less PPE.

I understood stove fans used heat from the stove to create electricity to drive the fan (energy cannot be created or destroyed and all that), so not technically free. But the advocates say this is worth it because it mixes and averages out the air in the room. And yes it will probably have more effect with a higher ceiling like your workshop, but I'm not sure about my tiny home office!

It depends what the owner wants done with the wood. the minimum would be just to cut them off the fence to allow the fence to be repaired. The maximum would be removing all the timber. Access might be much easier in the summer.

Yep, I've never believed in those magic stove top fans. People say they send hot air immediately out into the room, rather than heating the space near the ceiling, but I just can't believe that their puny "free airflow" (with energy robbed from the heat of the stove) can overcome convection.

Agreed. I have a 14 hp briggs vanguard engine from the 1980s that is still going strong, but Ive got rid of newer ones that were not so good. I have three honda engines on various machines (14-21hp carb and injected) and they have been faultless.

One more thought, is your hydraulic splitter full of oil? When mines gets low on oil it slows down. Also as stated above, I put pieces of wood in it to stop the ram returning, so if the logs are all <18 inches, I set the ram to about 20 inches so I only have to wait for it to move 2 inches. Does that make sense?

As above I've had a few bruises and surprises from kinetic splitters. Some hydraulic splitters are faster than others and sometimes its possible to restrict the travel of the ram (officially or unofficially) to reduce the waiting time?

For boots, I use polish then something called G wax. If you leave the boots in a warm place for a few days before using them again, it really sets hard. People tell me old fashioned dubin rots the threads, but I've now way of knowing this is true. Recently I melted up several old dry polishes and dubins with some linseed oil to use them up. Its great for my second pair of boots or leather that you don't mind going a strange colour!

If you genuinely need more than a 14 inch bar, get a small petrol saw.

Another tip is to split a log before using a moisture tester to get a true measurement of the water still trapped inside. In the uk, if you start early, split very small, stack outside for a bit, then bring undercover for a bit more, but still exposed to sun and wind, you might just season wood enough to burn that winter. But this is hard work if doing it by hand and a longer would always be safer. Also you really tell what your wood is like with an open fire and the hissing, stoves burn any old wood.

I remember that!

The hammers are tougher and better for thick stuff, the Y flails are better for grass.

We've had the same delivery company for years and they have never raised any concerns. But as part of my work I will make the tank look a bit smarter - new sight guage, clean up the cap and a bit of paint.

Im pretty sure the tank is set up correctly as you describe. It just hasnt been cleaned for 40 years and probably has water in it.