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... the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves ...
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gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8571
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 20 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

A good productive day! Let's hope this carries on in your next stint at the shop

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45372
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 20 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

using some shop space for sale on commission art work makes sense, no capital outlay, non-perishable stock(bar a bit of dusting) and if you are owt like the galleries i know of charging 30 to 45% of the sale price if something gets bought.
if you already have the wall space it is an easy extra earner, even if you only shift a few at least you have nice art around the shop.

re the hall management stuff i recon you are playing it well, reason and competence is popular with most folk but it can take time to restore it when things have gone wrong.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 20 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

You are certainly progressing with the committee, Cassandra, I wouldn't have the patience. The kind of comment MR is advocating is often grasped well after the receiving, so doesn't have an effect for some time which gives them time to digest first and either react later or change the attitude, usually by the next meeting if they are planning to continue.
Dpack has summed the art work up, cost nothing and could make money.

The kindling machine my friemd has is a "bag it off the machine", and it doesn't take "normal" wood you feed a tree trunk in it cuts to 6" then chops and you put the net over the end and bag it up; it is a 2 man operation, with the man at the back flying he tells me. I will be going for a sample to find how good it is I saw some at a shop local to me and not that good, a fair few not cut fully through especially where there were knots. I am not blowing my trumpet, but I have had several people say how good my wood is and how dry it is for lighting fires; not sure how they would react to the stuff off the back of a machine! I have picked up some decent wood at work today so back at it when I get home and another full weekend cutting and chopping. The elbow is getting sore, but that is normal for me at this time of the year One thing is certain there will be no let up this year, I slowed down too much in the summer. Assuming I can get the pallets I need I will give up the work and just chop wood, my pension is not massive but it is manageable. I have got used to "good money" and will notice it's reduction when I retire-50% gone over night! "They" call me scrouge now-I will be then!

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 20 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Sounds like a good couple of days apart from the committee meeting. I can't see how a committee manages to not manage anything for 4 months, and it must be getting rather urgent or even critical by now. Keep at it, and with any luck they will realise the error of their ways.

Gregotyn, kindling machines are usually of that type, which is no good for us as we tend to end up with all sorts of bits and shapes of hardwood, often with knots in them. A two man operation wouldn't suit you either.

The people came back today to make sure the area we need to cut for the pylon work is dormouse safe. Rather them than me as there were all sorts of places dormice might have been lurking, but I think they were probably looking in the wrong places, but then who am I to judge; I don't have the right qualifications, only a bit of common sense.

We had to give up because of the rain again this afternoon, but I managed to fill 15 log sacks and do some splitting, sorting and tidying of the pile of wood husband and son had left for me. Son helped with quite a lot of the splitting, so that meant a bit less work for me.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 20 2:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I am amazed that the boys in your life, MR, allow you to do any splitting; I wouldn't allow my wife to do such a job in case she got hurt and couldn't cook my tea!
I can cope with such a kindling machine for cutting kindling from logs without difficulty. I would feed the logs in and the sticks would fill a hopper at the other end which when full would give me a few hours "a bungling", and give me some element of quality control-I know I shouldn't blow my trumpet but I do get compliments on my kindling dryness and straightness. My real problem is not having the storage/netting area next to the sawing and cutting and I am carting boxes of chopped wood about 40 yards away, when I would prefer to be doing the whole job in one shed. I won't buy one as my life time wouldn't justify such an outlay. All my wood comes in plank form from pallets and is vetted for metal work before cutting. De-nailing takes longer than chopping! I guess the kindling machine my friends' have is expensive anyway-sour grapes!

Touch wood we have had 2 fairly good days weather wise-today is lovely and yesterday the rain was not a lot.

gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8571
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 20 7:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Glad to see the forecast last night and Tassie down to 18 degrees
Still windy though

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Jan 11, 20 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The price and the fact it only cuts from logs is the reason we don't buy one Gregotyn. We have enough uses for our timber without adding that one. Also softwood is better for kindling and we have very little of that.

Glad the temperature in Tassie is down. Hope it stays reasonable and the wind drops.

The weather here was lovely yesterday, but sadly it was my day to food bank, so I was indoors nearly all day. Today it has gone back to grey again, although I did see the full moon last night.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Sat Jan 11, 20 10:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

So now it is raining, providence suitably tested in yesterday's post! I am hoping to get about 10 nets today and tomorrow as I sawed a couple of bags of "blanks" last night and chopped them and another 2 bags to chop today. I use feed bags for the blanks as the fertiliser bags tend to sweat with wood blanks in them if left for any length of time.

I have had a response from my Australian friend who has said they are safe and a long way from any danger-they are in Brisbane.

I have to see my solicitor regarding my will. It appears that if the recipient(s) of a will are straight forward then those benefiting can execute the will with ease themselves, and save a lot of money. When you have worked all your life, then to give a large "dose" to those who are guardians of the will and simply have it floating in the sky, appear to have done nothing-well not quite nothing, but my will is between 2 people, a brother and a sister who are good friends and get on well. and equally with their spouses it seems common sense to save them a few bob! I will give it a try.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Jan 12, 20 8:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

What are feed bags made of Gregotyn? The ones I have seen are plastic, so would expect them to be the same as fertilizer bags. Plastic can be a problem with even dry wood. I was hoping to be able to get vented sacks for our little dumpy sack reusable log sacks, but they don't make them, so we just hope people take the logs out of the bag otherwise they will be damp. We take care to dry the wood as far as possible before packing them, but in this weather I am not convinced it is going to be very dry even then.

Ty Gwyn



Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4562
Location: Lampeter
PostPosted: Sun Jan 12, 20 12:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Horse feed is still mainly in paper bags,everything else is mainly plastic.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45372
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Jan 12, 20 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

thinking outside the woodshed for a mo, how did folk bundle logs and kindling in smallish amounts in the past?

withies for certain, so i spose twine is a modern version.

if the cut kindling sticks are strait ish and equal length tied in bundles and/or made into bigger bundles might work
a hoop to organize them and clever use of string(or other lashing) might be a cheap, easy , green option

logs are a bit more tricky to pack, regular ones could be cross stacked and bound but it might not be easy
bound in the round would work with some
wonky ones , ummm, drawstring wide mesh net?

modern would be turntable shrink-wrapped on a pallet:roll:

buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 20 12:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

dpack wrote:
thinking outside the woodshed for a mo, how did folk bundle logs and kindling in smallish amounts in the past?

withies for certain, so i spose twine is a modern version.

...…...……...


I guess there was a period when hessian sacks and straw baskets did the job. And earlier a strap made of honeysuckle/bramble/twisted reed made on site when you were foraging for firewood, carried home on your back.

Henry

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 20 7:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

It depends on when we are talking about. I think logs tended to be sold by the cart full, and were often a lot longer than modern firewood which tends to be 6-12" long in the UK. Our standard length is 10". We have a firewood processor, which will go from about 8" to 20" as it, like most others, is imported. I think most countries which still have more of a culture of wood burning use longer lengths.

Faggots used to be the main product, and they would have been bound with withies or later string. They were used into the 1950s for firing bread ovens in our area, and a few places still use them, although I think they tend to be mainly thicker rods now rather than a lot of top too. Faggots with tops are now called bavins round here and are used for river band restoration.

Pimps are bundles of birch twigs used for fire lighting and are still tied with string then gathered into bigger bundles just the way you describe Dpack. Perhaps used withies in the past, but I have no idea about their history. I remember chopped stick kindling being sold in bundles either tied with string or wire before they came in plastic or net bags.

I think log sacks are a reasonably recent phenomenon as in the past people tended to have a fire all the time as there was no central heating, so would have needed logs by the load rather than the sack.

String has been available for quite a long time as ships have needed ropes since sails were first used, and that is made from thinner strings. It might have been expensive, so yes, withies, bramble, honeysuckle or clematis stems may have been used in the woods. String and rope would have been reused as well.

buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 20 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Peats were carried home from the moss in creels, as I understand, but when did creels begin? Stringy stuff would not work with peats, I think.

Henry

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45372
Location: yes
PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 20 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

string , nets and baskets are very old technology.

as they exist in australia it seems likely at least 60000 yrs and probably twice that if the tech was first footer.

none are very well represented in the archaeology/paleontology.
compost, kindling, etc but a few bits show up now and again.

eurostring at 90000 yrs

twisting plant fibres is just fiddling with something until you wrap it round a few dry sticks for tomorrow's fire or knit a string bag to carry your picnic and catch critters which is technology

imho the use of cordage is probably almost as old as the use of shaped stone tools, ie pre modern human.

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