Home Page
   Articles
       links
About Us    
Traders        
Recipes            
Latest Articles
... the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves ...
Page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 416, 417, 418 ... 423, 424, 425  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Downsizer Forum Index -> Grow Your Own
Author 
 Message
dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 20 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

where there is a will there is a war

back bracing does make sense

where i grew up gate posts are traditionally huge bits of stone with hinges leaded into drilled holes

i spose their stability is part bulk/shape and part digging/filling skills, the ones i have seen dug out are fatter at the base than at the top

there are some stone circle stones smaller than a quarmby gatepost

with wood different parameters apply

in solid clay i would go for tight hole, backfill with watering and repeat the second bit until it was tight

in anything friable, shallow or damply unstable a big lump at the base and make it deep and wide to resist leverage makes sense

re long lasting, if you can dip the underground+ 6" of the post in tar before positioning it and concreting in it can give it an extra decade or two as it reduces the leaching of the timber preservatives

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 20 6:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Postcrete is a lot quicker, but as you say, the hand mix is cheaper and gives you more time for adjustment. I would use some of the stones you got out.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue Oct 20, 20 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thankyou MR and dpack for your advice regarding the posts to go in the ground. I will be cutting a "bulb" at the base of the hole and then some post crete and few rocks to go in as insurance! What I have discovered is that I need a longer arm as the hole needs to go down a bit more, what appeared enough depth is not enough! I will be heading that way this afternoon, all things being equal, to get going on the job. This is only the start on the tidy up, I have to complete a saw in of quite a lot of trees which have fallen over on a boundry and will be going for logs in a couple of years. Their extraction will probably involve a contractor as my Massy 35 has not the power to do such work-double rear wheels on my wet patch would be essential.

Another question is regarding timber felling. Can I actually fell Ash trees without a license? They are beginning to take over to the point that they are very large weeds, one of them is. I know about their ability to burn even when fresh, but as I have no heat I thought I may start another "branch" of my " 'umble' wood cutting empire".
A friend called yesterday and he had a shock. As a lad he was a farmer and forester, so his skill with a large chain saw is good. What he didn't know was the ability of these electric chain saws. I bought one which has a 12 inch bar, and is wonderful for felling the small trees, and trimming. He couldn't believe the way I felled a 6" diameter ash ash though it was nothing. But the best bit about them is that they are lightweight, so if you are up a tree trimming it is always ready to go and there are no cords to pull to start the machine, and if trouble arises when you are 2 miles up a thin branch, you release the safety on/off switch and it stops there and then, unlike the petrol version where the motor is still on. The only critical thing is to have 2 batteries!
Back to the post this afternoon, after another, trip to the builders merchants! According to a mate I must use a spirit level vertically-I told him mine only did flat working!

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue Oct 20, 20 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thankyou MR and dpack for your advice regarding the posts to go in the ground. I will be cutting a "bulb" at the base of the hole and then some post crete and few rocks to go in as insurance! What I have discovered is that I need a longer arm as the hole needs to go down a bit more, what appeared enough depth is not enough! I will be heading that way this afternoon, all things being equal, to get going on the job. This is only the start on the tidy up, I have to complete a saw in of quite a lot of trees which have fallen over on a boundry and will be going for logs in a couple of years. Their extraction will probably involve a contractor as my Massy 35 has not the power to do such work-double rear wheels on my wet patch would be essential.

Another question is regarding timber felling. Can I actually fell Ash trees without a license? They are beginning to take over to the point that they are very large weeds, one of them is. I know about their ability to burn even when fresh, but as I have no heat I thought I may start another "branch" of my " 'umble' wood cutting empire".
A friend called yesterday and he had a shock. As a lad he was a farmer and forester, so his skill with a large chain saw is good. What he didn't know was the ability of these electric chain saws. I bought one which has a 12 inch bar, and is wonderful for felling the small trees, and trimming. He couldn't believe the way I felled a 6" diameter ash ash though it was nothing. But the best bit about them is that they are lightweight, so if you are up a tree trimming it is always ready to go and there are no cords to pull to start the machine, and if trouble arises when you are 2 miles up a thin branch, you release the safety on/off switch and it stops there and then, unlike the petrol version where the motor is still on. The only critical thing is to have 2 batteries!
Back to the post this afternoon, after another, trip to the builders merchants! According to a mate I must use a spirit level vertically-I told him mine only did flat working!

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue Oct 20, 20 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thankyou MR and dpack for your advice regarding the posts to go in the ground. I will be cutting a "bulb" at the base of the hole and then some post crete and few rocks to go in as insurance! What I have discovered is that I need a longer arm as the hole needs to go down a bit more, what appeared enough depth is not enough! I will be heading that way this afternoon, all things being equal, to get going on the job. This is only the start on the tidy up, I have to complete a saw in of quite a lot of trees which have fallen over on a boundry and will be going for logs in a couple of years. Their extraction will probably involve a contractor as my Massy 35 has not the power to do such work-double rear wheels on my wet patch would be essential.

Another question is regarding timber felling. Can I actually fell Ash trees without a license? They are beginning to take over to the point that they are very large weeds, one of them is. I know about their ability to burn even when fresh, but as I have no heat I thought I may start another "branch" of my " 'umble' wood cutting empire".
A friend called yesterday and he had a shock. As a lad he was a farmer and forester, so his skill with a large chain saw is good. What he didn't know was the ability of these electric chain saws. I bought one which has a 12 inch bar, and is wonderful for felling the small trees, and trimming. He couldn't believe the way I felled a 6" diameter ash ash though it was nothing. But the best bit about them is that they are lightweight, so if you are up a tree trimming it is always ready to go and there are no cords to pull to start the machine, and if trouble arises when you are 2 miles up a thin branch, you release the safety on/off switch and it stops there and then, unlike the petrol version where the motor is still on. The only critical thing is to have 2 batteries!
Back to the post this afternoon, after another, trip to the builders merchants! According to a mate I must use a spirit level vertically-I told him mine only did flat working!

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Tue Oct 20, 20 2:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

with any trees over(iirc) 2 cu m it is worth asking if you need a felling licence

small ash is a "weed" tree, big uns no idea

it might be worth starting a conversation with the fellings department

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 20 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If you can get onto the Forestry Commission website it will give you details but checking on the Welsh forestry site you will need a licence unless you are felling less than five cubic metres in a calendar quarter as long as no more than 2 cubic metres are sold, or the trees have the following diameters when measured 1.3 metres from the ground:
8 cm or less
10 cm or less, for thinnings
15 cm or less, for cutting coppice

You can contact them by e-mail on fellinglicence@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk but if you need advice then ask them for it via the e-mail and they may be able to give you a phone number to talk about it or even send someone out, although that is unlikely at the moment.

Hope that covers it all for you. Have you got the double shovel we call a 'Shove holer' to make the hole for your post bigger? They are a great help although I find them rather tiring.

Electric chainsaws are very good. I first saw them at a show some years ago, and I believe they are very popular with tree surgeons, particularly those in places like London where they have to work at nigh because of traffic. For bit trees, I think petrol chainsaws still have the edge, and most fellers I know are still using petrol ones for the felling, although they might use electric for cutting up smaller branches.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 20 11:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thankyou for the felling license info. The tree in question is very tall and taking over. If it came down in a wind it would slice my house in half, but its saving grace is a large branch just over head height at the base and almost the same diameter as the main trunk, but on the high side. It is a professional job to fell it and in many ways a shame, but I will ask the right people thankyou, I can do without being fined. My ash is I think in the need a licence category.
What I don't know is how I fitted in the working for a living! I thought I would be short of kindling supply pallets but my local builders' merchant has come up trumps twice, and said to me to call weekly, I have just brought out 20 odd pallets in the last 2 days, very pleased all clean, thank goodness for the pickup, as they would have needed my big trailer.
I didn't get to the post hole yesterday and think I will leave it for a few weeks as kindling is becoming a rarity in my store-there is a late or early new year's resolution to come into play this time-get your wood cut and enough of it in store before I start any other project. I have difficulty saying no to people who want things done and come to me as they know I am now at home, they don't think I am retired, but that I have time to burn. Better to be busy, though, than doing nought.
I don't know if I said that I dug the hole at the base using one of those double spades-2 blades and 2 handles, saved hours of bending down to pull a handful of soil; and it was a tool left here by the previous chap-now in a coma due to enough money to buy even more drugs than when he was the owner. Oh dear.
Times up!

Back in now as I have to collect even more pallets later these are bonfire material, but I am taking them to be sure of more good ones when I need them! A quick lunch from the local Spa (as in shop not health centre). They do a salad roll for a lot of money-£3-but well done and enough to eat. My friends from Bridgnorth called to say they were off for lunch and then home, but left me a note and some food, for tonight I hope! Jill makes wonderful fruit cake and puddings. I emailed them and surprised they didn't get that whilst they were out

I unloaded the pallets from this morning and broken them up ready for some action later today to deliver tomorrow, when I hope to achieve 7 nets complete with 3 for delivery. My sales are an average of 3 a day, which alone is easy but I have other things to do in life however much I enjoy chopping wood-I have forgotten who told me there are other things in life. I do have another friend who is in my age group and we seem to be getting on, I met her through swimming for the aged,(over 60's). Anyway the pallets all under cover ready to cut. So critical to be dry. Just rushed outside to put the pallet demolisher in the cab of the pickup, I cannot afford to be without it, saves hours of hammering and broken non-square pallet boards, even so I still have to get the nails out. My first proper job was learning the pallet trade how to construct them. Now the ultimate is a massive very heavy duty magnet that will overcome the hold of the wood on the nails and whip them out in one go-I am dreaming again.

I am wondering how many of you were like me-panic stocking up on what you thought you would need if all went upside down with the virus. I have so many tins of beans and tea bags that I have decided to start eating them with a brew.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 20 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I have been keeping my stocks quite high, not for Covid 19, but for possible consequences of Brexit. When I do the shopping, I tend to add an extra tin or two. I was thinking perhaps I should add some dried haricot beans and things, but only things I know we would use one way or another as I think it would take a real emergency for husband to eat any really odd pulses.

Suddenly I have loads of orders for besoms. Someone ordered one which we delivered last weekend, then someone else ordered two. Son put the besoms up on our FB page, and suddenly I have another couple of orders for 4 more. I had enough for the first 3, but will have to make up some more next week.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 20 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I did a big shop on the day I left work and haven't needed to go out except to my local Spa, who have all I need, but at a price. However, if I want to go to a cheaper shop, like Tesco, then there is 30 miles of juice to put in the motor per round trip which I guess would negate the saving. The only thing is I like Tesco in Welshpool and have got to know the folks there well. I also used Morrisons and Sainsburys there too. For such a small town-3 big supermarkets. There is an increase in population shopping on Monday when the stock market is on and the wives flock into town, with husband going to buy or sell livestock. I thought I would be doing the baked beans big style, but so far I have been able to get all I want to cook at my local Spa without resorting to beans! I suppose I over stock, as that is the way Granny and Mother did it. Wife did the shopping daily as she was in town working every day when I was married.

Some years ago a "friend"-con man more like-had over £10k from me, to buy tractors and do them up for sale. this was to be a joint venture, but I couldn't go to "help" as he had told his father I was his customer not his partner! Then I got the job at the tractor selling company where he worked and I reminded him just how much he owed me, it arrived today in the post, so a bonus there-no need to follow that up now, though I did explain how nasty I could become, and with a friend who would be there to see fair play, which may have had some influence! He, I think, getting me the job, he thought that would write-off the money he owed. I was not in it for profit, I wanted to learn but he had that route cut off!

I would have been busy cutting down trees in a friend's garden for her today, but as she has gone away I thought it better not to climb trees alone, "in case". It is surprising how you meet people in a library and other places and how you get to know them. Both of us in the library, both bred in Walsall, Staffordshire and both lived in the same road at the same time when we were children, but we were in one end and she at the other a mile away and we went to different schools. But to meet up in later life, in the same library? Well there we are!!

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 20 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

good news on the tractor money at last.

i have been doing multiple tasks, external painting has to fit around weather and if it takes til summer so be it, the two doors both have 3 coats so far and only need top coat, i need dry for replacing putty on a couple of windows. it is not bad considering it was at least ten years since i painted it and most of the paint is sound, tis only the movement cracks that need any deep remedy.

inside is culling carp and shifting many things to more sensible places and storage, we have space but it needs a major shuffle to use it well.
at the mo i have been laying sticky underlay(tricky stuff to work with as it tries to flypaper whoever is laying it) to bed a rather nice but distressed rug cut into several bits to change it from round nomad style with bad moth and drowning holes to rectangular room and no holes.
the cutting pattern was unusual but i have 90% coverage and plenty of furniture

and i think i have the tools and materials to make the braid and wrap the hilt, cut the pegs, make the paper bits etc for the hilt. less steptoe clutter and then more artisan.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 20 7:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Good news you got the money at last Gregotyn. It sounds as if it is worthwhile shopping locally, especially at the moment. Perhaps go into Welshpool if you need several things other than food. I have been going to a more local supermarket since all this blew up. I will probably have to go to Chichester some time, as I will need a few things I can't get locally eventually, but so far have managed. I have kept my stocks of most things high as well, not only because of the pandemic but in anticipation of Brexit, which is going to disrupt things a bit too.

Son put our besoms on the company FB page the other day, and now I have about half a dozen to make this week, as well as the 2 already ordered. I will be busy with them and log sacks next week. Talking of coincidences, one of the orders is for someone I was with at school, but as we are still both in the same area as the school, not so much as your friend.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Nov 09, 20 8:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Picked the last of the tomatoes and have put the hulms in the closed compost heap where tomatoes and potatoes go. Not a brilliant yield perhaps, but quite satisfactory this year. I have been keeping them watered well and giving them liquid from the wormery.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 20 12:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Well I got in touch with the lad who owes the money-guess what? the cheque came in bouncing away, so as no one in the bank will do anything, I have been round to his house and he has boarded up the front access to the house! I suppose I shouldn't have warned him what would happen if he didn't pay, I would go to court and ask for even more to pay the costs! It also appears he has sold my digger so I want another £2k for that. I didn't know folks like him existed. I have hade my mind up to make him pay one way or another. Who will visit me in jail?

The log trade has started quite well, but the kindling is going like mad, and I should be chopping that not sitting here-who cares?

I would like to say that I have a girlfriend. I felled two trees in her garden and thought we were getting along well but she seems a bit too fond of her independence, and I haven't found anything that she "must do"! We know each other through 'swimming for the aged'-over 60's-together, so there is a start, but some times I wonder why I want a partner in life, as at present as I can sit both sides of my fire place and no arguments, as there was when I was married. See you all later in the week-"if I'm spared"

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 20 7:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I suggest that you go the legal route Gregotyn. Check on how much the small claims court will go up to as that is the easiest route if it will accept that high a claim. Otherwise speak to a solicitor. A solicitors letter will sometimes do the trick, or he can advise you on other ways of getting your money. Sadly there are some real swindlers in this world and this man seems to be one of them. It won't get your money back, but informing his employers might be useful as a lever too.

Perhaps you are better off just having 'girlfriends' and all keeping your independence. That way all of you can choose which side of the fire to sit.

Glad the log sales are going well. We are very busy with log loads and log sacks, and also enquiries for besoms. One of our outlets also wants us to make log reindeer as well, but we are struggling a bit with that at the moment. Once we have made one, I think we will get on well with that too.

Post new topic   Reply to topic    Downsizer Forum Index -> Grow Your Own All times are GMT
Page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 416, 417, 418 ... 423, 424, 425  Next
Page 417 of 425
View Latest Posts View Latest Posts

 

Archive
Powered by php-BB © 2001, 2005 php-BB Group
Style by marsjupiter.com, released under GNU (GNU/GPL) license.
Copyright © 2004 marsjupiter.com