What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?
Mr Pepler said: ?Woods are an investment to enjoy. They are fun. We camped out in the wood last summer and invited friends to barbecues.
?A wood is not an unsafe place to put money. I know people who are trying to pull cash out of pensions to buy their own woodland.?
You've done it now. All the Times readers will be buying woods to camp in and have barbecues, and there won't be any affordable ones left for the rest of us .
They mentioned the pension thing in the telephone interview, and I agreed that I knew people who were doing in, or hoping to.
I'd love to see more woods returned to a small-scale operation, and subdividing and selling them is a first step. The second, and possibly harder, step is to convince the buyers to manage them properly, but we're working on that (or Tracy is at least...).
Just bought another chainsaw.... Tracy's doing her training in a few weeks, and will take over the saw I've been using up to now, while I've got a bigger one - a Husqvarna 570 (with air purge for fuel efficiency and low emissions, or so says the marketing...). Although I've got it with a short bar for coppicing, it will run a much longer bar (up to 32"), so maybe next year I can thin my own oaks, after doing the training... It'll also be handy for occasional chainsaw milling for projects in the wood.
mikepepler wrote:Just bought another chainsaw.... Tracy's doing her training in a few weeks, and will take over the saw I've been using up to now, while I've got a bigger one - a Husqvarna 570 (with air purge for fuel efficiency and low emissions, or so says the marketing...). Although I've got it with a short bar for coppicing, it will run a much longer bar (up to 32"), so maybe next year I can thin my own oaks, after doing the training... It'll also be handy for occasional chainsaw milling for projects in the wood.
Ohh... the 570 is a big bitch - think you're developing an addiction here...
I'm using a 15" bar on it while coppicing, I expect it will have lots of power with a bar that short on it! I probably won't use a 32" bar, I think a 24" will suffice for most work I need to do. I'm not buying the longer bar until I know what I need though.
And yes, it is a big saw, 50% heavier than the 346XP we already have. I will be building up some new muscles no doubt. There are still bigger saws though, such as the 3120XP, though that weighs over 10kg!
Until now I'd not realised you could get the same thing going on with chainsaws that you do with fast cars. The new one feels more powerful, sounds quite different, and even has two exhaust vents! Then again, some people take it too far: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8775892456
LOL,
I must admit, it felt really really good to get the course thing done, I was very nervous and for some reason I now feel more like I am more involved in the wood and more, professional about it. Hard to explain, but it was a big deal for me, so chuffed about it!
A couple of days ago I got trapped on a camp site by a huge lorry parked across the entrance. It had a cherry picker thing on it, and a man with a chain saw was taking down a big silver birch from it a slice at a time. There was another lorry parked in the road with a big shredder attached. I makes a just couple of little chainsaws seem pretty insignificant .
- a Husqvarna 570 (with air purge for fuel efficiency and low emissions, or so says the marketing...). Although I've got it with a short bar for coppicing, it will run a much longer bar (up to 32"), so maybe next year I can thin my own oaks, after doing the training... It'll also be handy for occasional chainsaw milling for projects in the wood.
