I need to start doing this now we have a fire place, just bought a ton of logs for £70
Don't think you're mean at all, just common sense to take advantage and you're doing a public service clearing it up. I have an amusing weakness for cable ties. It occurred to me that the lamp posts around our city, especially around Festival time, are festooned with cable ties which are used to hold up advertising for the various festival shows. When the festivities are over a lot of the notices get ripped down but that leaves the cable ties still around the lamp posts. There's nothing wrong with them so I carry a small screwdriver which is exactly right to stick in the back of the cable tie and release it's ratchet. I've not had to buy a cable tie in years! Mrs J does find it embarrassing though and pretends she's not with me!
I often go along and ask to buy piles of wood ripped out on building sites. More often than not a few pounds will buy quite a bit that would otherwise be burned. Timing is key though. Get in early.
Years ago I used to burn wood now I use smokeless anthracite as I found I got hotter sawing and chopping the logs, than burning them.
Generally speaking I work from home and live out in the countryside so don’t tend to encounter these things too much, I have clocked where there is a giant pile of pallets that I keep meaning to go ask someone about
Don't know if you have tried pallets before, but I have found them of a peculiar wood that doesn't chop nicely.
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I have to confess this is all pretty new to me so I’m finding my way, pallet wood burns ok and any nails drop out in the ash but it is rough as hell and handling it can result in death by a thousand splinters, I need to get an axe so at the moment if I do cut anything it’s with a hand saw, so you can imagine I tend not to cut much up if I can avoid it and what I have gotten was already pre-cut, we’ve only been here since oct and so not had much chance to experiment, the log bin was full of off cuts from pallets when we moved inDon't know if you have tried pallets before, but I have found them of a peculiar wood that doesn't chop nicely.
At one time a neighbour who did roofing gave me a load of the roofing lathes (long lengths of two by one inch ) but the trouble with that was it was filthy and loads of nails.
The best was another neighbour who borrowed my trailer to get a load of the hardwood offcuts from the quality double glazing company he worked for and got the same for me. The fire burned so hot the stainless steel flue liner ) I had fitted due to the 200 year old farm labourers cottage chimney kept dropping mortar down into the fire) glowed red hot as far up as I could see!
The worst was a a couple of old pine trees I cut down for a friend, the logs spat like anything and sooted up the chimney, also the oily sap clogged the chainsaw chain, still you learn
Along time ago as a teenager there was a nightclub in a big old Torquay hotel, that was very popular and always crowded, when looking across the room a space was spied by the fire place, the reason for the space soon became apparent, it was so hot there no one could stand it. They were burning railway sleepers!
Result of sorts! I think it should be a bit less unpleasant, but still a worry. Hopefully it will do the job. Mother in Law had it 31 years ago and never had another problem afterwards. Unfortunately she died last week, but it was extreme old age that took her. Our thought are with you both. Look after her!
This sort of stuff is never an easy ride but I'm glad for you that it seems there is a positive outlook. I've known several friend who've had chemo and they reacted very differently in terms of how it affected them. I suppose everyone's system reacts differently. Anyway, I wish you both well and that your Mrs responds well to the therapy.
Sorry to hear the news about your Mother in Law. Not easy times these. I'm now accepting and coming to terms with my brother leaving us at Christmas and it occurs to me that, now we are getting "old and creaky" a lot of our friends and family members are in the same boat so visits to the crematorium are a more frequent certainty. As I've aged I've tended to become a bit of a pessimist but just over the last month or so, with my Brother's death and sister in law going right to the edge with a very serious bacterial infection, to say nothing of my own and Mrs J's various moderately concerning medical maladies, I've decided to live life day by day as much as possible and not worry too much about what may happen next week. Don't know if it's going to work, but right now I'm feeling quite a sense of liberation!
Magnets work wonders at getting the nails out. I have one that has a long handle. No idea where it came from but it does the nails nicely. I save some of the best straight ones. They go soft after being burned but are still good for garden fences. I have burned tons of broken pallets. Bets to cut the blocks off with the plank attched. Avoid sawing nails its very very costly on chainsaw chain. The ones treated with some preservatives do give off fumes that can be toxic. I just keep the door shut and burn them a little faster. Make sure you keep the tar down. You will find some woods are really bad. Sycamore is one of the worst. Burn it in the day when the fire is opened up more / hotter. Birch also very oily. Make sure that once a day you get the fire HOT and let it roar for 10 minutes to keep soot at bay. Burning smokeless also helps to dry the flue out I do this every couple of weeks.
Good plan. Pat was one of the most kind and gentle women around. Welcomed me into her family and treated me as her son from the first to the last day, so it is a blow. Since my kidney op, I feel Im catching her rather too fast so I agree with the strategy. I think the banter on here with a group of aging car nuts is most theraputic. Im sure it would be great if we all got together, but it probably wont happen as we seem to have insufficient cylinders firing properly at the same time. Thanks for your kind words though.
Just remember "Death is natures way of telling you to slow down" and as my first father in law said "the only cure is a lead injection behind the ear"
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Just how I feel too. When I see a post with one of "our" names on it - I'm sure we all know by now who "our" are - I really look forward to clicking on it and reading what's been said. We all seem to have much in common. Mrs J and I both worked in west London at the start of our working lives. I was based at the big old Firestone Factory in Brentford on the Great West Road and Mrs J was a ground hostess and interpreter at Heathrow with B.O.A.C. I think I've mentioned that before, so sorry if it bores you to hear it again. Anyway, when Firestone closed down their European Racing Division we decide to go back to Scotland - all four of our parents were by then ill and we wanted to be nearer to them. In fact all died within 4 years of each other which was a pretty rough time for us. However we never lost touch with our best friends from when we lived "dawn souf" and every year we have a reunion where we take a hotel for a weekend and all get together and behave in a thoroughly juvenile fashion as we remember all the silly and awful stuff we did back in those early days. I'd like to think that a meeting with all of us might turn out to be a similar, but car related, event. As you say, most unlikely we'd ever manage it, but nice to contemplate as I feel we hold many similar opinions and values - and to hell with political correctness!?
Whenever I complain about something related to my advancing age Mrs J says "well, the alternative is nothing like so attractive so just shut up and get on with it!"Just remember "Death is natures way of telling you to slow down" and as my first father in law said "the only cure is a lead injection behind the ear"
