• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

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    Thorn? That’s not a thorn!

    I met an old hedgelayer who had boots with steel plate in the soles for doing blackthorn. I can’t find any online, so they might have been home-made.
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    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    Re: spreading - the left wall backs onto that room coming off at 90deg (second pic), which is lined inside with OSB. There should be plenty of stiffness there. The right wall could be braced from outside, and will also get diagonals to the intact trusses, and possibly some support from the lift...
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    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    Thanks for the suggestions and caveats.
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    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    One more detail. Here is the Landy lifted up into the truss, showing not all of it has to be removed. Orange highlighter shows minimum theoretical removal, but more clearance would be needed for wing mirrors, opening doors, etc.:
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    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    Here is the area. If you start counting at the back truss, above the doorway, I need to remove all members of trusses 2 and 3 (ideally 4 as well, but not essential), apart from the top rafters. The roof is box profile with ply underneath. Approximate position of the trusses arrowed: Looking...
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    Saying goodbye to some mature trees = sad but necessary.

    Yes, it will ‘coppice’ vigorously. If you manage it properly, you could harvest straight spars every few years that are handy for garden poles, etc. A pickaroon is a very handy tool for flicking logs around, and doesn’t take long to make.
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    Saying goodbye to some mature trees = sad but necessary.

    Willow is quite incredible - it will sprout from felled trees or even firewood logs if left on the ground. You can make a quick willow hedge just by laying the tree down where you want it. The upright shoots can be laid/pleached/woven in years to come. I made a pickaroon using a slightly curved...
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    Openreach full fibre

    What is? You’re welcome to pop in and inspect the workshops; if not, I’m happy to recommend stuff to do/see.
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    Openreach full fibre

    I had it done (FTTP - fibre to the property) this time last year. It was done in three stages, for whatever reason - ducting by the road, with buried splice box near the house. Second team dug my fibre cable to the house. Third team poked it through the wall and to the ONT (optical network...
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    The problem with old houses - part 2

    There’s a stables block at my new place, which is now my workshop. Some basic electrical testing* showed an earth problem, traced to a junction box where the earth was simply not connected through. It had been connected - it was stripped back and the right length, and you could see the clamp...
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    Fish recipes

    Herring and lemon sole this week. Herring = mackerel to my mind, so inclined to flour and fry. Sole - foil bake?
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    Fish recipes

    I was mainly looking for recipe ideas for the fish I get from a sea-going boat. Plenty of trout and salmon up here, though. Trout - bake in foil? Salmon - gravlax is very nice. En croute - even I, as a proper trencherman (read: greedy sod) find it too rich. Can’t eat much of it. Fatty fish...
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    Fish recipes

    As far as I can find out, turbot can live to be 25 years old, and, conveniently, achieve 25kg in weight*. Crudely assuming a linear growth rate, I would guess about 4 years old. Probably a bit less, as growth is likely faster initially. Ageing of fish can be done by studying the otolith (lit...
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    Fish recipes

    Thanks. I removed the skin on advice from the Fallow restaurant YT channel, but will leave it on next time. For the turbot head, frilly collar, perhaps the langoustine bits and pieces, how about making a sort of bouillabaisse?
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    Fish recipes

    In compensation for a missed order last week, they sold me this (apparently £60) turbot for £20. I’ve divided it into four skinless fillets, and kept the head and frilly collar meat as well. Recipe ideas for this fine fish, please, especially the latter parts. Scallops, ‘langos’, hake and ling...
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    Hard working wasps

    Quite fun to watch, like a sort of chicken rugby. One picks up a piece and runs, then gets tackled by another which runs in the opposite direction…
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    Hard working wasps

    I’ve got about ten of those big nests around my place; they get left alone unless they’re a nuisance. MAPP gas torch or permethrin spray if so. The chickens go mad for the combs full of grubs.
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    Woodshop extended - machine placement advice, please

    Work bench etc. are through the corridor, on a multipurpose bench (move the gearbox out of the way and start laying out mortices, sort of thing). Some are wheeled, but most are too heavy. Also, being a stables, the floor is not perfectly smooth so machines tend to rock. Thanks for the pics...
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    Woodshop extended - machine placement advice, please

    I have two table saws because I can’t resist a bargain lump of cast iron. There’s another Wadkin planer as well. TS2 is an extremely heavy, Wilson 3hp/3ph saw that is an absolute monster at ripping. Not needed so much now I have a bandsaw. It can be relegated to firewood sawbench. Yes, TS1...
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    Woodshop extended - machine placement advice, please

    This is a former stables, now extended as shown roughly by the hatched areas. The South 2.0m/door/4.2m wall was brought outwards, and the original open-fronted tack room at the East end has been incorporated. There will be no more horses; I loved working with them, just wouldn’t own one...
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