Dude, Where's My house(s)?

[Prizam]

LooneyTunes said:

Surprised you found that useless, it looks very similar to ours (which we really rate). My teenager cleared a load of scrub/brush with it the other day and it was going through 1” thick 6 ft tall saplings without difficulties…

It went through the brambles and brush ok if it could get its teeth into it, but they were so dense, it just lifted the fount up. I could wrestle with the machine to get it to chomp in and get them down, but I was breaking it, and myself in doing so. It also left the little things that brambles do to trip you up.

In the fields, it either stalled out trying to eat the rushes, or got clogged up eating the grass. the blades were blunt, so I put an edge back on them. Didnt make much difference.

It goes back tomorrow, and hopefully, the new (old) toy I brought will arrive.

[DonkeyApple]

You need to get actual farm equipment on there to be honest. It is the stuff designed to just munch through it all. If you have a gate access wide enough and a farm near enough then I'd personally go and have a chat.

[Prizam]

For anyone still looking, it's been a busy few weeks. new tractors, cutting trees. roof repairs, scaffolding and burst water mains.

A full update will be on its way in the next couple of days.

in the meantime, I have had my 2nd electric bill, and it's a scootch higher than I would like. Punching in at around £500 a month. We do not have electric heating.

Since I have uncovered some space in the fields, I fancy putting in a wind turbine. Companies offering this service are eye-wateringly expensive, so I want to have a crack at this myself. the catch is that I also want to have a feed-in tariff. I wouldn't mind having some solar as well. this, unfortunately, means it needs to be a certified "professional" install.

So, how about this as an idea? I get one of those companies to bung a few pannels in a field and hook them up to the mains, with a certificate. I then extend the solar with more panels, bigger inverter and add in a wind turbine myself.

Would they catch on and wonder why my 5kw solar system is pumping in 20kw in the middle of a dark windy winter night?

[hidetheelephants]

I don't think you can get an domestic installation that exports more than 5kW, I forget the details but the numbers don't add up or it becomes non-domestic/commercial and the DNO starts asking for telephone numbers rather than rational sums of money. I expect it's covered exhaustively on the Solar panel thread.

[Prizam]

hidetheelephants said:

I don't think you can get an domestic installation that exports more than 5kW, I forget the details but the numbers don't add up or it becomes non-domestic/commercial and the DNO starts asking for telephone numbers rather than rational sums of money. I expect it's covered exhaustively on the Solar panel thread.

A bit on the low side given that lots of folk will sell me an 8KW system. Still, something else to think about. If I'm capped at 5kw, then I might as well just do it myself and put in a big electric boiler

[eliot]

Prizam said:

in the meantime, I have had my 2nd electric bill, and it's a scootch higher than I would like. Punching in at around £500 a month. We do not have electric heating.

Thats a 2.5kw constant draw - which is a fair amount if you don’t have a grow of several halogens running all the time

[Sheepshanks]

eliot said:

Prizam said:

in the meantime, I have had my 2nd electric bill, and it's a scootch higher than I would like. Punching in at around £500 a month. We do not have electric heating.

Thats a 2.5kw constant draw - which is a fair amount if you don’t have a grow of several halogens running all the time

Yes, that's a pretty insane bill - is there an immersion heater bubbling away somwhere? Or some acreage of electric underfloor heating? An EV on constant charge?

[dudleybloke]

Do you have anything that can meter your power usage?
I would get something rigged up then start switching things off at the consumer unit ro find the culprit.

[CTO]

Hi OP, and all.

OMG, just seen this.. and caught up with it.

OP; well done on the work so far… just reading it has given me PTSD esque shakes

Re the flail mower, as you found out, they aren’t good at over grown brambles. They ride up, get tangled in the vines and then you have to drag it out manually because it is stuck… absolute tears.

The laborious but effective way is to cut the brambles down with a brush cutter. Ours is a FS460 I think, then use the flail mower to mulch the detritus left behind…

Having said that, with the right geography, I would be finding the local farmer and buying him some beers to come on over with a tractor, a flail and a topper…

Defo will be following this, and wish you all the best! It does get easier, but only with the right equipment :l

This place was a gold mine of support and advice. Even the morale aspect of it was enough to keep us going under difficult circumstances…

[CTO]

Also,

This stuff is absolutely not to be used for weed killing, and in particular, Brambles.

Only for compost accelerating……

https://mistralni.co.uk/products/ammonium-sulphama...

[hidetheelephants]

CTO said:

Also,

This stuff is absolutely not to be used for weed killing, and in particular, Brambles.

Only for compost accelerating……

https://mistralni.co.uk/products/ammonium-sulphama...

[Prizam]

Sheepshanks said:

Yes, that's a pretty insane bill - is there an immersion heater bubbling away somwhere? Or some acreage of electric underfloor heating? An EV on constant charge?

I have some dodgy electrics in some outbuildings that I need to investigate. But I think most of the usage is the 3 big dehumidifiers I have running almost 24x7, trying to dry this place out.

[Sheepshanks]

Prizam said:

I have some dodgy electrics in some outbuildings that I need to investigate. But I think most of the usage is the 3 big dehumidifiers I have running almost 24x7, trying to dry this place out.

Yep, that’ll do it. Shame the weather’s not been favourable but then it’d be worse doing the outdoor work.

[Fast Bug]

CTO said:

Also,

This stuff is absolutely not to be used for weed killing, and in particular, Brambles.

Only for compost accelerating……

https://mistralni.co.uk/products/ammonium-sulphama...

Does that need to go on the base of the bramble compost, or will it kill the bramble accelerate the compost process if you pop it on the leaves?

[CTO]

It would do both

But, the best way to accelerate composting is, I’ve heard, to make a mixture in a back pack spray contraption, with water, sugar and some washing up liquid, and douse all the the things you want to help compost

Things start going brown and composty within a couple of hours.

Also good for composting bamboo….

[Prizam]

CTO said:

Also good for, bamboo….

This is intresting...

[Fast Bug]

CTO said:

It would do both

But, the best way to accelerate composting is, I’ve heard, to make a mixture in a back pack spray contraption, with water, sugar and some washing up liquid, and douse all the the things you want to help compost

Things start going brown and composty within a couple of hours.

Also good for composting bamboo….

Thanking you kindly, I look forward to fking up the bd brambles accelerating my composting

[ferret50]

Fast Bug said:

CTO said:

It would do both

But, the best way to accelerate composting is, I’ve heard, to make a mixture in a back pack spray contraption, with water, sugar and some washing up liquid, and douse all the the things you want to help compost

Things start going brown and composty within a couple of hours.

Also good for composting bamboo….

Thanking you kindly, I look forward to fking up the bd brambles accelerating my composting

Me two, or should that be three?

[DodgyGeezer]

CTO said:

It would do both

But, the best way to accelerate composting is, I’ve heard, to make a mixture in a back pack spray contraption, with water, sugar and some washing up liquid, and douse all the the things you want to help compost

Things start going brown and composty within a couple of hours.

Also good for composting bamboo….

yup - IIRC the 'magic ingredient' is the washing up liquid as that enables the mixture to 'stick' rather than just run off. Only thing to be aware of is that the stuff is carcinogenic so be careful (teaching to suck eggs, I know )

[ferret50]

DodgyGeezer said:

CTO said:

It would do both

But, the best way to accelerate composting is, I’ve heard, to make a mixture in a back pack spray contraption, with water, sugar and some washing up liquid, and douse all the the things you want to help compost

Things start going brown and composty within a couple of hours.

Also good for composting bamboo….

yup - IIRC the 'magic ingredient' is the washing up liquid as that enables the mixture to 'stick' rather than just run off. Only thing to be aware of is that the stuff is carcinogenic so be careful (teaching to suck eggs, I know )

Does that mean it will kill the little bds next door as well?

......asking for a friend.......