Today's Posts

Yes. And people have a right to be who they are, closer to or further from animals or possessing more or less of any other characteristic. Birds of a feather flock together, which generally works. Africans scrat about mud huts for food and dancing. Londoners scrat about Canary Wharf for money and Porsches. Both peoples are surrounded by others with similar outlooks, goals, needs, wants etc so people understand each other and are able to get on and interact with relatively similar and equal understandings and demands of each other. The other way to look at it is to use intelligence as a metric. James Watson, half of the Watson and Crick known for discovering DNA brought up the issue a few years ago. In 2007, the scientist, who once worked at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, told the Times newspaper that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really". From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46856779

Hmmm, wonder what JD Vance has been doing this week... Probably learning how to drive steam trains, stoking fires I think

150 diesel as they run Kubota, early 125 ran Kohler 23hp then switched to Honda they bought engines in bulk and what is cheapest at the time. Refurbished can mean anything, lick of paint covers up rust, If you can push to £10k you should get something.

Whatever you use, remember to twang it and say ‘That is going NOWHERE.’

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Remember that quote I told you about for the urbanite incomer to the nice village? He walked me round his new garden, huffing and puffing and throwing his arms up in the air at the stupidity of whoever had planted these trees, just all over the place. That'd be the planet, sir. I hope he runs out of money before he astroturfs the whole thing. A shame I didn't get the job because it would have been a nice job but good I didn't get it because then, to the rest of the people in the nice village, I'd be the arsehole tree surgeon who did the trees for that arsehole Londoner.

If you've been out 3.5 years does that mean you are beyond the ELCAS scope? Shame if so, if not then seek out a trainer who understands the system, there are a few around. The one near me does, but it's too far for you probably. It would help you if you could do basic CS30/31 chainsaw yourself, which is one week. It makes you much more useful on site and more likely someone to take you on, I think. This is the basic ticket, you then need time being shown how to work efficiently in a job, which is the real training. Otherwise, there's the route of larger companies - utility sector seems to be constantly short of staff and they have training budgets. I wouldn't want to stay there myself, but at least you get a wage and get some experience while you work out what you do want to do. On the other hand tramping across fields in the rain might really suit you and remind you of good times in the army. It takes all sorts.

I'm in a similar situation, though only about 2 acres in total. I ended up with an ancient Yanmar YM1600 tractor and a topper - does a good job keeping the paddock under control and will cut most things (long grass, scrub, bracken higher than the tractor) if you don't try to go too fast. It doesn't leave a neat, lawn like finish though. (Might do if I cut more regularly, but probably not even then). I have a Honda petrol mower to cut and collect the lawn. Tractor also carries things, tows things, harrows things... (Harrowing helps keep grass healthy). And it could do more - log splitters, little digger attachments etc. The only issues with the tractor are that it's quite brutal, tricky to maneouvre in confined spaces and is a bit hairy on steep slopes, which I have lots of. The front wheels came off the ground once as I was carrying a load of logs up a narrow slope, and I had to eject - that was scary, and I was lucky. I now unlatch the rear wheel breaks and use them to steer in this situation. If you get a tractor I'd suggest a more modern one with roll cage.

I think that's the thing, no one setup is ideal for every job. I have a 12 foot trailer and mini chipper, I can take chipper and either muck truck or mini loader in a bit less than half the space. Perfect for 1-2 man jobs, can do reductions or take down small-medium tree and fit everything on, or run off and tip chip before taking logs home. Take the chipper to the tree saves a lot of dragging if there's any distance involved. Bigger trees with 3 or 4 people, having only one muck truck starts to be the bottleneck, but at that point I'm getting mates in - they bring a tipper and chipper and we now have a 12 foot trailer as well as the tipper, which can shift 2.5 tons of wood per load legally. But - I'm mostly around the villages nearby. Landrover and trailer is a bit of a nightmare when heading in to the city. Then you want a nice Nissan with 2p turning circle. One more thing - trailer is the ideal setup if you live anywhere near a vosa weighbridge, transit has almost no legal payload.

I burn a reasonable amount of euc that I grow and coppice myself. I leave it lying sometimes for 3 months or more after felling and don't find it hard to split with an axe. Though I don't tend to let it get much bigger than 25cm dia or so before I coppice it. I also find it seasons quickly in a polytunnel, once split. The bark is thick & quite watertight, though.

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Good morning Arbtalkers 😊

A bit of hedge trimming. Used the Makita UH006.

Loni Anderson. Remember WKRP in Cincinati?

Good experienced climber around Oxfordshire paye £40-45k

Good luck finding a church of Scotland pile down there mukkah

Absolutely, for reductions. Repollarding lime, or reducing conifer hedge though - just lots and lots of cuts under 1.5". No need for power but light saw that doesn't have a pull cord.

A couple from MaJorka

In that case you're back to the general rule of climbing gear - if in doubt bin it. It's not worth risking yourself to save a few quid.

Just try one they are not cheap but a lot of steel fixers use them no pilot holes and drill straight through 20mm thick steel you need high powered impact 1/2 or 3/4 drive and plenty of cutting grease it’s a easy tool to use especially up in a cheery picker I’d link a video but haven’t a clue how to

I wouldn't blame either of these, rather a combination of cutting back too far in the past and branches being shaded by the tree that was removed. What is dead, is dead. Conifer like that has no buds on old wood, it won't sprout back from the bottom so they will always grow like lollipops. I'd take them out, surprised whoever took the other tree out didn't recommend it. As above laurels not a bad shout, otherwise Thuja, maybe yew. There's no magic, fast growing to cover the windows sooner means more work maintaining in future.

Personally, I would set up a Paypal account. I use Paypal regularly to buy and sell things. I would be reticient to use it as a soul source of payment, but it has its moments. Just add on any merchant fees to your fee.