Pollards, the forgotten art-discussion

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

i never said anyone was stupid, i said that folk take the easy option, maybe not everyone, but most, i have worked with guys that were in their 80's, and they would tell me stuff that they had done, their dads had done, and their dads before them, so really they could give you a history lesson over the last 100-150 years, at no time would they ever discuss the amazing pride of the job, they did enjoy it, but back in those days it was hard living, working like hell for a gentry land owner with a hard assed factor cracking the whip, they worked in poor conditions for very little money, and if they got the tree down that was the main thing, any way possible, most of the stories were about near misses and disasters ending up with them getting drunk during the day..

 

i hate to have to drop a reality bombshell but in those days while the money might not have been great often housing came with the job, a lot of food would have been readily avaliable on the estate and to be honest, Most people would be happy with the pressure release of that lifestyle.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

not wanting to burst your bubble or tell you what you think, but i sometimes think back to stuff i used to do and think it would be great, but that was then and sometimes we alter our own memories so many times by thinking about them so much that we start to remember all the good bits and see it through rose tinted glasses a little:001_smile:and my back couldnt handle 8 hrs bent over with a saw, and i like cake and coffee to much now anyway:biggrin:

 

The hardest work i ever did was as a boy on a lifestock farm, to this day it was the best time I ever had, it was hard and i mean back breaking work long hours but that life, just made it all worth while. i guess it all boils down to some people want it easy, others just get on with it cos lets face it, life is graft, end of. you can bitch and moan about it all day and get yourself all uptight wound up and slag the way things are right off, but at the end of that youll still left with a life to get on with and work to do!

[Stephen Blair]

i think there is now confusion on what you are trying to get across, debate easily slips into arguement, with out assuming any one elses views or what you think we might think, sum up your idea on what direction tree surgeons should be going, whether its a 1 man band or a huge company doing AA aproved work.:thumbup1:then we can get to the bottom of your theories:001_smile:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

a survey said that the happiest people in britain earnt on average £250 a week, food for thought.

 

we have more things to bitch about now than ever before, only its worse because were not as tired at the end of the day and we have lost those "evening winter tasks that fullfilled our creative needs and fed our souls.

 

native crafts are some of the finest art youll ever see, do you think these objects where created by people who had THAT hard a time? these were not made from nescesity, these are elaborate art works, that take many hundreds if not thousands of hours to make and complete.

 

there is a lot to be said for the old ways, maybe not in the narow view, but on a deeper more spiritual level.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

i think there is now confusion on what you are trying to get across, debate easily slips into arguement, with out assuming any one elses views or what you think we might think, sum up your idea on what direction tree surgeons should be going, whether its a 1 man band or a huge company doing AA aproved work.:thumbup1:then we can get to the bottom of your theories:001_smile:

 

what am i supposed to be, some sort of messiah! this is supposed to be about pollards not lifestyles!

 

o.k maybe this thread is as much about me venting certain fustrations with the way we are today, the way i am TOLD to do my job, like fell to ground a chestnut that has a bee colony in it, on getting to the job i find a gallon of petrol was poured into the hive and oh now it seems the option was given by the LA local forester to pollard it to retain the habitat!

 

so maybe this thread is as much about me desperatley and i do mean desperatley, to the point off tears trying to change how and why we work so this s99t doesnt happen. so that diversity is encouraged and not discouraged.

 

and wanting desperatley to stop those ancient woodlands going into terminal decline because to me they are my church, my university and my playground.

 

but whatever way this thread goes, really doesnt matter, the content is first class and were having a good old tree natter, which is BLINDIN innit!

[Stephen Blair]

i hate to have to drop a reality bombshell but in those days while the money might not have been great often housing came with the job, a lot of food would have been readily avaliable on the estate and to be honest, Most people would be happy with the pressure release of that lifestyle.

 

i come from a family of estate workers, tied houses. You are asuming i dont know about this, i know the reality bombshell when every other kid in the class has a new bike and nice clothes, and i have clothes from a lost property bag and wear wellies to school, oh yes its great that i could split logs every night and weekend over the summer just so we could keep warm in winter because dad couldnt afford the electricity bill, very romantic. Thats why i have grafted by nads off from the age of 14 saving and striving not to go back to that, i have lived in a shack for 5 years freezing, wheel barrowing logs out of a burn, topping sitkas for chrimbo trees, felling larch for strainers, stuff that. I am just back in from my hot tub sitting in a warm house with the heating on not bothered if i dont work till springtime, because i can, so i know what i am talking about, and that was only in the 70's. i cant imagine what it must of been like hundreds of years ago, your kids freezing to death, dying of curable illnesses but you wouldnt of had the money for them. You see my views as synical, not at all, i am a realist, everything i say is from experience, anyone who knows me, knows i am very optimistic in life:001_smile:

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

i come from a family of estate workers, tied houses. You are asuming i dont know about this, i know the reality bombshell when every other kid in the class has a new bike and nice clothes, and i have clothes from a lost property bag and wear wellies to school, oh yes its great that i could split logs every night and weekend over the summer just so we could keep warm in winter because dad couldnt afford the electricity bill, very romantic. Thats why i have grafted by nads off from the age of 14 saving and striving not to go back to that, i have lived in a shack for 5 years freezing, wheel barrowing logs out of a burn, topping sitkas for chrimbo trees, felling larch for strainers, stuff that. I am just back in from my hot tub sitting in a warm house with the heating on not bothered if i dont work till springtime, because i can, so i know what i am talking about, and that was only in the 70's. i cant imagine what it must of been like hundreds of years ago, your kids freezing to death, dying of curable illnesses but you wouldnt of had the money for them. You see my views as synical, not at all, i am a realist, everything i say is from experience, anyone who knows me, knows i am very optimistic in life:001_smile:

 

well fella, your tone, suggests different. and if you have THAT cosy a life good for you mate, i cant say the same, I have still to work almost seven days a week, when work is avaliable, not lately i cant afford this mortgage on a house i cant afford to renovate, going to school for fees i cant afford and driving a clapped out ford escort that is JUST legal, but I still love my life!

 

its soulfull man!

[Stephen Blair]

i have loads of respect for the swampies of the world that are sitting on a plank of wood up a big tree trying to stop a motorway. But the minute someone sits in an armchair in a house with a telly on, mains gas and electricity, a car in the driveway talking about saving the world i have to laugh.

[geoff]

i never saw stans post geof, yes a good one indeed, and i totally agree BUT the folk that do all the moaning and groaning and leter writing, walking through ticky tape and demanding to know why, who gave the permision blah blah blah are the toffs, who are out walking their ridge backs and vimeranas and have the brass neck to walk into our sites and give us abuse on how bad the tree looks, and then they head back home to call up their old chum who is a judge or lawyer on memeber of a board of something official, (toffs dont have mobiles by the way)then 10 minutes later we get stopped and told to give them a bit of a thin out, thats why if you look round all the street trees or park trees that have had remedial work done, there is always one half pollarded somewhere..But whats even better, they pop round again in the afternoon for more walkies and ask for the firewood, ha ha. they dont wan to give you a penny for it and make you feel as if they are doing you a favour. lol i would rather throw it on a fire or down a banking. So this also goes back to the days gone by where the workers morral on the big estates were all cap in hand bitterness, so when you got a chance to get one over on the laird they usually did.

 

Not naive to that down here Steve,I'm lucky,Ihave been both sides of the fence.New thead potential here, 'should an old pollard be left to detiorate,or be beligerantly hacked?'

You make a valid point here I.M.O.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

i have loads of respect for the swampies of the world that are sitting on a plank of wood up a big tree trying to stop a motorway. But the minute someone sits in an armchair in a house with a telly on, mains gas and electricity, a car in the driveway talking about saving the world i have to laugh.

 

Do you know how many times I have considered the "alternative" lifestyle?

 

i could buy a decent sized wood on the money tied up in these bricks, and you need no planning permision for sub terranian!

 

trust me, i aint far off the coppice wood and charcoal route!