Steve Bullman

Close mate, its in Chelsworth but you are thinking about the right tree.

No it didn't. I'm not familiar with this

It reminded me of Reg's videos actually when I was cutting this. Dropping lumps from 70-80ft is the norm here, but when you drop something out of anything higher, and notice how much longer it takes for the pieces to hit the ground, thats when you really appreciate how high up you are. Its a lush feeling

Mostly in the mewp on the ride up!

Not that i've come across Tom!

Cheers

Its a funny set up...it looks like its in a piece of parkland but its privately owned. In terms of drop zone it was an absolute gift

Or brutal topping if you prefer I was hesitant about posting these pics as I know the sort of response I will get, but at the end of the day, having personally climbed the tree there is nothing I would have recommended differently despite the brutal and somewhat ugly end result. Brief history: The Black Poplar is allegedly the 2nd oldest in britain. It took quite a battering in the 87 gales which was when it was initially reduced. Recently it has shed several substantial limbs (3ft diameter) and the decision to reduce back to previous points was made. I have been driving past this tree on a regular basis now for years. It was first pointed out to me 18 years ago when I first started tree work. I always wondered if I would ever get the chance to climb it, well now I have.....10 years previously would have been a little nicer though when I was younger and fitter As I said before, I was hesitant to post these pics, but the tree was just too amazing not to share. The pictures do not show the sheer size of it. Even up close it doesn't look as tall as what it actually is, I believe this is down to the mass of the trunk throwing it out of proportion. As an example, the one pic of me taken inside the trunk is actually at about 45ft, where the tree is still a good 6ft in diameter. I took a line up and measured the height it was re-topped at 110ft, and guestimate the original height was between 135ft and 140ft...most definately the biggest tree in terms of mass that I have worked on in my career, and likely will ever work on in this country. About the job itself. Day one went pretty poorly i'm embarrassed to admit. Turned up on site at 8:30 and went about setting throwlines for access. The very first shot with my launcher got stuck, it wasn't coming out in a million years, so Mike then set about trying to set a line with the big shot, whilst I tried setting a line manually from the other side. This was also a bit of a disaster, with every promising shot ruled out by the weight simply refusing to come back down through the thick bark that black poplars are reknowned for. Larger throw bags were the order of the day, of which we had none. Eventually I managed to get a line half way up the tree over a substantial branch. I pulled my climbing line up and round the limb with the throwline, and was surprised when I only just had enough line to bring it down....that was a 150ft rope which meant this limb 'half way up' was a good 75ft. Dragged myself up and that was when the true size of the tree became apparent, the girth just didn't reduce. Got up to where I had anchored and quickly realized there was no was I was going further without using the throwine again, which I did. Established another anchor point another 15ft above, by which point time was cracking on so I decided to get on with knocking out some of the lower growth so the ground staff has something to be getting on with, that alone ended up taking up much of the day. At this point I was quite humbled, and for the first time in a long time feeling a little out of my depth and questioning my abilities. On day 2 a 37m tracked mewp was brought onto site, the idea being the boss could knock but some of the sides whilst I worked the centre of the tree. It was lush to get a lift into the crown, although even with a 37m platform it was still a good way from the top due to the platform only having a 1m outreach at full extension. The platform in itself was an experience. There were very mild winds on the day and the platform still swayed a good 2m from side to side, and had quite a disconcerting creaking noise to go with it....I was quite comfortable up the tree and was glad Andy was working from the mewp!! Not much else to be said really..enjoy the pics, they are not great and don't do the tree justice but its all I have. I do have some helmet cam footage which mostly came out pretty poor but I will try and cobble a short video together when I get time

7 days for me, and it was overnight. I literally woke up one morning feeling a million dollars

Course its not only tescos....they just happen to be probably the most successful supermarket so who do the public want to demonize the most??? of course Tescos. The English hate seeing anyone succeed, its sad but true!

spot on

I'll be up on Sunday for the day, looking forward to it. Theres so much to see at that show aside from the arb section.

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agreed, good work all the same

i've never put salt on my porridge in my life!

its pretty hard to fail these tests in my experience. They will ask you questions, but if they don't get the answer they want they'll grill you till they do. If the knowledge is in there a good instructor will find it.

Just curious, who actually puts salt on their porridge??

I've had the pleasure of working with the polish in the past. I would pick them as employees 90% of the time if not more, and also pay them more than i'd pay English workers. Thats just from my personal experience though.

good post. People forget what things were like only 20/30 years ago. I didn't have a fraction of what my kids have(and take for granted) these days.

Whats traffic flow like now?

Very comfy indeed, slept like a baby and didn't wake up till 10am this morning!! Shameful I know

I just got up

Another thumbs up for Trees in Britain

Well, just took delivery of my Ergoflex mattress. I'll blame Jamie Bray if its crap!

My cleaner chargers £10 an hour and doesn't even bring a chainsaw. £12 an hour