Marc

Has anyone got a pair yet? http://www.treeworker.co.uk/acatalog/Safety_Boots.html#aB93644

Man i'm sick as a dog, no sooner have I got a new pair of Meindls, I find out there is a new model of Meindls out, god damn, i'm going to have to wait another 9-12 months before I can justify another pair. Unless my new pair has an accident......

Here is a pic of how I have my VT's set-up at the moment.

I liked the look of your other set-up in the your gear thread Telhol, why don't you use that, it would probably work better. Wth the VT and stiff cord I found after a while the cord gets a memory and the wraps eventually grip better, sometimes. The problem is with the sewn eye cord you have is you cannot adjust the length.

Telhol its difficult to run your own buisness i'm sure, but if your quality is good then you should be charging more, don't look to under price your competition charge more than them cause your worth it! I don't like to comment on other peoples work I just thought your Silver Birch pruning job was o.k, if you did a good tidy up and the client was happy then you should be charging double, I'd charge a minimum of £150 on that job plus VAT! Regardless of how may jobs I had that day or how close they are, i'm not always going to be so busy. And its not ripping your customers off, charging £75 is just ripping yourself off. What I did find surprising is you said you can knock out 5 of those jobs a day at £75 so its good money, dude that means you have to be real busy all the time what if you hit a slack period! Its in slack periods I'd think you need to lower your price. Why don't you double your price then you only need to win half the jobs to make the same money, build up a client list who are happy paying you premium money for premium work? I don't mean to dig, running your own buisness is hard, so respect to you for giving it a go, and I hope in the future you do well.

Is'nt that a neo nazi kind of pic? I remember some of my old school friends going that route, shaving there heads, doc martin boots, red braces and highly racist thought of themselves as real tough mean barstards! I actually thought they were sad pussy's

HEY! I've never been to arb college and seem to know more about qaulity work and biology than some who have! I personally think attitude is more important, do you just want to be another dope on the rope, or do you really want to be a modern arborist. I'm NOT saying college is a bad idea! I needed and income so could'nt justify 10 week courses, I maybe could of done a one day a week course, and may still do that to improve my knowledge. I say get your hands dirty see if treework is really something you want to do, maybe you will find a company that will train you, or you could be a self employed labourer get as much experience as you can and put yourself through the NPTC courses, which is what I did. There are many ways to go about starting in arb work.

We have a local guy remove all our big bits of timber for free, he'll make good use of that Oak planking it up and may make some good money out of it, which makes up for all the crap we give him! You ever looked round for guys to extract your timber for free? we have 2 or 3 blokes fighting over our wood, the deal is for all the good stuff they must also take the crap!

Where did you find it? I found some similar ones on the exposed roots before, the roots were damaged by a lawn mower.

Do you mean bore out the center of the hinge on a section your trying to push out? surely it would be easier and safer to just put a pull rope on it if its being that stubborn? I've never done it or ever seen anyone do it in the tree. I occasionally bore out the center when pulling over Stems i've stripped, it seems to make it easier, I don't like doing it on trees with full crowns.

And here are some pics of my first crane job from last week, unfortunatly no fugger ever takes pictures of me at work so no action pics. First pic is the day before, we cleared a bit from one side to give space for the crane, that took nearly 3 hours lowering. The next few pics are the crane getting ready, then progress at first break, and final cut going in just before lunch. Took 3 hours to rig that small section off the day before, and under 3 hours to takes the rest of the tree down with the crane, it was one of the easiest and safest ways I've ever dismantled a tree if only all jobs could be so easy.

Funny, today I did a couple of Beech thin/reductions too. As usual they don't look much smaller, in my defense they had been reduced quite a bit before, so I thought just a thin/clean gto contain rather than full on reduction Beech don't like heavy reductions anyway. Both had TPO's and potentially weak unions. Replaced a Cobra brace in the tree nearest thr house. Easy day really finished by 2:30

Come on Matty you don't expect anyone to believe that do you? You bloody love it really!

Telhol i'm not keen on that ocean polyester, its to hard and stiff to work well with a VT, although it is possible to find a config that works, it just involves more wraps and braids than I like. I found a knute or variation of that worked best with the ocean poly. Plus i'm not a fan of buying pre-spliced prussik cord, its expensive and not adjustable. Your better off tieing your own cord as you can adjust the length to suit. I do have some eye to eye slings though, they are always handy to have, and the ocean poly is durable so its not a waste of money. I find VT's work better with soft cord that bends easily, and smaller diameter 9-8mm grips better so less chance of creep. The hitchclimber though is spot on I love it and i'm sure you will.

was this a personal experience Drew, sounds fun. I've climbied with most knots, the VT though is so damn simple and obvious, it has no bridge so basically if set right will never bind tight, I always think of a VT gripping liking a finger trap. Its so easy to break and allows for really smooth controlled decents. Beeb climbing on a sickeningly small set-up recently, from the top wrap down to the biner is no more than the width of my palm, it grips very reliably and self tends easily. Only problem is it technically only has 2 wraps and 2 braids!

A mClimber I work with caught himself on the arm just before his elbow, he does'nt have many years in the harness, but he is one of the most carefull climbers I know, he uses 2 hands more than most of us do, and tries to always work to best practice. He is still unsure of what exactly happened, what is sure is he lost control and the saw went into his arm, his finger was off the throttle so not at full revs, i'm sure a sleeve would of prevented this injury. But that is such a rare occurance, and other than wrapping us in full kevlar rare occurance/accidnets will happen, its the nature of the work we do. I except this, and will do everything I can to not injure myself through good saw handling etc, NOT by covering myself in chainsaw protection. So I hope they will never make wearing sleeves law.

Mister tree, you are in a way right, the spec sheet said 30% reduction, it did'nt specify what, wether it was allround/height/volume etc etc. I spoke to the client they wanted it contained and reduced back from neighbours side, plus thinned a little to give more light. I'll be intrested to see how it responds.

I have lots of gadgits, there in the bottom of my climbing bag amongst the woodchips. Very occasionally i'll find a use for them, but half the time, I feel i'm only using them to justify me buying them.

I'm pretty much the same as Steve, except I use a camp rope grabe on my soft lanyard. And I always use my Hitchclimber pulley, I climb with a 3/2 VT. My Harness is a Treemagic and I like it, the only thing that I don't like is the strap bridge, i'd much prefer a rope bridge like the treemotion. I don't have a ART rope guide, but I always always use my cambium saver on everything, it protects the tree and makes my climbing rope last longer, and generally makes climbing much easier. o.k my firction cord may wear slightly quicker maybe, but i'd rather my climbing rope lasted longer, plus I like the quick decents its great for swinging out and dropping down onto branches, and when that goes smoothly I look way cool but most of the time I just look clumsy.

Some of my reduction work, nothing massive really, I only seem to get pics of the more mundane stuff. First pic is a horse chesnut 25% reduction, it does'nt look like I removed much but I took about 6-8 foot allround, this tree will be repeatedly reduce every 5 years so its important to not remove to much and to keep the trees flow and form to make future reductions easy. Time to do 1h 40m Second pic is a before and after of a Eucalyptus, this was as about an extreme a reduction as I will do 30%ish, its to appease the neighbours and improve the light. This tree had already been reduced 5 years earlier. Time: 1 hour 15m even with lowering some branches over neighbours. 3rd pic a Gledistia, 10% this job was more to try and repair the previous topping it had, and to contain it in its current size, it has been done 3 times before, once very badly! This job was a pain in the ass, it had gone mad because of poor pruning basically a high pollard. I think it came out good though. Time nearly 2 hours

Also i'd be intrested to know who installs a rescue rope in every big tree they climb, I know I don't, if I got in trouble near the top i'd have to wait for someone to climb up.

O.k am I again being a complete moron in thinking what i'm about to type. Basically that using lowering kit to resuce someone is not reccomended because its not PPE? If something is fit for lowering down huge chunks of wood, how can it not be fit for aerial rescue? I fully understand that rigging gear must be kept seperate from personal climbing kit, yet I feel a good rigging kit that is well maintained and regularly checked would be the most suitable way of performing a pole rescue when no other kit is to hand, and should be used without hesitation. I trust our rigging kit to lower safley massive pieces of wood, how could it possibly be unsuitable for lowering a human in an emergency. Have I missed something? Although after reading this I think i'm going to purchase a rescue figure of 8 for my climbing kit, I already have a small loopie, pilleys and some slings, so i'd have everything to hand. The rescue 8 would also be handy as a lowering device for rigging

Nutty Arb is the first flower pic a variety of Cleredendron, possibly tricorfolium?

I bet you flush cut the stubs on the side your working on though?

I agree vdub, in that situation there is not much you can do, apart from give first aid and plenty of reassurance. As a sub-contractor, i've worked for companies that have sent me out with a spec sheet written on a post-it note, with no RA done before the job, or on the site. So I always made sure I had a well stocked first aid kit in my bag, as well as a small one in my helmet. i would always get detailed directions to the site i was at from the client/boss and write this down on a piece of paper and leave it in the cab usually on the drivers seat near my phone. Any problems i'd get the groundie to go to the cab and call for an ambulance, or even a member of public. Thankfully i've never been involved in a serrious accident at work.