Marc

Here is a badly topped Walnut, I even caught the pikey scum in the act who promptly tried to hide his face from the camera.

My god, it takes real skill to do that to trees. I hate reducing Silver Birch they just don't respond well, I always go light then the customer isn't happy. All they want is the tree hacked right back!

Hollow centers don't bother me much, a tube is a strong structure. Root decay like ustilina and other fungal problems like really bad innonotus on big trees bother me. Or climbing old high Ash/Lime pollards with 30ft regrowth on poor unions in high winds. As for confidence in your climbing gear, it probably took me months to get fully confident, I found it was'nt just the kit either the type of tree plays a role. BIG Populars I hate the most as you can feel very exposed over 60ft up with no limbs beneath you. We are all different and have to find our own ways of dealing fear/lack of confidence/stress. I found singing songs in my head or listening to an mp3 player helped relax me and improve my focus, might not work for you. In the end though it comes down to experience, the more time you spend climbing the less it bothers you, some of us just take longer than others.

Who has their chipper tickets? I know of someone who injured themselves with a chipper, and the insurance company paid out even though they did'nt have a ticket. I know of a young lad being run over by a stump grinder, he got a pay out to. And again I actually worked with a guy who got his arm dragged! into a forestry mulcher again insurance paid out, even though the operator was not formaly trained to use the machine! Some of the guys I work with did their chipper tickets, took them about half hour to pass, £120 each for 3 lads half a day. All have been using chippers daily for over 5 years. Also I think i'm right in saying you need to be reassed every 5 years to prove ongoing training! Don't get me wrong I think training is good, but I can't help thinking its a money spinning excercise. I'd like to see the whole process changed, how I don't know. I don't have 40 or 41 but feel my rigging is better than some of those who do, as for pruning! I'd like to do them though

Those postioners are great, don't have one myself, but have used one on a soft rope. I think i'm right in saying they do not work great with stiff wire core lines though, as they work by angling the line somehow instead of grabing/clamping action? Are you having problems with that Bob?

I've known pikeys do better work than that, and some tree outfits do worse! Either way its shocking work alright.

For a while I had a little webbing loop, about 4" i'd larks foot this directly to the side D and clip into this, it has a little less play than 2 biners and a soft link. Once you clip into the loop your not taking the flipline of until the climbs finished anyway. Like Pete I now use a small 3/2 VT in 8mm cord (smaller cord seems to grip better) which is only 4-5" from biner to top wrap, so nice and compact.

Wow nice bit of standing dead wood habitat, obviously carried out by a progressive tree care company.

You drunk yet?

If I knew you were putting up your video for criticism, i would'nt of been so polite I hate giving advice generally cause I have so little experience, but I reckon you need to smooth everything out a little bit, take a little more time, quicker is not always faster! Be effecient and measured in everything you do and speed will come.

Note for future idents get better pics of leaves and buds on the stem. That alone is sometimes better for ident rather than just bark and tree form alone. I went to look at a job on the weekend, previous tree man who qouted said it was a Prunus, the leaves did look Prunus like, yet it had yellow buds. It was actually a goat willow. I'd say black walnut to.

So true that, although you mention teamwork, o.k its the climber who calls the shots, but a good groundie is invaluble. With my few years experience I always take note of what people tell me on the ground, I like the input as occasionally they can see something i've missed or teach me something new. Really good groundies seem rare, the reason for this i'm not sure, maybe just my experience of tree work. The best groundies in rigging situations I think are those who climb as well.

Which is a good reson for keeping things tight is it not? Still nice one for putting up the vid,

A heavy duty pulley for rigging, for big bits the cast ali blocks are good, but there are steel versions out there to. I think there was some confusion when you said topping strop, i've chogged down trees with a big thick topping strop and steel thimble before, using a pulley is way smoother.

Stihl had to redesign there hedgetrimmers as councils were not buying them due to high vibration levels, there new ones are very good. I just got a new 361, impressed with that too.

Intresting to see the vids vdub, i've never had any formal rigging training, but that sure looks different to the way I rig tops out.

Barts head I like that one much better than my description.

Nice pics vduben.

A good groundie/climber combo is essential on some trees, the tree in the pic you show looks like one of those. Can I ask are you a subbie, or do you work for a company, had you worked with the groundie before? Not trying to imply anything, just curious. When I started sub'ing for other companies I found I was being put on difficult jobs with groundies who did'nt have experience with roping or comunication. Some I just could'nt get on with! As you say mishaps or accidents can happen, but I would hope not all the time.

Not that I know for sure, as far as i'm aware its o.k to use ali, only that its reccomended to use steel as it makes it easier to distinguish between lowering kit and climbing kit. And someone I worked with who just came off his 10 week course said we should'nt be using swing cheek pulleys for lowering, only as redirects? I sometimes use prussik pulleys for lowering small bits over obstacles!

You did'nt say there was other work to do on site Matt, was that scheduled or did you do it cause you was there anyway? Not that it matters. I don't get this idea that if you walk away from a job it shows that your a pussy and not upto the job. O.k in some cases this could be true. But I look at it as a safty call made by someone with knowledge and experience. That should garner more respect, than the fool who decided to do it anyway and ignore the risks! Sometimes its good to listen to those voices in your head! sometimes! What would be the damage to your reputation, and even your life had it gone wrong?? Only once have I been on a job where the climb was cancelled due to winds, the climber was well up for it, but the boss with 25 plus years experience made the call. We had plenty of other work to do on site that was safer in the conditions. I respect there is a hell of a lot of machoism in tree work, but really its all bollocks!!

Whats this about dresses? Pics please ha ha

I was always told that when the tail of your rope is blowing at a 45 degree angle then its to windy. I've never worked on a BIG Popular but have have climbed one for fun, and I can honestly say it was'nt fun. Sod trying to do one in difficult conditions.

Ah yes HAVS, not good, I was begining to get early sypmtoms last year of tendonitis. I did'nt ignore it though and looked at the way I was working to try and improve the problem. Since then my arm has got a lot better, and now I hardly notice any pain in my elbow. Its just my back now, doing yoga and looking at the way I lift and work is improving that. One important change is balancing out the way I move, simple things like say draging brush, one trip i'll drag with my right, next with my left. Same with carrying logs one trip on my right shoulder next on my left. And when climbing again don't try to favour one side.

All good points, I can't tune a saw for s**t let alone by ear. And I don't always have the time to take them to a dealer and say sort it out please. My saw was running bad I need it for work so I made a few very small adjustments, carefull only to adjust one thing at a time. Now it seems to run fine, but probably not to its optimum. As for my understanding of 2 stroke tuning, i.e smoke and oil from exhuast it comes from a time when I used to run model cars. A little smoke at full revs and some unburnt oil meant the engine was'nt running lean. And those little engines put out some power, 3.5cc, 1.5hp running upto 40,000 rpm, running on alcohol. So my knowledge is probably not to relevent to higher cc 2 stroke. Tuning by ear is impossible, only most of my local dealers probably could'nt tune it any better. Besides a saw can change when at work due to weather or maybe you will use different fuel from tim to time like me etc. So I think a tacho looks like a worthwhile invesment. As for the black stuff in the piston chamber, having split open an old exhaust I'm begining to think thats wear it came from, its certainly not from the chsmber itself. I reckon I blew it in there when I was cleaning my saw with an air line.