Marc

Andy the rodent damage was picked up by the client. I'm no expert on whose responsible, liabilty etc. I imagine though if any client has a brace installed it becomes there responsibilty to have this checked on a regular basis, not the neccesarly the company who installed it, maybe the company will just advise on maintenance/inspection schedules. That way it becomes the responsabilty of the tree owner. On a side note the college I worked at in Oxford had one of the oldest and largest Horse chesnuts in Oxford. It had a numerous old steel cable braces, installed by the University parks department tree gang. Only the gang had'nt been round to check on the tree in over 10 years, and one year it shed 2 large limbs after braces failed, these limbs where lost over the students BBQ area!! No one was in the area when the limbs shed. As I understood it, the parks department were not responsable because we had'nt scheduled them to inspect the trees in over 10 years. We got a different company in to do a survey, all trees were tag'd and maintenance schedules written up, providing the college sticks to the maintenance schedules and has regular inspections carried out its possible that company could be held liable for failed trees, if proven suffcient steps were not taken to prevent this. But I really do not know.

Andy i've inspected a few old'ish Cobra systems i'm guessing 5 years old (which is'nt that old in the scheme of things) they look a bit manky but generally in intact and stable. I have been on jobs where the brace has been re-installed due to squirell damage, not yet through deteriotian The oldest system i've seen is a Svensk Tradvard padded brace i'm guessing like the ones Ed worked with in Sweden, this was put in in the mid 90's and still seemed to be doing its job, although the tree was felled as its replacement planted at the time of the brace installation was doing well. I have seen much older steel braces some could of been 50 years old. I do hate it though that installing braces is considered admitting liability. Surley if you reduce a hazardous tree to reduce its sail area or whatever thats admitting liabilty to? In fact you could go as far as saying working on any potential hazardous tree is admitting liability, and it should be felled. Predicting what trees will do is alomst impossible, its all best guess through years of experience with trees and knowledge, all we can do is reduce risks to acceptable levels not remove them entirely. Unless you remove the tree.

I like seeing those 1st aid kits, hardly anyone I climb with carries one, I personally carry mine in my helmet directly above my head, its just 2 large wound dressings a medium wound dressing, some tape and a roll of wrap, its pretty compact and soft! As for chainsaw attachment I notice that it seems its not where you hang it from its just the clipping it short that is problematic? I use a side strop with micrograb as an adjustable lanyard for my saw, when I want it short I just grab the tail of my lanyard and pull it up, to go long again just grab the micrograb and pop it open to drop it long. I love this set-up its pretty unique, I don't see many climbers using it, although another climber showed it to me.

Intresting stuff, I always think of it as wether you want to be a tree service/surgeon, or an arborist. I'm only being very simplistic in my view. I've worked with companies that will cut a tree in half if thats what the cleint wants, but also do what some of us consider quality ethical work. I've also worked with companies that will only do whats best for the tree, and will do the utmost to talk the client round. Where as the other adopts the attitude of its not for us to question why the client wants it. Just an observation is all, not criticism.

I think i'm going to have to steal your idea Matt! Sometimes I draw little diagrams to explain drop crotching, usually when you explain they realise you that you know what your doing and go for your reccomendations. I've had really annoying jobs though, one guy got me to butcher a couple of his trees, but the situation and the fact they were self seeds I went ahead with the heavy pruning. He trusted me and asked me to prune his very old Mulberry tree as it had lost a limb, so I went there and pruned it as hard as I thought neccesary to reduce weight and sail area without spoiling the look of the tree. He paid promptly as usual, then phoned me a week later and said he thought the job i'd done was very professional and all but he'd like me to hack it back by over half! I asked him why, and he said he wanted more off so I would'nt have to prune it so freqeuntly?? I tried to explain that less is more, and if I took more off he would get vigorous re-active growth on poor unions, I could tell it was'nt sinking in. So I never went back and lost a good client. Should I have butchered his Mulberry? I did present cable bracing as an option to stop further branches spliting out, only i don't think he was worried about that. It was a great specimen, in the middle of his big lawn out of the way, it made no sense to butcher it. Personally I have no intrest working for people who don't care for there trees, I think i'm spoilt having worked for good tree companies

Good on you Matt and Anna it sounds like a good call. I know some of us would do it, heck i've done the odd job i'm not to happy with (well out of public view!), there is the arguement we provide a service and hence have to do jobs that are not to best practice. I think it depends in what direction you want to go in, i've done sympathetic reduction's on trees to try and keep people happy with them, for them to turn round and tell me i've not cut enough off, to cut in half, hack it right back etc etc. I try to explain its not in their best intrest or the trees for me to do that, and walk away. This tactic occasionally works, but i have lost work by trying to take the moral ground. At the end of the day it comes down to what kind of arborist "I" want to be. As for your arse, i'm sorry mate it does'nt do it for me.

Work boots take a lot of abuse, lets face it we wear our boots more than any other shoe/boot! Thats why its worth getting something that is comfortable and good quality. I've tried cheap boots like the SIP's and basic Stihls, but did'nt use them for more than 2 months, as they used to kill the my heels and give me blisters. Also we all walk differently, I used to get knee pain from over-pronating, getting supafeet inserts helped. With Meindl the Vibram sole, combined with meindl sole unit give a much better walking action for me. Obviously we are all biomechanically different! As for how long the gor-tex lasts, 12 months of daily use is a long time. Mine start to go around the toes about that time, but it varies, my last pair of Meindls the rubber rand came off after 6 months, my new pair have lasted 8 months intact. Use plenty of wax, I try to liberally wax mine every month, occasionally using liquid nix-wax, this is a pain though as you have to get the leather wet for best results.

I went out to the pub last night, 4 of us all smokers, had a meal: real nice steak, pate and mushroom with saltead potatoes and seasonal veg. After the meal all 4 of us wanted a smoke, we was directed/herded to a little area 4meters away from the pub kinda like a little play pen with perspect sides and a roof. Man that was weird, everyone who comes and goes walks past looking at us like we are lepers or something. Sucks Suppose i'll have to give up the tobacco now, gave up weed in September, my only drugs of choice since then have been anything that ends with ine, caffeine, nicotine and adrenaline.

Those Elten aguafells/fellsmen, were supposed to be all singing all dancing purpose designed boots from what I remember. Then came the eXspurt jobbies with cut-outs for spikes and all new flexability, but they are rubbish too. I think the Meindls and Klimas are about the best no-nonesense, well made boots made by people who know how to make boots. The eltens with injection moulded soles are of such poor quality in my opinion, they are made by safty boot manafacturers who sprang up in the last decade or so and make mass produced rubbish, which is o.k for some. Where as Scarpa, Meindl and Klima make quality boots and have done for years, not mass pruduced rubbish. I hear what Pete is saying, it be nice to have flexible, grippy boots, Scarpa makes some good ones but there not proper ppe. Meindl has some climber boots but they are not as durable as the wauldlaffers/woodloggers, and they do not have qualities that make them stand-out over the more commonly availible ones Is it possible to make a decent climbing boot that is durable, with flexabilty and grip? we'll see. As for Haix I don't rate them at all over Meindl, Elten are shit. But thats just my opinion, and i'm known to be wrong

I can understand why the saw shop would think that, i've had the same problems with jellyfied oil in my saws due to different people I work for using different oils, not sure of which brands they are, but do know that even a small amount of mineral oil mixed with certain veggie based oil or vice versa turns to jelly. Never had problems with my oil pump though!! and i've jellyfied my oil several times. Although recently i've noticed oil performance maybe dropping, thought it might just be the type of wood, (Ash or Oak being the worst). So now I know it could be a problem, i'll check it out.

So what are the improvements over the Tree Magic then Steve? And what were you climbing on before Pete? I've found the Tree Magic a huge improvement over my Dragonfly, it took a while to dial in, i.e bridge length, and center off balance with the right amount of slack on the leg loops to save the boys from chafing nut pinching. The basic design off the Tree Motion looks very similar, with more customisable tool loops, the second dee's, rope bridge and different desgin waistbelt being the only standout different features. But in essence the same. I think having a rope bridge is the biggest difference, as it gives smoother movement, kinda like the thin strap on the D/fly B/fly 2 which is what i liked most on my D/fly.

Today was the suckiest day this year, topping confier lines is bad, topping confier lines on the wettest day ever is really bad, topping confier lines swamped in russian vine and with brambles growing through them sucked big time. Then we finish and arrive at the yard at 3 thankfull for an early finish, when we get a call from the boss to go do an emergency job, a branch had fallen from a tree. Arrive at job and said branch is actually half the tree, which is resting on a propane tank, with a power line running through it, and suspended above a mobile home. One possible upside, we potentially saved a tree today, which is could be good, and may go someway to restoring my karma..... actually there is no chance of that.

Thinking outside the box, cause and remedy I like it peter.

For me its back pain and tedonitis. And occasionally problems with my ibial tibial band? i,e bad knee. I've been told my bad knee is related to my bad back, which comes and goes along with my back. My tendonitis has virtually gone and I rarely feel it, occasionally on the rare job where I will use a pole hedgecutter for long periods. I found with all my little niggles and pain is do not ignore them, try to find out what causes them and try to remedy it. At the moment i'm not following my advice, I need to go to my back doctor, and i'm not warming up enough before and after work! Also i've stopped doing yoga which in the 6 months I was doing it I did find improvements. I'd go as far to say in my opinion yoga is the ultimate form of low impact excercise for our line of work.