Jamie

I was brought up by beetles (not the beatles) hence i can be a bit bitey. The beetles liked to live on a nice 8 strand mooring rope down by the water hence i have the bizzare fascination with ropes. Jamie

YES, its not fair JAmie

I climb with a 42m line a short 8m line and a 3m steel core. If i'm spiking up a long way i prefer steel, it just flips nicer, it a good weight to swing around. You can use a wire core on your centre D, you undo a craba nd switch it, its not rocket science. as for working with your flipline on your centre only if you are taking something under a lot of tension, otherwise get it back on teh sides and horse on. Jim, I'd be careful filling your head with to much stuff to early. My advice is get safe, get good, get fast. Along the way start adding bits and bobs to your set up and tweaking it when you have had time to really examine and discover the short comings of your system. My boss still climbs with a harness, 4 crabs a steel core, 3 3 strand prussic loops and a 30m mulitplait rope. you don't need ropeguides, fancy grabs and pullys everywhere to climb. A good climber will shine with the most basic kit and the oldest knots where as a bad climber will still be bad with the latest whodgywotsits (eh Butch, no dig intended). I only started using 16 strand ropes and buying rope grabs, etc as i became more competant. But if you'd like a ropeguide ..... Jamie

I've been told you'll never get anywhere as a forester without a beard Jamie

As always Pete, you are being to insightful. I hate the reason for a removal being 'its too tall'. As far as i'm aware the sky isn't falling in. why people feel the need to 'reduce' the height i don't know. Jamie

i think its sad that people don't want to preserve trees, not just old trees. but then every person is their own expert: right? Jamie

i'm still cruising around happily on my 06 spesh rockhopper pro, i can't fault it in anyway. I got it from edinburgh bicycle. they do their own range of bikes as well. i used to ride on and for the price i think they are top notch. oh and my girlfriends brother works there:proud: Jamie

nice. Snowboarding is expensive so i took up montainboarding...another stupid sport where you hurt yourself too much Jamie

we have pulled our mogs on the road with some 24mm staplespun. i wouldn't risk it with a bogged mog though Jamie

they are the dogs b*****ks and you don't get as sweaty b*****ks as you may normally Jamie

PM sent

Ok, maybe i've just never paid too much atention to it. Jamie

What is going on here? An Ash tree that i ran past had these weird buds all over it. The tree beside had normal looking buds. Most buds on teh tree (i'd say about 90%) looked like this. Any Ideas. First up is a bud that has just began bursting These two show the more advanced bursting buds. The pictures were taken last saturday as i've not yet had a chance to upload and post them. I'll go and check on teh tree again today. Any suggestions Jamie

Then dragged them out by hand, no mechanical horses Jamie

I've only been in one situation were a rescue could have been required. As everyone knows i stuck a saw in my hand. I didn't stop to administer a large wound dressing i got the f**k out of the tree quick smart. mine wasn't overly serious but the blood was pissing out. I'd hate to be in a position where aerial rescue was required. i can imagine it'd be pretty messy. All this thing about a climber with a cut leg needs rescued is crap. unless you're unconcious (from pain, bloodloss, being uneasy at the sight of blood etc etc ) you can still get out of the tree with. I've only done aerail rescue on my course and we were given 12 mins to do it and the casualty was made to scream whcih does add a whole new element to it. I know i can't cover every base with my above comments but the idea of hanging around concious waiting for someone while i apply alarge wound dressing seems absurd. as for suspension trauma at our first aid refressher we were taught its like a crush injury. if you get them on the floor sit behind them and pull their knees to their chest feet on the floor. if after 15 mins you cannot get them out leave as is. please don't quote me on that, check for yourselves. Jamie

35 is ok, i climb on about 42. more to pull up though. Jamie

eh? Jamie

The last time i did some corronet cuts was in a park. There was no deadwood habitat so the idea of creating slow rotting internal micro climates for saproxylic organisims is a moot point. The head ranger who wrote the spec was using it to remove the 'sharp' flat edge at the top of the tree. I don't believe that they should be used in every circumstance and i feel that a lot of people will jump on the eco bandwagon, but they are useful. In a woodland that has little deadwood they should be used as part of an ongoing deadwood habitat program. remove the wood that has a high risk factor but retain the wood that is in the woodland interior. Old info. Deadwood provides one of the greatest forest resources Kirby, K. (1992). Accumulation of deadwood - a missing ingredient in coppice. Where any chainsaw work is carried out, it is recoomended to create natural looking wounds, as straight flat cuts do not allow rapid colonisation of saproxylic organisims (Read 2000)....Ranius et al (2000) advised the use of chainsaws to create rot holes and damaged areas of teh tree to initiate decay. Both of the above quotes were lifted from my dissertation. If anyone wants the chapeter on deadwood i can post it up. minus the reference list. Jamie

Braces and Anna i beg to differ Jamie

did this in 5 mins after dropping the top out. Jamie

One from me too Jamie

i'll only echo everyone else get the experience first then go freelance. Jamie

a tight hitch.....i'm lost i'm a new fangled climber i only climb on fancy whodgit hitches and use more metal shiny bits than i really understand. Jamie

leave. never mind English nature (SNH up here) thin about your morals and ethics and all that Jamie

i'd say, practice bowlines, running bowlines, midline bowlines, timber hitches, slip knots, figure of 8s, over hand knots, reef knots. the list can go on and on and on bowlines are a bigie though, get em down we use these all teh time and i'd say that they are the most useful Jamie