Dom

Once a woman from 2 doors down from the driveway I was working on came and blamed me for dust on her car. Admittedly, there was a tiny bit of dust, and nothing the blower didn't remove, but the car was also filthy from general driving. She tried to get me to pay up for her to have her car washed. Naturally I refused, and then ten minutes later her bewildered husband came out and asked me the same thing. To which I refused and told him not to be so scared of her.

Frustratingly slow, it's true. but I fastened another log against the ram to lengthen it, so it didn't need to travel as far. Also if you've got 3 hands, or there are two people, then you can hold one of the levers down as soon as the ram returns (it returns quite fast) to stop it while you put another log on. Bring back pedal operated vertical log splitters I reckon.

It was a bit of a stopgap between petrol splitters, realised I didn't really need it any more. Since I got rid of it, I've had untold customers and friends asking if I have a log splitter they can borrow. The vertical petrol ones are no fun to shift around as you know.

Alright Kev, I had a 7 tonne Titan-pro splitter for a year, worked a treat, and if you have 2 people on it, you can munch through logs pretty fast, as the ram doesn't have to return all the way back to the starting position. I had it on a stand, it got used regularly for a year at home, almost a nice way to spend an evening. And then I sold it in the Friday-ad for almost the same I paid for it.

Surprised no one has made any comments about one-handing yet...

Thanks guys, very interesting useful responses, just what I was after. As a couple of you asked, I did quote the chap correctly, and his statements are in supporting documentation for a mature beech that was felled very locally to the trees I am applying for. It was the local Residents Association who quoted him in their letter to my customer. I thought that it sounded quite an extreme quote, so I double checked myself that they had quoted him correctly! I liked AA Teccie Pauls remark that I should state something similar to "...to a height/clearance above ground level not exceeding '5.0m' and by removal of secondary and tertiary (third order) branches only, no primary branches, and with final pruning cuts not exceeding 75mm dia." (or similar). If the application is refused I'll try and improve my wording a little! On another slightly separate tangent, a couple of years ago I had a job where I applied to cut back some overhanging branches from scrappy boundary trees (sycamore, ash, and a many years previously butchered oak). The limbs were almost entirely across the customers gardens, (a row of terraced houses) almost touching the roof in a couple of places. My application came back with the conditions of cutting back by a maximum of 1.5m. There was no access for cherry pickers, and on some of the trees, there would have been no way for me to climb out far enough to cut back such a small amount. The odd thing was that all 5 of the residents in the terraced row of houses disliked the trees, they weren't visible from the road or anywhere except the 5 resident's homes. So I didn't understand how they could have provided any amenity value. I didn't fancy arguing the toss with the council and rocking the boat, so I told the customer to track down a consultant. Not sure what's happened since, they aren't the easiest trees for me to easily go and have a look at. All the fun of the fair

Hello tree people, A client of mine whom I've submitted a TPO application on behalf of, has just received a letter from the residents association of the village that the tree, and property is in. It's a mature beech tree, part of a long line of copper beeches, all protected by TPOs. The work spec was to lift to 5m, which wasn't to include cutting back any limbs to the trunk, as the branches dont start until above this point. So just to cut back a couple of swooping low hanging limbs. The letter my client has received quotes a local arboriculturalist as saying (in regards to another tree protected by a separate TPO) "Beech is a rather temperamental species, and where you can get away with significant pruning and even pollarding in certain species, Beech are intolerant of any work." In my opinion this is a very flawed statement, to say that beech are intolerable of any work, is just plainly incorrect, and to be saying this in writing as a supposed expert is pretty shoddy. Anyways, my client is now annoyed and believes the application won't be accepted. Any thoughts or opinions about the quote, I'd be happy to read them. Cheers Dom

I had a couple last year in the Surrey area, and thought that it must have been due to the hard winter, and near permafrost ground.

Yeah, he already has chronic elbow problems, but has been climbing 25 years full time. 440 would just be too tiring as my second saw up a tree. Being a shortarse I also find that when i'm on spikes there's limited space between my chest and the trunk, so in order to fit the engine and handle of a decent sized back handle saw in place, I have to lean back a lot further than most.

Just a thought, if you're using a smaller bar, and chogging timber larger than the bar's length, then the tip of the bar is in the wood, and won't cut as fast due to the angle of the cutters.. Would there not be more strain on the engine from this than from having a couple inches of bar standing proud out of the timber, and only the effective cutting area being utilised? I find it interesting, one of the most impressive and fastest climbers I've worked with (albeit I've hardly ever seen him with two hands on the saw) religiously uses a 12inch bar, if he knew I was using a 16" he'd give me a hearty slap.. Then again, with the amount of cutting and chucking he does one-handed, the extra 4" would probably catch him on the forearm eventually....

I suppose we all tweak our climbing system and change things over time when we discover what works best for us. Next on the list of things to do is get used to the hitchclimber and have a play with a ropewrench, think that'll speed things up a lot.

Well, my forearms aren't what you'd call big, I weigh 8 stone and have no probs with the 200t one handed with a 16" bar. Gives me that extra 2 inches of reach And if the chain's kept sharp, there's no reason why it'd strain the engine. I'd much rather be carrying a 200 with me than a top handled saw, any day of the week. If you want photos, I just spent a couple days chogging some nice lime trees over a listed building, cuts like a hot knife through butter, and i was half as knackered as i would've been with a back handled saw. x

I've been using a 16" bar for a few months now and have been loving it. I don't think I'll be going back to a 14" bar on the 200, now I'm used to 16 inches, I don't think a mere 14 would cut the mustard..

River Lane, Fetcham.

I never got round to it, but it had a 1 year commercial and 2 year domestic guarantee, the shop i brought it from told me to break it and bring it back after 11 months..

I've had a ryobi handheld blower that I've had for 6 years and used daily for 4 years now, I've never changed the spark plug, needed to fix anything, alter anything, tighten anything, it's been dropped, rained on for days, had logs dropped on it, and generally abused horridly, and it still starts first pull every single time. Possibly the best £95 I ever spent.

Dry your boots properly and get wicking socks. Even get a plug in boot dryer if you need one. Yesterday's condensed sweat and foot fungus nastiness under the steel toe cap won't help. An extra insole might stop your foot moving around and rubbing.

I received an ISC gator carabiner too! Most peculiar business..

My lowering kit consists of 50m of 3 strand, some wraps around the stem if needed, half hitches and running bowlines...

Mid Surrey Farm are really taking the mickey with their prices, I won't go there any more, it's daylight robbery. They know they have a monopoly on green waste, as I don't think there's anywhere else around that end of town to tip off. There must be plenty of landowners who are missing a trick.

The Senator Falls: World’s Oldest Cypress Tree Burns Down at Big Tree Park Sad news.

I got caught out at a petrol station without my wallet once. I did find a chequebook though, so I went in, to find out that petrol stations don't accept cheques any more (what's the world coming to, i love cheques). So for the next half hour or so, I had to ask every Tom Dick and Harry if I could borrow a tenner and I'd write them out a cheque there and then. I must have asked about 20 people before someone agreed. Most people I asked were just plain rude, which was disappointing - gave me little faith in humanity. A few weeks later I was at a service station and a group of middle aged women asked me to borrow a fiver to pay for fuel, they said they'd do a bank transfer or post a cheque or pay the balance somehow, so we exchanged phone numbers and cash, didn't hear anything the next day, and when I called the number I found out it wasn't real. Crafty beggars.

Very rarely use carabiners for lowering, I find it quicker and less hassle to just tie everything with a running bowline and a half hitch. No metal hardware is one less thing to worry about, or to get snagged, yank hard to free it, and get a carabiner in the face.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWHEcIbhDiw]Rush - The Trees - YouTube[/ame]

Hi guys, I arrived at my yard in the Leatherhead area on Saturday morning to discover quite a major break-in, and most of my power tools and my stumpgrinder gone. Several shipping containers had been broken into in what you would have thought to have been a very secure yard. One of the other firms who rent space at the yard had a van stolen, which has since turned up, dumped in Chertsey. So to any of you guys who work in the Chertsey area, if you are offered a Huysqvarna SG13 stumpgrinder, a stihl 017, an ms200t, a HS86 hedgetrimmer, a KM55 hedgetrimmer and strimmer, or a 460, then chances are it's been recently stolen, and I'd be most grateful if we could catch the little buggers!