Amelanchier

Wow is there anything it can't do? Will it get our shirts whiter than white? Train household pets? Boost crop yields in the third world? Change the path of incoming meteorites? Seriously. It's claimed that Allicin "...is a substance which occurs naturally and is one of nature's most effective anti fungal, anti bacterial and anti viral agents. (lets not forget they claim it has insecticidal properties also) So what on earth are you doing wasting it on trees? Its not because there's a market out there with lower evidential standards is it? Blood boiling.

Defo old perennial canker.

Does no-one find the emergence of "Conquer" in the market before the literature suspicious? Just like those major branded anti-wrinkle cream adverts on TV with "monoprotopeptides" and "amino creatinatic essences" - Psuedoscientific waffle. On another note, my digging seems to indicate that Allicin would have a considerable market outside of the tree world if only it could be stabilised. If you had such an effective product why try to sell it to tree owners and not drug companies???

You still just get the one beer though...

Good pictures though - and big galls!

Good find Jen. They're Lime Nail Galls caused by Eriophyes tiliae. Monkeyd has a post on them somewhere...

You've missed the point. Nevermind. Keep tilting at those windmills. I edit the posts that are in breach of the forum rules. Something I'd expect a member of your standing to be well aware of and perhaps not force me to do so by trying to give greater weight to your point by swearing.

Aw - just wondering that's all. Getting him down is the important bit! Kinda where I went wrong!

I don't disagree. My point wasn't aimed at anyone individually. I wasn't accusing anyone of sponging, I was trying to show why society sometimes makes rules up to try to control individual actions because whether we like it or not, we're stuck on a island with each other. You and me both! Now whether those rules are useful / functional / absurd is another thing altogether...

Indeed. But at the risk of repeating myself (and subsequently having to edit another one of your posts for the language you knew would have to be edited ) - the system wasn't built for you. It was built for all of us, by us. So sometimes it's not fair on the individual, sometimes it gets exploited and sometimes it fails completely. However, most days it works for most people. Look at it on the wider scale.

Of course all last years complainers will be signing up...

Does my arguement make more sense if I use a larger font? Didn't think so... I was referring to society as a whole and how it regulates individuals through various organisations / systems. But don't let me get in the way of your HSE rant - would you like some time alone?

Which bit? The "you-get-hurt-we-pay-bit"? Because that's where the legislation has its teeth (as pointed out above). Not everybody is allowed to smoke. Under 18s? People going for NHS operations? The risk is considered too great - legislation/policies take over Not everybody is allowed to drive. Under 17s? No licence / Banned? Why not? To use your reductio ad absurdum method - why not let 15 year old kids smoke whilst driving lorries (for fun not work )? Because aside from moral issues, society picks up the pieces with money from its collective pocket. As for being fat and partaking in dangerous sports - the jury is still out on obesity and thrillseekers are a vanishingly small population so I doubt there would be any gain in enforcing their compliance. There is a social impact from individual life choices. Sometimes we (including myself) forget that. When people say that its only their problem if they get hurt they are forgetting the wider picture IMO.

In terms of best practice though, if there was an unused access line in the tree - would you not be expected to use it?

I ain't just about you. I love how easy it is for people to forget we live in a society with a tax funded welfare system. You get hurt. We pay. We pay for the ambulance and the paramedics. We pay for the A&E Nurses / Techs / Doctors / Surgeons. We pay for the rehab specialists. We pay for the legal representation. We pay benefits when you're off work. Whatever your opinion of them, its the entire point of the HSE. For better or worse, the purpose of the red tape is save tax payers money by putting the expense back to the private sector.

Been thinking about the rescue event on the way home last night after the comp. The scenario was to rescue a non responsive chap hanging off a pair of ascenders on a footlock line. The ascent options were the access line up the back of the tree or the victims line itself. Now I decided that given the fact that the casualty couldn't communicate, he couldn't tell you [the rescuer] whether he'd fallen onto the ascenders and possibly damaged his lines. Also I thought that given that there was a dedicated access line in the tree - would it not be best practice to use it? Thereby keeping yourself seperate [in terms of systems] from the casualty until the last minute with a second / different anchor point... Anyhow, I timed out because I'm slow and faffed around too much! And the most points were scored by climbers who footlocked up under the casualty (Well done Alex - still got a masterclass or two in you yet!). So in terms of speed and efficiency perhaps there is a benefit? Straight line A - B and all that... Just thought I'd share my thoughts.

Just wanted to say a big thankyou to all the Sponsors, Judges, Techs and "invisible" people behind the scenes who helped with the comp at the weekend. Throughly enjoyed it - Cheers!

Perhaps in the future there will be less treework for you all to worry about - greater demand for shade trees and a growing acceptance that trees just aren't that much of a hazard...

Nope. A fully CE kit can fail to comply with LOLER regs!

None of my cartoon dusty oversized books have any nail galls occuring on Ash...

You'll need more wraps as your loading 100% of your mass on the single line. And it tends to wear the cordage more/faster. Like Marc said - its hard work coming back in.

Nope. But you get to buy me a beer for effort! Hurrah.

Me? I try to get everyone drunk. Apparently its one of my more acceptable social traits...

Indeed, as did the third mortal in the ninth circle - Cassius who did so by proxy, ordering his buddy to kill him! Dur. However, he did so because he thought he'd lost a war.

Girl Guides?