Rich Rule

Looks like you had a great year mate.

I have a 65 plate HILUX and am getting about 33MPG at the moment. Mind I have only done 600 miles or so to date. I must admit, first impressions were very disappointing,when comparing the HILUX to the 10 plate Navara I have just shifted... The Hilux is slower less power (torque) more agricultural (tractor like) Worse road manners than the Nav. The interior is off a worse build quality Slightly better MPG so far. The Navara had a 2.5l engine delivering a very smooth 190BHP (ish). The Hilux had a 3.0l D4D engine with 171 BHP. Basically you have to spec up the HILUX for the luxuries that would be standard on a Navara Tekna model. This makes it far higher in price and not as value. Everyone seems to rave about the HILUX but tbh, I am having trouble seeing any truth in there words. Time will tell though, I will be able to make a more informed decision once I have owned and driven it for a few more months.

Haha, sorry couldn't resist!

The cigar is in the mouth, but the lighter is out of gas! Germans spell their tractors with a K.

Pretty expensive but the cougar 'puke' is a great rope. It is up to you to determine if it is a good value rope for rec climbing.

Some great pictures there Jesse. You all set for Christmas break mate?

My grandfather was called George "Geordie" Rule and married to Mary Rule. Both my old man and uncle Ray were both cricketers from an early age, so if any of the old timers were playing they may have heard of them.

Obviously I never knew him as my dad was only 7 when it happened. My Surviving uncle was called Ray and the eldest brother was Edward Rule. The grew up in the villages where Gray Git is based.

The Swale is a dangerous river. My dads brother drowned in there when my old fella was 7. His brother (14) jumped in to save my dad after he was caught in a flash flood. My uncle got into bother and the older brother (21) who was a very strong swimmer by all accounts. He managed to get them both out but was washed away. They found his body about a week later a few miles down stream.

See you tomorrow Steve. I won't have any money on me but I am planning on winning your voucher in the raffle. 50 quid to port and rebuild the 660 - bargain

Ian with a few carrot accessories you can be a Norfolk Hipster. You already have the beard, a couple of carrots and you be reet!

Sorry to hear of another theft. Maybe when you get your replacements you could register them on Arbsafe? Might be good to have records of serial numbers etc. The thing with Arbsafe is that IMO it will only work if a lot of people use and register their kit on there.

Who knows mate. Looks a bit too complicated to me. If you are going down the hitch route. I don't think you can beat a HC pulley, VT or friction hitch to suit, and a rope wrench connected to the same bina as the legs of the friction cord. The additional wholes on the HC then allow you to connect the chest tether or neck tether in the choice of the two holes. Edit: I have a Pinto pulley and always thought it looked sweet and compact... then as I was used to the HC, I could never get used to it mainly looking where to clip the tether.

I must admit I prefer a chest harness to a neck tether. I have a neck tether I use on my micro frog system when using ascenders and an access line.

I think they look great when managed and cut to cycle. I love the ones on the shores of Lac Lemman, and Annesy. In fact pretty much all over france as Mick stated. We do a lot of repollarding on 200 year old lime trees when I am over in Oslo. To look at them you wouldn't think they were that old. They are cut on a yearly basis and look great when freshly cut.

Rope..? A decent length of something not too bouncy. I have various ropes. My favourite are the Cougars from Oz. No have blue and orange and both have minimum elasticity. I prefer these. I also was given a length of kernmaster. I always considered it to be very bouncy. I tried t though with a new rope runner, I never thought I would say this but the combo works great. The rope is still bouncy though.

That is why some love the VT. Almost infinite options to get it how you wish. That is also the very same reason quite a few people don't like the VT.

Mate, get comfortable on the HC system. Now if you want the hitch further away from you whilst on long ascents (so you can pull below the system body thrust style) use a short length of rope or a tape sling of the appropriate length. When you are at a work station re attach the hitch climber back to your bridge so the hitch is close. Personally I would get a foot ascender and just pull above the hitch and use your leg to make it easier. The foot ascender will also tend the slack. But then again I have never really considered the o rig useful. But that is just me. What ever you choose, practice and lots of it will make it easier.

Yes mate it was about -3 or 4 when we started. Once you get moving the layers start to peel off and it is pretty decent working in a merino thermal and teeshirt. We put it about 3 spans of cobra so there were a few of us up there to crack out the work and get it done. Bloody freezing though when you are waiting for the cobra kit to come your way to do the stem you are on... Brrrr!

Single line mate on the Bulldog bone. I do have a rope runner as well, but not climbed on it much. As the BDB is well worn in it is a dream to use.

few more bracing pics.

Mick, dark till about 8.15 am and then gets dark in the arvo around 4 - 4.15pm. Thanks David, there was 2 of us in the Mewp. One to operate and one to cut. There were lots of historic bracing in there to avoid as it looked just like deadwood. We managed to get the tree done with 3 setups of the Mewp. But it was a full on day due to light issues. The truck in the morning picture is a 7.5 t MAN which was about a third full and we had a few large lumps of dead we used the Avant to lift. There was also a 3.5t Crafter that had about half a load of dead logs. Rich

We went to work on one of the oldest and largest Black Poplars in Oslo this week. The tree had to be heavily rj'd 10 years ago due to decline and some storm damage. We were sent there to deadwood, thin and take some weight out of the ends. Just to give some scale to the thing, I am 6 foot 4 so you can see trunk size. The central dead leader would have needed the 88 to get through it. As it was I removed the fingers from the top stem with the 441 but could have done with a 66. Left the main part of the dead central leader due to wood pecker holes. We had a 23metre meep on site provided by the Kommune. The tree had to be retained as is is in a busy park overlooked by a number of Embassy's. Trunk shot, before and after. Rich

Cobra Brace and end weight rj's of a stand of mature Lime trees in a pro in Oslo. Rich

Jake, Have you tried Nationwide? surprisingly enough, they hire nationwide.