arbogrunt

what a beauty

best thing to do, is try on as many different harnesses as possible...what suits some is unbearably uncomfortable for the next bloke!. I can only use 'seat' harnesses myself, I've got a couple of Sequoia Swings and I love em. Terrible in conifers though, need a very basic harness again for that...

A young man moved out from home and into a new apartment, all his own. He went proudly down to the lobby to put his name on his mailbox. While there, a stunning young lady came out of the apartment next to the mailboxes, wearing only a robe. The boy smiled at the young woman and she started up a conversation with him. As they talked, her robe slipped open, and it was obvious that she had nothing else on. The poor kid broke into a sweat trying to maintain eye contact. After a few minutes, she placed her hand on his arm and said, 'Let's go to my apartment, I hear someone coming.' He followed her into her apartment; she closed the door and leaned against it, allowing her robe to fall off completely. Now nude, she purred at him, 'What would you say is my best feature?' Flustered and embarrassed, he finally squeaked, 'It's got to be your ears.' Astounded, and a little hurt she asked, 'My ears?!?!?'' Look at these breasts; they are a full 38 inches and 100% natural. I work out every day and my ass is firm and solid. I have a 28 inch waist. Look at my skin - not a blemish anywhere. How can you think that the best part of my body is my ears?' Clearing his throat, he stammered .... 'Outside, when you said you heard someone coming....... that was me.....'

I haven't met anybody, who thinks its a good idea to stay in the EU in its present form...where do they get their facts and figures from...and why don't our MP's listen to their own people?.....big change coming...if we don't get dragged into an EU war first...

a bit of post-fell Lunging in Essex today

well, after a couple of days, my fruiting bodies/burrs or whatever they are now look like this!

well, this is my second time around. Last time I jacked the firm in and went freelancing for 10 years...I was very stressed out. I try and just do 4 days on the tools and spend a day pricing/doing maintenance (although it doesn't always work that way!). Its too easy to do too much...this time I'm giving myself a bit of space and trying to share the workload a bit more with the blokes...I'm spending a bit of time doing stuff I want to do...martial arts, parachuting and having the occasional skinfull of beer with mates!...don't forget to live, at the end of the day - its just a job

I have no idea what it is, but by the comments on here and the look of it when I split it open (it was soft enough to pull apart by hand), I reckon its some sort of burr?. When broken apart its bright yellow with those white, hollow balls inside, but it quickly dries out to a brown colour, it doesn't smell like a fungal fruiting body, but smells 'woody' like cambium. Never seen anything like it!. Thanks for all your replies...

here you go chaps....

I've got 5 scrap 020T/MS200T if anyones interested?...I've been lucky with my 201T, I've had it for 2 years and its been fine and still goes well....still got one 200T for back up, but I rarely get any problems...

strange, I swear by Oregon and use them in preference over Stihl!...I use 91vx for pruning, the Stihl equivalent seems to cut well in bigger wood, but leaves tufts of poor cut cambium on the back of smaller pruning cuts....21BPX for the MS261...it holds its edge much longer than anything else I've tried.

I'm not familiar with this little one!...roundish, medium brown with dark brown raised bits, perennial, about 2-3" diameter..found on buttress of early mature Oak...any body got any pointers please?....

I gave this a go when work was a bit slack. I got a few jobs out of it, I just put 10% on top of the price to pay for each lead. Problems were; people could have a 'budget' and jobs were 'under' £500 or whatever the customer wanted to spend. These were almost always ridiculously low prices. The other thing was, many jobs were landscaping/fencing jobs with trees involved...not really tree-specialist jobs. I got myself off it when work got busy, but they still sent me leads...I have now put them down as spam, its been getting on my wick. So, if you haven't got any work...do it, work is work. Otherwise, don't bother.

'I'm pretty sure it will have been the way the saw was being used, IE one handed, that led to the fine, not simple the use of a top-handle on the ground' It was in Thurrock Huck...the Tree officer saw the blokes using MS200T's on the ground...they were off the contract with immediate effect...I was freelancing for the firm that picked up the work afterwards....

they are for use when climbing only...'Top-handled chainsaws are only suitable for use off the ground. Operators must use rear-handled saws when working on the ground.' AFAG 308 I've heard of a tree-company losing a Council contract for ground use of top-handled saws, also heard of a £1,000 fine from HSE...£500 for the operator and £500 for the Company owner. ...and yes, it is easier to prune from the ground with a top handle saw! http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/afag308.pdf

Sequoia swing...my nads love it!

ha ha!, what a gimp!..please make sure he stays over there mate

'Has anyone heard about the lad who was seriously injured when the lowering device came off the tree and flew up to the pulley and hit him' a mate of mine in Manchester, had his lowering block join him up the tree at high velocity...thankfully it didn't hit him. The belt snapped...it was only a week or so after being LOLER'd. Best thing to do is, just get a new belt every year or two, depending how much you used your lowering device.

best joke on here is some of you blokes thing there's a difference between the Conservative party and the Labour party...they are all posh twonks in the profession of politics...same boy different haircut!

A young Army officer was severely wounded in the head by a grenade, but the only visible, permanent injury was that both of his ears were amputated. Since his remaining hearing was sufficient, he remained in the Army. Many years later he eventually rose to the rank of Major General. He was, however, very sensitive about his appearance. One day the General was interviewing three servicemen who were candidates for his headquarters staff. The first was a Captain, a tactical helicopter pilot, and it was a great interview. At the end of the interview the General asked him, 'Do you notice anything different about me?' The young officer answered, 'Why, yes, Sir, I couldn't help but notice that you have no ears.' The general was displeased with his lack of tact and threw him out. The second interview was with a Navy Lieutenant, and he was even better. The General then asked him the same question, 'Do you notice anything different about me?' He replied sheepishly, 'Well, sir, you have no ears.' The General threw him out also. The third interview was with an old Sergeant Major, an Infantryman and staff-trained NCO. He was smart, articulate, fit, looked sharp, and seemed to know more than the two officers combined. The General liked this guy, and went ahead with the same question, 'Do you notice anything different about me?' To his surprise the Sergeant Major said, 'Yes, sir, you wear contact lenses.' The General was very impressed and thought, 'What an incredibly observant NCO, and he didn't mention my ears.' He asked, 'Sergeant Major, how do you know I wear contacts?' 'Well, sir,' the soldier replied, 'it's pretty hard to wear glasses with no eard

I've spent days with untrained groundcrew...I work twice as hard and we get less done. A good climber is wasted without a good groundie at the other end of the job. Having said that, I know good climbers who just have a kid to drag out and chip on the ground, no tickets, can't cut, think or perform a rescue...but they pay 'em peanuts, so they take more money home for themselves at the end of the day. Not my cup of tea, but its another way to run a tree business (and I know a few blokes who are doing very well like it!

the non-confrontational approach is the best route to take...better still, do the job very early in the morning on a saturday or sunday. These sort of people generally have trouble getting out of bed in the morning and are stoned most weekends. Jobsagudun...

subdue them with a bit of mild violence, plasticuff them, hood them up, put them in stress positions and waterboard each of them in turn with 2 stroke petrol mix.....or just call the Police whilst you have a cuppa

I've worked in South West France and the locals were a lovely bunch . The were quite bemused by me crown lifting and thinning a row of Balsam Poplars..'we just fell them!'

lockjack = ropeguide...anything else = cambium saver. I find the total lack of friction with a ropeguide makes climbing harder using a hitchclimber/blakes/prussic etc. With a lockjack its a dream to climb on, the perfect system for me personally.