Mr. Bish

looks like you enjoyed that one... Ignore the whineing about pegs. The job was done in good time without drama. You are the climber you should just do it the safest way that you are comfortable with.

To be perfectly honest it's about as bad as I have ever seen a tree. Gum trees are not the easiest to keep in shape without hacking, a bit like the birch. The choice is some gentle tip crotching or reduce the crap out of it and go back next year to take some of the shoots out and the following year again :-) Job for life mate Thats the sort of tree we spot and laugh at but I expect somewhere in our beginnings everyone has one of those. Not me though... not that's photographed anyway

I thaught I had pleanty of wood but it's going faster than I can split it. L200 crewcab load - £50 1.9m3 Trailer £90 All seasoned but totally random mix. No willow or pops. I still have people phone me and want it cheaper but the price is fixed. Tree work has dropped right off tho so I hope the logs last long enough

Yes you are probably right. To be honest I havn't really gone into it, I was in a bit of a rush. I have passed on treemanstu's number so this can be closed or removed now if you like.

I have a friend that has a TPO oak that she wants reducing by 20% I havn't looked at the job so no good asking me access details. Approval was given about 6 months ago for 10% reduction but the work was not carried out and the approval has now expired. Anyone close by that wants to do the paperwork and work? Obviously she needs a reasonable price from a friendly worker too. If you want the info post here and I will PM you their details so you can give them a call.

Technically there is a way. The database that keeps the records from cars controlled by exuifax and HPI also has a search facility for electrical goods, agriculteral stuff etc. Unfortunately while working in the trade I never ever came across anything other than vehicles that had put up stolen or finance notification on the database. So basically the system has been in place for at least 7 years but for some strange reason it's not used... The same problem comes up when buying second hand scramble bikes. I wanted to buy one once, went round and looked. Decided that I wanted it but I wanted to check it out first. HPI told me that the police keep the records for stolen off road vehicles so I popped into my local station with the chasis number and asked them if it was stolen. Their reply was fustrating! "If the vehicle is not yours they are not authorised to check the vehicle id numbers. However once I have parted with my hard earned money and baught it, they could check them then. Soooo... after a little pondering I went into another station and said that "I was looking to sell my bike but because I baught it cheap I wanted to check it out. I was worried that it may have been stolen and didn't want to pass on stolen goods" It took them around three minutes to tell me that the id numbers were not listed as stolen.

You should be proud of that finish though! I don't think I am that accurate most of the time.

I'm not convinced that my tricks are unorthodox having read the ones above Apart from half cutting limbs until they point at the ground, then letting them go so they drop at the trunk. ermmmm... Waiting until the customers not around before making a massive section fall when the customer has been watching me diligently dismantle the rest piece by piece. :-)

If the gaps between significant limbs are a bit long for the afternoon muscles then I have used several attempts. Used the throw line from up in the tree (messy) Used loops around the trunk at short intervals so that I can go up a food or so at a time simply by pushing away from the tree. (Slow) Silky and flip line with a lot of grunting. (Fastest but hard work) Send groundie up :-) (My favourite)

I guess I am being a bit over paranoid. After removing lots of railway sleepers from around an old yew I am looking to re balance the soil. Will a big pile of 10 year old cow bedding and poop be a good nourishment or is there something better on the market that I should know about? Cow poop is free though :-)

Thats a good solid days work. Can't have been fun running around with the big saw all day.

Sort of. The neighbours were pretty annoying on the first getting me to take little twigs off and I ask my groundie several times to tell me exactly where branches should be taken off. He's pretty good in general unless he is trying for an early day. He often says "That looks perfect, take any more off and it will leave a big hole" Translated that means, "I'm bored and it's nearly home time" Now. how do I get that reduced picture into my avatar hole?

Any suggestions on getting a square tree into a round hole?

Brief for the second was 25% thin (no mention of reduction) deadwood and raise to 5mtr.

I have done a fair few maples (some big) and various other small tree reductions but somehow I seem to be getting some decent oak reduction jobs lately. These are my first two. I am happy to take any critism on the chin as I have a monster oak to do that is visable from about 1000 houses in a couple of weeks. I am very ancious to get it right. First one was deadwood, raise crown to 5mtr above ground and 15% reduction / thin. It was difficult to keep everyone happy as it covered 6 gardens. The person paying the bill was not the tree owner etc. Second was not a pleasant day. Wind called it off then two days later I went back and it was still a bit windy for my liking. Garden that the tree was in was full of dog dirt and none of the neighbours offered us a brew!!!!!!!!!!! Do they think we run on water alone? I do know there are a few spars still left out a bit but to remove them I felt I would have had to have gone back in a long way and that would have left it in worse shape (in my opinion) PS: Thats my new truck - before hopper fitting and sign writing - I am NOT hideing who I am.

More inforced legislation = more work for us and less cowboys. If chainsaw sales were criminilised (Like guns) unless you hold a valid cert. There would be far fewer accidents and our profession would be more highly regarded. Thats an extreme but the same system should be applied to tree work. I don't hold anything above 39 but if it was actually going to be inforced I would get the paperwork.

Just read the report. Every little helps and I wish all his family luck. I'm in.

sorry to bump an old thread but I just read it through and want to add my bit. I went from 8 years in an office getting massivly overpaid to go and work in the trees. I had six months "gardening leave" so I decided that I would try and learn the ropes. Phoned all the local companies and offered myself for buttons basically. All said no experience = no work or no certificates = no work. So I went and got myself qualified upto areal rescue. I only wanted groundie work to try and learn how to deal with all the different types of trees. After doing my certs I still failed to get work even at below minimum wage so I started doing some of my own. I did friends and family first for free (Still getting paid from office job). Learned a little as I went along, read books etc. Whenever I had a bigger tree I would employ and watch the climbers while ground working for them. Been two years now since I set up on my own and I feel I am getting better. I thaught I was the dogs nads at the start but now when I see some of my old work I hang my head in shame ..... I am only guessing that the work I am doing now that I think is good quality will be looked back on with a touch of disgust. Gradually though myself and my groundie (Plucked from the dole queue and sent to train CS courses) are learning the job. It is not something that you can learn from books. It is not something that can really be taught.... There seems to be a lot of instinct and a lot of non verbal teamwork with a huge chunk of hard graft. I still would not hire myself out for more than £120 a day or £190 with groundie or £235 with chipping gear. That comes with insurance and disposal of waste! It truly is a very tough industry but the rewards are just physical and mental NOT financial

occasional longer days. Evenings and weekends quoting. Not too often tho thankfully. Proper work. Summertime 9:00 - Back to yard 5 or 6 Wintertime 8:00 Back to yard between 4 and 5 Wouldnt start chainsaw until 8:30 if I can help it. Did a job for a local small firm, thay got me to taeir yard by 6:45am! we then loaded up their stuff (My eq. was already sorted), had a cuppa tea, chatted........ I was just thinking I could have spent another hour in bed! Eventually I hit the first bit of tree at 7:45 and was asked to keep the noise down until 8:30 so we had another cuppa... I was booked out on one of my own jobs at 10:00 and getting pissed off and tired by then. Early mornings are for lumberjacks and Welsh forrest workers.

I've never actually had to cut down a semi mature or mature yew. Hopefully this won't be my first either.

I think I will remove the sleepers, make sure the drainage is good, then wait for a few years to see how it progresses. Unless anyone else can come up with something more. To answer one of the questions. The sleepers were installed about 2 years prior to tree health declineing. I know nothing of what toxins the sleepers may contain or if there are any soil additions I could introduce to help counteract any soil inbalance.

OOps I posted twice.

Well one of my favourite customers has this yew that before I got there looked in trouble. I have basically ignored the problem and watched to see how it progressed. There is no fungus present and the new growth seems very strong. The problem showed by turning the tips yellow at first then progressed making the crown much thinner than it was, yellowey with a fair ammount of deadwood. I am very pleased with the new growth shooting from all over the tree but am a bit concerned that the remaining outer growth will continue being patchy. My only thaught was that the railway sleepers put all around the base have somehow poisoned the tree and that me climbing around removing the dead wood will probably cause more damage than it saves. So what do you think is happening and what if anything would you do about it? She does have some other yews on her property that appear to have been planted at the same time, they are all very, very healthy so this one sticks out like a saw thumb.

Last time I tied a small limb to myself to prevent it falling! and Erm.... Deciding to do the lowering myself coz the man on the ground was busy sharpening. Both things were stoopid but seemed like a good idea at the time. Vowed never again.

I bet it's ending up on that never ending log pile by "The BULL" just north a few miles on the A38