Rik

and try and relax dude, the assessors are human to! if youve done your homework like woodpicker says, you should be fine. (:

now.. i understand this may be VERY controversial... but.. anyone recon a samurai gives a better cut than a silky? dont get me wrong.. silky have the build quality and the reputation.. (and better scabbards!) but i have a number of different models of silky (nakatango, zubat, ibuki, hayauchi, sugoi) and every time i recon my samurai gives a cleaner cut? what anyone else recon to this possibly a little bold statement?!

went along, lovely place.. very relaxed atmosphere compared to saltex few days before! however after a 100 mile trip i was rather dissapointed that i had to wait bleedin hours for the water to get hot for a coffee! however picked up a couple of bits of gear on the cheap so a winner there.

sounds like these boys must have done a fair bit research to get organised enough to steal a telehandler and manage to make it away with all that gear.... think we all know my views on the scum.. as has been mentioned, hope some serious accidents occur. (imagine not though, them f****rs always seem to get away and its always us normal folk that foot the bill) hope your insurance is good mate and by chance you get a few more bits found.

lovely shots, looks like the weather was indeed on your side! aint been climbin in or outdoors for months myself, used to be at the wall at least 3 times a week, now nuthin due to work and general rubbish (violin comes out) however havin a gander at these piccies has got the ol' fingers twicthin for some action! may have to find/make/steal some time and make it happen!

with regards to the scabbards, are they the small ones that grip the blades either side or the bigger ones that completely cover the blades? i got some of the bigger ones as they seem to protect better but i found same thing with rust.. so i just cut bout 1/4' off the end.. has been spot on since then. but always try dry the worst of the water off and oil them up, and def go with the stihl grease in the gearbox.. have heard few stories about other greases just melting and dissapearin really quick.

i did have my phone on me.. but they grabbed it off me before i managed to get any calls out from it (should have probably just run the other way whilst phoning so they didnt get it) we have now beefed up the security even more at our place and hope it will be enough of a deterant to slow any others in the future... me jaws gettin a lot better now and i can pretty much eat at full speed again (which is increadibly important as you will all know) in all fairness to the police they did do a thouroughy job at the place and with me statement etc... i just cant see anythin comin from it to be honest.. but hey.. gotsta just crack on with everything.. its been and happened and no goin back so might as well go forward

that is about what i recon is likely to happen.. even if it does get that far... which i VERY much doubt.. they will get of with nothing, and we shall be left to pick up the pieces... as it seems is so often the case... it seems to be comin through quite a lot that dogs could be the way to go.. a few poeple my way have mentioned it also... could be summat to look into... and yeah ive heard quite a few stories that mentioning the you have a gun.. or even better you "think" they "may" have a gun works very well.. the latter sounds more appealing dues to to the fact you get bombarded apparently witha million questions about guns and ive you have on and your liscence and why would you have it in public etc etc etc... still.. on a plus side.. couple of pints seem to make hurty jaw go away.. which is nice

cheers again everyone for the replies.. im on the right road, jaw dont hurt quite as much.. at the moment... i decided the worst thing about it all is that it all happened in an afternonn after a nice little eucalyp dismantle, lovely day and i was actuall gonna have a very rare afternoon off!! police have traced the vehicle.. a 'pool' vehicle with no owner, insurance or any other records... of course.. by now all the cable will have gone and been fragged so that will no doubt be in the system and untraceable... lookin back, i would have done a load of things different, and probably not have gotten a pasting, and maybe even have got the gear back... but hey, hindsight... wonderful thing! recon if it happens again id do the same thing.. just be a bit more prepared next time would find it difficult to quote everyone individually but i agree with the laser sharks!, dogs and guns would be fantastic, definately talkin about pikies, and if we could actually get away with maimimg the scum... id be first to sign up!!

of course.... why would i ever do that... cheers for all the replies guys, i think in that situation we'd all do the same, weve all worked hard for it.. why the hell should anyone else take it away from us.. still... ill heal up, ill fix the gates, make everything as secure as poss and just carry on and hope they dont come back... if they do..... we'll cross that bridge at the time i guess.. weve had a fair spate of breakins for metals around our way recently as the prices have started to go back up.. looks to be a case of making everything as unattractive to them as possible..

got the yard broken into on sat afternoon, at 4 in the afternoon! white transit, 6 blokes, took the gate off the hinges, reversed into the yard and were dragging a load of cable that we had stored ready to go to the scrappy at some point.. i arrived while they were there, they started to run off.. like the fool i am i decided i was not having my stuff stolen and bust up so i ran after them... as i said.. there were 6 of them, fightin types.. i got a right pasting. on the floor with repeated punches and kicks to the head. likley broken jaw, split lips cheeks, and concussion. great... nickled me phone and drove through the back end of my car whcih id tried to block the gate off with. (write off) i know we all wanna protect our stuff and our places guys but i recon next time it might be better to just block their escape, and get phoning people/ police whoever... but from out of the way... a bit of gear gone is one thing. but it could end up a lots worse than what i got..... ( however in the situation again id probably do just the same as i did this time and go stormin after them) a couple of asian looking blokes were involved which dosnt strike as normal pikie to me... they had been round that morning apparently to check the place out according to the neighbour, white tranist no distinct markings (however now a bust up front passenger side light cluster and bumber) last 3 digits of numberplate HCB if anyone sees anythin like that round the oxfordshire area please let me know as the police cant seem to find it.. (suprise) keep safe guys

well id tell ya.. but then have to... um... well... pay up!!

sweet, never thought about it outgrowing itself but does make complete sense now you say it, like you say shrek, the damage is done so i think i'll take it back to the trunk as its not gonna make a huge difference to the crown and then have a good looky for anything else while im up there..

hey guys, sorry about the quality of the pics, but what they are trying to show is a split along the length of a branch on an ash. the branch is about 5" in diameter and the split goes right through and you can see out the other side. split is about 5' long. (typically overhanging a garden studio..) the rest of the tree appears to be healthy with a lot of vigour and no other signs of this on any of the other branches. however the last picture shows a large old pruning stub. this is at the base of the tree and is hollow (could see a fair way into it with a torch) could this be part of/ cause of the problem? i havent come across this before and was wondering if any of you more experienced guys have? or had any thoughts as to what could be causing it and whether i should just remove the single affected branch or is there an underlying problem i should have in my mind that could mean more drastic work? apologies for the possible waffling and many thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas Cheers guys Rik.

nice pics tim! did a very similar thing just recently, man i hate climbin leylandiis. arms like pincushions at the end of the day.. will get some pics up also at some point.

coffee, milk and 2, x4 mugs. i may... have a caffine problem!

guys ive been possibly asked to carve a big old apple stump into something (when the chap decides what he wants) if its summat nice and basic then ill have a blast but if its summat more intricate then id much prefere to send some work to someone thats likely to do a better job than me, are there any carvers in oxfordshire that would be interested? and if so what kinda prices would anyone be looking for per hour or so?

also hoping to but seems to be a million things goin on that weekend so will have to see how it all pans out!

nice pics mate! and nice work spesh likin the thrid one, not often you see a good pic of a climber from above!

ive also heard that soil is meant to help. but again, dunno if it might be a bit of an old wives tale? have heard wuite a lot of problematic issues with concrete, pretty much all of them tommer has already described.... i recon leaving it and letting the tree do its own thing (as treesurfer said) might have been the best course of action IMO

bloody eck now i know that obv the signs have gotta be of certain sizes, styles etc but takin down all signs is for sure a bit too far! i recon from all the comments so far it might be possible to literally take the 'official' triangle signs and add it somehow (complete new reprint?) to a big rectangle with my stuff on one half and the official stuff on the other, that way there shouldnt be any confusion, all the sizes etc can stay the same AND i get some advertising AND it should be less nickable. ill go down the council offices tom and see what they say!

Ive heard loads of stories of treework (etc) signs gettin swiped from roadsides etc. even whilst work has been goin on at the site. i was thinking of combining my own logo with the treework signs so hopefully it will discourage them goin missin (also a little more advertising is always welcome.) wondering if anyone had already done/thought of this and if so knew of anywhere that does this kind of thing and may be able to help? Cheers guys

only ever been around the inner hebrides mate but from the pics they looks just as amazing just remember the repellent as its gettin towards midge season up there!

sweet well done mate good job, i doin mine in a few weeks and has definately put my mind at more ease hearin that you found it easy!

im in oxfordshire plippy, basically slap bang in between reading and oxford, and cover that kinda of area, nothin much bigger as we are only small set up at the moment. ed many cheers for the pics, this does look about spot on the same as the job. i recon u may be a little optomistic with your timings though! recon we might be a little longer than that! i recon chippin is the way to go though, have managed also to find a couple of biofuel stations that would like the chippings, and might even arrange pick up of it.