scotspine1

great job Reg, making our job look very easy yet again, looked like wet/windy weather for treework, glad it all went well for you. Outrigger placement in the first pic, rear left outrigger - half on the path half on the grass, a good idea? Lyon make very similar (waterproof) bags with shoulder straps, will the Stein bags come in two sizes like the Lyon bags? one for climbing rope one for rigging rope etc? Also the Lyon bags come in loads of colours so its easy to co-ordinate what ropes you need with the groundies, currently using about 6 different ones at the moment, any plans to have different colours? Will the Stein bags be cheaper than the Lyon bags?

Whose servicing Jensens in Scotland now?

what kind of protective gear do you guys use and was the sparring done on soft mats, wooden floor or concrete ground? do you wear jeans, jacket and boots etc or sports gear during the sparring?

1 - arrived at client's house to remove a 30ft storm damaged Bradford pear, knocked on her door, as she opened the door the remaining crown of the tree just broke out at the stem and crashed onto her Toyota Rav. She blamed us despite the fact i'd only walked up the driveway and the other guys were sat in the truck. 2 - was carrying out removals in a woodland garden, we felled a couple of trees and were all standing talking about who was gonna chip etc when a 50ft dead oak in the neighbours garden failed at the base and came crashing through the fence into the area where we were standing.

only watched your vid chris, very good climb that was, good problem solving on the limbwalk

Well done Chris, looked like a good day for treework.

had a look at the books........ Mitchell's guide - T.T. 32 is a hybrid of Western Balsam Poplar (Populus trichocarpa) and Eastern Balsam Poplar (Populus tacamahaca) Hillier's Manual calls the tree 'Balsam Spire' (P. T.T. 32) (P. Tacatricho 32) the 32 might mean clone number, not sure? Philip's guide mentions a fast growing hybrid of Populus nigra (Black Poplar) and Populus deltoides (Eastern Cottonwood) called Populus x canadensis 'Robusta' but I can't find any pictures of the underside of the leaves in the books or internet so not too sure about it. .

looks like a hybrid black, possibly TT32....very common around Glasgow, any pics of the whole tree?

fungi hama............fungi kicked it all off

yes, we'll start at the beginning if you like - Nature is thought to have first occurred about 4 billion years ago

Hamadryad Posts: 8,318 the time spent making those posts could've been spent with nature, reading this post, your about as far removed from the natural world as you can be

Agreed Hama, why though, does someone whose so interested in nature spend so much time in the artificial world of the internet? there is nothing natural about this place, if you genuinly like nature you should remember to get out more or it may just pass you by.

your right into nature arent you Hama?

is that because he's inclusional?

Steady, I wouldn't wish them a bad day for gods sake. to be fair, the wedding is a welcome break from all the news about people getting bombed or shot, also the alternative to the Queen as head of state really is vomit inducing - imagine it - President Blair or President Cameron.... either of these two as the figurehead of the UK is not a welcome thought.

The issue of the Scottish Wars of Indepence is totally irrelevant Jon:001_smile: but nice try mate

Not quite Mr Stockbridge, not quite sir ...........the fact that people defend a family who take money which we've earned so that they dont have to work - basically a kind of finely spread out form of slavery, and at the same time proclaim themselves as being somehow higher than the rest of us is something that I will never ever understand.

Mick, the Royal Family dont care about you, you think they'd lend a hand when your doing one your hideous Leylandii reductions? would they hell, they'd laugh at you son, they'd say, 'look at that peasant, what a hellish life he must lead' I on the other hand....would help you out with that Leylandii, cause I'm a decent person unlike any of them. .

The Royal Family are benefit scroungers its so true!

Why would anyone be interested in the royal wedding? why? for what reason? these people have no relevance on my life, they achieve their place in society through hereditary entitlement, the whole things a joke, a big joke and they've been laughing at us for centuries, the wealthy and privileged few have treated the rest of population like total scum, throwing us off our land and out of homes to make way for their greed and obscene lifestyles. Morrissey was so right when he said the royal family were 'benefit scroungers' Wills and Kate seem like nice folk though, hope they've had a good day......

Reg, from my experience to use cranes effectively and efficiently you have to be working with a very good crane operator frequently. my last crane removal was 9 years ago with a company that used them for any big tree removal where access and large work areas would allow. It was excellent to see the tree coming down in big pieces and being planted right behind the chipper or right next to the road for the log truck. However, I work for myself these days and the idea of bringing in a crane with an operator unfamiliar to treework does not fill me with confidence which is why I've avoided using a crane for the last 9 years opting instead for staightforward rigging.....which I know is slow, but better the devil you know and all that. The only way I could get seriously back into doing crane work again was if I started on small trees and worked my way back up to bigger trees, but this all depends of being able to use the same crane operator and company each time....which, although not impossible...is difficult to find - as some crane operators get placed on big construction projects for months on end, so you'd get one operator out for two or three removals then never see him again, so having to start from scratch with a new operator every time is gonna be difficult. Your crane removals in the Manchester area? how many different crane operators and companies have you dealt with over the years?

thank you Dear Leader (happy birthday Steve)

thats your opinion and thats fine

try reading Blood Meridian also by Cormac McCarthy, had to give up half-way through as it was so sickeningly violent. It'd be nigh on impossible to make it into a film. Child of God is a shorter book with easily the most darkly bleak and pessimistic ending of any book I've read. In fact dont bother reading any of these two books. The Road is far better.