Ty Korrigan

OY! Let's have some order in the ranks you O'ribble little men or I'll have you marching pointlessly up and down the square! [ame] [/ame] Ty

We ate in a restaurant at midday in the village of Lanrivan. Alongside the church is an ossuary, otherwise known as a charnel house. Bodies are dug up to make room for new burials and the bones sorted and stacked in this stone outbuilding. Fairly common in Central Brittany if a little gruesome and Gothic. Ty

Does your wife know about this Dave...? Ty:001_tt2:

Here is an article on Taxoplasma gondii France has one of the highest infection rates worldwide at 84% of the population. So bad is the problem that pregnant women here are vaccinated against it. Given the French 'laissez-faire' attitude to dog/cat excrement and hand washing in general I am not surprised at all by this. During a lean period I once worked for a contractor strimming verges around St Malo. For 3 rainy days in June I vaporised scat with a Stihl 4mix. I had to strip at lunch to drive home in my underwear and again when I returned home in the evening to my flat above a well known gay bar in Cancale much to the amusement of the regulars outside... Ty

Hello, A tree planting organised by a British veteran on a lonely windswept hill in Northern France. Why? Visit Hill112 memorial Normandy 1944 to get some background. Ian Barrow general manager and prncipal consultant of Bartletts Tree Experts was there to oversee the planting of the 4m copper beech that was picked out from French nursery stock by Rob Ingall who is former London borough tree officer now consultant to Le Jardinier Anglais who are the French side of this operation. Since a main road to Caen has been moved 100meters away from the memorial, plans can now go ahead to plant another 112 trees, possibly hornbeam in the shape of a Maltese cross with grassed avenues between. Today, Sunday 12th July, a statue will be unveiled by Prince Edward and an artillery piece added alongside the Churchill tank already in place. Over 12 days in July 1944 one of the most intense battles in the Normandy region took place for this hill top. Ty

Ha! You lot want to try working in French dog owners gardens. This is a country where even the educated middle classes let their effeminate lap dogs defacate in childrens play areas whilst texting their lovers. I hate it as much as the rest of you and often make little statements like scooping it into plant pots or one central and very obvious pile near the BBQ. I recently tried poo bags but I've really not the stomach for handling others scat other than my own child's. Ty

Second time I recieved another batch of wrong pockets I never even bothered to complain Dean. Can't afford the return postage ha ha ha! I kept meaning to drop the parts back when visiting U.K. Ty

New motor winging its way across Le Manche direct from 'Press 1 for Peter Parts' at GMHQ. Will try to get the old one repaired locally so it can clog up my spares cupboard and sit nicely along with those wrong size grinder pockets Global sent out twice in a row... Ty

Just a flick of a switch to stop the turbine collecting and it happily mulches away. Ty

We've had some 'baffles' welded up inside the cutting deck courtesy of J.D to improve wet grass collection. These are present on the larger decks but not on ours. It now has a stronger vacuum effect. It has proved a little weird swapping from the J.D to the Grillo and back again as the Grillo is of course zero turn. I broke down for a morning on the Grillo by sucking up a small piece of hornbeam (from a previous small tree pruning job) which jammed the turbine (I'm lucky like that) The J.D had blade bolts go and a puncture from hitting a buried spade head used for a dog chain anchor whilst mowing at the travellers site. Ty

A couple of JD 950 images by a pear espalier. Ty

I forgot to say that the law is much the same here. It's just that people are generally unaware of L424-10 of the code de l'environnment. Ty

TBH the only people in France who seem to care enough about tree work interfering with songbird nesting are retired slightly potty distressed gentlefolk with British passports and a life membership of the RSPB. Ty

No jaspers and no hornets either. Usually we have hornets droning and banging against our balcony windows this time of year in the evenings. Very few bees on the lavender now I reflect on it. But all of France is worried about the spread of the tiger mosquito. Ty

Oh my, it's a whole new love affair and one we can't afford to maintain either! Having said this, our 3 man crew whizzed around this garden in an hour. (2 hours with travel time, unloading, loading, eating the clients cherries and drinking his cold coke as it was the last job of the day. 280euros. One camera man for our new promotional video, one walk behind under the trees and one tired climber relaxing after the mornings exertions by spending it driving the Grillo. It is an incredibly productive machine. When you switch the blades on it will just mulch so to collect you flick another for the turbine. The pod fills up to the brim thanks to a mechanism that directs the grass from left to right as it enters. Sounds like a Lear Jet warming up when you flick the turbine on! Ty

Whay HAY! We've landed more seasonal and one off grass contracts. Mostly people selling their properties or going on long vacations. This calls for ANOTHER MOWER! But only for a few weeks until this grass rush ends. So tomorrow morning I pick up that Grillo I couldn't previously afford on a low cost short term rental deal. Images to follow... Ty

Never mind the chipper! Have you got that tree all hung up then posted it on Arbtalk for us to tut tut tut over? Ty

I can't see that working unless you had 2 teams up and running. At the time we bought the Quadchip, I hung onto the CS100 thinking it would come in handy... well it didn't. Ty

It is clear that in the U.K there are bargains to be had in the used market. However, there is very little chance of being able to import a pre-october 2012 chipper into France and get it through the registration process here. If I ever had a shunt on the Rennes ringroad with a non registered non insured roadtow I'd be kicking myself just for the sake of a few grand. Ty

Tim, Your a cheapskate:001_tt2: If you wish, I'll order you a saw from Honey Bros which you can work it off in interest free installments. It will mean that you be up to your oxters in debt and these being dark times if you renage on the deal I'll have to send the Afghan down to Brest. You won't want that now, he costs a small fortune to feed:laugh1: Ty

We recently lost a large roadside Lawson removal job to a local weekend wood warrior. I cycled past on a Sunday (making a noise forbidden here on Sundays) and saw this chap with zero ppe, fag in mouth, back cut only no gob and a mini digger working from the road (no cones, signs etc) pushing the trees back over into the garden. Machine driven by his missus holding a toddler with Downs syndrome on her knee. Just as I stopped the tree he was felling got swung around almost 180 degrees by a combination of the felling cut, the machine bucket slipping off due to the toddler screaming and wriggling as well as the vines which had grown up into it and its neighbours. The tree crashed down blocking the road and trapping the guidebar of this blokes saw bending it like Beckham. As it was his only saw (a top handle by the way) the tree could only be moved a little but enough to let cars by with a scratch or two. Wood warrior then sat down on the kerb whilst his wife handed him a bottle of Muscadet. Sadly, being a Sunday cycle and my one moment of utter peace I didn't have my mobile on me with which to film it all. Ty

Was the guy on the ground filling a saw whilst smoking a Gauloise? Because if it was a Gauloise then you where definitely in France. Ty