Ty Korrigan

Mrs Lee just found an article on a new species of Hornet even worse than the Asiatic, the Oriental... Le Frelon oriental, espèce très dangereuse, détecté à Marseille pour la première fois en France FRANCE3-REGIONS.FRANCETVINFO.FR Une nouvelle espèce de frelon, le frelon oriental, a été découverte pour la première fois en France, à Marseille... Stuart

Guêpes et frelons asiatiques WWW.ELAGAGE-HEVEA.COM Retrouvez l'essentiel pour lutter contre les guêpes et le frelon asiatique : pistolet insecticide longue portée... Guns and ammo freely available but pointless buying when so many regions finance the destruction through approved/licenced companies. Even finding training and getting on a course in de-insectification is a near impossibility here. Stuart

Indeed. Stuart

Here, Jerome gives our local exterminator (former tree surgeon and Blakes hitch man) a crash course in SRT in order to reach a particularly difficult nest. Our man failed due to the +30c temperatures. Then Jerome said "putain" and put the neoprene suit on himself (Meindl Airstreams) Upon reaching the nest the feckers swarmed him. He treated it then shot out of the tree faster than the SAS on an embassy balcony. Amazing descent, well he does climb competitively. Stuart

Free in fact, paid for entirely by the commune in this region of Brittany but no-one including the client or his neighbours in the village could see a nest so no-one to take responsibility for it. I recently abandoned moving my wood pile at my renovation due to Asiatics interested either in the grape vine or those others insects feeding on the grapes. I watched for a long time and saw they took off in 3 directions. After noting their flight paths, I walked several hundred metres across fields towards copses yet could not see a single nest in any tree. Like yours, the nests often very difficult to spot until you are almost upon them. Even then, you need a property owner to take responsibility and sign the required forms. Stuart

So far only one job abandoned this year when Asiatics started bombing Jerome in the heat of the afternoon. The nest was close but hidden amongst other trees. We went back a week later, early morning when they are less active. Jerome got stung twice in the face last year, me 7 times on the back and head in 2016 which sent me to hospital with a severe reaction. Between PPM, OPM and Asian hornets, volonteering on the Ukrainian front line is looking to be the safe option. Stuart

I've never gone in for creating balls out of trees. I respect the skill but it is an unnatural and unecessary look.

Hello, I'm no big tree hero these days. How about a thin? I try to keep any reduction cuts to a few cms but most birches I get to work on have been previously butchered so often the regrowth from a rot pocket is impractical to climb.

I often wake up filled with anxiety. I go downstairs and raid the fridge. All the time trying to get to the bottom of my fears. I return to bed and lie there wide awake trying to work out the source of my current anxiety. Then the alarm goes off. Repeat. Stuart

If you are interested enough and able to navigate translation apps, go join a few French arb pages, post your reductions and wait for the flak...

I'm a wood waste disposal operative. A cleaner. I clean up. I provide the means, rake, chipper, truck, whatever it takes but at the bottom line is I'm a cleaner. I've a subby French climber who refuses to reduce a tree. No shit That is the current in vogue philosophy here in France, no reductions. No reduction movement here is like a religious cult. He'll dismantle, thin, deadwood, remove offending branches but apical dominance is his sacred cow and he won't touch it. The French do love a lion tail... I can sell every service but reductions it seems unless I want to do them myself. And respect? That is a deep as my Google reviews. Few other arbs seem to respect others. If they did we'd be more confident posting our reductions... FFS, I just want to earn €€€

The drop off in demand co-incided with my choice to not work July and August. In fact I've only done a single days actual tree work since the end of June, an urgent job near Nantes for another outfit, traffic control permissions in place taking advantage of the quiet holiday period but I have been doing a few quotes in between carrying slates onto the roof and digging out 4 centuries of beaten earth floor. Normally September itself is an intense period of quoting so I limit myself to a 4 day week leaving plenty of time for site visits during daylight. After a day sweating like an indentured white colonial labouring on his mistresses manor, I've rushed home and whisked the family off to the coast, taking advantage of the quieter beaches. This Summer has also been one to remember. Not for particularly remarkable events but for all the little times I've had with family and renovation. It has been wonderfull to step back from tree work after the intense period of Covid. Stuart

We need a "Roast" discussion section in the members only area. I'll do my utmost never to post in it though... Stuart

Reading with interest. I rarely rent but when I do it is for dead or damaged trees with no anchor point. For those arb businesses who own their own mewp costing £70k, what turnover might we be looking at? Where is the point you break even and what are the cost implications in owning one? Running one doesn't mean you automatically dispense with an experienced climber as there are obviously plenty of jobs where a mewp is overkill or access to the whole tree is not possible. I know productivity can be greatly increased If I'd rented one for the 80 Lombardi's we stripped and topped instead of climbing I'd still needed to be able to deal with the volume of waste by employing another groundy I'm interested in the bottom line. Stuart

Piggy backed trailers at times. Imported studwood, insulation when on offer at B&Q, paint even plaster to order. Brexit put a total stop to all that.

@Luckyeleven ruined a perfectly good vintage flask by rinsing it out using lemon floor cleaner. At first I just thought it was the own brand coffee but as the after taste lingered, it gave my mouth a new look by removing stubborn stains, giving a fresh clean shine and zero bacteria for 48 hours. Stuart

I'm practically an 'influencer' me. Visit me on Grindr for more stump removal tips. Stuart

Funny that, I've had a very troublesome Vanguard and now a new Stanley chalkline that that keeps snapping. My life is one roller coaster of disappointments...

Ah, I get that with my tractor running adze profile rather than Y profile flails. Even putting a fresh edge didn't change matters. My old flail mower had Y profile and was excellent. Stuart

This is my friend Didier who is an engineer and Massey enthusiast who bought a wreck and restored it to concours condition. He sometimes brings it to our jobs to collect the wood but today he was loading my Iveco with oak to take to his yard. He complains bitterly about the Solis. The lack of power, the crunchy gears, inconvenient layout but is often found in the seat whenever we need a hand moving logs at the end of the day.

My colleague @Luckyeleven recently bought a venerable ex-local authority GM 13-23 from a dealer. The Briggs engine has around 1000 hours and is a bit asthmatic but it runs well enough. We took a truck load of branches with us to give it a proper test. We turned the blades and got the mechanic to fiddle with the revs after calling @Jase hutch at GM in the UK. I recommend testing a used machine before buying, especially if watercooled. Once things are up to temperature you might well find a host of faults (or not) with cooling or hydraulics. . Stuart

Sounds like my Dad...

I've QRMS and some Wear Sharp which are a bit pants and yes are the ones breaking. I really wanted Red Teeth to use on larger stumps.

4 council pops we removed over the Winter. I ground them out this afternoon. I waited until conditions were dry as the wee grinder struggles on wet clay with wood fibres. Pretty soft wood with decent top soil but the final rootplate chase was costly in teeth. One broke head and two faces on the leads well battered. Alot of quartz below that good loam. Recently I've been pricing in a turn a set per hour when calculating stumps. In 2010 I bought a Bandit HB20 and often got 2 hours from the 4 pairs of Greenteeth but FSI runs 2 pairs as lead teeth so the comparison is subjective, never the less, I feel that Greenteeth and the QRMS copies do not seem to be as durable as once they were. Bearings changed at 130 ish hours. Still smooth, just worn and causing hand killer vibrations. The new FSI B21 promises 1000 hours from non-greasable bearings... Still on the same drive belt at 150+ hours Clutch springs replaced, 3 inc. postage €55 plus tva Low running costs, alot of effort but a very reliable and profitable machine.

FSI parts are the same. I believe Spectrum recently wanted £400 for a Honda fuel tank for a GX390 Same part can be found for £40 elsewhere. I don't expect sellers of spare parts to register with the charities commision but surely a reasonable tarif would also build brand loyalty. Don't talk about Briggs and Stratton...