shillo

I do agree totally with what monkey-D is saying, but that is in an ideal world. I try to explain the options to clients, perhaps not very well, but most would rather spend a £1000 and see the risk totally removed than spend £500 for a sympathetic reduction plus the cost of any investigation/every year, on a tree which still might fail. I can see there point.

dismantling montereys ages ago, pine cone went though chipper and straight through back window of my truck groundie didnt notice for half a day and thought it was odd that the truck wasnt filling up as quick as normal, opened the drivers door and it was full up to the rear view mirrow with chip! had to laugh though. smelt pine fresh for ages after. my list of mishaps is vast! includes power lines (cut of some of dartmouth's power supply for a few hours) phone lines (mainly with the hedge trimmer) splitting logs up with an axe on someones patio once when clearing up we realised that we had broken nearly every slab! dont try that!

im interested in this thread as i am thinking of selling my nice little 200, only done about 530hrs i think, 2003 i think, so hardly any hours for the age. its a year or two older than in the photo. in my experience there are the best chipper. i had a 190 on demo which was great if you were feeding it fence posts all day but forget it with the awkward stuff and that central reset button design is terrible. ive had a bandit on demo before, the salesman said it would outperform my 200 no prob, it was half the speed, woke up the whole of sleepy old devon and the hydraulics blew up after 6mins spilling oil all down the road, probably not a good/fair demo! ive got a tunnisen 190 now and thats good but still does not crush forks like the 200. i did hire a tracked little jensen the other day which i was very impressed with. the only machine ive used which is comparable to the 200, and there is a dealer near me which is always a bonus. i thought mine would still be worth 8k? i did enquire about another new 200 a little while back 26k plus vat!! i think i paid 16 new for mine.

i got one and its pretty good, just a few gripes though, quite often the release lever gets the wrong side of the rope bridge on tree motion harness and it releases, usually at a crap time! And i cant seam to be able to clip the end to the back of my harness like i could with the old yale flip line and prussik, if you do the rope running through the positioner runs too straight and releases, so the end is always dangling below right where spikes are.

ive got 2 ah230 pole trimmers with pole saw attachments and strimmer heads also. 1 machine is at least 10 years old, still starts 3rd pull or less every time, still used nearly every day, i hardly ever do any servicing to them. for some reason the spark plug just fails all of a sudden, i just carry spares and off she goes again, the choke lever is a bit cheap and nasty ive had to replace it with a home made bit, exposed wires have snagged on stuff before you dont get that problem with stihl stuff. the biggest problem ive found is spare parts ive been waiting for a replacement sprocket now for about 6 weeks, stihl, i would have it in the post the next day.

i had a demo on the small greenmech back in the winter decided to see what everyone was banging on about, i had a holm oak to re pollard in a cemetary. thought this would be the perfect job for it, we dragged the machine between all the gravestones right under the tree, perfect. i was quite excited when i saw the size of the opening. it was a 50ft drag out to my road tow chipper up a steep bank and through a narrow path. my workers managed to use it for about 6 minutes before they started dragging brash back up the slope. i thought they just hadent got used to it, but i tried it and it was terrible had to cut it up soo much before it would go in and then it didnt have enough weight to fall into the blades. i checked the blades, they were sharp, a few chips, but sharp. tried it again a few days later on some fruit tree prunnings, i thought it was a waste of time. much more satisfying to drag it to a waiting premier than feeding twigs to a glorified flymo. Give me feed rollers any day!!

The Judas Tree Judas Iscariot used an Old World relative of the Judas tree to hang himself after betraying Jesus. The story goes that this is why the tree is now so weak-wooded; it refuses to grow branches strong enough to hang another person. Another part of the legend says Judas’ act of betrayal caused the tree to blush with embarrassment, turning the normally white flowers to pink. God can make something beautiful out of an ugly situation. That, in fact, seems to be God’s specialty. This glorious truth is nowhere presented more clearly than in the death and resurrection of Jesus. God took the worst thing that could ever have happened and turned it into the best thing that could ever happen. God’s ability to bring good from bad situations offers hope to us all. The apostle Paul once said, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” (Romans 8:28) Even in the bad situations of our life we have the assurance that God will do all He can to bring good from them. Here endeth the lesson!

what are you doing tree surgery for?!?

ok so the first picture is worse than it looks, its more of a 'natural fissure type thing' attachment top side of that fork is a beautiful union. the included bark is in the limb right over the conservatory, but what exactly have we got in the next picture, its only split the bark not a torsional fracture? any ideas. im still tempted by hamadryads :adore:1st idea i think about reducing the 3 close to the house and shaping remainder. the drag out from this tree is horrible, steps, tight turns and through a garage:sad:

a little jealous! that ladder wont last 5 minutes though, well not with me driving it!

yes the tree was there long before the house, and the conservatory was about a year ago and surprize surprize i got a phone call the day after they finished it! i did have a look at the top side of where all the forking occurs and i did look surprizingly good. i have attached a few more pics, took me ages to attach the last ones. you can see a weeping tight fork and in the other photo which is further up this limb there is a split in the bark not sure if this is a bit of delamination that hamadryad was talking about but is on the side of the limb. the tree did have a partner in the next door property but that had meripilus very bad and had to be felled another beech of the same age is in another neighbouring property which was heavily reduced years ago which i did post on here also. (http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/10968-poor-old-beech-what-do-i-do.html) ( i havent done that right, how do i link an old post?) due to subsequent dieback caused by heavy reduction its still touch and go whether that tree is removed or deadwooded still talking with tree warden about that one. thanks guys

just wondering what you guys think of this tree? as you can see it really close to the house, i lifted it on the house side only about 6/7 years ago. i was thinking about cable bracing the larger limbs over the house but there is not much to brace them back to.

ive just got a kombi with the 100 4 mix on it, with the saw and trimmer head, im not that impressed really. ive had a few running problems, stalling, etc i had to return the saw head as it stopped oiling after 20 mins they had to replace something but they never told me what with the extension shaft in the machine sounds different the plastic connectors are crap both turn around as you are using them, does this on both saw and trimmer heads. engine doesnt seam balanced, it wants to spin round upside down all the time. adjusting the trimmer head angle is awkward especially when balancing on top of a ladder as you need both hands to adjust angle, which means bringing the machine in and balancing the engine on something and trying to adjust it, iam used to running shindiawa machines changing the head angle is quick and easy and you can do it one handed, the build quality is not as good a stihl though, i can get stihl parts next day but ive been waiting for a saw head sprocket for my shindiawa for months now! my workers always go for the shindiawa trimmers first, im left with the new shiney but heavy and awkward thing. The saw head is nice though cuts as smooth as a normal saw

yep, ive just got an a11 fantastic machine

yep i love it, burns hot as hell when well seasoned, i took loads of dead wood out of a whole row of em, chucked it on the fire that evening, couldnt get near it! the wife loves it too!

i havent seen a single flake of snow here in south devon, just a bit nippy, kind of wierd seeing all the snow on the news. i guess were lucky but it is nice to see a bit!

ive just purchased a a11 petrol engined machine only tried it out at the house with a few small bits but really nice to use, i got it at a good price as there is a newer version just out now which is a bit better but a bit more expensive. its about 190kg which is hard enough to move about by yourself. it was delivered to my mums house cos i was working, they brought it in a van with no tail lift, my mum had to run about the estate finding some strong blokes, it took 4 of them to lift this thing off! i got a ear bending for that!

thanks for the input guys, i can see the thor is a good machine but i find it hard to justify the extra 500 quid

sorry guys this old chest nut again! which log splitter? ive narrowed it down to the thor mignon prof and the ballario forrestello (?) a11, both petrol engined, both with waist high table, the thor is 10.5 t a11 is 11 t the thor is nearly 500 quid dearer, i know its got the system leader foot pedal thing but is it worth another 500?? i want to order it in the next day or two to avoid the extra vat any thoughts

ive just worked it out! just incase anyone else out there was interesed its a colletia paradoxa

some how i dont think its quite fair that i charge the same day rate and the client gets about 2 hrs less of my time now the clocks have gone back, does any body charge less or do we all take the money and run?

thanks guys for all the advice, i have the application on my desk all filled in and i have applied to fell it, then i guess if it is approved the client will have a decision to make. there are a few targets, mainly big shrubs and hedges under the tree and the main house about 30ft behind the tree. guna be fun what ever we do!!

i seam to be struggling to ident a lot of trees lately, does any one know of a decent book or web site not just the common tree leaf guide, i want leaf, twig, bark, bud, shape, flowers, winter, summer, etc etc etc. with lots of photos. ive already got the readers digest one and loads of other general ident guides but i want more detail ive found one decent american site which has lots of info but nothing english Ontario Trees and Shrubs - Common Names any ideas?

i would appreciate any ideas about what to do with this tree, it was topped back when i was a boy, i remember them doing it when i was waiting for the school bus! about 20yrs ago! all the middle is dead and large lumps of deadwood have been dropping off periodically, it looks like there is somr living material almost forming a ring around the outside, the bit they didnt touch when it was topped. i could just remove deadwood in the middle but i think that would still look pretty nasty or fell the lot its a tpo, the stem is annoyingly 'as clean as a whistle'

my circular saw blade is 2.5mm not sure if you can get different widths, but that would involve spending money on a new blade, i do have a 3mm router bit but trying to route a groove accurately in a round uneven stick is going to be tricky especially if you need all your fingers, a chippy with a table saw would be your best bet, if i had to do it i would clamp the stick in a workmate with the stick flush with the surface of the workmate then clamp a straight edge parallel to the stick to act as a guide for the router. good luck