Rowan the Bruce

I've no sick pay and a wife and two infants to feed. Thats the best incentive for being careful I can think of, as soon as my wife fell pregnant I felt like I had to simmer down an do things properly! I don't have any pics but the bloke I replaced was cutting a log with an 020 on the ground whilst holding it with his left hand.The saw slipped and tore across the back of his hand shredding the tendons, he was out for 6 months, on statutory sick and a mortgage to pay.His first day back to work cutting and chucking, 'pang' the tendons went again, back to hospital. Poor bloke, this was a guy with 15 years experience! Complacency sucks alright! This is a morbid thread init!

Yeah agreed, some species like lags and lophostemon look good when the crown grows back in.

Nice pics guys! Here's my new groundie learning the trade he should be good when he's 18. Have to remind him to wear the PPE though.

That looks awsome Ed! wonder if I can do that to my LDV PO van? lol

Recently a fit, blonde client asked me to reduce a long privet hedge but wanted to 'keep a screen because I like to sunbathe naked in the garden'. That took me a bit by surprise.

Lusty glaze is the beach in Newquay,I can recommend the zip line it's apparently the longest in Europe, you end up in the middle of the wire and abseil down to the beach. Also a visit to Bedruthen steps is good if you're into stunning scenery, which is on the way to Newquay from Padstow.Enjoy!

constantine bay is nice, cycling the camel trail, a pint with the toffs in rock, beach parties (if its not raining)there's rock climbing and a wicked zip line over a cove in Newquay.Oh and Aunt Aggie's pasty shop near Wadebridge is the best around its on the A39 beside a petrol station, near the Allen valley, which is a nice drive. Av fun down ere me ansome!

This is the spec for the power companies in oz, rather than topping which we see all to often here they blast a hole in the tree with a giants shotgun. Which is best topping or this?

My boss just went and splashed out on a box of drill bits for his B&Q pro drill,thought £8 was expensive! So I think we are a long way off an 8 ft bit and an air gun. However, I did talk to him about bracing after the tree was done and he mumbled something about cable bracing, would this be too invasive? I gather that rod bracing would be the preferred option, its a course thart i'd like to go on but no training provider down here will run the course. Things are done a bit differently down here, there are no big cities,no big tree companies, just lots of two to six(the biggest) man crews all trying to scrape a living, only the county council tree crew has a tractor and forwarder, no unimogs, no big trucks due to the Cornish lanes. Cornwall is way behind on lots of things,i.e. no AAAC in the whole county. This doesn't mean to say that contractors here are less experienced or indeed educated (my boss passed the Pd theory). By the way when I started to reduce the oak I took less off, and the man turned up and asked me to take off more, there was nothing on a sheet and just the words 40% reduction where uttered. Not very professional, but that's what I have to put up with. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in England though.

Nice work Reg, floating pulley is a great idea, learned a lot from that vid.I'm only in a 3 man team and i'm the lead climber so don't get a chance to pick up tips anywhere else.What size bar were you using on the 088?

Anyone read 'the wild trees' about the first climbers who free climbed Sequoias and then went to Tassie for the giant Euc regnans? A guy in Cornwall has started up The mighty oak tree climbing company and does well with the corporates,he's an ex arborist who got fed up with his job.

[ We encourage people to post pics of their work, not so it can ridiculed, but so we can all learn something from them, whether its recognised as good work, or bad practise. This is how people learn, and improve. Yeah nice one for that, I'm still learning as we all are and it's pointless getting worked up over a forum. I think what Pete and MrEd said about reducing/pollarding the tree further is a valuable point and is what I have done in similar situations where targets are concerned when working a for local council.Thanks for the wise words all. Here's the fracture, what do you think?

ooops! thats rather large still getting the hang of the re sizing lol.

Here they are again in 2006, looking ok but having to be constantly managed and with a reduced lifespan. However as a 34 year old i feel lucky to have seen and climbed Elms of this size.

A load of old pollards! 1920's Fitzroy gardens in Melbourne.Trees are Ulmus procera,(didn't have no chainsaws in them days boy!)

Half aussie, half Cornish mate.So I'm quite at home with a pasty and a beer.

you win the prize rco, yes my boss is a greedy bar steward and if it was down to me i'd have left the tree well alone to age naturally and if it split in two then so be it, my boss (who's number will be retained for personal reasons) tends to recommend 1/3 reductions all to often and has recently said that to be as vague as possible helps with the LPA permission. I often turn the 1/3 reductions into 15% for at the end of the day I do have morals. At least the photos gave us something to chew on instead of this takedown and that one. By the way I learned my trade in oz, which shares the same view as the U.S. in that 'You shouldn't top trees' and every time I see reduce by 1/3 on the sheet I wish I was still there.

an old one.

nice one Marc, I'm not normally a bitch!

I've tried to put a photo on of the crack its at the top of this page try to click on the attachment, I'm not very good at puters

40 per cent crown reduction

Ha! ha! obviously you don't have storms like we do in Cornwall because if we liontailed everything like you guys we'd have plenty of work repairing hangers for the rest of the summer lol!

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4900&stc=1&d=1215270003

Unfortunately, my idea of gradual yearly reductions was dismissed by my boss due to the severity of the stress fracture.As you can see the upper crown had become somewhat leggy, therefore not possible to prune back to my preferred 1/3 diameter stem width. I will say that to get the correct shape did take a bit of effort and I know that it will suffer for a couple of years and turn into a fuzz ball of epicormics,but if I return in 10-15 years and see a standing tree with good shape then I will a bit happier.