Taupotreeman

We are constantly told that the human race is on its way to armageddon, that we will soon wipe ourselves off the face of the planet. Sometimes I wonder if this is such a bad thing.

One thing I've noticed so far is how sparsely populated with trees some of the main centres seem to be. Not sure if I'm just used to seeing NZ streets or if it's just some of the photos don't quite show them all. Some of the trees look so lonely.

Upgraded from Clogger trousers which are absolutely pants (went straight through them with a MS200T without even stopping) to a pair of SIPs. Found them not to be very hard wearing and ripped really easily. Ended up carrying heaps of sawdust through the house as it got into all the rips then emptied itself out when I took em off. Now on a pair of Stihl HiFlex which I think are pretty good. They seem to be harder wearing and I love having all the pockets though it does mean I tend to forget where I put keys, wallet, MP3, tissues etc. Keen to try the strecth airs sometime but was told they weren't worth the extra money.

Run away run away

A couple of a decent sized Nothofagus fusca complete with epiphyte colony. The colony doesn't include the wife and friend (picture taken to give a size indication).

After reading this thread the other day I had a quick yak with my local Stihl shop owner. He charges about $60 (that's dollars) for an hour's work but stuff like bar dressing, tune ups and minor work he doesn't charge for. He doesn't charge to pull your saw apart and tell you what the problem is and, so far, his service is excellent. He will get me up and running with my gear again as soon as possible rather than putting it in the que. I don't mind paying over the odds for anything as long as I get the service. I wanted a new air rifle for xmas and tried several shops to find out what would do the job. All of them were quick to offer me a deal etc but only one took the time to let me shoot several different rifles, help me site them and show me how they all worked along with spending half an hour giving me advice as to which was the best for me. He got my business. Same with the Stihl shop; he gets my business because he looks after me. Sometimes things are a bit expensive but, swings and roundabouts, the next thing might be cheap or free. As part of this good relationship he recommends my services to his customers and vice versa. If you find someone who provides that good service stick with them and help em out a bit.

You might want to up your insurance if you're coming to NZ on a cycling holiday. Plenty of idiots on the road here and they don't give two hoots about cyclists.

Dip it in marmite and it's a twiglet.

I'm quite happy to say that I believe that when you die you're nothing but bug fodder unless you're BBQ'd. Each to their own.

Talking of phone quotes; wish I had a buck for every person who rings up and asks how much it is to chop a tree down.

Meno Cleuters (sorry, don't know how to spell his last name) often runs them. I think he has contact details in the Tree Matters magazine or you could try Rick Mexted at HITO, if anybody knows what's coming up he will.

Really? Most of the places I've worked in NZ people expect a written quote. I had some books made up with my logo etc on them and terms and conditions. I look at the job but give myself time to think about the price rather than giving them a price there and then. Usually I write them up the same night and post them out. Quotes are valid for 30 days and I have the book copy I can refer too if there's a query over the work that's been carried out. Very rarely do I get someone who says "oh, don't bother with a written quote". Might be different for the other kiwis but it was the same when working for Treescape. All quotes had to be written out. Most people seem happy to wait a few days for the quote to come through and if it's all on nice headered paper it looks proffesional. It can make a huge difference if someone sends through a quote on a generic cheapo quote pad and someone else sends it through on nice logo'd paper, especially if the prices are reasonably close. As for prices; I found it doesn't matter how cheap you are there will always be somebody cheaper. The real cheap guys can't keep it up for long and often go out of business pretty quickly so if you can keep ticking over while the others shoot emselves in the foot you should be OK. We have one fella here who is purposely undercutting everybody, no matter how cheap they may be, just to get his clientel list that much bigger. Eventually he will have to put his prices back up to survive so the rest of us just have to wait it out. Don't cut your nose off to spite your face.

On the subject of pulling saws apart and doing your own maintenance; does anybody out there have a MS200T workshop manual that they don't mind sending me via email please pretty please? It's starting to cost me a small fortune repairing the two I've got.

Pretty sure it's only city care in NZ.

Get a bit of sawdust trapped on the inside of a pair of sweaty chainsaw trousers and it acts like sand paper through the day. There's no way I'd leave mine for 6 months without washing. They're usually done weekly and I have a spare pair if one pair ends up really crusty. They can smell real bad too if it's a particularly hot day.

Apparently heaps of petrol, oil and grease lessens the effectiveness of the fibres etc and weakens the material. Looks like washing them more regualrly isn't so bad after all. It helps if you don't stink like a petrol station when you're accepting the cuppa or cheque from the customer too.

Very smart advice!

Local axe mens club would love it for chopping blocks and would probably either shift it off site or buy it off you. That's if there's an axe men's club near you.

Here's what it says in my HiFlex instructions; The garment should be cleaned every week if worn daily with average soiling. It should be washed immediately after use if heavily soiled. Conventional detergent is recommended for washing. Add a tablespoon of grease solvent to the detergent if heavily soiled. Washing at excessively high temperatures or drying in a tumble dryer reduce the protective function and wear properties (shrinkage). Just goes to prove that it's no myth that blokes don't read instructions eh.

I was once told that the bigger the feed the lower the eyelids certainly applies to me. I won't even stop once I'm working otherwise I can't get up the energy or enthusiasm to get going again. It does mean that I can allow myself to knock off a bit early though.

Just as an aside; I wonder how many of the older climbers reading this started out free climbing nearly every tree they worked on. I know most of my stuff I did when I started out was free climbed off the top of a three section ladder (something I'm not particularly proud of and something I definately do not instill in trainees today) because I didn't know any better. It was how I was shown by the guy I worked for. These days I'm roped in or stropped in as soon as I'm off the floor as near as damn it.

It's not the horn you need to be worried about it's the tyre iron under the front seat

Always a cup of tea or coffee in the morning and maybe a muffin or couple pieces of cold tomato sauce on toast but once I'm working my appetite goes. I usually don't feel like anything to eat until about an hour or so after I've stopped work. Occasionally I might have a bar of chocolate if the legs get a bit wobbly but mainly I'm just sucking up the water and powerades to replace the salts. About 6 Oclock is when I get the munchies big time.

I found myself getting angrier and angrier. Hauled a couple of guys out of their cars and chased a few others around the streets for hours. I used to let things get to me until it would gnaw away at me for days. It would be the only thing I could think of and then I'd end up just looking for a fight. I took that anger home with me and would end up flying off the handle for no reason. Eventually I had a bit of a melt down at work and lost the plot completely. It took several visits to both a phsycologist and a shrink to get me sorted but it turns out the real cause was stress at work (so a warning to all that stress can affect you in many ways). Not long after my melt down I was constructively dismissed as I was seen as a liability so I set up on my own. Since then I have learnt to relax and not to take life so seriously. Not having to deal with people on a day to day basis also helped (cos most of em were idiots) but generally being in control of my own destiny and the physical exercise has been really good. Also being able to admit when you have an issue and being able to know when things are starting to get to you and doing something about it is really important. Sorry if that's a load of waffle.

I can see this vid is going to get the hunt/anti hunt argument going again. Pretty full on vid but this is the way hunting was done for years, even in Europe.