Rupe

that's twaddle! The pole qualification is for felling utility poles i e phone or electric. Yeah I know its twaddle! Its what happenned though. A tree officer told him he wasn't qualified to fell the stem of a tree he had just removed all the limb off of! Another example of how stupid the system is.

IMO it allows you to deadwood and remove branches. That is slightly different to pruning but not much, its all a bit silly. A frind of mine was told he could not dismantle a tee leaving just the trunk and then fell the trunk because he didn't have an nptc for felling poles. He had the dismantling ticket and the felling tickets and 20 years experience, but was told he could dismantle the tree to ground level or fell it in one but he was not qualified to dismantle it to a pole and then fell the pole!! crazy

October has always been my busiest month and this year is looking like no exception. Second busiest is always february?? I agree that the public think its best for the trees at this time of year but there is more to it than that IMO. Firstly, kids are back to school and the barbeque is put away for another year (if it ever came out) The garden is being put to bed and so its time to think about getting some treee work done. All those things that you noticed during the summer can now be done without smelly tree surgoens messing up your summer activities! There may be some spare cash available to get jobs done but people always want it done before chrstmas because they know they will be skint again. I offer a delayed payment scheme. Anbody who will wait and have the job done in January can pay me end of feb if necessary. I only offer this if they say money in january is a problem. That can help fill up january and then by feb its usually site clearance time and the best money to be had all year!

They are now hiring direct staff for tree work, no more line clearance contracts is what I hear for this region anyway. A load of staff left Bartletts to go and work for them. A step up from bartletts is power line work!! Ha ha

Isn't that what we called "happy hardcore" 15 years ago? its so last century!!

carrying out arb work and flood defence. Who work dam hard Ha, I like what tyou did there!

I have just renewed my carriers license, so I guess I've had it 3 years. The new one is valid for another three years and cost a bit less then the first. I don't really understand what its for but I had to get one to keep on the contractor list for the local authority. It says for carrying of controlled substances. I always thought that was asbestos and stuff liek that? So, Ed, are you saying I could have the exemption INSTEAD of this? And that is free? I had a quick look at the exemption application form and it said something about the chipping and shredding must be carried out at the site where the chippings are going to be stored. It said little about how the material to be shredded would get there. I origianlly thought that I needed a waste carriers license and then a waste disposal/storage/handling license. I got round the second part by saying that I "carrried" the waste to someone elses disposal/storage/handling site. This was mostly true at the time as I mostly used someone elses yard. Perhaps this exemption would be good for my yard. along with the carriers license. I agree with the above statement that says its unfair to be presecuted about soemthing you don't know existed. I know ignorance is no excuse but this is not a well publicised matter. Does every builder etc have these licenses? I guess not and that may be why they tend to use skips etc. Let someones else take it away. I'm sure the skip companies have it all covered.

Helly every day! Smelly helly. I still have some original hellys from the 80's they were itchy and v. smelly but they did the job. They have a new range for cycling that would be good, extra protection over the buttocks, would fit well under a harness. They do them in pink Steve so you'll be well happy!

Petzl Ok's are still the best to use with the hitchclimber and they are available in black! (with a black hitchclimber too) How much more matching the TM do you want?

There must be safety implications to working in the rain, heavy rain that is. Depending on what you are doing of course. Spiking something small may be ok, but deadwooding big planes must be more of a risk. Employees who are told they must work no matter what are put under the most risk. They then are working while feeling pissed off and wet! This is twice as dangerous as just being wet. Those of us who have a choice are just going to get wet! If you start in the dry then its not so bad but I hate starting in the rain, and I have a lot of nice kit that I don't want ruined. I'm sure the damage to kit and moral is higher than the profit margins anyway. I've always got a list of jobs to do, servicing chippers etc etc. These jobs get fitted in when possible and so wet days are often welcome in order to catch up on the chores. Its a great feeling when you back to work the following (dry) day with all clean and sharp saws, serviced truck and chipper etc. We've had a wet summer but we only actually lost three days due to rain, and maybe three more since new year. I'm sure any company can afford this many lost days as long as the days are getting used wisely looking after the expensive stuff, which then helps it all to retain its value. I can now get all my kit, truck etc indoors so we have no excuse!

Having said that I just did a third height reduction on a Beech for the local authority. It was for safety reasons and not "I want I want I want, more light!" It looked ok, but for some reason I forgot to take my camera with me that day!

They want me to take off about a third of the height of it. Firstly its best not to ever agree to take a third of the height of anything except Leylandii. Reducing a tree (especially Beech) should not be about achieving specified heights. Its all about doing what you can for the customer within the boundaries of what is right for the tree. Its important to explain this, in writing to the client so they Know what to expect. So you don't reduce the height by a third, you reduce the crown by a third. Then you would say "reduce the crown by upto aproximately a third" Then explain who you will achieve that third. By crown lifting, crown cleaning (as mentioned above) and by thinning. Thinning could include the removal of longer leaders in each area, thus reducing the overall size by a small amount. The result should be improved light levels as requested and something they can be proud of and enjoy for many years. Neither the client or the climber will ever be proud of a third redcution in height on a Beech!

So why dont the just put one of those blowers on the end of their back pack motor?? I'd be surprise dif its that good, I'll be at the APF tomorrow, maybe stilh have a demo.

The biggest combi engine is quite a bit smaller then the smallest back pack blower engine so if they are similar in performance then the back pack one must be really badly designed!! I'll get my dealer to give me a price for 5L cans.

How do you get on with selling chestnut? I always thought it was rubbish, does it burn ok in woodburners. I met a 96 yera old woman last year (normal saturday night on the town) and she burns chestnut in an open fire but says she strips the bark off first and that helps it burn! She could strip it off and get to the wood quicker than I could say "thats 40quid a load, do you want it in the front or rear!"

hmmmmm in deed! Surely that woudl depend on waht power unit its run on? Thats why there is no info in the catalogue. If it is good then I would get one, it can go with the hedge trimmer combi tool for hedge jobs and it will fit in my roof box. I love my back pack blower but its a nuisance to carry round just for my one hour scive at the end of the day!

The best place for some stuff is in the dealers showroom!

Yeah that blower looks like a handy way to have a spare blower, if its any good? But what about the power sweep? Sureley thats rubbish?

Why not just remove the longer whippy re-growths and leave some shorter ones? Or thin out the smaller ones then shorten back the longer ones to a new shape. Pu tin you rquote theat you think the tree is crap and removal would be better and then don't worry about anyone else seeing it and thinking it was you.

Sounds like the standard stihl oil will be fine for now then...

Thanks 4that, I'm stihl confused.com

I got the hp stuff as advised by the dealer, and he said its only a pound dearer but they don't sell it 5L only 1L at a time! I have the older 2 stroke combi for about 4 years and its great. I have a fixed and an adjustable hedge trimmer plus pole pruner and strimmer. Now with the extra power unit we have two trimmers at once and a better pole pruner when required. I also have two extension poles so we don't really need a telescopic pole pruner but one of those would be nice one day. I can't seem to get hold of the carbon fibre pole extensions yet. Anyone seen those?

Just bought a new 4mix combi tool motor. The dealer says I should use the higher grade stihl 50:1 oil in the all 4mix engines. Is that just a sales ploy from stihl? Anyone have any experience with 4 mix engines and what oil are you running them on? I don't really understand how the thing works! Shouldn't it have valves and cams and distributors etc?

Oh yeah, what he said! He beat me to it.

If you want to bodge it you could use the same breaker as, maybe the cooker? Realistically you need a new distribution board or fuse box, consumer unit, whatever you want to call it. But what you could do is add a secondary consumer unit (a small two gang one) run it off the cooker supply and then run the shed an dthe cooker from that off seperate breakers.