Gnarlyoak

After something wrong out of Spain , see "finally the bull wins" to something right out of Spain. Ahem, gentlemen (and ladies if you would like to know what to get your lucky man for his birthday), may I introduce you to Penelope Cruz's little sister, Monica. Agent Provocateur lingerie Monica Cruz video - GQ.COM (UK)

Hahahahaa PMSL. Nice to see so many getting their just deserts. You can't beat a bit of bully. I agree with Spud, should take the covers off the horns. I'd like to sharpen the buggers, and put spurs on the hooves. That'll learn 'em.

Hi ELG, Although UK is no where near as bad as some of the other European financial basket cases at this moment in time, eg: Greece; Ireland; Spain; Portugal. Most of the local and central government bodies are having to implement swinging budget cuts in an effort to reduce the enourmous deficit the country has built up from before and during the current long running economic downturn/recession we have been experiencing since the banking collapse in 2008. Consequently, these budget cuts have meant that many services are being cut and staff are being made redundant. In the face of this some council departments are now being forced to consider other means of softening the impact of these cuts. If a council arb team have their budget cut by £30k pa and can recoup £15K back by selling their arb waste and arisings for example. This could mean the difference between having no new capital spent on new items like trucks and/or chippers in the current financial year or no new capital spend and having to make at least 1 member of the arb team redundant. Now since as was pointed out in an earlier post, the council in this instance are responsible for their own tree stock, then there is no reason why they cannot sell any arising from the works they carry out on the same. As stated, in the current circumstance, any monies earned would go towards offsetting budget cuts rather than trying to make a profit, so there would not be any expectation to provide the local taxpayer with any rebate, since they are still carrying out the service that the taxpayer is paying them for in the first instance. It is perhaps worth noting, that the chances are that beforhand all the arising generated by the council may have been given away to bulk processors or even gone to landfill! So by reycling and then selling on their waste it actually makes this council more efficient and probably ticks more eviro-friendly boxes than you could shake a stick. Now what would upset the apple cart is if a) the council try to sell the arisings at below the market cost compared to private companies providing the same service within the councils catchment area. b) The council then start to muscle in and use their public funded personnel and equipment to start operating in direct competition with arb firms and firewood retailers by tendering for work outside their public sector remit. Sadly I think there has been at least one thread here on AT in the not too distant past where at least one local authority somewhere in the UK was doing just that, and had started tendering for work in the private sector. With the lack of growth and stagnation across the globe, how do the local authorities in the US cope with the reduction in revenues. Do they cut back and let the private sector pick up the slack, do they increase taxes to maintain the same level of services or has the US budget deficit hit so many squillions of trillions now that it will never be cleared by the next 5-10 generations to come so everyone just carry's on regardless as before, in "crisis, what crisis! Let's have another burger and a bucket of chicken!" kind of way? Regards

Is he related to the Bantam weight, British Olympic Gold medal winner Luke Campbell from Hull by any chance?

1) Not quite sure how you could have a CAT in a personal kit attached to your harness in the first instance. So possibly not really a practical suggestion for a climbers personal kit. 2) But, if you can't apply it below the knee or elbow, then presumably its no good if you accidently slice through your forearm; wrist; hand; calf; ankle; foot areas with your 200! 3) Also you probably could'nt apply the CAT to your neck either, if you should get hit in the face/throat through kickback. Thinking strangulation here! I've "nicked" the side of my wrist with a 200 in the past. A bit of of spit and a hanky was all I needed to finish the job. Stuck a plaster on it when I got out of the tree, which saw me right until the end of the day. Then I went to the local hospital on the way home, 4 stitches later walked out of the hospital into the bar opposite for burger & chips and a couple of pints, which was the best medicine of all.

Cheers Wisewood. I do remember that item on the local news from a couple of years ago, but last week was the 1st time I had seen it in the flesh so to speak. Credit rightly given to Tim Burgess for this masterpiece. My mistake for calling it a Lime stump, came to that conclusion due to three lime trees that stand next to this carving.

Aye he's a likeable enough chap, but is in danger of having more media exposure than Jordan's breasts. Felling that ash was completely unnecessary IMO. They could have just de-limbed it and left it as a monolith. That would have created a much better habitat for wildlife. But avian beheading, boiled woodpecker brains, pit roasted badger roadkill and live caterpillar squishing to make yellow cake icing made for welcome relief from olympic sport watching overload. Mmmmm, barbequed squirrel leg anyone. The kids loved 'em!

Sorry Backpain, But I think you could be barking up the wrong tree on this one. I can't imagine there would be many takers if it was a single big oak with the potential of a couple tons of firewood, to fell it for free. Let alone spending a couple of weeks with all their expensive kit and a crews wages plus the transportation costs of removing all arisings from site felling 150 pops with limited vehicle access, buried utility services and bordering a SSSI site, just for the wood, which makes pretty crappy firewood by all accounts. Pop is sold as firewood, but most people would be mixing it with other hardwoods rather than try and sell it on its own. You might be better off trying to source funding from maintaining the SSSI to pay to have these trees removed if its eesential that they have to go.

Spotted this carving outside a Chiropractor's practice in Sale, Sth. Manchester. Apologies for the really poor pics, taken with a really crap phone.

ooooh, Bell-eeeey. Must mean you have a nice "spare" blower available now. Did I ever tell you how great you are since you met me..... hahaha Bet i could find a good home for you sparseeeze....

PM sent mate.

PM Sent.

As Skyhuck says Jennie, what you need is Income Protection Insurance. It is not cheap as he also points out, but it will pay out if you are incapacitated through illness or accident for the duration of the period that you are unable to work.

Crikey!! After reading some of the other posts, I think I should already be long term side lined into the knackers yard. From before I started doing arb work, but both exaserbated by doing it now: Right knee. Old cartlidge injury, operated on when I was 13. Lower back. Two partially compressed vertabrae. Old injury from about 22 Since starting in Arb: Tenis elbow. Both elbows. Shoulders, (rotator cuffs?). Both Shoulders. Carpal Tunnel. Right hand. Arthritis. Both hips and two finger of right hand.

Don't know about fencing, but I think they do sword fighting and jousting at Warwick castle! Sorry! I'll get me coat.

I know where you're coming from mate but can't agree with you're reasoning here. By all means lets squeeze a bit more from the middlemen for the British dairy farmers and perhaps chuck in an extra couple of pence per pint ourselves. But, I do object most strongly to government plans to force me to pay more to enjoy my sensible drinking habits because of a minority of pish-head lager louts, trouble makers & teenie binge drinking numpties. Instead of financially punishing everyone, why not just bring back the stocks and public flogging for the pillocks of the world. Thats for the pish-heads and the greedy milk barons, not the farmers, obviously! Ooh and the odd banker or two, thousand. That'll learn 'em.

Muuhhh haahaahaahaaaaaa: Ladies & Gentlemen I give you the biggest and most expensive of all EU crackpot schemes..... The Common Agricultural Policy or CAP. The biggest percentage of all the billions and billions and billions of Europeans tax payer money, without exception, is squandered on subsidies to all of Europes farmers in all 27 EU member states! I don't know how much is actually paid to British dairy farmers, but I''ll bet my next pay slip that they do receive something, although I'm sure if it was removed tomorrow, British farmers being some of the most efficient in Europe and the majority would survive and probably prosper, the French some of the most inefficient and subsidy dependent, their economy would collapse and there would probably be civil war. Certainly expect a tractor blockade and more British lamb burning at Calais docks! That said, I do believe that the dairy farmers should be paid a fair price for their product, but when you look at the disparity between the retail price and the amount paid when it leaves the farmers gate, then I think the supermarkets and dairies have a lot to answer for! Next time the supermarkets post record multi billion pound profits, perhaps we should ask ourselves, at what price to the British producers of the goods they sold "cheap".

Similar to the SIGG but a bit cheaper can be bought from Decathlon stores. Its there own Quechua make. They do 1l bottles for about 6.99 and a two litre for 9.99 (I think). Very robust, had one for about 5yrs, a few dings and dents but still water tight and used every day. If there is'nt a Decathlon near you, you can get them online.

Bloody Hell!! I had to put on a welders mask just to look at that photo.

Sorry can't help with the costs side of things, but regarding closure of a bus stop and re-locating a temporary stop, you usually have to approach the areas PTA/PTE Passenger Transport Authority/Executive. It can take some time from notification, as the PTA/E have to notify all of the bus companies that use the stop, so that they can reschedule their bus timetables. If its a busy road as you suggest, then you may also need to contact the LA's highways dept. to discuss your plans about setting up temp lights and road restrictions. Especially if its in front of a civic building and a registrary office. The LA have responsibility for the running of both these building as well as the regulating the highway. Perhaps make the Highways Dept your first port of call as they may well liase with the PTA/E on your behalf. You might be better considering doing the job on a Sunday if you think it will only take a day to complete. Both the Civic centre and reg office will likely be closed and traffic & bus routes will be much quieter. The LA might even insist upon it. I remember being in a similar situation a few years ago on a job for Salford Council. Major A road and busy double bus stop layby, with a large ash & oak to reduce from over the roadside. The cost and timescale to close a carriage way and close the bus stops made it prohibitive to consider Mon-Sat. It was cheaper to book two crews on overtime to swoop in Ninja styley on a Sunday. We had two men in the trees, two groundies dragging the brash, and two men in hi-viz controlling the traffice and coralling pedestrians and bus passengers! Hope this helps.

Think you may have read your literature wrong mate. These pics are of the Ladybird in the pupa stage. A process of metamorphis like caterpillars to moths/butterflies. The ladbirdy nymph is pupating from the larval stage to become the ladybird beetle proper. The nymphs do no harm to the plant/tree, but they are carnivarous and eat the pests that do harm the plant/tree such as greenfly/blackfly. THESE ARE YOU FRIENDS! Protect and encourage them DO NOT SPRAY!

Good grief, I'm not surprised they look like the bottom half of a clown suit. Like the OP I too am considering a new pair of pants, and have also fallen out of love of the Stihl HiFlex . How when and why have Stihl dropped the ball on this, I liked and worn the HiFlex for a while now but my latest pair look as ragged as a tramps trousers (without the subtle hint of p!55 of course ) after less than a year. Quality control appears to have gone out the window. So yeah, new trouser suggestions welcomed, apart from gigolo/clown pants and bloody Pfanner Stretch bloody Airs!

Don't want to rain on your parade Paul, but to work officially in the States you need a green card. For any unofficial off the books type work they already have millions of illegals from Central America. The American economy is in as parlous state as ours and the rest of Europe's unfortunately. There was another thread on here about lack of work opportunities in USA a few weeks back. Here is a link though to Treebuzz, an American site similar to our very own Arbtalk. TreeBuzz Board: Viewing list of forums Good luck mate.

Asian Longhorn : Forestry Commission - Planting and Managing Woods - Plant Health Current Issues Don't know if this the OP's problem though. Pics of the affected trees might help.

One of you may need an interpreter me thinks..... not sure how well West Country colloquialisms translate in Florida. I mean, do you do "cizer" by the pint?!?!