ScottF

It looks like Cryptomeria japonica 'Cristata' to me. It's a cultivar that's been in cultivation since 1901, and it's party piece is the characteristic fasciation. I've seen a few in gardens, particularly once which have been pruned, which do look like massive corals. Amazing things. If it's anything like other taxodiaceae it should be quite easy to propagate from small slips, and I guess a mist propagator would be the way to go, but it is commonly available commercially.

How many bits does it comprise? I've got a Morso Panther and it's only 6 or so main sections. I'm not sure there's much to eb gained by totally dismantling it. Worth making sure it's properly sealed either way, what with carbon monoxide and suchlike. Cracking little stoves those squirrels.

Tell us more, Chris

I can vouch for the timber being surprisingly feeble. My anchor point snapped when I was up one in '98 and I got a whole year off work after I hit the ground. Watched lots of telly.

On the planning/BS5837 side I've never been busier. I'm dealing with an avalanche of planning applications, mostly for multi-unit residential schemes, commercial schemes and infrastructure schemes (roads, pipelines, schools) which have been pushed forward in the public funding budget. I know that I'm not the only consultant experiencing this, so don't worry guys, it's just a matter of time before this new push of development work starts to generate contracting work. There's also the point that the whole local authority landscape is changing. Lots of local authorities are looking to outsource landscape/tree work in the coming age of austerity, so there may be work opportunities there, too. I'd say that by the end of the summer things should start to filter down, but it's still going to be a competitive price environment

Holy crap. Just watching the last part of that vid I started clenching with both cheeks and had to prise myself out of my chair afterwards. Fair flippin dues.

Charge!!

I don't think I've ever seen so many euphemisms for goolies squeezed into one sentence before. That was awesome. The "sore veg" one was particularly fine.

It'd look great in Western red cedar. You could prevent cracking of the inside "bowl" when the water freezes by putting in a soft rubber gasket with a air space inside (hollow tube type) out of sight under the rim at the water line. This will flex and absorb the expansion when the water freezes..... or just use a liner. I grew up in Canada so know about ice. And beavers.

Lightning

Prefer the logo in blue. Looks great- very professional. Bordering on the corporate. Great stuff. Are some painted flames down the side of the van out of the question?

Ideal for me. I've got some velvet curtains to run up for the lounge. How many stitches per gallon does it get? The fabric's expensive enough without worrying about the cost of diesel at the moment.

I just gipped. Are you going to whop it back over with a chip shovel?

If it's a clay-ey soil and you're going to use a little machine watch out for "glazing" along the edge of the tree pit where the nose of the bucket pushes the soil smooth. If the edge of the pit looks a bit shiny, just break it up, or puncture it with a fork and blend some sharp sand into your backfill. Sounds like a tidy job. Maybe whack up some pics when you're done?

Living to tell the tale is good. We like that.

Looks like old, dried expanding foam to me. Dat's nasty

I'm with Tony on this one. One of the key points to note is that neither of us, and I imagine many others, is dismissive of the potential for this technology- I've never said that I think it doesn't work- but where's the evidence? I just don't see how anyone can roll out and market a "scientifically proven" process without it. Simply saying that it works just isn't sufficient, guys. Also, as Tony points out, the depressingly arrogant tone adopted as a means of promoting this technique has probably worked against the Trees Project and others, fairly or unfairly. As regards the "Thermal Imaging of Trees" paper written by Marcus B-T, I'd suggest that it's riddled with assumptions, baseless claims and represents the "favourable" information in a heavily biased manner. I'd be very surprised if much remained of this paper following diligent peer-review.

Great. So of these cited references: the 2007 Catena one we're familiar with, caveats and all, Hunt and Lebow (2008) describe their work as "theoretical" in the title, Potter and Andresen (sic) (2002) mentions a "model" (a mathematical construct) in the title, 2 are textbooks and if the argument is that Catena's work isn't current enough, we can probably exclude the 1969 ref as being slightly out of date. Any more? It's almost bedtime.

Quite. From Dr Catena's recent posts on the UKTCI website, I'd suggest that he has gone to some lengths to distance himself from the work being carried out by the Trees Project. Despite his long-standing involvement in thermal imaging across a range of applications, he still describes the relationship between dysfunctional wood and corresponding thermography as being part of a "working hypothesis", rather than a marketable methodology. As regards your comment about "doing my CPD for me", I'd love to know what you mean by that. I've looked into the literature and found nothing whatever to support your claims that this is a consistent, replicable and marketable process. Giorgio's appears careful to caveat his findings with phrases such as "The technique does not allow a truly quantitative assessment of the relative extent of decayed and sound wood, but it appears to be accurate enough to identify trees which merit either remedial action or more precise assessment"(from a 2009 journal publication), and has generally referred to the "potential" of the technology in print, rather than it being "proven". For the record, I have 22 years experience in forestry and landscape, along with master's degrees in forestry and landscape architecture, so I do try to remain reasonably current.

I'd personally like to see some strong, evidential and directly-related, peer-reviewed research in an unbiased and respectable scientific journal before putting my money down on a thermal imaging setup, or anything else along these lines, for that matter. Let's see the evidence that it works, rather than some advertising blurb, eh?

If it's for wheelchair access the specified maximum gradient is "not steeper than 1 in 20, if individual flights are no longer than 10.0m, or no steeper than 1 in 16, if individual flights are no longer than 6.0m, or no steeper than 1 in 12, if individual flights are no longer than 3.0m” (Building Regulations Part M). A good way of doing it is to create the sides of the ramp in solid blocks (bear in mind the pressure exerted laterally when you're whacking down all that fill) and lay an occasional block at 90 degrees from the face to the inside to act as a baffle to locate the fill and prevent shearing. Generally a good idea to place steel mesh of appropriate size and gauge (depends on how big the thing is) under the surface too. Also, think about whether the surface has to be non-slip- a bonded resin top or non-slip applied finish might be appropriate. If the ramp exposes a drop to either side, then you'll need an 1100mm hand rail with gaps not exceeding 100mm between the rails. Sounds like a lot of messing about, but it's generally best to do things right in these litigious times. Best of luck. Maybe post a picture of the finished article?

It's amazing the amount of theft of saw that goes on. I wonder how many saws in circulation are actually stolen- I've had three stolen myself, and I've only owned 8 altogether. I wonder if the plant register could start registering serials of saws/strimmers etc so they could be checked out? Probably not practical, but at least the cops could run the serials against a register if they pulled over someone with tools who maybe shouldn't have (if they could be bothered, that it.) Just reading this post back to myself, I can see it would never work, but the scale of this problem is maddening. Who the hell is buying all this kit??

Nice one for keeping it real Steve and Andy

Notice how one of the guys was waving a flag or scarf in surrender but got blown to bits anyway? How the hell could those pilots be sure of what they were looking at from hundreds of yards away in thew dark? Oh, well, better execute them anyway. That video made me want to puke.

ICF and might have to re-join the AA after letting lapse for 5+ years due to lack of any useful output from them and totally outrageous workshop prices- some councils around here insisting of professional AA membership to write reports, for some reason, so may have to reluctantly rejoin. I've found the UK ISA fairly hopeless from an administrative point of view. I joined this year after a few years away and won't be renewing next year. They seem very poorly organised and come across as very unprofessional compared to the main organisation. Most of the output has a strong US bias and the stuff that's produced for UK consumption is pretty light considering the cost of membership IMO. I guess it depends what you want to get out of an organisation, and whether it's going to help you get work, or broaden your knowledge.