sime42

Nicely put there DT. Ta. That's what I've always thought but was too lazy to write that much! Light starvation is the obvious killer, but I wonder if the Ivy steals the trees nutrients and water as well? Ivy is also bad for Tree Surgeons, I hate the stuff with a passion! I've come to dread jobs with it on the tree. Can be downright dangerous at times as well, when it's so thick that you can't actually see the tree trunk/branch itself. It's my personal policy to get rid of it wherever I see it. I normally cut it all around the tree to leave a clear band of bark. It's really annoying when the customer insists on leaving it intact. I was hoping to see some arguments as to why it's a good thing, apart from as habitat value. Though that seems unlikely judging by the first response from DT. I used to work with a guy, (forester/tree surgeon);- he didn't think it was bad for the tree. I suspect others may think the same;- I've seen jobs where the tree has obviously been worked on, (reduced, thinned, lifted etc), but the ivy covering it has been left alone. Is this just down to time/profit or the scope of the job spec? Seems short sighted to me.

Anyway back to the subject. My question is about Ivy, good or bad? (I noticed that some of the trees mentioned above were heavily laden with Ivy, which surprised me as most of them seemed to be otherwise well looked after). I'm convinced that if left alone it will eventually kill any tree that it's on. I've spoken to various people about this over the years but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. Some are adamant that the ivy will not kill a tree. So it'd be interesting to hear the consensus amoungst you guys on here. What do you all think?

So these are photos of some of the amazing ancient trees in Savernake Forest, Marlborough, Wiltshire. It's a great place to visit, my first time and I was fairly blown away. There's one of these monsters almost everywhere you look! I've looked it up;- apparently there are an estimated 4500 ancient or veteran trees in the forest. It's a huge area but still, the concentration is much higher than anywhere else I think.

As I said, I'm boring!

Sorry, bit boring;- I think someone posted pictures from here quite recently.

Can anyone guess where we've been today? Before I get on to the main subject of this post.

Yep, I missed a couple of big factors out as well like lack of exercise and snacking. This is actually a hugely complex subject. Although I stand by my opinion that people do have a choice in the matter, I should be fairer and say that it's not always easy to exercise that choice in the context of the world in which we live today. With an abundance of extremely cheap and convenient but unhealthy foods everywhere, at any time. Plus a very persuasive advertising industry. The reason that we have such cheap food must be largely due to intensive agriculture. Which is another f*ck up that needs sorting IMO. As someone else noted;- in the Western World the perceived norm for body shape has been skewed. Walking around the streets of UK for example it would be easy to think that it's normal to be a whale and hence its acceptable so no need to do anything about it.

Fair point. I do feel a bit embarrassed now about my somewhat harsh comments. I suppose I was at the top of the slippery slope down into bigotry. Apologies to anyone I may have offended. However. It seems to me that there is one significant difference. People have no choice or control of their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion etc. Whereas most people DO have some choice and control of their health and body shape.

Matelot already gave Ukraine as an example, but in my experience any country in Central/Eastern Europe is full of slim, fit girls, (which should actually be a "normal" body shape). It's rare to spot a whale in fact. The opposite is almost becoming true here in the UK. This all applies equally to men as well as women. Trying desperately not to climb on to my high horse here! I'm sure there's many reasons but binge drinking, binge eating, fast food and convenience food must be big factors.

I noticed the other day that Zippo do a hand warmer as well. No idea what they're like but I be interested to know. Their lighters have always been good. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=zippo+hand+warmer&tag=hydrukspg-21&index=aps&hvadid=223860477246&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13919446699910476996&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006524&hvtargid=kwd-2337516172&ref=pd_sl_cf03s5rrl_e

At some point in the August Henkel video he mentions using a guy line on the tree being used for the speedline line. In cases where there is concern over the weight of logs been dropped relative to the strength of the tree. I think this is a very important point as if a suitably strong enough guy line is used then you're back to utilising the trees compressive strength rather it's much less reliable bending strength.

Plenty here in Brum. Loving it!

Nice work. Enjoyable video to watch as well. Thanks. Just one question occurred to me. Do you carry a large number of krabs and tape slings on you for attaching the stuff to the speedline? Or was that some cheeky video editing with the ground crew sending attachments back up to you in between times? Simon

Yeah I can imagine. I didn't try that, should of. I've never been that comfortable with ear phones.

I'm also surprised at the depth of green that you're able to take off the sides of that Leylandii with going into the brown. Seems more than normal from your photos.

Good job Woody. For me a job like that becomes as much of a psychological challenge as a physical one. I used to do the hedge cutting along the shared access road of an expensive private estate once a year. It took me almost 4 days, I think it was over half a mile long, laurel, rhody and Holly both sides. I eventually gave it up cos I couldn't face the mental challenge of it!

I spotted that on eBay earlier when browsing for anvils. I fancy it but can't really justify buying it!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F182918270069

This is an interesting but slightly worrying thread. I've only discovered the Caritools in the last couple of years. Until now I was pretty impressed with them. Though had concerns about snagging issues. So I've got a couple on my harness, one of which I use to hang my tree saw on, 200t. All you guys that have had them fail on you, what has been hanging off them at the time? I mean am I in danger of the saw plummeting to earth?! I have the 200t on a tear-away strop which means I can hang it long or short on my harness. I think I'll attach the end of it to a conventional metal krab and just use the Caritool to hang it short from now on just in case. Obviously I could upgrade to the 15kg rated bigger version which ought be more than strong enough but I really don't fancy the increased snag risk. Especially in light of Matty's scary story.

Cheers mate. These don't seem to offer chainsaw protection so not quite what I was seeking. Though as someone else pointed out if they did then they would be far too hot and bulky and constrictive anyway. Ok if you work somewhere like northern Norway but otherwise not really practical. Thinking about it;- it's far safer to be committed to safe work positioning and completely avoiding single handing or at least minimising the practice. Rather than trying to protect yourself from accidents that can potentially arise from back working practices. Its easy for me to say this, far harder to stick to all the time! I'm guilty of single handing sometimes, due to time pressures or just plain laziness. [emoji21]

Where do you get these Tree Surgeons Sleeves Arbogrunt? I didn't know such things existed, I'd be interested to see some as always felt a little exposed having no upper body protection.

Hi Katie Any plans for a course in the West Midlands or Birmingham area? Would any of you other guys or girls on here be interested if we can get enough people together in the WM?

The Legend! He would've out-toughed any Tree Surgeon I reckon! Fearless, but not reckless I believe. He was also highly skilled and knowledgeable. He could do things with ladders that most of us couldn't even do with ropes.

IMO;- I love the concept of Aspen as a fuel, but I hate the difficulty of getting hold of it and I hate the price of it. Apologies, I know these points are always raised. Is any progress being made on improving either problem?