sime42

Sounds a nice little gig Timon, bit of a working holiday. It'll be lovely and warm there I'm sure.

I get it I think. Clever. And water in there?

What's in the box?! Impressed by how compact it is.

Used to make matchsticks apparently. Anyone else got even more time to shift a couple of million matchsticks?!

Here's another question. Do we think that there is more Ivy around than there used to be? It might just be fanciful thinking on my part......... I read recently that pernicious weeds such as nettles, brambles, bracken etc are more of a problem nowadays in woodland due to fertilizer run off from farmland. Maybe this is the case for Ivy too.

I've nothing to add to DTs very complete answer! Except that in my experience Ivy is not at all strong in bending. Snaps very easily when you try to bend it.

Comprehensive answers there, thanks. Seems like you've got your whole system thought out well. It's nice when you can get to that stage of your game.

Nice tidy set up there. Must quite a weight, you must have to lift it around occasionally, even with the sack truck. I'm intrigued by the maul - what do you do with that up a tree?! Or the full on axe for that matter. I would have thought a hatchet would be much easier to use when you're dangling.

Welcome aboard ABtrees. That sounds pretty horrendous, I didn't realise it could be that poisonous. I reckon I must have had a mild dose of that. I was lucky!

I don't get a skin reactions or anything but it does make me cough after cutting it for a while. Sometimes I can actually feel a slight pain in my chest, that's not nice at all. Not sure if it's the pollen or the dust causing it. I use a face dust mask now if I'm doing serious ivy work.

That's a nice looking piece Twig. How do you clean it up so good?

True.

Regarding the roots. I've got a feeling that it can develop some kind of arial roots part way up. Anyone else seen this? I've treated afflicted trees before (as described previously) only to come back at a later date to see the bloody stuff still alive at the top. Maybe it can support itself with these secondary roots if it needs too.

I heard somewhere that it only goes for sickly or dying host trees anyway. That's bollox as well!

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.