treequip

Did you see the chap cutting with his visor up and no other eye protection?

PM me with an email address and I will send you one

Andy

please define this?

Taken in isolation as a one line statement it definitive and cannot be defined further.

Taken in context it is part of a shaggy dog story type of joke that I use on first aid courses, the punch line of which is that a severed head shouldn’t be put in a polly bag in case the casualty suffocates. Looks like it didn’t work in text.

Andy

Tree work is a high risk occupation and everyone should have a working knowledge of first aid. Severed appendages are not uncommon.

The preferred course of action for dealing with severed body parts with is to pack the item in plastic with something cool. Care should be taken with small parts like fingers as frost damage sets in quickly. The only exception to the above rule is the head.

Severed heads should not be put in plastic bags in case the casualty suffocates.

You can get nice small hydraulic chainsaws, Small quiet, no vibe/havs and cheaper to run.

Andy

So there I am a couple of years ago working on a council estate. We had a couple of trees with open overheads and the leccy men came and pulled the fuse for us. Then we came across a chunky insulated cable that looked a bit like a BT bundle cable (ovalish with a straining wire at the top) and a bit like an ABC (three lobes and kind of loose spiral) but not exactly like either. It was strung from house to house, a practice not uncommon for overhead leccy. I got the lecy man to come back and he hadn’t a clue. He called his “silverback” supervisor who laughed his ass off at us youngsters. Turns out it was the old “redefusion” cable. For anyone under the age of senile that’s a very early form of cable TV.

The point is don’t guess what the cable is, make sure. You can’t smell taste or see electricity but it can kill you.

Andy

Here are my efforts. They aren’t this seasons but decent pics non the less

This is a 2 for one pathogen deal with Dryads saddle and bleeding canker.

This is less obvious it’s not a conspicuous pathogen and it doesn’t go in for big sporophores. You are looking at the material effects of Venturia. The shepherds crook in the petiole is the classic symptom The healthy leaves are the second crop of the year and aren’t yet symptomatic. It’s currently ripping through the remains of the black Pops (F1 clones) in the North West. Brought me a lot of work.

Andy

I object to paying taxes because I don’t think they spend the money on the right things but I do like to see the powers that be catching those that don’t pay their share.

Fiddling tax is fiddling all of us.

This legislation is not quite as bad as it looks. HMRC are already able to levy penalties for other offences and the entering buildings thing was ever thus except that they need a warrant.

This legislation tightens their grip on your wallet by making sure you keep tidy, proper records. Until now an untidy shop with some “accidental errors” in your favour often resulted in nothing more than a stiff talking to and a demand for unpaid tax.

They will now be able to levy a meaningful penalty on offenders. They will be able to enter premises and examine records which will also now include taking your computer if it was used to prepare those records, without the bother of going to the courts for a warrant.

All of this is of course moot if you keep decent records.

Andy.

Who is the underwriter?

That’s getting the cart before the horse.

You can’t actually write a clause excluding you from blame particularly after the fact. The law simply doesn’t work like that.

What you need to do is put them on notice before hand with a caveat, the course of action taken is then their own informed choice.

Andy

Firstly I am surprised the tree is still there. Subsidence usually involved insurers and they want usually want any and all vegetation removed.

Sounds like you think the result would be different if the tree were removed in stages.

This was a common belief back in the day. I distinctly remember it being one of the first “factoids” I was fed. This was back in the days of a three knot system on three strand ropes and polly prop was still considered an upstart newcomer to the manila rope.

So lets look at the facts. If the soil has a maximum volume when saturated that will cause damage to the property it makes no difference if it reaches that volume over its quickest possible timescale or over a couple of decades.

I don’t think you need it but to protect yourself but I would offer a written quote with a caveat covering the subsidence issue. For those of you who haven’t come across this before, a caveat puts your client on notice of possible consequences. If they were warned and did nothing you are out of the loop. I am not a lawyer but the text needs to go something like this.

RE: Proposed tree removal at........

Dear punter

It has come to my attention that you property has been subject to remedial works for damage caused by subsidence.

You should be aware that tree removal can have an affect on clay based soils. You should satisfy yourself that the proposed works will not have an adverse effect on your property.

Last nights cold pizza leftovers.

Breakfast of champions

Andy

id have to agree with bob....lifes to short to get wound up by such things id take his 150 and telll him to communicate with you about such issues in the future...id just be damn glad his guy didnt kill himself on your land and make him very aware of that!...thats a mighty fine barbers chair!

It wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest.

Clearly you have a duty of care to others, including those unlawfully on your land however if that trespasser brings tools and constructs the situation where they become injured all you need do is stand back and let the emergency services clear the mess up. No liability attaches.

Makes you wonder if the man on the saw realises how close he came to serious injury or death. I can picture him walking away with that nervous laugh of someone who gradually realises that they just missed not going home tonight.

Andy

Yeh, they always want something different to what you`ve got though, a bit more, dont want all of it, a bit bigger, a bit smaller, a bit longer, will want it delivering for nowt or will pick it up when passing but never seem to do, etc, etc. Log the lot in my opinion!

There will always be “messers” out there but there are good ones as well.

If you have a decent amount you can try these guys

http://www.craft-supplies.co.uk/

They don’t pay much for the mundane but spalted beech does command a better price.

I don’t have any problems with the specification. What you have done is managed a risk and retained a valuable wildlife habitat.

The alternative would be to remove the tree

I suspect Ted Green would approve

http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/ancient-tree-forum/atfdiscuss/discuss.htm

What did you do with the timber?

Spalted beech is much desired by the wood turners

Lets play a game.....

Use this link to see if your competition has a licence or not

http://www2.environment-agency.gov.uk/epr/search.asp?type=register

Andy

Sweeeet

The poor chap must be on his uppers having to steal firewood (POPLAR chuckle).

Let the poor man cut it up and take it away.

Andy

PS would you like to borrow my nail gun?

It isn’t “illegal” to operate a chainsaw (in a commercial environment) but some form of competence is mandatory .

In order for something to be illegal (against the law) it needs to contravene common (case) law or contravene law laid down in an act of parliament.

There is no specific law that makes it illegal to use a chainsaw but the HSE says you SHOULD have some formal competency thus making it mandatory.

If an accident occurred where the “accidentee” was performing an operation that has a competency and the “accidentee” didn’t hold that competency, I daresay the HSE might want to take a look.

Any competency does not need to be NPTC but since that body is the predominant force in the market it’s simpler to do that than re invent the wheel.

Andy

Posting the document on the web would be a breach of copyright, so don’t hold your breath there.

I am sure someone will be along soon to lend you their copy for evaluation.

Andy

I once did a job next door to “Phil” the curly haired police man from Heartbeat. He came out to have a gander and seemed nice enough. I didn’t realise who he was at the time but he did look familiar.

I can also give you infamous,

A couple of years before he came into the public eye I felled a small sycamore for Harold Shipman.

It comes with a pair of fire engine red swimming briefs and a chest toupee

I can think of accessories that would help it sell better than the spedo’s and a chest rug

Move over Mr Hasslehof

I would need to look at the system you have to give a definitive answer. Most have been altered or in the technical vernacular “messed about with”.

Follow the pipe back from one of the rams to the tee union that divides the feed to the two rams. Follow this back along the pressure side, i.e. not towards the other ram. In this pipe you need to fit another “tee” and come off the newly created spare with a pipe of the same size. This pipe passes through an isolation valve and terminates at the damper. With the damper suitably gas charged the linkage will float. If for some reason you don’t want it to float simply close the isolation valve

Andy