Albedo

Post number 8 in this thread offers work and money. I put Paisley and Glasgow into google maps and it comes out at 12.8 miles and 17 minutes. Just don't see how you can be saying 'still nothing' even if you don't drive a car yourself. My tone is not aggressive here it is friendly as I don't know the full picture, just curious:001_smile:

I have an LDV 3.5 tonne which legally carries about 900kg to 1000kg.... Guestimated. I am an old mash it up in the back merchant and a full load of greenery up to top of greedy boards can put me over this weight. I know because I pay to tip via a weigh bridge. A chipper chips... I forget .... say 4 times the volume of greenery into the same space. so even with a smallish load ... say a half load of chip and no logs you can be overloaded. I'm quite good on what a truck load of greenery weighs as I guess it every time and get quite close once weighed. Its frightening to think what a full load of chip with some chogs on top might weigh. I've noticed that some people are using smaller greedy boards and doing smaller loads of chip for this reason, or adopting the aforementioned barn doors approach. edit: by greenery I mean the chippable component of the job

Excellent response.... Respect. I actually did LOL.

I am really sorry that you thought that my tone suggested muppets. I did try to be respectful of those who choose to use them. I am very sorry that this has not come across and will try harder in future. No sarcasm here. I mean it. Sorry your'e offended.

Although false security has been mentioned by a previous poster. Said poster claimed that these things could be cut through with a saw. Therefore you should be 'enlightened' as to his argument already. Has this statement annoyed you in some way?. Perhaps you like this piece of equipment. This is your right.... please enlighten us. Again.... I edit as in my previous post in this thread that although I don't like them, they must be safer due to having wire in them

Without wishing to "diss" your point old bean, I think that even I as a dinosaur use a 'micro grab' on my normal strop, although I wouldn't have called it that... simply because I don't know what its called. I can adjust with one hand. I understand your second point re buying shinies though:001_smile: even though its not my style I have tried to upload a pic of the micrograb, but things have changed since I got the macbook and I can't do it anymore. Will keep trying:001_smile:

This makes sense to me but if you saw my other post about hessian three strand you'll realise what a dinosaur I am. If I meet someone in my travels that has a wire one to lend me I might try this. But I don't fancy having it hanging off my harness instead of my beautifully streamlined strop the rest of the time:001_smile:

Never used one in my life and don't see the point of them. On a 'pole' its normal strop and main line choked below it. You stand a bit high of your cut to keep the sawdust out of your face and strop is well below that so don't see how you can cut it by accident without a very serious lapse of concentration. Going to add an edit here: I don't "get" them but if others do, then I will respect their decision,.... has to be safer doesn't it.

I only quit using 3 strand hesian because people employing me as a freelance climber claimed it invalidated their insurance. If not for that I'd be on it now. Can't beat the feel of 3 strand in yer hand IMO:001_smile:

I can only answer the age bit of your question from my own experience. I started at 31 0r 2 in arb. I survived age wise and am now 51 and a bit. I've been full time employed, freelance climber for five years, and own business for 4 years. I'm about to start a job as a climber in NZ if I ever sort out my visa situation, where I have to be in the yard at 6.30am and climb all day on huge trees 5 days a week. I'm cacking me pants but I'll survive somehow. Follow your heart mate:001_smile: mine will probably have a bit of a shock soon:thumbup1:

Good thread, nothing but sense talked without exception. Me, I'm almost never off my secondary anchor or strop, don't feel safe without it and I spliced it myself. Clip clip clippity clip as Steve would say. Surprising I get any work done:001_smile: I would add that in my view the most dangerous thing up a tree is getting annoyed. A malfunctioning saw can cause this, a hung up branch when lowering and your'e tired etc. Never allow yourself to get annoyed when up a tree, it destroys your concentration. My biggest worry at the moment is that the strop is getting worn and every time I need to replace it I need to learn to splice again, which is a pain, but its beautifully streamlined for not getting snagged and only a splice will do.

If you combine the above technique with my frozen lollipop bottle of squash stuffed into the waistline somewhere, we may be onto an effective if a little primitive form of air conditioning.........

Stick a bottle of squash in t' freezer the night before. Keep in shade. nice cold drink all day. But prefer to take the day off and play golf:thumbup1:

Just having one of my occasional lurks and saw this thread. I stopped posting, not because of something Arbtalk specific, but just a little fed up with forums in general. Posting now just to say that I think Steve must have been born with a forum running gene or something as he does an amazing job. This applies to Andy and the other mods and that scottish guy..... wots is name with the mog... and Skyhuck... another born mod. Wheres Jason James .. he was intelligent and funny, I think he copped a chainsaw injury. Must go kill a tree now. Best wishes all ... Paul

Try these guys Mark.... Performance Direct ... 0844 573 3642.... I just renewed at £350 on an LDV tipper.

Hi Janey, I'm struggling to remember stuff from some years ago and all my stuff on this is on an old external hard drive. I did large scale composting for producing feed for a worm farm in oz. The worms, in turn to be used in a grey water filtering device which worked the way the soil works in filtering domestic grey water. The compost management there was different as we had hot and dry and not cold and wet conditions But everything you just said seems logical to me. Long term nutrients are returned to the soil, and a thin sprinkling could be like autumn leaf fall which adds to soil humus. Maybe we could agree to sprinkle but not pile:001_smile:. As a few people have said the actual composting process (of piles of stuff) is best done away from young plants

Another thought on this. With the op's pile of grass, you're not likely to get a nice aerated well drained aerobic, thermophilic bacteria composting situation. You're more likely to have a damp anaerobic pile of goo, where you wil get a smell of ammonia and I think low ph acidic conditions. There wil be a different chemistry and bacteria involved which I don't remember detais of. This is why compost piles are turned in order to keep them aerobic.

I worked with composting stuff for a while but have forgotten a lot, its on the laptop somewhere. The thermophiic bacteria which produce the heat thru love making eating and making jolly, like nitrogen. Put fresh stuff down and they get going out of nowhere and when they run out of N in your cuttings they will rob the soil in order to continue their little love fest. This is why putting grass cuttings = green stuff= high N … in yer woodchip = low N… will speed things up composting wise = happy thermophilic bacteria. It is also why Stevie spreads his woodchip from Gloria around a bit, because he knows about this. Also as Mester h et al just said, why it affects shallow rooted stuff. Fungus may be along shortly to put this into more scientific terms. He mentions that he has worked with ‘soil food web’ which is (if I have not confused things) Dr Elaine Ingham, he and she are the final word on these things. If you google ‘soil food web’ or Dr E. I. you’ll get the low down on this. I used to be really interested in this sort of stuff and the above is just from memory. I might look it up as would like to be interested in it again:thumbup1:

That was a bit of a throw away remark Rob, but I reckon that people have different views of what is good. Usually its split about 50/50 so I am prepared to respect other peoples views. One thing I do find a bit odd is pics that are posted of what may or may not be 'Haircut Pruning', whereby an even shape is achieved by cutting on the dotted line so to speak. These pics, although often aplauded as good reductions (because they are a nice even shape) are difficult to judge as they are taken from a distance and you can't see the cuts. I think it would be quite an effort to photograph a tree to see what your'e given to work with and what you end up with. I thought my comment about not being bothered about even shapes would attract more debate, than the posting pics one as quite a few people have expressed the same reluctance in the past. So here's hopeing I'm not at the centre of a big argument:001_smile:

I did some apples and a prunus yesterday and one offered nothing except 15 foot vertical regrowth with nothing but twigs on it and did what you just said and was amazed how well it turned out, much better than I thought, and had left it till last so the client wouldn't ban me from touching her other trees which offered a lot more to work with. I nearly took before and afters but didn't think it would be interesting, and now I wish I had, although posting reduction pics on arbtalk is suicide:001_smile: Edit: Better add that on the apples I wasn't pruning for fruit as the client doesn't want apples for some reason, so just for tree form and that had to be natural not lollypop

Just to throw a spanner in the works, have you considered RVT - Reduction Via Thinning. Put simply you take out the longest bits right to the base, leaving shorter bits to form the new crown. I often find that reductions include all techniques, RVT, normal 2 or 3 nodes on a branch, and mini pollards.... where theres nothing much to reduce back to so just leave a fork thats been cut back to two pruning cuts. Then removing old stubs, crossing and dead and structural stuff that may include removal of quite large limbs. I never prune to a shape and go by what the tree offers me to work with so I get some pretty wild shapes, my favourite being best described as a squashed or leaning ice cream cone. I may be able to take a photo of one of these to show what I mean

Here's an interesting thing,... After 5.5 hrs in the rain, there was 1/2 an hour of warmish wind. It had looked soaked thru and in this pic you can see its already started to dry. My scales are not very accurate but of the 4 or so grammes of moisture it had taken on .. a bit had gone.

No worries Yeti, get your live science here:001_smile: Not much change in the last hour, its stopped raining again for the moment...and started again as I speak. Still only added about 4 grammes in weight over 5 hrs. I need Tony S now to tell me if 4g in a thousand grammes is 0.04% or something. :confused1:That percentage being concentrated at the surface, so will dry out quick. I might do this again if I can get some really accurate scales. There's lots of ways this bit of science could be improved, but I think we already have some usable indications that a night in the rain can't harm it too much. Edit: I would add that it looks soaked, so you would think it was ruined just by looking at it

It only stopped raining for about 10 minutes so after 4 hours in heavy rain I've got about 4 grammes of water into my log. It is dry on the leeward side and you can see it hasn't soaked in much. After a day or two I'll cut it in half and post a pic

After the first hour I had to swap scales as the first ones weren't too good. I got 0.00 g of water into my log in the following hour, but now its stopped raining and there's a nice warm breeze..... This science stuff isn't as easy as it looks:001_smile: