Mark Bolam

I’ve seen a big cat, black, labrador size. Broad daylight. That was in Kent on Wye Downs. A few mates back home have seen similar, keepers and farmers, not the sort of people to get them mixed up with badgers etc.

Oak takes forever to season and burns more like coal I find. Sycamore is usually nice to work with, seasons pretty quickly and burns well. Beech and ash are great. Love burning thorn and fruit, but they can be a bugger to process. I tend to favour mixed loads rather than burning something specific, including hard and soft.

Funnily enough I had a flat iron steak tonight, locally sourced from my mates herd. In his restaurant (he’s a posho farmer). Not the texture you’d rave about, pretty tough tbh, but the taste was amazing. Preceded by meeting wife and kids in a local I’d walked the dogs to. She had a pint of Asahi waiting for me. She was on rose. Kids all sorted for cokes etc., I got us both another one, but was rewarded with some paltry coins from a £20. Her rose was £12.75 for a glass! I pay less than half of that for a whole bottle of the red shite I drink. Couple of cheeky cans in the workshop and 6 pints of Pilsener with the meal and here we are. With my internet mates. Wife in a strop because she said she has two problems with me. 1) I don’t listen. 2) Some other old shite she was chattering on about. Cheers.

You really want it to die, don’t you? 😁

Sinead O’Connor dies at 56.

So true. Everyone knows that to cut the top of a tall hedge you just swivel the head of your long reach 90 deg and voila! It’s done in one pass.

I wouldn’t totally discount hedgecutting, although it’s physically hard and we all hate it. It fills gaps in the diary for us, and keeps us in with choice clients with plenty of trees, like maybelateron says. One of the big things is getting rid of arisings. We did two full Transit loads today. I’d go for a Husky long reach battery set up, but couple it with a Stihl HS82R for rougher stuff. You’ll also need a decent set of A-Frames and a double or triple ladder. Fairly steep initial set up if you need a vehicle as well. One advantage you have is you could price fairly high because you don’t ‘need’ the work. Logs might be easier if you have somewhere you can be based. A half decent hydraulic splitter can be had for under £1k, and you’ve already got saws and access to timber.

That’s what I keep telling the bloke I’m subbing for! To be fair, the big hedge at the front is getting flailed, but access to the formal garden side is a nightmare. 4 of us normally do it in 3 days, but we lose Macca tomorrow. He’s off biking round the Highlands because he’s had a gut full of hedgecutting!

I wish.

We’ve just started a 4 day hedgecutting job. This is half the rakings at first bait. I want to end my own life.

f9fed723-6967-49ef-a090-aea9c766c117.mp4

We felled a dying one yesterday that was one of those proper bastards that wasn’t really thorny, but had just enough to make you swear now and again! The thorns seemed a lot more prevalent on the younger suckers than the older growth up top. Worst one I’ve dealt with is a weeping pear at my outlaws, proper nasty, and unchippable. I’ll find a vid of how we dealt with that in a bit.

This. But without the £50.

As above. Expect to pay hundreds, not earn hundreds.

It’s a genius improvement. The groundies will know when you’re cutting again!

Some list. I can almost smell the hash, man.

Superb!!! 😂😂😂

They were £120 before Brexit.

‘Not any more!’

Seen OCS a few times, good live band. Still rockin’ as well! I last saw them when Simon was about 10 stone lighter!

😂 That was a good night. Ricky and the boys were on form as far as I can remember….

Haha, guilty! I have no recollection of ever meeting you!