Mark Bolam

Can you get a shot from the other side of the fence? If there’s a footpath there, whoever is in charge of that must know who is responsible for the trees beside it.

If you want to become a climber you can’t just say ‘I’m crap at throwing’. You need to practice till you’re half decent at throwing, or forget becoming a climber. It’s an important part of the job. Forget poles, slings, throwbags etc. Yes, they are all useful, but you need to nail the basics to progress quickly. Coil the rope as in the pic. No idea what it’s called. It should take under 5 seconds. Keep the coils small when you’re in the tree. Grip the loop at the bottom and the rope beside it and throw it over the crotch or branch above you. It will unravel and drop back to you. Get up a small tree till you’re suspended above the ground. Doesn’t matter if it’s 2’, as long as you’re off the ground. Then practice throwing the loop above you. If it’s not working, change your body angle. Change your arm. Change your hair colour. Change your gender if you have to. Just make the changes necessary to make the throw. Then practice. Then practice more. Twigs and branches in the way? Trees can be like that. Deal with it. This isn’t an easy game. Put the graft in and see how far you can go. If you aren’t prepared to put the graft in quit now. It would be good to keep us updated on how you get on. I would say good luck, but it’s not about luck. It’s about effort.

Truth. All the bollocks we’ve had to put up is because houses have been built way to close to some really nice TPO trees. But it’s always the trees fault….

Two intercontinental moves and a couple of labs later eh Herr Schimidt? We will have beers together very soon my friend.

I used to use Sadolin Clearcoat on my old house, and that seemed to last quite well, but was quite pricey.

Girth every time, just use strong enough slings.

We work on loads of TPO trees in private gardens.

Are those rears fixed together?

Why would you still use a flying capstan?

Red all day Pete. The way I see it is white on road and red off.

That’s how I see it. A loader as a base unit makes an expensive splitter! You can buy a decent splitter with a petrol donkey engine for about £1.5k. Or even a hobby 7t one like mine for a few hundred, but that still does about 50m3/year.

@doobin has one I think.

Now that would be worth watching!

He is a bit of a nause though, isn’t he?

The customer thinking he knows what’s best for the tree, and is always right, is a genuine gripe. ’I want my Birch pollarded, Fat John from the golf club, who works in IT, said it was the best thing for it. Also, setting up a tree business with literally zero knowledge about trees, saws, climbing or cutting has always struck me as a bit backward.

He does make a few valid points.

Stunner!

My personal views on immigration make Hitler look like Corbyn. The reason I’m in Lineker’s camp on this is that he deserves an opinion. A personal opinion. If he’d spouted it on MOTD I think that would be wrong, but he didn’t. Chris Packham has been spouting his anti-field sports and farming shite for years, but where is his ‘ban’? It’s obvious the government have asked the BBC to intervene, and they have. Paedophile-loving corrupt twats, the lot of them.

Anyone who says it’s never happened to them is a liar Andy. Funny how it stops after a while….

There’s a definite knack to making sure Stihl caps are done up correctly, you just need to learn it. Don’t overfill with oil either.

We’re saved! BBC have seen sense at last.

What he’s saying Eggs is that they have come through loads of ‘safe’ countries before they get here. They’re safe, there’s no need to travel on to here. That’s the genuine refugees. The Albanians I would just machine gun in the Channel.