Graham

You need to make sure you've got clean underwear and an overnight bag with pyjamas just in case of an accident.

Lots of times hedgelaying etc. I've managed 35 years so I ain't going to worry now. Just don't start taking risks. I don't think saws should frighten you you just need to respect them.

Done.

A few earth mothers there. Bet there was some crying in the nut roasts that evening.

I need to learn to swim better before I can even think about that property.

I'm glad they have. It's got little to do with the original post but there again many posts in other threads have little to do with the original.

My experience of AAAC application. I applied in 1989/90ish so time's moved on and requirements may be different now. On the application I had to give a list of recent jobs completed covering a whole range of arb work that they could inspect on the given day. The day arrived and I spent about four hours discussing office procedure, health and safety, accounting etc. After lunch we then toured my yard and went out onto site to view a job in progress which was a crane dismantle of a large beech on a railway embankment. I assumed we'd be looking at the trees I'd listed and had prepared a local list to enable them to see as many as possible. No....they wanted to see trees that were not on my initial list. I smelt a rat! Why so awkward? I did my best and wracked my brain for examples finally rounding off on a site where we'd carried out work on one half and a local AAAC had done the other half. The other half of the site exhibited work of an exceedingly shocking standard: trees 'topped', numerous stubs and to top it all a bracing with every cable slack. It was made clear that we had not carried out this work. So after a long day the inspectors left with 'our decision will be in the post'. The post finally arrived and surprise, surprise. Everything was well and truly fine except my inability to be able to exhibit a wide enough range of work and that I should be most welcome to apply in the future when I had completed a varied cross section of arb work! To this day I believe the 'Old Boys Club' had sprung into action with the main protagonist being the AAAC whose other half site we'd visited. What I couldn't stomach was the AA's condescending, patronising plum-in-the-mouth approach at the time. I vowed then I would have nothing to do with them and never have.

Notify:001_smile: My understanding is that they can only specify works on a TPO'd tree. If they want to be specific they have to TPO the tree and it has to fulfill the requirements to qualify for TPO status.

There's no need to go all Yiddish on me:biggrin:

Yes I know but if there was significance in the numbers then I wondered which numbers were significant:001_smile:

Can anyone confirm my understanding of CAs which, I'm sure, applied when I was last in college? If one applies to do work on a tree within a CA then the LPA can not dictate what you can or can't do to that tree without putting a TPO on it. eg You apply to 'prune' which could range from pollard to a light reduction then they can't specify any works. They either allow works or TPO the tree. You are then free to carry out any works to the tree.

Have to agree. Far too small for Victoria plum but definitely a plum.

Ahh...you've failed to take in the fact that they were actually posted on the 11/03/12 and 18/04/12:001_smile:

Prunus cerasifera?

There's bound to be some damage in the crown judging from the severity of the fire. If this tree were mine or a clients I would endeavour to retain it. Its appearance is going to change. There's going to be dysfunctional wood in the trunk and possibly the crown. Unless some of the crown is posing an immediate threat to anything I would wait and see the extent of the damage after this season. It can be reduced later and the dead section of the trunk will play host to a multitude of insects etc.

Brilliant:001_smile:

Selecting and felling bent chestnut for a cruck frame building. Milled it after. It's the frame for one of The Greenwood Trust's buildings. That was, unbelievably, twenty five years ago this month.

1963 SWB diesel Land Rover and trailer which died soon after and replaced with a 1983 four year old Datsun pick up. Two 020s, 041, 056, 075 and two 076s on a mill. McConnell diesel bench. Big Tirfor and an old Fiat 4x4 tractor with single drum winch. Climbing kit was Willans, 3 strand, various lumps of hemp and manila plus some shiny staplespun.

Staeting from the top and working down. Some teeth smashed from dead elm top. Neck hurts One shoulder knackered Tennis elbow and golf elbow Loose,broken bone in one elbow Fractured wrist at the moment Whitefinger and sore joints Two broken vertabrae..separate incidents Aching back most of the time One knee giving way on a regular basis An ankle that hurts at times. Like the walking dead from a lifetime with trees:001_smile:

That's a big tree for its age. Did you do a quick ring count?

Nice lime. If it were not for mans' 'interference' with trees and his need for suitably sized wood we'd have very few veterans in this country.

The heady smell of marzipan in the back of the truck:001_smile:. Used to be used to despatch insects during the Victorian collecting craze. I tried it once using a matchbox, a wasp and a crushed laurel leaf. Killed it quickly.

Catalpa: sawdust and chipping dust can be nasty if inhaled and, I think, the seeds are narcotic.

Shrub looks like Escallonia spp

Played fingerstyle acoustic guitar for 30 years. Wouldn't class myself as a musician....can't read a note of music so learn and play by ear and tab.