Dionysus

theres a great book you can get called the tree climbers companion, its like 14 quid and its pretty comprehensive on the climbing side for a beginner, you can get it from any of the sponsors ---> i got mine from fr jones and son.

no handle for me im a real tree surgeon grrr haha, basically i just havent got round to getting one and my boss doesnt buy em.

i started on 20 quid a day a year ago, now im on 55 a day for groundwork and 75 for climbing, and ive only got 30 31 38 and 1 years experience, it will come you just have to be patient, enjoy learning from the older guys who know their stuff, you will learn a lot at work that you cant learn at college.

i hear that one, whatever happened to do your target clean the saws then bugger off. i dunno where anyones getting 180 a day, but here in the big smoke you have to be lightning fast and bloody good to get 140 a day, standard is 100-120 a day.

its well worth a nose mate, very relaxed and friendly, theres a few little comps going on every year too.

nowhere near as many but its usually sponsored by husky and has a husky demo arena, theres fr jones honey bros and treeworker there, aspen fuels, timberwolf, and a few others i cant remember.

gonna try and make it down on the friday myself as the saturday is the missus birthday, fatal, will be good to link up with everyone again as i havent been at capel since october.

an epi pen is a good idea if you dont know your allergic, but if your not then why bother? get some anti histamine cream to reduce the swelling, if its just a red lump no swelling rub a bit of tea tree oil on it.

ive only been climbing about a year, ive done lowering and topping big conifers and stuff, i just finished my apprenticeship, and ive come out of that with cs 30 31 and 38, pa1 and pa6 and an nvq level 2 in trees and timber, all for free which is good, my boss is giving me more days climbing now and sends me out on my own with a groundy, so i cant be that bad, i would love to learn more, do you go to any of the arb shows? i will be at the capel manor show next year and the fr jones and son show.

really really nice reductions hamadryad, lovely natural target pruning, i wish to reduce as well as you someday, ive had some shockers.

just got my tickets:) all for a good cause, got my fingers crossed for a good prize hehe.

yeah thats just what i was thinking, i heard there was talk of it being taken down because of the lean, but haven't heard any further, but imagine if it was taken down, you would have to get a road closure on the south circular! there is also a really nice one at capel manor college, really tight crown.

is this the zelkova down by dulwich college?

just seen a fairly large lime with the root plate ripped out of the ground in camberwell with city suburban sorting it out and about 20 PCSO's 'directing' traffic. it had demolished some iron railings and a lamppost but didn't see any cars under it or people thankfully, as it was over 2 lanes coming up to a very busy junction. stupidly i didn't get any pictures

i thought this was a video about some kid having a stare-off. lol

hahaha josh, that cracked me up at the jonesie show, "mr trerererawneyrardy? i dunno how to say it." its trelawney-hardy its double barreled but im not posh. monkeyd i havent got a clue what next really,i have cs30 38 and pa1/6 already and will have an nvq at the end of the apprenticeship, i have my cs31 tomorrow, then hopefully after the apprenticeship my boss is going to put me through 39 that would be great. then driving test and then raise the money for c1+e later on. the orginisation of the apprenticeship was very hap hazard, but this is for many reasons, one of which is the person who did the first apprenticeship at capel left soon after and left it in a state, my tutor took over and had to sort everything out. we started the year with lots of paperwork and HSE stuff massively focusing on health and safety and risk assessment. then got into the maintenance and felling, but it took forever for them to orginise the assessments so we had to wait till the middle of the year for 30 and my 31 is tomorrow, so a lot of people had gotten slack with it, and a few didnt pass the 30, i did then we did training for 38 but the college didnt fund the assessments we did, or in my case my boss very nicely paid for mine in the end. recently been doing rope and harness saw work, done lots of chogging on poplar poles, and snatched some big lumps out of it to get used to rigging false anchors for lowering, also done some mewp work with the colleges little mewp, only downside is it only goes about half a mile an hour lol. we are on day release every friday in the week, its not been very good because we have missed quite a few days due to nobody being in to cover for out tutor, i think the block release system will be much better and allow the apprentices to really get stuck into the subject matter, when doing 1 day a week its hard to define an intense period of training for the skills needed, some of the apprentices this year have definately struggled. i think in the end it all comes down to work environment with the way they are doing it on our year, if you have a good work environment and are encouraged to learn it doesnt matter that you only go 1 day a week to college, because you have 4 days a week at work learning, whereas if your being used as a brush monkey and not getting the chance to learn your solely relying on the 1 day a week at college to learn everything, and it aint gonna happen. overall my experience has been great, but only because the apprenticeship was my only chance i enrolled at the very deadline of free education, so it was easy to find an employer to take me on for 20 quid a day cash in hand, ive had to work my bum off, but its great fun and id much rather be doing this than stacking shelves, now im on 30 pound a day, or 50 if i climb, which will go up to a propper salary once the contract is written up. also the facilities at capel are really good, lots of equipment the tutors are great, ive learnt loads from the guys who teach other courses, but that is at enfield, i cant talk for gunnersbury park, but my tutor james howarth is teaching both the enfield and gunnersbury park apprenticeships. wow i wrote a lot but i hope that helps you understand how the apprenticeship has been from an apprentices view monkeyd, cheers

lol did you just describe yourself there stevie only joking m8 hehehehe.

what about just whacking a load of high lift wedges into the mutha? hehe im stumped other that that haha

this is oh so true, the ammount of people i see at capel manor on arb courses, all skateboarder/snowboarded types, most of em dont even end up going into tree work, i know of 3 or 4 guys who have gone to do ski/snowboard instructing.

what about the old ancient egyptian technique, make a slit in the log with an axe, drive in a dry wooden wedge, then pour water over to make it expand, hey presto split log?

i seen a documentary on the cork oak farmers in portugal a while ago, they had all the old boys up in the trees with the de-barking axes, they also had a little segment on the pruning and management of the trees, the landowners nephew did all the pruning works with a ancient saw or a bowsaw, deadwooding pruning etc off ladders

is winching it out an option? winch to a place where you can get a hiab on it? is it in the depths of a back garden?

good old fashioned man power? doesnt sound like you can get a stump grinder or anything in there, and cutting it sounds impossible if its got steel bars and concrete through it, axes and matticks

hahaha i got a chuckle out of that tree beard, not far off though stevie your spot on, i always feel i dont get enough money for what i do but im lucky as i get quite a bit of climbing experience and im always on the saw on the ground, so it evens itself out, its worth working for pittance to get my tickets and the vital experience i need.

its on freeview, i havent got sky either its a new channel called quest you might have to retune your box.