janey
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Everything posted by janey
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Equality. Diversity. Dignity for all. It's the state funded mantra and woe betide any one with enough common sense to point out that being morbidly obese may not be suitable for a would be climber. I've also had the opposite though - students who are well aware that they will never become commercial climbers, for whatever reason, and are on the course for their love of trees and they want more knowledge. All good attributes that should be encouraged. I think it sometimes takes someone with a lot more tact and diplomacy than me to point out the realities of the physical side of the job.
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Oh, i'm disappointed . Thought you meant the large, very cute flying mammal, arb' trained to install the bracing. The clever wee thing.
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That's usually the argument of the unattractive . Hey, just being honest. But to make it more PC, male AND female arborists tend to be young and fit and look nice in tight t-shirts and ballistics. Better? Or am I starting to sound far too old and lecherous...
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Saw these wee critters when I was out surveying last week . Apparently, we have a strong population of Stags in west London, but it was still good to see one just hanging around the streets. I'm guessing the third picture is a camera shy lesser Stag? I could look it up or wait until someone from here enlightens me .
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Make a mention of the various Reg's to show that you are aware of them, but I have never inspected a SSRA that has them as their own, seperate catagories. As you say, keep it simple and they are more likely to be filled in. Here are a couple of ideas you may find helpful: For stump grinding / planting, insist the operative draws a quick sketch of the site, marking utilities and anything picked up by the CAT, so that you know for sure they have had a good look around. One of my old Contractors used an acetate overlay to do their SSRA on and when they had finished at that site, they wiped it clean ready for the next one. It kept it legal, simple and there were no huge piles of paperwork in the truck.
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I'm pretty much going to echo what everyone else has said and agree that it is the person NOT the gender that is important. Men and women are equally capable of being total muppets. In GENERAL, both sexes have their own strengths and weaknesses, physical and mental, and you can work with this to get a really good team together. I have worked for one man who was sadly very unconfident in has skills and felt intimidated by the stereotypical big, blokey climbers and had more women than men on his team. We got through sh*t loads of work between us and always got good feed back from the customers. And there are certain perks to being surrounded by fit, young climbers...
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Tis the season to see Fungi, fa la la la la....
janey replied to David Humphries's topic in Fungi Pictures
That's HUGE! Where is it? -
As far as I am aware, even to abate a nuisance you still need to apply for permission so a TO can assess if it is a reasonable request and state the minimal amount of work necessary. Tis a tricky area of the law.
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You already have plenty of experience - every time you are on site you will be doing a VTA and and written R/A. Combine that with your technical knowledge gained from the ND and you are more accomplished than you think. What are your IT skills like? You'll find that this is just as important when surveying trees as we've all gone new fangled digital. To a certain extent - depending on the software package - you can still be a very good inspector with little experience, as the application takes you through a step by step inspection. Have you tried approaching your LA or any companies about maybe getting some work experience? LA's have a legal obligation to inspect all their tree stock on a regular basis, so even in these dodgy economis times there are still plenty of opportunities about. Employment agencies are also worth a try. Good luck with it all (and ditto on the LANTRA Prof' Inspection Course. Expensive but does wonders for you CV).
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Conservation Area, TaC Planning Act again. Regular site inspections. A good working relationship with site Manager. SSSI? If tree is on site boundary, then establishing who owns it. If you don't get a Distinction in your Tech Cert, I wanna know why!!!
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And these people are actually allowed to breed??? Gawd help the gene pool.
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How about some attractive, ridgid steel rod cable bracing while you're at it? It's the way of the future, i have been told .
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Grrr, I'm sharing the frustration . Both with the neighbouring vandal and the LA legal system. The first sounds like a complete, sanctamonious NIMBY eejit. And as for the second... The sad reality of TPO enforcement is that unless the LA has an almost 100% chance of getting a conviction, their legal team don't want to waste time and money by taking further action. So a stern letter and a wrist slap is about as much as most TPO infringements are likely to get. Which seems so wrong as it is statute law beeing broken and, really, the police should be involved .
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Interesting question. When i was climbing, i was largely self reliant. But now i am in the position where i have to monitor my Contractors, i would never allow the same thing. As part of their work contract, no lone working is allowed and at least one of the groundstaff has to have their rescue tickets and a full climbing system. Ironic, innit
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Don't think the £250 from YBF will pay for much of the new roof. Muppet.
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I may have ended a few days like that, but i've never managed to start one in that state. Might make a day of answering complaints a bit more interesting tho...
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Might actually turn out to be a good thing for him: a not too serious reminder to take your time and NEVER get complacent. And i though i only got the joys of seeing blood n' guts by watching Casualty .
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Islip Manor Park, Northolt, Ealing, London, suburban bliss.
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Innonotus dryadus always looks like fresh bread rolls to me, just like the piccies above. The water droplets are another classic indication that this is dryadus - it is actively removing water from the wood to make a better enviroment for itself. I have never been able to find much info' on the significance of the decay it causes though - so perhaps someone here can enlighten me? PS - i have some piccies of mature I. dryadus on Q. robur in my gallery .
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Perhaps the gardener was a closet Satanist with an ironic sense of humour ???
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I had a call out to see what the delightful yout' in my Borough had been up to after a few too many alcopops yesterday, bless 'em: You can't really see from the photos, but the whole of the base of the tree and several of the big buttress roots have been hollowed out to well below ground level with succesive fires - this is only the most recent one . It's a stonking great tree that has got some seriously large lumps of wood in the crown, a large wound at the crown break from a torn out leader and lots of smaller areas of necrotic bark and / or decay. I'm going to keep a check on the foliage over the next few days to see if there has been any major damage to the sap wood layer and also see about getting some of the top weight taken out, if the multiple bird holes look unoccupied and there are not signs of bats. What a sad fate for a grand old veteran
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I know chicks did scars, but that's a bit extreme I hate that "I really shouldn't have done that" thought that goes through your head at those moments. I'm glad that it's not too serious and that you'll be mended soon, but tis a good reminder to all of us. So thanks. I think...
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Nice try. The other psychiatrist tried that old ink-blot-disguised-as-an-innocent-tree-picture routine with me before. We are not falling for it again
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When willows attack. The trees have evolved their own version of the Venus fly trap !!!
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Very handy thread for all those wanna be stalkers amongst us. I could post a piccy of my view, but I don't want to risk making you all jelous of my grey, suburban world, with it's badly pruned Pissardii
