dgcunningham

In my experience this might go some way to preparing you to industry- tendering for multi 100k jobs in 12 hours and not having had time to visit site. As it should be

Well...at least the weather was good for it! Just looked at the DART website- that looks amazing! Didn't know it existed and it makes so much sense. Would be worth coming along just to catch you guys on the DART stall......I'll look into it. D

Hi Benn! How you keeping in NYC matey? Not spoken to you on fb for a while. Hope all is well. Me and Felicity are getting married at the end of May- you remember Felicity don't you? Poison Ivy- does that really exist? As in it's poisonous?

Sorry got it mixed up with the APF. Probably not going to the Arb show- Felicity and I are getting married at the end of May so not much cash about and the temptation for buying climbing bling would be far too great!

I've got the date in my calendar- mid September right? To be honest I've not decided. Think I'm holding out to see if the outfit I'm with at the moment want me to go. I take it you are planning on going?

No after-effects for me personally but one of the guys on the ground was allergic to ivy- Steve. I don't know how common this is but he's the only guy I've met to have that reaction. He'd come out in a terrible rash after handling the stuff. We knew about him reacting to ivy before this job so he just kept clear of the stuff. Mostly he handled the rigging ropes. Mozza had put his back out just before this job so he had to avoid handling the heavy stuff- we were a right crew! Great times.

Now that is nasty- did you strip it first?

Think in the first pic this is Mozza telling the gaffer it's going to take us a little longer......

Last one.....really like this pic Thanks to Bill Heath!

Sorry didn't attach the pics...

We had 2 days on it but I think it took us 3. We opted to strip the tree of ivy first, we had a fair bit of rigging to do on it so really wanted to see what I was doing. Yes it took a bit of time but I still think we went about it the right way. Drop zone was pretty tight. More pics.... Snow cam in pretty heavy at times. I really enjoyed it- like climbing a mountain

Hi Paul, How you and Steve doing?- Been far too long since we caught up. I hope all is well. Thought I'd add my little tree to your thread.

Seen these on Facebook through one of the tree groups- had to stay put and watch them all. Loved it

Perfect solution- get the CE Lanyard and the HB CE flipline and you have 2 systems which are CE approved= peace of mind and move onto the next problem.

It's like any business isn't it? Poor plan = poor business? If the market it saturated in your operational area then you have to do something about it (other than undercutting on price and joining the race to the bottom). If your market has very low barriers for entry-ie domestic where the client won't necessarily be 'educated' to the fact that people 'should' be trained in their profession, insured etc then you WILL lose out if your competition doesn't have the financial overhead of these things you pay for? I'm not trying to offend anyone here but that's the case yes? Maybe try to educate the client in your locality or raise your business to the next barrier of entry- AA contractor, CHAS etc etc and leave the others to fight over the scraps on the domestic market? Hiring the local village hall and giving a positive talk to the WI or some other organisation-(horticulture club etc) about the benefits of responsible tree management might work wonders for your client base. Identify the market you need- create it if it is not there or adapt your business to provide the service the target market requires. Looking around Sheffield, where I live at the moment there are so many people with tow behind chippers and transit tippers, combine that with it being the climbing capital of the UK- well you can imagine.

First time I've tried to attach an image to a post- I'm chuffed.

Hi Newbie, I'd avoid cutting the eye off the end of a flipline- I don't know how they are constructed but wouldn't be surprised if the cutting of it would compromise it. Also, my understanding of these things is that if you modify equipment from the original manufacturer- you in effect become the 'manufacturer' and this can fail a LOLER examination- this is the same with splicing etc. I've tried to attach an image of my set up. I use the ISC mini Ropegrab, this can be dismantled and constructed mid line with the locating bolt.

Hi guys, Don't know if I'm right in saying this but do you think there is also a cultural aspect to this too? We live on a pretty dismal grey island where a lot of the time the weather is inclement and recession has hit our industry pretty hard in recent years. After slogging out 5 long days of climbing in the rain for very minute lolly, the last thing I ever wanted to do was to get my harness on and climb of a weekend to practice for a competition. Mostly I needed to eat and rest and work out how to pay the bills or do a weekend job to subsidise the climbing. I can see the appeal of hanging out in a lovely landscaped amenity parkland in NZ practicing my throwline technique with all my likeminded tree climbing buckos who I share digs with having a few beers. It's just a little different here. Your most likely to get a load of hassle from local idiots and have a partner who has come to the end of her tether hearing about trees and climbing . Through a lack of investment and cuts in sport education, interest in sport as a whole has declined- which is of course a crying shame. Most guys I've met in the industry are dog tired and skint. They love the climbing but would take a superhuman effort to get out and do it without some financial incentive. Which is a shame as they are great at what they do and would put in a fine performance but I can understand why competing is pretty low on the priorities list compared to providing for family etc. Work is work- recreation is recreation, having heard the amount of hours some guys have to put in to make ends meet, it's a pretty difficult balancing act at the best of times! a turn out of 17 sounds pretty good.

Actually, I'm going to revise it- 650 kilo?

Hehe-that last limb must have jumped at you a little Paul? Really good skills mate, top job. You must be buzzing, really good stuff there mate. Sky's the limit now! What was the weight of the last pick, 350 kilo? entertain me, I'm guessing.

Hi Paul, Just looked at the Duty Chart for that Crane- 2.2tonne at 31 metres, they usually like to get the jib right up there. That's a big lump of wood. After the first few lifts ask the driver what the weight is on the jib and you'll get your eye in. Ask the driver how he wants to set up- cab forward, cab back- they usually like to set up so they can have good visibility etc etc. Enjoy mate- would love to see some photos when your done!!!! Going to ride the hook up? David

Main thing I was told Paul was make sure the cuts are clean and the section your lifting is butt heavy. Last thing you need is a complete 180 from a section your lifting off. I got the driver to load the crane before the lift, guess at the weight and ask the driver to put that amount on. That way it should take the load away from you. What size crane and what species of tree is it? David