Bolt

If its a log supply thats wanted, I would just plant Ash. Ticks all the boxes. Easy to establish, good growth rate, happy in UK conditions, Smells nice when you cut it, smooth bark ony your hands when you handle it, easy to split and burns like a good 'un (especially if you an impatient seasoner (yery low moisture content I am told). Of couse, you would be wise to see whats already growing in the hedges. If there is no ash already about, maybe you should ignore the above.

The best stick has to be hazel, with the best thinness to length ratio you can get (needs to be about 2 metres long) If you whip it back and forth really quick, you can get it so the tip moves in a mirror image of your hand, but the middle doesn’t move at all. I recon there a 3 benefits to this Firstly you can impress the kids that you are cleverer than you are by talking about standing waves, second harmonics and all that stuff, secondly, the “Boocha-boocha-bootcha” sounds a bit like a distant Chinook – possibly to coolest of all the helicopters (but not those Chinooks that legend has they keep hidden in a hanger in Cornwall somewhere because they can only fly when its sunny) – and lastly, if you can find yourself a nice proud thistle, you can demonstrate the basics of sectional dismantling by reducing back its leaves, and then popping them of at the stem, then (once its skinned neatly) taking the stem down bit by bit. I wonder if hazel sticks were the inspiration for the strimmer?

I did use one of those Husq338 saws for a bit (trying to rebel from the 020 deathgrip) Workmates ripped the micky out of me, mainly because the saw didn't sound butch enough. They christened the thing Luxy due to a) Husqvana being owned by electrolux at the time and B) it sounding like a kitchen appliance. The major drawback there was that if you shouted down to you groundie to stop chipping and fuel "Luxy" up, you ran the risk of seeing them disappearing off in the 4x4 to refuel that instead.

33 post on a thread about sticks? There is certainly some weirdness going on around here. I think I’ll stick around for a bit. What it is that keeps me awake, pondering at night, is the issue of names, particularly saw names. When I started, the saw of choice for climbers was an 020, pronounced “oh twenty”. Short and snappy like. Anyone who’s only been about a few years has no idea what you’re talking about. These days, when shouting down to (I mean conversing with) your rookie groundsman, you have to refer to it as an “em ess twohundred tee” if you wish to stand any hope of getting it tied on / refulled / replaced. It doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue (what on earth were Stihl thinking of?) Not long after the 020 got its name change (along with fancy filler caps that didn’t really work to start with) the lad I was working with at the time christened it a “twenty oh tee”, which was a term i kind of liked, although it did remind me a little of that Nic Kershaw song of similar name. Now, putting aside the lad I worked with in Wales, who insisted on calling his saw Sasha, are there any better terms for these saws? “one handed” isn’t PC (and is probably tempting fate)..... “top handled” sounds like something in the bottom of the kids toy box.... and “climbing saw” sounds a bit like a rope burn following an over eager descent.... so forgive me if I’m going over old ground, but has anyone any inspired saw names? (or should I just call it Andreas?).

With regard to bats, surely what we are trying to do is prove a negative here (ie chop away my son, there's no expensive bats in that one!). Its generally very hard to prove a negative. IF the system can be tuned to locate bats, the best it will do is warn us if bats are present. IMO if our results don't come up as positive we are still none the wiser, the bats and resulting fine may still be waiting for us undetected.