Paul Jenks

There was a posting yesterday by Rupert Ellingham with his dissertation on just this subject.

anything that's heat resistant. Reigate is ok, I think that's how you spell it. Pronounced reegate.

It can be done it's just that no sane person would try. By the time the fibres have worn a little and had a deal of work they are very tight and usually full of dirt making the job much harder and the finished product far from perfect.

Spliced eyes are great and once you've spiked or nicked the rope, which inevitably happens you can have a spliced eye short strop and practice tying your chosen knot in your long(but not as long as it used to be) rope. Yale is a good working rope. The bowline can work loose in it so I always put the extra little knot around the loop. Figure of eight is secure but sometimes a right sod to undo especially when wet.

We are told the spores are probably airborne so the likelihood of the other tree already having it are high. It may take a little while for the symptoms to present. Prognosis is not good.

Flexibility is the key. Most of us have very strong backs but apart from the lats the back is made up from lots of smaller muscle sets. We also tend to have v.strong legs. Trouble is these are made from v. large muscle sets. As mentioned earlier the gluts and the hamstrings. When these become tight they pull at the junction of the back and bum. I.e. the lower back. The legs usually win as these muscle sets are far bigger. Strecth out the hamstrings and gluts, get a sports massage, a good one hurts quite a lot, and most back pain will disappear.

Having seen the demonstration of the SRT and some aerial rescue at the arb show I can see it has its merits. The info on pulley loading and the direction of forces is very good stuff to know and again there was a good demo at the arb show. However, with the exception of very large trees with few laterals I fail to see the advantages for the day to day climber of these systems, SRT. Keeping a system simple, especially in an inherently dangerous and harsh environment, whilst retaining effectiveness and safety has to be paramount. Alot of the tree work carried out in this country is unsuitable for the use of SRT and IMO unless you are using these systems regularly you'll have to relearn them every time you get the opportunity to employ them. The reduced loading principles on the fork are an interesting concept but if I was that worried about the loading of me and working on a main fork to have to use a redirect to reduce this loading I'd be asking questions about the stability of the whole structure. Use a second rope.

It puts pressure on the rams and seals but no more than when the pump is sending the body up. The main issue would be if you are moving about on site with the body up. Then the jolting might put undue stress on the seals and would certainly stress the tipper hinge at the back of the body.

All our big Stihl saws get dust through to the carb. The filters never seat properly and don't seem to catch the fine dust. Nature of the beast I suppose.

Sad I know but it was on gardeners question time a while back. It's a phytophthora.

If it's anything like the photos it may be phomopsis blight. See it quite alot on close trimmed hedges. Typically in gardens where the whole area is protected from winds and a humid warm environment can persist.

Of course they aren't legal in this country, to use commercially that is. Dick Robinson:001_tt2:, Oxfordshire, used to have one with a 65hp caterpiller engine. Fast and furious doesn't even come close. The only safety feature was the key. Taught you a thing or two though.

Could be salt damage. Lots was used this year

Won't get many trees bleeding this time of year.

Though amcide is still available for the general public to use, commercially we are legally allowed to use Timbrel:sneaky2:. Be aware it's really nasty. Suits, goggles, mask and boots. In there efforts to make everywhere so much safer the EU imposed a raft of test criteria for chems in everyday use. As I understand it the folk that produce amcide either didn't bother or couldn't meet these compliance tests and so it had to be withdrawn from commercial use. Now we been forced from using an innocuous substance you could practically eat without side effects to using something approaching a nerve agent because the producers could produce the coshh data sheets.:thumbdown:

We used to do some 'yew cubes' at a large private house. Historically the gardeners used to climb up into the canopy and at various spots over the whole canopy they could get their head, shoulders and body though a gap to reach round and trim. Yew is as tough as old boots so you only need branches of 2 inches or so to stand on.

If they've been that defoliated then a little more will probably make little difference.

Try having kids. Dizziness and headaches are just the start. How long can you store it for? Does it go off like normal petrol? Call me a Luddite but this is the first time I've really looked at this product. Seems like a positive step forward. We tried some bio 2-stroke a few years ago and wrote off 5 chainsaws. Does it affect the Stihl warranty? Apologies if these answers are available elsewhere.

That was my point. If you want to wash your rope regularly then perhaps detergent isn't the product to use. Also the degree of safety in our climbing ropes and the taught line systems we employ mean that we could probably climb on starter cord and still be safe(ish). With the regular LOLER checks we only have to have 2 adjacent strands damaged and the rope is condemned. Easy to do when climbing on spikes.

Unless your'e going to wash your rope more than twice a year I'm not sure it matters if you use detergent, IMO. Very few of our ropes make it past 2 years anyway before they're either cut or damaged in some way. They only get washed in a machine if they are truly manky. If you don't want to put them in a machine, make them really wet and get one of the trainees to prussik down it.:thumbup:

I think it's a great idea. Somewhere to drop off arisings for nowt. I'd almost drive up from Oxford. As mooted the challenge is to break through the suspicion factor, but that aside £450k is a fair chunk of money and the hoops one would have to jump through to get that kind of money from a bank would be numerous. Therefore expect to have to do a lot of work to be in the race for it and accept the fact you may not win it.

Thank-you. We do try our best

You probably right, if the building is on decent founds the tree will develop around it. However 3 metres is very close for such a large tree and it's well within the distances cited by Mattheck and Breloer, The Body Language of Trees, so there is a good chance the roots of the tree are using the underside of the foundation for stability. 30-40 years is a long time to hold a grudge. Is there any scope for sharing the burden of removal and replant with a suitable replacement. May be a line of leylandii.:lol:

I've just read this post all the way through and there are some really good points. Our experience in employing staff has shown that for the most part people nowadays are taught to pass a test rather than carry out a function, cheifly owing tto the commercialisation of the the training and testing system. This leads to an emphasis on safety, no bad thing, but a lack of effectiveness in the real world. (The driving test is a prime example). We now routinely test applicants on all their quals to assess their abilities prior to a days work interview and if they fit in with the team their pay reflects their actual ability rather than their 'ticket price'. As the MD/owner I started my company with a goal of creating pathways for my staff to progress into more cerebral spheres of work as they matured. Very few other companies do this, IMO. As we grow and managerial positions develop we train our guys to move up into team leader and manager roles. This gives them an incentive to stay with us and keeps them producing for us. It's expensive but gives us good continuity and corporate memory is maintained. We have a skills matrix for all the guys and fill the boxes as time, money and requirements allow. Again it's expensive but does help us retain staff. On the matter raised about when the poo hits the fan, my top climber, a couple of years ago sustained a serious injury whilst climbing. He's highly qualified, very safety concious and good in the tree. One moments loss of focus and he's permenantly damaged. Fortunately he worked for me and he is fully employed and we are benefitting from his knowledge, way more than mine. The balance has to be struck between experience and tickets. Tickets/certs cover the owners backside when things go wrong. If all the compliance paperwork is in place then hopefully it doesn't destroy the business. However ensuring safety through checks and audits is just as important. Broken fences or cars are one thing, a broken person is both physiologically and psychologically unpleasant.

I've got some cool pictures of a sequioa take down but am having a challenge with uploading pictures.