Big J

We've got about 8 edge trees on a clearfell block that we're presently doing that need to be stripped of branches to allow the harvester to pull them back in. Needing a couple of speedy climbers to zip up them with a flip line stripping them of branches as they go. The trees are western hemlock and about 100ft tall. Please get in contact if you can help. It can be done evenings to work around any existing commitments. I appreciate it's short notice.

Alas, no. I don't ever have to transport chip, so almost all of my work mileage is in a Citroen Berlingo. Beyond that, I tow heavy things with a V10 Touareg.

A sad announcement: It is with great sadness that I have to mention the loss of a few local businesses as a result of COVID-19. A local bra manufacturer has gone bust, a submarine company has gone under, a manufacturer of food blenders has gone into liquidation, a dog kennel has had to call in the retrievers and a company supplying paper for origami enthusiasts has folded. A local strip club has gone tits up, Interflora is pruning its business and Dyno-rod has gone down the drain. The saddest one though is the ice cream van man found dead covered in nuts and raspberry sauce. He couldn't take it any more and topped himself.

I'm sorry that you found yourself in that situation. It must have been awful, even if it was a clear choice that needed to be made. With my dog, she never forgets anything and responds badly even with relatively mild aggression. We've very good friends an hour from us, who have a labrador who is (as they put it), just a bit of an arsehole with other dogs. Katie is one of two dogs he gets on with, but he always has one aggressive bark at her every time we see them. After that, he's fine and they largely ignore each other. When we visited them on Easter Sunday, I had to physically lift Katie out the boot because she didn't want to get out on account of their lab. She was totally fine throughout, but she's fearful of aggressive dogs, and rightly so. And he's really not that bad - he just doesn't know how to play and is aggressive instead (though not physically). What's difficult for them now is that my friend can't walk the dog and her daughter (who is 2yrs 3 month) at the same time. She needs both hands to restrain the dog but obviously can't let go of her daughter. So it causes them a lot of stress. They've really tried correcting his behaviour and he's great with kids and bigger people too. He's just a liability with other dogs. I couldn't live like that, if I'm honest. The world has way too many dogs and people shouldn't feel that by rescuing a dog they are doing anyone a favour. From a utilitarian standpoint, the greatest kindness is to euthanise almost any unwanted dog as they'll eat many, many more animals during the remainder of their life. But having a dog (or indeed any pet) is almost always a completely selfish, and completely natural decision. I just can't understand why some people burden themselves intentionally with damaged pets.

To answer both your questions, yes to both, probably. Your terrier is a risk to other dogs and is likely to cause the kind of situation that your second dog finds itself in. Excessively aggressive dogs aren't necessarily in that condition through any fault of their own, but they nevertheless find themselves in that situation and serve to continue the problem by psychologically scarring other dogs. I just don't see the point in having a dog that is a liability. Whether that's because it's got crap recall or because it's aggressive. It's not a particularly large leap for a dog to start attacking people (children in particular) if they routinely attack dogs. There shouldn't be any kind of misplaced sense of altruism when it comes to rehoming damaged dogs. In all likelihood, they make the lives of the owners more difficult going forward and they will possibly cause emotional distress (or physical injuries) to other dogs/animals/people. Why take the risk? You're stuck with a dog for potentially 15 years or more, and that's a long time if it's a nutbar. My enjoyment of having a dog is watching her have a full and complete life. Knowing that I can take her anywhere, into any situation (except for perhaps going to a cat sanctuary - she's rather scared of cats 😄 ) without having to worry about her. It's fascinating watching her develop her own relationships with people too. I worked a busy National Trust site in February and she got to know a local dog walker (and the 15 odd dogs she walked regularly) and that she had dog treats. Me, sat in the cab of my forwarder, watching her fleece a soppy lady for treats whilst cuddling up to her was lovely because I trust her completely to be able to do that independently of me. The dog walker was only too happy too. The idea of having to restrain a dog on a lead for 100% of the time we're out is awful to me. I just don't see the point. It's a chore, not a pleasure.

I'm not generally concerned about people with dogs off the lead. It's the ones that are on leads that worry me more. Last summer a lady walked up from the town to grab some aquarium plants from me with her dog (we're 500m outside the town on a country lane - you see loads of dog walkers). She was keeping her distance explained that her dog (staffie) was really bad with other dogs. It was on a harness and muzzled, but it somehow got off. It went through my three year old, knocking her over to get to my dog, which it pinned to the floor. It would have mauled her had it not had a muzzle on. I grabbed it by the harness and lifted it off my dog and the lady made many apologies and left. In my view, there is no possible justification for an animal like that to not be euthanised. It's a serious risk to the public, should it manage to escape it's owner. I honestly have no idea why anyone would want to take a dog like that on, but I have an acquaintance who always takes on rescue boxers with serious behavioural issues. We're far too soft in the UK sometimes. If a dog can't function adequately as a dog, it serves no purpose. People scream bloody murder that it's unfair because it's not the dog's fault it's like that, but they forget that their nutbar pooch will negatively, and permanently affect the behaviour of previously well balanced dogs. Put the high risk dogs down, train the owners and break the cycle.

It's a fair point, but neutering does make the goal easier to attain. It's more of an issue for unneutered male dogs I feel, but then I would only have a female dog anyway.

God, that must have been awful. And hilarious 😄 For me it all comes down to quality of life for the dog and for the owner. Anything you can do to improve this is worth doing. I'd say at least 80% of dogs I come across in day to day life look like a lot of work to live with. Crappy recall, don't do what they're told, have to be on leads, barky, humpy etc. If you can mitigate any of those irks, everyone is in for an easier life. That's where neutering comes in - you can't expect a sex crazed mutt to have good recall if it's hot on the scent of another dog/sofa/leg.

We spayed our collie bitch when she was about 18 months old. She only came to us aged 15 months. She's been wonderful, with no health issues relating to it and we've had her very nearly 10 years now. She's fit as a flea and alarmingly intelligent. I would strongly recommend getting your lab neutered. There is nothing worse than a big male dog that tries to hump everything. You're creating a rod for your own (or more specifically, your wife's) back if you don't. You raise ethical concerns relating to the operation, but I'd argue that it's generally unethical to have an unneutered male dog in Britain, unless you're intending to breed from it. It's behaviour will be harder to manage, meaning it'll be less able to be fully included in your life. I can take my dog absolutely anywhere. She follows me and the forwarder round all day, she meets loads of other people and other dogs whilst doing that. I can walk her (to heel, without a lead) through a flock of sheep, through a busy town centre, take her on a canoe, swim across a lake with her or put her in a car for an 8 hour journey. I am lucky with her being so biddable, but part of that freedom is down to her being neutered. Do everything you can to maximise your pet's quality of life, and for me, that includes neutering.

God I hope that this is a joke 😲

Absolutely! It was bought a while back, but it's in date and everything. Not that I know how you'd tell if it had gone off. 🤪

My wife has a jar of this extra old rubbish, saved for her brother in Sweden (whenever were actually allowed to go over there). What's it worth to you?! 😝

Finally, a silver lining to this whole pandemic mullarky 😄

I know 😄 I had a 5 tonner on site the other day putting ramps in for me, and he tanned a good 50 litres on a 10 hour day. The Vimek is drinking the fuel on this site too, as it's almost half a mile from the bottom of the block to the loading bay, with a 70m climb. Normally, 30 litres sees you a full day on the machine.

Some updates to the machine. The reversing camera is a great addition and having the grab tank is brilliant. No more pouring Jerry cans. It's 220 litres and that lasts 50-60 hours of machine operation. Were finishing up a medium sized conifer first thinning at the moment. Some incredibly fast grown trees in there. The largest spruce we felled at 21 years old was just about 2 tonnes.

A few work photos with Katie from the last month. She does about 8 hours of walking with the machine per day. She'll be 11 in 6 weeks and still as fit as a flea.

Hope she recovers quickly Gary. She's absolutely beautiful. We nearly lost our Collie when she was 3 to idiopathic aplastic pancytopenia. Again, extremely rare, usually fatal and expensive to treat. It's a complete shutdown of the bone marrow, so no platelets, white or red blood cells being produced. Several blood transfusions and a year of immunosuppressants and she was recovered. Betty looks like she's well on her way to recovery. I adore collies - intelligent idiots

I think from a tree surgery perspective, yes. A lot of people have excess cash at the moment on account of having been furloughed and having had their social extravagances curtailed. This, combined with the pressing desire to get socialising again, means that getting gardens tidied ahead of the rule of 6 outside coming back is a priority. Correspondingly, sales of garden furniture and such like have been huge. The pin that'll burst the bubble is that the economic reality of covid has yet to hit. Furlough is delaying hundreds of thousands (if not more) of redundancies, we're looking at a complete restructuring of how the country buys it's goods, with highstreets suffering an unprecedented shock. The legacy cost of the covid support measures is astronomical, and as soon as that reality hits home, non-essential spending (such as tree surgery) will be reduced. Just my 2 cents.

We're heading to Sweden next year and will be carrying on with forestry there. I like early thinning and light machine work, so I'll just focus on that. Where are you planning to go?