Matthew Arnold

HTF? Lol looks like it was left in the shed when it was demolished lol.

Were there any weights on the front other than the bucket? As the chipper on the 3 point arms may have been just enough to put it on the back wheels and cause it to roll. Saw a tractor this morning John Deere 7030 with a big chipper on the back (must have been 10" max feed) and everytime he pulled away from a junction his front wheels were off the ground by atleast 4 inches, sometimes more. Didnt get number off the side of the tractor and could barely read or see rear numberplate and tail board.

Gains cross in June 2010. Just been surfaced with road planings. Cost about £15,000 less than transporting stone from the mendips. Still got a fair bit of work to do down there mainly tree work coppicing buddleia and knocking out brambles so we can spray the knotweed on that section. Hoping to clear the bridge top at the same time. The two darker/woody pics are taken from the Stourpaine end. Same time as the Gains cross pics. We are planning on going down there i nthe next couple of weeks to take out the first line all the way down through and maybe remove some of the second row (if they have lots of squirrel damage).

Does this look like B.C? Broad -leaved Lime. Very old pollard. No cavities and in good health. It was deadwooded and crown cleaned two years ago. Shall get some pics of the avenue in May or June to show the size of them.

That looks expensive. Is that a chipper on the back?

We are hoping to be at Blandford in the next year or so. Most of the landowners (bar one) are up for it. We have 5 heaps (150+ tons each) of contaminated soil to get shifted after we get the trees felled. We have already made a small start at the blandford end by removing about 200 trees (only 3 inch things all done with clearing saw). Just to give us a head start as we have some bigger stuff to remove. These are pics of the bottom of the Gains Cross slope after we felled loads of coppice stools and some dodgy looking Ash.

Just tried Ganoderma applanatum in wikipedia and you are spot on Monkey D. Ganoderma applanatum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It colours/bruises on the spores when rubbed/ scoured. The bracket was stored in the back of the truck so got a fair bit of abuse rattling around.

Trees - Rhododendron and Laurel. Nasty to cut. Nasty to burn. Cant chip it. Kills the understory and it a massive pain in the rear to treat. Only thing Laurel n Rhody is good for is pigeon nesting other than that complete waste of time. Plant - Floating Pennywort and Himalayan Balsam. Both big pains to get rid of. Cant spray on/near watercourses. Spread like Wildfire. Animal - Grey Squirrel. Killing off our native Reds. Destroying Sycamore and Beech plantations. Lowering our garden bird numbers by eating eggs.

LOL. Ive been wearing dry wellies all day. Pong wasnt as bad as i was expecting lol. But if its the big G any idea which one? As we have two more Ash with the same bracket next to the one that fell over.

Changed fuel filters on the truck and bled the system. Much much better. We have put half a tank of supreme deisel in and half normal stuff. Wait and see how it improves.

We had a member of the public phone up about a fallen Ash. On arrival we sned it up and logged the trunk. It had a mix of Inonotus hispidus and another bracket fungi of which i have attached images. I first thought it was Perenniporia fraxinea but wasnt 100% sure. Any ideas if i was right?

Paper birch.

Becuae most of the sites i work on are high public usage we have to chec kthe trees on a regular basis to make sure there are no defects. On the lower usage sites if we have any nice mature trees we leave to get on with it. In may i shall get some pics of an old Hawthorn. Several people think the tree is infact several other planted ones but is infact one big one that has collapsed over the years. In response to orginal question. 1 ft pollard AKA... Stump

I want some of those denim lined chainsaw trousers.

I used to BMX til i did a Michael Owen and trashed the ligaments in my right knee. It was the worst pain i have ever been in. Wasnt a nice sight seeing my right leg bent with my foot on my backside but the femur looking normal. Was off work for 3 months and was on light duties (office work and chainsaw sharpening) for 2 months after that. Every now and then my knee reminds me that it was damaged and is waiting to go again.

Checked air cleaner/filter today and was ok. Obvious signs of dust but wasnt black with road dust.

It has just been booked into the council garage for friday afternoon so they can do the checks n sort it out over the weekend. I recon dirty fuel dilters may be the first thing to check and turbo the last. I think the last thing the boss wants to do is fork out £500 for a new turbo. We had the egr valve cleaned 6 months ago as it was fouled up. Probably be worth just removing the egr valve all together as it tars/gums up the valves n inlet manifold.

Looks like a Redwood of some sort. Maybe a Sequoia. Not too good on firs.

We have noticed since monday that our truck is underpowered. We lent it to a colleague on Monday so he could go to meetings and such. When he dropped it off with us he was crashing about a bit as he came down through the heath. On speaking to our family mechanic he thinks it may be the turbo on its way out. It is very intermitent. We took it for a good run on the way home this evening just to clear out the pipes of any built up crud and we noticed that it was kicking in at around 4k rpm when it would normally kick in around 1,500 rpm. When it wasnt producing any power you could hear it sucking air but there was no PSI. Has anyone else had this problem with their L200?

Stihl Comfort i think is the best. I can use our 550 all day and not get any problems in my lower back.

Nope. Two colleagues were at seperate funerals (FJF lad had lost his gran last week and apprentice lost his dad last week too), boss was at big meeting at main council chamber and remaining truck was in for work. I was going a bit stir crazy not doing anything so took lots of pics of the oak on one of my sites and then decided to go for a 15 mile bike ride. Did 10 miles in just under an hour on sunday. 15 miles in 1h 20 mins not bad on a push bike. Back tomorrow though. Legs are gonna be caning but oh well. Cant wait to be on my toy. Stihl fs 550 with a clearing saw head removing pines.

Whilst on my day off (odd to have a day off on a tuesday i know) i decided to take some pictures of the big Oaks on one of my sites known as Stour Meadows. It is a floodplain with a big attenuation lake (flood alleviation pond). It has some history about it, as the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway line ran through there. We have a 60+ year old hedgerow, although the trees in the hedgerow arent 60+ years old it is still well established. Most of the Oaks are English/Common (Quercus robur) but we also have a pair of Turkey Oaks (Quercus cerris) and a small group of Holm Oaks (Quercus ilex). Here are the order of the pics: Pics 1,2,3 and 4 - Common Oak with butress root flares. No sign of fruiting bodies but base has been dug out by bunnies. Going to have "sunseeker" limb removed to attempt to re-balance. Pics 5,6 and 7 - Common Oak with small cavity and root flairing at base. Leaves are small in the summer and is deadwooded each year. When it dies it shall become a deadwood monolith. Pic 8 - Large Turkey Oaks. Both very healthy. Crown cleaned a few months back to remove rubbing branches. Pics 9, 10,11,12,13,14,15,16, 17 and 18 - Common Oak with fruiting bodies in between butress roots. Very obvious butress flares but otherwise healthy. ( Any ID on the fruiting bodies would be helpful) Pics 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 - Pair of Common Oaks. No fruiting bodies. Very Health. One tree lost several limbs in 1980s storm when neighbouring Oak slid down the side. Bat roost used by Pipistrelle and occasionally Noctule Bat P.S. Soz for huge amount of images to sort thru.

Winds werent too strong in Dorset. Although just chatting to a friend of mine who is currently working over in the USA on the East coast we may have a strong low pressure on the way. It was packing winds of 120 mph and sometimes more. So hopefully that one will head north and go into the arctic or else we are all going to be extremely busy.

When i am in the area next (wed) i shall get some pics of a beech with kretz and merip that snapped off clean (looked like a tree surgeon had cut it off but had infact snapped in the wind). We had a tree surgeon come and coronet it for us. It looks so much more natural. He buried the bar in to the trunk in an upward direction for bats. Just gotta get in there and tidy up the brash.

Its been reduced hard some time in its life. Might be worth reducing it to the original points. Other than that its a healthy tree.