Matthew Arnold

My dad and i towed a BMW M5 Estate out of a hedge. He overtook us on a piece of road that was covered in ice. We had some good karma out of that as he blasted his horn when he went past and nearly hit another vehicle coming the other way. He asked us to be gentle with his new car. It didn't matter how gentle we were it was gonna cause damage. He lost his front bumper and 3 pieces of steerin component as we dragged him out of the bank. We towed him to the nearest gateway and left him there with a phone number of the local vehicle recovery centre.

I got a 5 bird roast this xmas. Goose, Duck, Pheasant, Partridge and Woodcock. Going to be very nice just gotta shoot a goose next week and im sorted.

My colleagues and i were discussing the possibilities about how the alarm didnt go off. Our first port of call was a power cut but the people across the lane didnt have one during the night. Our next thought was either a disgruntled volunteer or one of our colleague who has just had a competency hearing (one step below disciplinary) after he left a chainsaw out all night in the woods. There were a few other problems regarding his work manner and care of powertools. So we thought it might be him. Will have to wait and see. But either way we have lost powertools which is a major pain in the rear.

Land Rover is already out and it has a blanket across the windscreen. If we get any overnight it will be good fun goin beating tomorrow. Hopefully wont go through the same hole my dad and i made last time. Didnt have any damage but the hedge was flattened.

Clear skies and 5C in blandford. Its been 2-3 all day so it looks like we got snow on the way.

Now that is a very neatly trimmed bush.

We had a new one put and new taps. Soon after Lawrence, Adam and their apprentice went down with nasty stomach bugs. We had the water tested that comes from an underground spring directly under the base. Turns out we have to boil the water before drinking as it contains Coliform bacteria. Not nice at all. We are trying to secure funding for a new base/visitor centre combo. But they want to put it in the same space as the whole current store. I did mention about having it down in the main car park where the current visitor centre thingy is. Much more room down there.

More pics of Spetisbury Rings. Access after frosts is a big issue.

These are our two trucks. The mitsi has just done 41000 miles. It has already gone through a set of BFG A/T and is on its second clutch (predecessor to my boss pulling too much weight on site). It has a 2 inch lift kit all round and is the better of the two off road.They are cleaned every 3 months or so. The Ford Ranger is the big bosses. It has a Superwinch 5000 on the front and has full underbody protection. It has a nice 3 litre V6 under the bonnet so it flies along. The ride in the L200 is a bit "boggy" but in the Ranger it bounces about.

Ive been watching Tramadol Nights and several times ended up crying with laughter. How is everyone else finding it? I thought Jimmy Carr was dry but frankie is on a different level.

Sadly not but we incinerated the kettle and destroyed the sink when we had the big clear up just before lawrence started. There was a frightening amount of crap in there. We had 2 18 x 8 skips full of crap. What was combustible was burnt on site.

Exactly my thoughts. Someone has obviousily been scouting out the location right under our noses. We have alot of volunteers come out and help us out so any one of them could have been scouting the site out. And they knew what they were after. We have 5 chainsaws down there (2 of which are brand spanking) but they left those normally its a clean sweep.

We could get that but the problem we have is mice may set off the alarm. We have to use humane traps as we have dormice in the woods. Our store is a known bat roost as well but the mice are the main issue. They've set off the alarm once before. We have CCTV pointed at the gate which has a floodlight with a motion sensor directly beneath it. But this failed to go off whch makes us think they approached from the back but they used a vehicle to break the padlock n chain on the gate. Alot of things don't add up at the mo.

Last night we had a break in at our western base. We had 2 Stihl brushcutters stolen (fs 450 and fs480) both with metal tri blade heads. And a Stihl KM130 Kombi with polesaw and hedgecutter attachment. They all have DCC security stickers on them. Our gates are padlocked shut as are the steel doors for the office door, windows and store. They had used a vehicle to snap the padlock and chain on the gates and did the same on the store doors. They had also gone through the drawers in the office but nothing was stolen. We have an alarm system for the store and one for the garage which contains our chipper, quadbike, and trailer. Sadly this failed to go off until my colleagues entered the store this morning. If anyone finds anything on ebay or other websites please let me know. This isnt the first break in sadly. We had 30 litres of petrol stolen from our outside fuel store.

Had a day at Spetisbury Rings today. The guys had a day yesterday up there making a steady start into the thorn. Got a massive fire going of which i posted pics. Cracking views even though the cloud base was low. Got another day tomorrow. Its quite fun but also tricky getting to the job site as the frost is just coming out of the ground. On the way home out of the field we were running on slicks as the mud is chalk-clay mix. Will get pics of the truck tomorrow with it running on slicks.

We just got rid of one of our FJF (Future Job Fund) guys for putting something thru the chipper that i had told him not to. We had told him not to put anything with wire or metal on it as it would severely damage the chipper blades. Granted his sacking was coming thick and fast. He had this mindset that he was the dogs gonads at everything (off-roading, chainsawing, brushcutting,etc). He had come from an agricultural background so he was a bit too used to abusing stuff and just buying new kit when the older stuff broke. He had crashed the work truck atleast 3 times (first into a gate[broken lights, smashed tailgate], second time into some bale forks [ smashed headlight, dented bonnet and buckled wing all on driver side], 3rd time into a vehicle stationary at traffic lights [ trashed rad, front bumper broken]) The incident with putting a STRAINING POST WITH STOCK PROOF WIRE AND BARBED WIRE STILL ATTACHED was the final straw for me and my colleagues. I knew imeadiately something had gone through that shouldn't have done with the screeching and sudden stopping of the engine and half a straining post showing out of the feed rollers. My supervisor very quickly told him to go home and to be expecting a phonecall from my supervisors boss. It took us 45 mins to remove the wire from the axle of the flywheel. The blades were completely shot as the chunks had gone past the minimum mark for sharpening. The FJF guy will be getting a bill through the post for the new blades. Do you think this was a bit harsh?

We used to use Rock oil Bio chain but it was 77 quid for 25 litres. Coz of cut backs we have had to switch to the semi synthetic stuff but its 40 quid for 25 litres. The bosses couldn't figure out the price difference.

Thats what we have done. Cleared the brash first then gonna get in there with my favourite bit of kit... Forest Mulcher. Probably set it at 0 height then minus 6 height to rip up the roots. Got alot of well seasoned Sweet Chessie and Ash on the deck from the 1980s storms. The area we were clearing is ravaged by Honey fungus. 2/3 of the trees in the area were affected by Honey Fungus. Most of them were dead or dying. Whe i am in the area i shall get some pictures of the hung up ones in there. Might borrow EA's winch tractor to pull em back over.

Looks very much like Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii,). Its genus is Pseudotsuga.

We just cleared 6 acres of laurel n rhody. Most of the stuff was tree size with lots of smaller regrowths. There was 3 of us chainsawing with 6 people dragging and burning. Was a heavy slog over 2 weeks but we got it done. Here is a pic of one of the massive fires we had. The base was 12ft long x 9 ft wide x 4 ft tall at the end of the day.

I find it safer to use as well. Atleast when you get kickback from a clearing saw its well away from you but kickback from a chainsaw could snick clothing, boots, etc.

My boss cant stand the sound of them going thru 2 inch stuff but he doesnt mind it when i go through thicker stuff. It will certainly make our work load alot less as i can now getin into the thickets of ivy clad Ash and Sycamore and thin them out of the weedier stuff ready for the finaly clear out. We have a Timberwolf TW150 which is unbraked which is handy as we can tow it around even if some of us don't have a trailer ticket.

We have a Stihl FS550 clearing saw/brushcutter at work. Where possible i use it for removing re-growth from stumps to make it easier for my colleague to get in and lower and treat the stump. It doesnt sound particularly efficient but its the easiest way that we have found of treating stumps in late summer. I also use it for felling small trees (6 inches diametre and smaller). Does anyone else use clearing saws or is it mainly chainsaws?

I stupidly put the apprentice in charge of gettin a fire going. He had 3 sunday papers, an onion bag full of super dry kindling and loads of silver birch, oak and hazel tips to get a good base on it before loading the holly. I left him to it and two hours later during our mid mornin break he started coming up with every excuse in the book (kindling was damp, paper was damp, etc,etc). 30 mins after the mid morning break i had a crack at the fire of which there was barely a base to speak of. It didnt take long to become a decent raging fire. You can see the pics of it in the burn up thread.

What about "Fox" or "Bandit". Sounds strange but where we go beatin there are dogs called fox and bandit. It confuses the hell out of the guns as they are allowed to shoot foxes but they are not allowed to shoot "The Bandit".