blazer

Sorry to hear of your loss. I work mine on a shoot and another guys dog nearly got ran over, so now any vehicles moving I make mine sit. For some reason people don't take the same care when driving off road. End of the summer and it's dogging in pheasants again from a quad and this year with the new dog as well, always worries me working near roads. If I leave mine in the pickup for a while if I can't find a shady place I have the windows part open and a desert camo net over the roof to keep it cool.

Did it taste like chicken? I freeze meat I shoot in bread bags - so the venison for our dinner turned out to be 2 rabbits and another time the dogs ended up with pheasant breasts. Back to the wood - I have done quite a bit with green wood and found it will work ok if part dried and with oak will tighten up so won't split so easy. Plus if you look at old wooden building they have less drying 'shakes' than new buildings. Joints will tighten but not even eg; a chair leg hole drilled when green will dry oval and a mortice shoulder type joint with shrink opening it up. I made a cherry dining set 4 chairs and a table (all green wood I felled by axe except the top old air dried planks) I split the wood in 4 left it for say 6 months in the shade then worked it left it again then did the joints. You should get this bit, I work in a hospital and from watching leg ops used a simular technique - with the legs being a bit bent and not round I fitted a small strip of wood to the end of the leg and used it as a reference to drill out the holes then turned it 90 degrees to drill the other holes - so all the mortice holes were exactly at 90 deg to each other. Try a few joints etc with different woods at different dryness, ash when part dry goes into what I call the 'pink phase' where when cut goes pink but will still work ok as green wood. I will try and get some pictures up of my 'Saxon summer house' I built a few yrs ago. all with axes, adzes etc. I have pit saws, all the gear but it bl**dy hard work with big wood by hand. Talking wood to a small man once who told me he made a new mast for his boat, thinking it was only a 'Mirror dinghy' but out of politeness asked him how long was his little mast? 30 metres he replied - that put me in my place.

I still can't get over the bunny numbers you both shoot in your areas, wish I lived a bit nearer so I could buy some off you - dogs love them. I changed scopes on my 22lr at Xmas and found it more consistant, so it's just check and keep firing, but it wouldn't group on 'winchester' loves 'Eley' the HMR does get through say twice as many with rezeroing and post cleaning zeroing when the grouping opens up, on the HMR I use 20g gamepoint seams to group better say 0.25" at 100m and doesn't open up like '17g bluetips for feeding dogs. A while ago I checked the force at 60yds with the 22lr and found it would go through a piece of 2" wood - whereas with the HMR it will just go through 3 pieces of 2" wood at 100yds - not much use just makes me more careful.

Wot method/guns do you use to get so many? I typically bag 200+ per year. I find the 22lr although quiet if I need to keep the noise down tends to make the others run away, whereas the HMR is noisy they just sit there waiting to be next. Ranges 22lr typical 85 yds and HMR 100+ yds The bunnies on the farms/ golf + estates I shoot on are a bit jumpy. Haven't had much luck lamping so fitted a small NVS to the back of the 22lr scope - works well, bit fiddly. Found the HMR best on a golf course early say 4:00am, if I can get up. Dogs love both the shooting and eating, the dog in the photo will pick up bunnies in the dark. Used to shoot squirrels by the hundred got 400+ a few yrs ago dog finally refused to eat any more.

I spent a bit more, I bought a 4 tonne superwinch on offer from 'the electric winch shop' say £250 + fitting bits etc and fitted it to the back of my L200 - handy for pulling landies out:001_tt2: From a winch on a friends landy I found you need at least 4 tonne + a pulley so you can pull 8 tonne, also a 4 tonne winch is not too heavy. We also made a large fork to go on the back - put some pictures on an earlier winch post:thumbup1:

I help out P/T on a large estate for 15 yrs, since the shoot grew I can get little woodland work can be done in the winter. Roughly it's end of shooting 1 Feb - but then it's catching hens etc till end of Feb. Then don't disturb the Deer (big earner) plus vernim shooting. So it's hard to get access to woods untill the leaves are coming out = sap up. followed by pen building etc ***. Then at the other end birds are out of the pens by the end of summer and if hot and dry like the last few years 'Dogging in birds' is a full time job, working on an estate boundry may help hold birds, then it's the shoot season again. So getting useful work slots is difficult. Rule 1 - get it all sorted out with the estate manager at a meeting with keepers involved and get it down in writing. It helps if you can get on with the keeper by helping out Pen building ***and clearing boughs and tracks etc and updating the keeper on deer movement. Keepers vary, some are ok with me shooting squirrels during the season and doing some woodland work with birds walking around me others want the whole estate as a 'no go area' One tip is if the shoot is rotating drives over say 2 weeks to give the birds a rest, you may be able to get access to do some vermin/woodland work. Good luck

Do you want me to ride shotgun for you partner? Back to topic - I used my Eiger quad and a camping trailer with big wheels to shift whole oak trees ringed up out of the woods on an estate, ok it looks to small and fragile for the job but works well and leaves low pressure tracks in dry weather.

Like the 'West Yorkshire triangle' bit - explains it all. Locally some very large have been reduced - I assume the council wouldn't allow total felling:confused1:

Cheers Yewhunter18. Heard of a guy who wanted to fell a large tree overhanging a barn, so he attached the tree to a tractor - down went the tree through the barn roof followed by the tractor coming through the wall:blushing: Back on topic - caution buying S/H saws, is there a good website/dealer etc? I brought an old 266XP last year off a guy on 'pigeon watch' - I looked up all his old posts to learn about him and drove up and we got on fine so brought it. OK I used to do alot on bikes, spent a bit on it and have a good saw. I remember buying my first car on auction took a mate along - got a good deal:thumbup1:

Yewhunter18 - what happened to the Crane in your logo - a bough too far:confused1:

I take it you will be in your Mum's Micra if it's raining - real bikes get their hair wet:sneaky2: I hoped to come down with my son but he's got an exam - so it may be just the Saturday this year:thumbup1:

should have been tea in a china cup:001_tt2: Also take a look below at 'Tahune day 3 big dead tree' - in NZ, looks too dead to climb.

Had simular in a wood in Oxford twice, Guy said," I will sue you if that big tree hits me" I replied,"how?":lol: Another time a group of 'ramblers' climbed over barriers & felling signs blocking off paths. But my best was at a hospital where road contactors had closed off the road, I asked if they could extend it a bit so I could drop some trees. So all done to the book, and yep running a big saw & I looked up to see a mum carrying a baby within a yard of me - she always walks there apparently:confused1: But my best was driving along a country lane near home and a large larch had dropped across the road earlier, nothing to do with me but I decided to help the farm lad clear it. As cars stopped the drivers really gave me angry abuse - I mean angry, we blocked off the road until totally clear they would have drove over us. How do you guys doing roadside trees cope with road rage every day.

Brill - brings the memory back:thumbup: I'm down to a quad off road and 'strongly advised' my son to put me down on on his XT660 as a named rider. I did the son bonding when he was a 'nipper' now it's his turn to do some 'dad bonding' now he has a bike:thumbup1:

Yep needs a test ride - drop it by every time you clean it:thumbup1: Used to have a T500 Suzuki 1970 model - why did it sell it:confused1:

I'm sure Silky are the best but I only needed a limited use model so went for Bahco via Screwfix; I brought the 5m pole - comes down to say 6 ft and the saw and large lopper. Tried out the saw at full entention over the weekend on some 2" ash branches - worked well, just needed a steady saw action (haven't tried the lopper yet). The pole worked well locking ok and light to use. I could fit a Silky blade to it if needed but the Bahco blade assy is 18 quid against 29 quid for a silky blade.

Not if you fit a chainsaw both ends

Yep release pressure even if nearly empty. I use a Stihl can as with most I didn't bother with the oil quick fill too slow in winter.

All I can say is with more wet the poles will slide better but the tractor will also skid more and the inverse for dryer conditions. more friction - so you need to borrow and try first. I can load up my Suzuki Eiger quad with a modified small trailer onto a Ifor Williams 8'x5' trailer and use them to extract a large Oak ringed up out of a wood and 3 or 4 loads fills the I W trailer and say 5 loads the whole oak tree. With only a small low pressure track winding through the wood which will soon grow over. It looks a bit small for the job but works well.

It came through the post yesterday - maybe NPTC look on Arbtalk:sneaky2:

There is a Gum tree say 25m high a few houses down from us - leaves brown and leaning so the outer branches and now over the base, the owners have a green house under it and if it goes it will goes through the house at the backs conservatory, but all the owners have done is put a height restriction for squirrels and cross their fingers. Sort of does the fan dance in strong winds - amazed it's still standing.

Chicken pie Mr Preedy:sneaky2:

must give this one a go:thumbup: My father was in Italy during the war and meet the 'lazy fire' man, he had a fire in his house and had a long long sticking out and just pushed it in a bit with his foot every time the fire got low - never got out of his chair all evening. I tried it out for a woodland brew up fire with long thin boughs running up wind - works great.

Thanks for the info, I didn't mention the college as it's not their problem then. I'm just suprised and feel sad for their staff always running late with people chasing up. Ok I'm an 'oldie', the last city & guilds I took was 40 yrs ago with every thing done by hand and the certificate came through quickly.

Never heard the term 'billy chickens' before or being formally introduced I like the term - is it widely used? Just cocks and hens over this side of the pond, with some cockerals known to 'cover ' farm yard ducks:sneaky2: Like the hen house, why not go to C4 for 'grand designed hen houses, then we can see how you made it and all the problems with contractors.