spuddog0507

As promised, midland 12g s/s Hammer gun made in 1876 for a butcher in Fleetwood, this gun was 1 of 2 identical guns the butcher bought at the same time and when he fell ill he gifted one each to his 2 members of staff, the guy I got it off started at the butchers as a Saturday boy just before WW11 started he then became a full time traine butcher, he said he was given the gun in the mid to late 40s and used it extensively for rough shooting, I acquired the gun early 90s and it was checked out and found to be out of proof on the RH barrel so off to the Birmingham proof house it went and came back stamped up with Moor proof on it than when it was made, originally 1 1/8oz nitro proofed and now 1 1/4oz nitro proofed,, I have not used much since I got it but have shot ducks pigeons and pheasants with it,

I will dig it out as its right at the back of cabinet,,

I have a midland hammer gun not damascus barrels though, got it handed to me when the shotgun certificates changed, made in 1876 for a butcher in Fleetwood and was 1 of a pair he had but not numbered, i am only the third owner of it and the butchers grandson i still see now and then and is all ways telling me about his grandad shooting grouse, hares, rabbits and pheasants to sell in his butchers shop,

Worked in forestry and shot on a lot of land over the last 45 yrs and only ever had one tick on me but taken hundreds off my dogs, doing some thinning work ATM on a estate that has a large head of both deer and sheep on it so i will be looking more often now,, A forestry co we do a bit for have health and safety days now and then and Lyme,s disease is a big thing, on one of these days they had a young lady there who was the daughter of a bloke i had done a bit of work for on a park home site across the rd from me, you can check her story out on the net and its quite sad really, such a beautiful young lady with big prospects in life and all ruined by 1 tick, Sophie has done a lot of work raising awarness on Lyme,s disease on BBC radio Lancashire and on TV as well, you can check her story out by just googling Sophie ward lyme,s disease and it will bring a few sophie wards up but i am sur you will find it,,

Thats just a stack of firewood, may be one log worth milling ? prices in general with timber seem to be dropping at the moment, £60 - £70 a tonne road side, and i would say circa about 8 tonne there,,

well not done much this last few wk only service machines split firewood and prep for a 4 wk job, taking digger tomorrow with grab on to move some timber to a easier extraction point for tractor and forwarding trailer, i will have digger there for 2 days but will probably spend 12 or 14 hrs on it each day, then will take tractor and trailer on Thursday and be on that again for 12 or 14 hrs a day, then digger will be back next wk with shear on and got 4.5 acre block of hardwood thinning,s to do and then 19.8 acres of regen birch to remove from a Oak and cherry plantation so could be 14,15,16 hr days as staying on job site,,

Yep not bad and yourself,,weather is great ATM and we can travel well with out making a mess which suits me,,

Andy at A&G had his machines done about 12 mth ago, all with locking caps, they just cut the kneck off the tank and took fuel but it cost him a fair do to replace the tanks,,

TBH i dont know if there is a few different strains of Ash in the UK may be some one could clarify this,, around me most Ash trees seemed to be doomed with the odd exception, there is some on the playing field at the back of me that are just coming in to leaf and look in very good health to me but 50/60yds away at the other side of the river there are several that have not looked good for a couple of yrs now and if they get many leaves on this summer i will be suprised ?? then another example i noticed a few yr back was a row of 15 ash trees at the side of the rd, the trees would be 25-30yr old 12 where infected with ADB and now been removed and the 3 remaining trees seemed in good health, i have not been past them yet this year but i will make a point of going that way and see how they are this year,,

Got a few singles by the Alarm (or early versions of CD,s as my kids once called em) they where a decent band back in the day and well worth listening to, RIP Mr Peters,,

Thats very smart that, thought i had made a good job of one several yrs back out of some very tight grained larch,, but yours looks 100 times better,,

usually done with a forwarder with a brash grab on it, one site a couple of year back they had a 20 tonne digger with a brash rake on it and only thig they left was the needles,,

thats sweet chestnut, mostly spruce and a bit of dougles up here,

They leave nothing behind today on most harvesting sites as the brash all gets collected and chipped,, i not even seen any fence posts on harvesting sites for i bet nearly 10 yrs now as most of that all go,s in the brash matt then collected at end of job,,

think that could be past its best TBH, Ash is not a very durable timber outside and it looks to far gone to me, i have some big lumps of ash that have been inside 3yrs and 18mth outside before that and cutting it up for fire wood ATM,,

Still a few of you older boys climbing and every credit to you for still being able to do it, my climbing days are long gone, not as I ever did that much, but did a hit here n there, climbing today consists of getting in n out the cab of this Ex MOD truck and getting myself up on to seat to operate the crane,,

You say energy levels and strength aren't what they were, but it's like Mick Dempsey said, experience, and that accounts for a lot in today's world,,

Just turned the big 60 and still doing plenty and enjoying it, had 2 days with 2 of us on site a couple of wks back sorting some windblown out which i do enjoy doing and over the 2 days we sorted just over 70 tonne out, OK i did not feel up to much the day after 😂 but i did go down yard and cut n split a crate of logs in afternoon,, i go to yard most days if nowt else to do and cut n split logs, Most enjoyable thing in recent yrs has been working on a Leyland DAF T244 Ex MOD truck that i bought 5 yr ago that i have set up for moving timber with and now out n about in it moving timber back to yard from our own jobs and a bit from some local estates,, way i look at this now is if i can still do the job in 5 yrs i will do and if i can still do it in 10 yrs i will do ?? but i do know the job takes its toll on your body and the aches are not getting any less as the days rush by now,,

i tend to think that trailer was off ebay 10 12 yrs ago as back then ebay was flooded with cheap Chinese and eastern European ATV trailers, i bought a small crane off a guy in Huddersfield who was importing them from eastern Europe, crane has been worked to death but still going and got a few hundred tonne to extract with it this summer,, the trailer in the photo i thing just came in a big wooden box and you assembled it yourself, if memory serves me right i think they was about £3800 delivered, the crane i bought complete with spool, grab, rotator, legs and a 6hp petrol power pack was £2200 and when i collected it i did look at a complete trailer but the trailer was not up to much and i thought i could build a far better stronger trailer for about half the cost,,

The big blue jobby is well man enough for the job,,

My thoughts exactly as well, been reading every comment on this issue and TBH some of the comments are yet just another accident waiting to happen,, knowing the right cuts, winching experience and experience in dealing with trees in this situation all go a long way,, people on here saying do this do that as they have probably done it once and got away with it ?. one smart arse i worked with a few times knew every thing about tree work and you couldnt tell him any thing at all as Collin was one of them that had swallowed the map and shit the dictionary, hence poor Collin been in a wheel chair now for several yrs as he got pinned against a wall taking a big Willow down on a council job, There was a HSE investigation and Collin only had CS30/31 and the relevant climbing tickets, what the full out come was i not to sure but will make a phone call or 2 tomorrow,,

Glad you said that you have questioned climbers a number of times,, because I have over the years,, will probably get slatted for this next comment,, over the years I have worked with a lot of climbers, and still do, most are just average sorry to say, I know about 20 lads who climbe and TBH there is only 4 I would employ and there age range is from late 20s to mid 40s but all have one thing in common they come from a forestry back ground, so if it don't need climbing it don't get climbed,,sorry to say but some of the younger climbers i know think they are the dogs nuts and someone like me knows F- - - - - - l because I am just a silly old bunt (only 45yrs in the job),, the attitude needs to change, when I was learning I listened to the guy I worked with as I respected his many years of experience and I am still here doing it un scaved, As others have said HSE will be all over this and some serious questions will be asked ??,, I think the industry needs a big shake up ATM to avoid accidents like this and far to many people pushing the boundaries to far, Sorry this incident happened but yes accidents do happen and i wish the lad all the best and hope he makes a full recovery and goes back to the job of climbing a bit older and wiser,,

That's the video I was sent on the 6th Feb and I have watched it several times, and as you say just should of severed root plate and winched on to the deck and delta with there,, the tractor would of dragged it down the Rd easily,

i was sent 2 videos on 6th Feb one of a lad up a hung up tree over a road that ended badly, and another from a lad who works with me now n then, he was dealing with a tree they had just felled and he had a close call with the tree rolling towards him,, i wont comment much on these issues as i have my own thoughts on both incidents,,

Was this the 6th Feb ? Lad doing video stood next a 150/ 200hp tractor ??