spuddog0507

I subcontract to one of the UK,s major forestry co,s and i have no option but to do a daily risk assessment or if its a job we are on for a few wk we just do one for that wk and amend as needed, i,e weather conditions, ground conditions, site changes etc, when a big proportion of our work is dealing with multiple wind blown sites which is not for the faint hearted at all, a windblown site is not for a novice cutter at all, now after the storm we have had this week end how many lads have gone out there sorting storm damage out and had a near miss or even worse ? there will be some, there is a lot of things wrong in the tree industry that need addressing and may be if they got addressed and sorted out things would be safer all round, i work now n then with some arb teams and some things i see are unblievable, one of late was a guy with saw boots n saw pants on but pants rolled up to his knees and using a saw brashing a tree out,

Personally i dont see the point in that report, coconut palms and date palms i am very very unlikely to come across working in commercial forestry in the north of the UK, Been in the job 40 yrs and on the verge of retiring, But one thing i can tell you is it dont matter how many reports like that are written, We as the human race will never know every thing about how a tree reacts when under stress from either wind or in the felling process as every tree weather it be Palms , Larch, Ash, Oak etc they all react different, and not one scientific report like that will ever be 100% riight,

Well thats 15 mins of my life i wont get back,

Bloody slippery out there this morning -6 here so be careful, Just been out to get something out of truck and nearly gone on my arse, i probably looked like something off dancing on ice ? all door seals on truck frozen up so thats a wipe round with silicone spray this aft,

Its not that difficult, the 2 main requirments are 1) you need some hard standing for the delivery wagon to sweep off on to, 2) you must have means and demonstrate how you are to disspose of the off cuts (slab wood ) and all bark arisings, you cant sell the off cuts slab wood for fire wood, The licence you need is a Pytothera processing licence which will carry a number and any haulier delivering to you should ask you for it so all infected timber can be traced, Go the FC website and you will be able to find all you need, What Les has said is not right, that was a rumour that did the rounds about 5 or 6 years ago,

i had it a 427kgs on fresh felled, knocked 12% off for it drying a bit which came out at 376kgs but goes to show what i know !! that had dried out alot,,

Looks a bit like my dinning room that,, but with no women in tow i do know where every thing is thou, 😂😂

We have a Igland 4201on the back of a 40hp kubota that works very well for us, its pulled a lot of stuff out for us over the 7 yrs we have had it, it has 95mtrs of 10mm cable on it but that dont all get used very often, Its something that has only been used once in the last 18 mths but if i sell it you can bet a lump of money that we will get a job the wk after where we would need it for a wk or 2, we all so had it on the back of a tracked tractor we hired in for a wk or 2 and that worked well,

Well i will give it a go at 376kgs for the slab of Elm,

Well it seems like its there and its in the western Lake district, how it got there is yet to be confirmed ! can only off been spread there by Human activety in my book i.e debris on walking boots mountain bikes etc, but it dont look to good at the moment, there are tens of 1000.s of trees coming down across Cumbria all ready with out another disease threatening 1000, more,,

One of the sites we work on has a block of Spruce with Lodgepole planted with in the spruce and it was planted as a trial for the lodgepole to act as self thinning, the spruce have smothered the lodgepole out and are all stood there as dead poles, to me it looks like it has worked well, only lodgepole we get are shitty bent twisted multi stemed things,

FFS we are going to have no trees left at this rate, i know there is 480 hectares of infected Larch coming down in the lakes, and when i spoke to our FC guy on Thursday he mentioned about the out break in Devon and Cornwall having movement orders on Hemlock n DF, i will ring him in the morn and find out,

Lodgepole makes quite good firewood once dried out, it gives a good heat out, we get a fair bit of it and the only problem with it is if left outside in the length it soon starts to rot but should be ok for a year or so,

The 400 is quite a decent saw, i had a day on one back in March and for the time i used it i thought very highly of it, light, well balanced, good throttle response and seemed to have plenty of power with it, the one i used had 20" bar and we was cutting some 24" + Sycamore with it and it seemed well up to the job,

I dont think so ? as i spent some time on Thursday with one of the main FC guys for that area and this disease was disgust and i am sure if it had been found in Cumbria he would of said so as the more people that know about it in a area the better the chances of it being found are ? Can you say when it was found in Cumbria ? as it could of been found on Friday ? The FC have been out looking for it in Wales but nothing found as yet, Something else thats come from the big Green house again ! when we have no trees left we might learn, ??

Hi i dont know how far north of the border you are ? but if you where in the bottom half of Scottland i could put you in touch with 1 or 2 people in the area that you could make enquires with regarding work, Saws, PPE, foot wear and other equipment is one of them situations that you get what you pay for and my take on that is buy the best you can at the time as it will pay in the long run for you, saws to start with i would be looking for a saw around the 45-50cc and my take on that is do a bit of reserch in to your local dealers, talk to other lads and get there opinions on what saw is best suited for your needs, for me every thing is Stihl and purchased from a local dealer, 3 reasons for that 1) support for my local dealer. 2) if i have a problem with a saw it generlly gets sorted out with in 24hrs, 3) i chose Stihl due to the spare parts back up in the UK unlike some other brands, i have always found the Stihl 260 and later the 261 to be ok, just sold a 260 that has stood idle for 2 + yrs and tipped the old fuel out of it and refueled it fired up 5th pull,, Boots i have always found Meindl wood walkers about the best but not sure if they are still available ? Pants dont bother with the cheap ones as they are a worth buying, unconfortable to wear and even worse when they get wet, I am sure some others will add to this list with advise on both work and equipment,,,

I can really see that or something like it being a very good venture at the moment and even better with either a winch or a crane or event both,

Totally agree with that one ,,, Once over we had Empires run by Emperors, Then came Kingdoms run by Kings, Today we have Countries !!!!!!!!

There are less cattle beef/dairy in the UK today than there was in 1965 and it is just not a few its something like 1,5 million less, compare this with the amount of cars/trucks on our roads and thats something like 55 times more today and as for commercial flights compared to the same time 4000 in 1965 and 30 million today, We dont have to be Educated at Oxford or Cambridge to work that one out, ???

I would say if it had a TPO on it you still have to go through the proper chanels with the council, if it was a small area of say 15-20 trees consult your local FC rep in your area, As Stubby says be careful, as the timber goes very brittle, some trees we have worked on in the past 3 yrs will have been dead for a year or 2 but have still come in to leaf but they are just living of the moisture in the timber hence why the timber goes brittle, if you have to climb it be very careful and tie in on something thats substancial,

So after reading this thread from start to finish, the woodlands mills are OK ? as been told by some one that they where not that good !! then looking round and doing some homework to me they seemed very much OK, I have a chance of some Larch like about 700 tonne, some i can sell on for sawlogs and chip but some i will hang on to and buy a mill and do a bit on that when its raining (so thats till march) all so have a meeting with UU on Monday regarding more larch so i might be unendated with it come christmas, i dont need a big mill as i dont plane on milling all the time as i have other things on but like of late just been on the firewood and making some room in the building and looking where to position a mill,

In our line of work which is subbing to a large forestry Co, If there H&S guy came on site and they randomaly do, if one of us had a saw with out the warning/addvise stickers on and it was found he would be sent of site or told not to use that saw until new stickers where fitted, Harsh i here you say but them stickers are there for a reason,

Your welcome and as i said i will get in touch with the harvester driver and make some arangment,s to be on a felling site for a few saturdays and we will get you doing a bit,

i would gladly help you out on this one, as i dont mind passing my experiance on, i will PM you some contact details,

nice fish are the two large ones ferox trout. i have never had the pleasure of catchin a double figure trout .had plenty large pike n salmon First photo is 6,12 and not sure if that was a ferrox or a sea trout, the 2nd one was ferrox of 12,02 and the 3rd one all so a ferrox of 16,14, I had targeted a ferrox for many years but with zero results and then the 2 fish in the last 2 photos where caught with in 24 hrs of each other on the same water but about 5 miles apart, other lads had been catching them for several years but lady luck was not on my side until these 2 came along,