AHPP

Yeah. I follow. I’m not worried because I’ve always been good at not losing condition. My favourite is when I take kids rock climbing, usually in big boots and tweed, spend all day watching boulderers (who are all ripped as fuck and have very fashionable hats) trying certain problems and then ask if they mind me having a go just as I’m leaving. Even though I’ve not rock climbed seriously for years, I usually flash it and then coolly leave with their dignity and their girlfriends. Also not worried because I’m not an especially good (tree) climber now and I still get them down well.

I’ve only just started using a pole for trees. I was mad not to before. It’s brilliant. It’s a twelve foot fibreglass canoe pole with a coat hook cable tied to the end. I left the cable ties untidy for the photo because I’m cultivating the look of a scruffy cowboy who’s surprisingly good at trees. The main uses I’ve got out of it so far are: -groundsmen using it to steer rigged bits away from fences etc -clearing hangers -passing my climbing line over crotches (either above me or sideways, often into other trees) -snapping low dead bits off -reaching rigging ropes -remotely tip tying -probably other stuff; it’s really useful Being able to loft your climbing line with it is the main thing I like at the moment. My arms are two feet long and the pole is twelve. I can climb a tree in fourteen feet leaps. Five lofts is seventy feet. Add thirty for a ladder and that’s a big tree without much effort if you can climb ropes efficiently. It’s not as inconvenient as you think to have it with you in the tree. I hope this helps someone kill trees better and make more money.

My throwline is builders string and a half pound (probably) ball pein hammer head, thrown by the strongest man on site while the rest of us hide and pray he doesn’t break something. Then I just climb the tree. Good thread. A reminder that loads of us in the UK are shit with throwlines because the trees are generally small and we can climb them in as long as it takes to untangle it from the last failed attempt.

I’ve often wondered how you work Khriss. Do you run your own firm?

I recently climbed for a guy for three days and spent all three of the days thinking what a noteworthily kind, chilled and professional man he was, one of the most decent tree blokes I’ve met. As we were saying our goodbyes, he told me he was a traveller and that didn’t tell me before because of the bad connotations. He had as little time for the scumbag ones as any sane man does. I’d never knowingly* found a decent one before that either but I was open minded and proved right to be so. *Having only now discovered our resident eggs has lived the life.

I’m still looking. If you’re staring down the barrel of a hot weekend spent fixing some basket case, get rid of it to me instead.

I’d rather one was loose than undone. Branch friction or even putting a knot in your tail when you’re ten feet up would probably mean you’d survive.

10:41 - “Clever bastard.” Great drone and film work. I didn’t notice the cuts at 9:40.

Or kitchen stuff. I’ve heard sycamore is a naturally very clean and hygienic wood.

If you’ve got sixty ish inches of very straight grain, canoe paddles? I’d have thought it’ll be a challenge to keep it from warping and keep edges straight, symmetrical etc.

Thanks for the reply. I’ll have a read up on it and send you a private message.

If they use one?! @Alycidon might be able to confirm?

Don’t underestimate how shit it can be.

I’m still looking for one. Reliable collection for piece of shit you’re sick of looking at in the corner of the yard.

I was going to post the same but it’s often not worth it on these threads. I pay it and I charge it.

Not a lawyer and he can’t sue me if I’m wrong. I’ll have a punt at the answer like every other tree surgeon on here though.

Blind him with Consumer Rights Act 2015, s 51 and tell him he can either pay the price you’re asking or he can take his chances with whatever a court thinks the going rate is. Not legal advice.

The fact we're talking about this is enough to put bombing parliament on the cards.

How much money did you get for them, Bob?

Are continuous loops used like a ski tow ever used in forestry? I had an idea a while ago for a loop round a capstan and pulley in a push/pull format so you send out an empty choker on one side as you bring in a full one on the other.

Someone recommended polysteel (available on eBay) a few weeks ago. You can get it pretty thick (32mm from memory) and it’s cheap.

Ordinarily, I’d agree. This is council land though. I’d say I was performing a service to my fellow man by weakening them.

A friend recently finished a hard week at the end of several other hard weeks and drove home at 23:00 on a Friday, desperate for his bed. Put his car into the central reservation. As it happens, no injury but that could have just as easily not been the case.

Have you considered the relative merits of commercial rather than residential property? You (and possibly your fiancé) can buy commercial property with a SIPP or SSAS, helped by company pension contributions. I’ll ask one more time. How much money are you making stump grinding? Are you VAT registered?

It’s his prerogative to not tell us if he doesn’t want to. A polite, “I’d rather not thanks.” would be fine but the fact he’s ignored me a few times probably says something.