AHPP

Gravel! We used to dream of gravel...

Much obliged. Might be useful for my next 30 foot silver birch.

Looking at it again, it seems like the latter.

It’s largely academic. I’d have wanted the big saw rather than spiking around to match cuts (unless it was a truly exceptional lean/weight - or I’d just go higher). I don’t follow what you’re saying about the side cuts. I use them to make the back cut faster and prevent barber chairs that way. If you cut slowly, surely you still risk barber chairing, the crack starting in the narrow rectangular bit and then spreading to the full width. Or is it that the sides of the stem contain the inner stem that might want to chair?

Good video as always. Thanks for putting them up. Did you consider boring it? Small saw with a 16" bar maybe. Obviously far harder for the gob but a much more manageable saw for a bore. Maybe on a shallow lean, the 30" bar, take the sides in and fast back cut is the way but on a hard lean the scales could tip in favour of boring. Thoughts?

300ft of cord, a micro pulley and an enthusiastic man on the ground would be my solution.

SRT and a massive lanyard.

Why on earth would you look to the government for financial advice?! They’re shit with money.

It’s called a preservation order and the way to preserve hazel is to cut it. Keep paying taxes.

Don’t take financial advice from anyone who doesn’t have a yacht or indemnity insurance.

Very enjoyable video. More please.

IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! That was a fucking handsome house. Hard luck and good luck.

That's a bloody dangerous thing for you to say! We've seen the things wot broke thread you know...

In my personal opinion, it’s £24k too much. It’s £24k that will go to the government. Some of it, the HSE will waste on printing glossy leaflets telling builders to wear a warm coat (or similar bollocks). The remainder will go to making laws like those which make employers liable for employees’ mistakes, letting idiots with saws drop their boss in the shit or limited liability corporation protection that lets bosses hire idiots safe in the knowledge they keep their house if an idiot harms someone/something. The common law rights wrongs where they occur, costs little and doesn’t have all the bad side effects of government. Don’t reach for the government to solve every problem. They’re shit at it (and in this case have actually done the opposite). Hundreds of years of legislation didn’t stop a tree going sideways. Fear of getting sued keeps people sensible, unless vicarious liability and/or limited liability are in place of course, in which case, yeah, fuck it, just cut it at the bottom.

Do you mean you’ve only just heard about the outcome or do you mean you didn’t notice the video that anyone on tree Facebook pages and tree forums couldn’t have possibly missed for about three weeks? The one that since then gets brought up all the time.

Everyone’s a bloody tree surgeon. Go out for a drive at 08:00. Fuckers are everywhere. That and the fact that six inch chippers can be had from general hire shops. Supply and demand not in your favour. Yeah, you could make it work but it’ll be hard and you won’t make much money. A niche machine is probably a better bet.

I’d have thought the digger first and then start looking for a hook lift. Think how handy it would be to leave a bin being filled while you collect and empty another. A groundwork man I know has a pair of lorries with hooklift and HIAB on each. He loads a five tonne digger by pulling it on in a bin with the hook or can load a one tonner straight on with the HIAB.

I use one. Won’t go back to not using it. It’s just some 50mm webbing and a ladderlock buckle. Mainly good for keeping harness up when you’ve got a heavy saw on it but also provides a chest point for long ascents. It’s difficult to say whether it’s helping my back but my gut feeling is that it is.

I’ve been saying exactly this about helmet comms for ages. Someone will get hurt, a lawyer will ask what communication procedures were being used and a tree surgeon will say, “We usually just shout.” Then the other side’s lawyer will point out that Bluetooth kits cost £30 per helmet and a judge will give someone a massive bill.

I know; the bastards. I’m going over to chemical energy. Food is zero rated and I can use my new axe.

Liquid fuel attracts 58p/litre duty and 20% VAT whereas electricity only attracts 5% VAT, though I suspect your presentation isn’t weighted too heavily towards the moral aspects of tax avoidance...

That programme makes me see red.

I’ve just finished several days’ wading through logs with a maul and need a shed pursuit to keep me busy before I’m given more to do.

Head currently at two and seven eighths of a pound. Offcut in the shot nearly half a pound. To be used for knocking in wedges and cutting the odd limb. Shall I: lose no cutting edge? lose 10mm of cutting edge? lose 20mm of cutting edge?