AHPP

My big lanyard is at least 10m of 14mm (easy gripping when used as a secondary DRT system, comforting for occasional rigging on it). Probably more like 12-14m. Currently dangles. Lot of mess. I climb with an appalling amount of shit on my harness generally but the big blue one is getting silly. I've been considering trying a bag. Would probably use a PLCE side pouch because I have a couple and they have buckles and strap bits on already.

Build a bit of impromptu protection over stuff you really don’t want damaged. Like prop a pair of pallets against each other over a little tree. Or better yet offer the men some stuff to do it themselves. They’ll know what will get in the way and what will be worth having for protection. Sometimes it’s worth digging up a bush that’s in the way, doing the tree and then replanting it. Offer them a spade if you’re happy with that. You’re obviously not going to dig up a mature tree though. Mark them with coloured tape or put a wheelie bin next to it or something. Hard to see stuff can be overlooked/forgotten in the heat of battle. Talk to the man in charge before they start about what does and doesn’t matter getting dented. It’s often better to twat stuff down hard where it doesn’t matter, finish the tree earlier and spend more time on a nice clear up. If they bend over backwards all day avoiding damaging something that’s actually unimportant and they don’t finish until later, they’ll have less time to clear up nicely. Importantly, if you’ve planted a load of stuff in their way since the job was looked at and quoted, expect the price to change. While broadly on the topic, don’t interrupt them with tea and coffee every five minutes. Tell them to ask for it when it suits them. Generally just let them get on with it. Good on you for asking how to be a good client btw. Makes all the difference.

Can you recall the model numbers? I'm by no means an expert machine man but Kobelco have always struck me as having some good, niche ideas, like the hinging dipper.

I saw one of those in your neck of the woods last week and was struck by what a neat little machine it was.

I've just put new rear calipers on the van. Going to buy a pack of springs and see if I can get two or three in at a time to back the handbrake off more strongly.

Africa is hardly short of fertile soil and it has planet level monopolies of various minerals. They get most of their stuff nicked though.

We could shuttle back on war a little. That’s quite resource hungry.

I'd come back onto this thread to post something about how I'm always surprised Ifor are a name in trailers because since when did anything else good come out of Wales. You've done a far better job. Bravo. DMM, ISC, I know I know...

I'm not bothered about plonkers in gorse bushes. I can probably enrich their lives, given the opportunity. I am bothered about the prospect of being called out by the police or social workers to do their "work" within city limits. Do you get much of that?

How do you find Mountain Rescue? I've considered joining but the thought of being called out for town/city park searches when someone's had an argument with a hysterical wife appalls.

Are you glad that you bought the smaller one because it was cheaper or because it's more accurate on (more common) smaller diameter sticks?

Yeah. I get that. You'd find a way to balls it up though. In any event, you've probably now been pretty helpful to the OP.

There was a thread about reducing cedars and affecting wind flow and sail characteristics in the last three months. That contained some pertinent material. I’m pretty sure I posted in it. Look back through my posts. The site search engine is fiddly so google AHPP AND cedar AND reduction site:arbtalk.co.uk

Bolam is spot on. And regardless of what a reduction looks like, you’ve still got a walloping big tree you still won’t trust and it’ll cost pretty much the same as removing it once. I’m sure Matty has seen artful cedar reductions but I haven’t. The majority of climbers will make it ugly. I even did one once, against my usual good judgement. Absolute butcher job. I’ve got photos. You’re not seeing them.

Four stroking?

If you want to justify keeping it: Weight looks to be in the right direction, away from the house and over the rip. You've lost some wood on the side of the trunk that's probably under compression most of the time. Would be a bigger problem if you'd lost tension wood. Think about wind on the site though. That can change everything. If you want to play it safe: It's lost a massive bit and it looks like other bits could reach stuff. Fell, enjoy the heat from the fire, plant another. Teach your kids about death before it's a grandparent or a pet. £2-6000. On advice: Mick's plain. He likes killing trees. Khriss is a fanny. He likes paperwork. Ben is perhaps the worst businessman in the world. I only do what I'm told, usually removals. Unless you get someone very impartial (a paid professional who ONLY advises and has nothing to gain by advising any course of action) to look at it and they really do have a strong opinion either way (that they commit their liability to), the decision is always going to be yours.

I don't know enough about it to say firmly but I'd anecdotally guess that's your problem if I had to guess. I use MotoMix. Try a can of that, Aspen or the Husqy one and see if it makes a difference.

Both new fuel? The E10 stuff?

Fuel?

Nice rigging.

Another interesting top in the wind and a good learning hinge. Lombardy Poplar. Leaning straight back. Wind coming from behind and left. Had to avoid trashing a fruit tree forward and right but wanted to use the wind to push it so gobbed it straight. Started back cut and got wedges in as soon as possible (white and red marks visible on picture). Finished cut from the upwind side of the tree in case it let go. Was careful to leave the hinge fat that side to resist the top breaking off sideways. Buried the little climbing wedges as the wind came and went. Stood up there and watched it for at least five minutes, mindful that getting impatient and thinning the hinge would be a bad move. Eventually reached an impasse where the wind wasn’t advancing it any more. Nibbled the core of the hinge and thinned the downwind side to get a wedge in at 4 o’clock. Same wind as before was just enough to take it. Fibre pull on the left (upwind) side of the hinge shows the situation nicely. I cut the hinge disc off to take home as a teaching aid but it got tidied into a bonfire pile. Errant groundie let off with only minor chastisement on account of being unusually attractive for a tree worker.

Trousers. Or nothing. Have you thought about milling some of these big logs? Could be a few quid in them or just some nice/useful timber for yourself if you have the need. You’ll still have plenty of waste scabs and cutoffs for firewood. Your 36” bar could live in the mill and you could monster through firewood with a 20” or 25”, which are quicker to sharpen and more pleasant to use.

Stick it up your Cornwall.

Thank you very much indeed.

Extremely interesting. Please post the list.