tree-fancier123

groundy rates should be based on regional house prices - so in Birmingham you won't need as much as Guildford. Save up and move to Burnley and buy a mansion. A groundie in Bulgaria where a house can be had for £10k should be on no more than £40 a day. The London groundie needs £250 a day to save for a deposit on a broom cupboard

I had a honda that wouldnt start even after spraying easystart - had to dismantle the carb and blow out, as per downloaded service manual - maybe see if there is a cheap new carb on ebay, perhaps you can google up a Briggs service manual pdf

agree - the biggest battery for the MSA160T is a lump and it does get bogged down in bar length hard wood - the electric replacement for a 90cc saw would need an extension lead and genny- or a mini nuclear reactor where the cylinder was

oh yes there is - you are just wrong on this, and sometimes it is hard to admit that you were wrong - i had an LM125 Ifor that I hadn't put down properly onto the ball hitch - it came off and the break away cable put the brakes on, just like if the handbrake were applied, no damage done as it stopped, otherwise would have freewheeled into parked cars

so even with the most rotten trees that have to be dismantled rather than dropped, some climbers will look at it and think ' well if it's got the strength to hold several ton of its own wood up there another 80 or 100kg aint going to crumble it'' I suppose its no more dangerous than hand to hand combat

the idea of spraying the whole hedge with a knapsack and glyphosate seems sensible - if it was in the spring or summer the idea of cutting to near ground first and then spraying would have been ideal, may not sprout much now into sept. I would say 2 to 3 weeks after spraying all the leaf area has a good chance of wiping it out - i use a commercial wetting agent (adjuvant) from ag supplier (not just fairy liquid) and sometimes add 2,4D (depitox ) etc to the glyphosate for difficult stuff. ... if you do try spraying the whole hedge off 2 to 3 weeks before cutting down it would need to be soon - i guess abscission leaf fall is going to start with them soon so the poison may not be as effective - spraying the whole hedge use tarps maybe on a still day if you need to save grass

over the roof this is what i imagined - so is it best to chance it and not open up a wound near the trunk ( pruning cut)? i cut the hedges and grass, so am there often - i pointed out dead wood in a couple of trees, she said do it - and now i'm hesitating on this one bit for the reasons described - if i cut it at the collar and the wound leads to trunk decay im a wrongun and if i leave the branch and it smashes the roof she'll say why didn't you take it off? At least the trunk decay would take years i guess. Large pruning wounds on oak seem to take twenty years or more to occlude, and some look like they never will. I guess worst case the house insurance would cover the roof, but preventative dead wooding seems worthwhile - if not doing further harm - ie going to rot the tree wasn't planning to fell it!

thanks for the reply - you probably typed it just as i was uploading the photo - the live bit is maybe 1 inch dia where it joins the branch - i realise a tpo app is being by the letter, but surely in the field people apply common sense? Re cutting back to the trunk - that is what concerns me as there would still be quite a bit of tree over the roof above the pruning cut and dont' want to make the potential for damage even worse - is this a situation where leaving a long stub would be advisable?

the migrants are quite brutal in their methods - they would rather deplete our dwindling resources (land for housing, benefits cash etc) than tough it out in their own country and fight to make it what they want - the French didn't all boat over to UK in WW2, maybe not the best comparison. All this brutality it reminds me of when the white europeans turfed out the native americans - if people want to live somewhere history shows they generally have little regard for those already there - another WW2 comparison - but is the plight of native american indians not just as bad as the jewish holocaust? Brutal h.sapiens - just a jumbled mass of molecules straight out of the big bang - cant expect too much when you get something from nothing

i took one approx 10" dia dead branch off over a roof yesterday and there was one more over the roof, similar dia, but not completely dead - the branch in question had a small live bit - i would guess half inch thick shoot with a few leaves right at the end - without making a TPO application would it still be ok to class it as deadwood? - hope im not being too anal about this, but obviously dont want paper work or getting nabbed. The one i left for now with the minute live twig at end has only partial bark cover right up near the collar. So if over a roof (and TPOd) would people just class as dead and remove back to pruning cut by collar, go out and take the obviously dead extremity off, or leave? Also this 10" branch is about 3/4 way up tree - trunk is say 14 " approx where pruning cut would be made - was worried if i made the pruning cut and removed the branch the wound would not occlude and decay set iin, thereby making the other branches over the roof above the proposed pruning cut (about 20ft extra height maybe) a possible later problem. I know some would have just removed the almost dead branch over the roof and not worried about the pruning cut, feel a bit of a t wat for dithering on this. Not enough experience to decide. So the branch in question has a clearly dead bit at the very end, a live twig 2/3rds along and missing bark on the edge and underside from the collar going outwards, should have photographed but started raining hope some people have had to make these decisions routinely and know - dont really want pen pusher replies - sorry guys, but only want to hear from people who do or have done the physical work, not those solely immersed in the literature who haven't done pruning works. I mean I want to know what to do, not just an interpretation of the law and current biology - i know biology is important (dont arbex it etc, current thinking) but want to hear from people who cut dead bits off to pay the bills thanks - sorry not too concise

'if you want to rec climb a 300ft redwood - do it on your own. When you get to the top it's like a religious experience' GF Beranek

over one billion people will die

the farmers chipper isnt dear at 100 , my local hire shop are 150 forst if you have trailer licence or pre '97, then tracked chipper plus tipping trailer plus tipper that can tow 3.5 ton e.g 3 litre Iveco daily, with that set up you can track up to the waste and leave the chip where appropriate, or if it has to go you can take say 900kg on van plus 2.5 ton in tipping trailer - almost 3.5 ton of chip each run, useful on conifer etc when it all has to go, just leave the chipper on site if you work too cheap you will be bitter and twisted after a while, and if you try to charge too much no one will want you

good to know, thanks, there is a gap all round the top of the battery but obviously you've put it to the all weather test and it passed, I'm surprised it hasnt fried the electrics

thanks Mick , bit of a nuisance having to get it under cover if it rains, but it cuts great and will be ideal for hedge reductions

Stihl single sided hs87t with the longer 40 inch blades, nice finish, good on fuel, although I've worn the blades after 18 months from not always being bothered to get the rough cut machine out the van for thicker cuts, best to save the hs87t for just facing up, will have to tickle it with the grinder

just got an MSA160T and first thing I wondered was is it usable if there is a rain shower? I thought Stihl would have put a rubber seal around the top of the battery compartment. In the manual it says don't charge a damp battery, let it dry. but nothing about cutting with it when its raining. will the water get in and short something out or have they designed it to allow use in the rain?

cover it in old tarpaulins to deprive the leaves of sunlight - or wound it and glyphosate, once it snuffs it leave standing for habitat

yes i've surfed a few hedges with good trimmed tops on 3ft squares of ply, just offcuts not made to measure - good for wide hedges you need 2 bits of ply so you can move one along while standing on the other - probably not for an 8m high hedge though as doubt it will have a dense top. the ht 131 pole pruner is quite powerful and have faced up an 18ft high hedge with a hedge cutter attachment on, 24 ft would have meant wobbling about with the extended ht 131 half way up a tripod ladder, still doable just

Some bright spark must have tried quoting by drone camera by now - quick flight across town avoid the traffic

The Stihl manuals say for long term storage to run until they stop - so no fuel in carb or tank - ive done this by tipping fuel out while running and then revving until they stop, possibly not the safest but i do quickly walk away from where i tipped the fuel while the machine is still running - if there was a lot i would decant before starting the Stihl manuals would say just leave the fuel in if it didnt matter - my 441 ive had for 6 years and only use occaisionally - , always run till fuel gone before laying up, always been good, had a combi engine i didnt bother to empty and needed a new carb to get working - my guess is there is more damage to metering diaphragms from stale fuel than from being dried out

Tree Report Company is an Arboricultural Consultancy Practice operating in Oldham, Saddleworth, Manchester and the North West. it doesn't seem necessary to capitalize Arboricultural, Consultancy and Practice? The provision of the sites Topographical Survey (which may be emailed to us in most digital formats) is used the basis for our digital survey plans - needs an as after used Inspections are undertaken in accordance with industry best practice to provide a informative written report, - 'an informative' don't know the technical reason for an instead of a The overall appearance looks professional and a good collection of images.

from the top of page 41 Arb Association Digital Arb Mag The Arb Magazine - Issue 177 'a recovered 'topped' tree or a pollard will often live longer and will attain more veteran features than a maiden that has been untouched.'

this is what makes it a great forum - you can phone him up when your first chipper breaks down and see if you can hire his one