codlasher

Check your root-stock preferences on Apples. You can get advice on this from your supplier or a fruit tree specialist. M27, M9 need particular attention with stakes and the others M26 and etc are bigger trees suited to different soils so really you need to do some research before rushing out to buy. With the right tree/root stock you will end up with a nice productive and healthy orchard. Rasps need to go in a fruit cage else you won't have any as the birds get them first codlasher

Nigra is the American walnut. This is a fast growing tree that is mainly grown for its timber. I have a few here and they seem to be doing well but I believe the leaves are poisonous to horses and other animals. codlasher

I'm not surprised the air spade doesn't work on clay at this time of year. Here it's like concrete and I'm even having difficulty doing work with my 360 unless I'm into damp clay which is about 300mm down or more. I love my air spade and it is the No 1. tool in the right circumstances, just not today thank you! I use mine for tree planting bigger trees at around 6' to 8' tall as it flocculates the soil beautifully and doesn't kill the worms. With past experience diggin' in clay I've found that copious amounts of water early in the day or even the day before works well in softening the ground. Costly if there's a water meter but it works. Similar to pouring water into a strainer post hold and having a cuppa whilst this soaks into the ground.... Difficult to price for that kind of waiting though! codlasher.

With a set of remote controlled lights costing 10k £500 per day and set up by a 12D operator is a reasonable price. I would hope that the company would have another light head immediately available if one fails. Also the chap doing the set up would stay to help. To me this would be important as has been expressed in an earlier post with drivers shooting lights. This really does happen a lot and is often quite scary! I had a special sign board made warning drivers of longer than normal delays as they often sit and see nothing happening as the tree is just round the corner from where they are requested to stop, they get bored and chance it....Not good! We found that a small limb in the road helps but if you are short handed as is usually the case this is not the easiest thing to do, particularly if the lights are quite a long way apart....I occasionally felt the need for an on site push-bike! I am quite seriously considering setting myself up as an independent 12D operator specialising in roadside tree traffic operations. In the East Anglia region. I would hire in the lights and signage as the occasion arises..... I think my ten years experience doing roadside trees in almost all roadside situations leaves me well qualified to do so with all existing traffic systems, plus my official qualification too. I'm not covered for dual carriage-ways or motor-ways though but that is a different kettle of fish anyways! codlasher PS. those rotating lollipop boards are called a ROBOBOARD. c

Here's my old machine, now sold on. New in 1974. I know N1ck will look at this one! I'm looking at a JD 3040 soon and have a Deutz fitted with a front end loader as an every day machine. codlasher.

I can't edit my post so will say that the costs of £0.60p are for planting the young trees and guarding them. I supplied the trees, guards and canes/stakes. So this figure is for LABOUR only. I also forgot to mention a nurse crop. This is another important consideration. I was lucky and the grant allowed planting of Douglas fir in this instance too. Not 500 meters from this picture is a stand of some original Canadian imports dating from the 1890's. Fantastic trees! With all the squirrels I wouldn't be surprised if these end up as the final crop:thumbup:

I used to work on £0.60p per tree professionally planted with the roots in the ground! This included the canes/stakes and either net or spiral guards. I used to work on 3' spacing but went to 1.8 as the costs became too great. Some people thing this is too close but I say this will save on any future beating up, PROVIDING and this is all important; Weeding and guarding must be maintained for the next three years else you have wasted your investment/grant allocation! Chemical weeding really does work well. Not forgetting ground preparation as I regard this as part of the job too with some great machines available to hire in. This also makes for quality planting and consequently better take-up of your stock. codlasher

Personally I would never put anything that would inhibit oil in an engine. Particularly as modern engines are working at the top end of their capacity. I would worry that this additive may cause an internal blockage in somewhere it shouldn't and cause premature wear. Suddenly your 'cheap cure' won't look so cheap! codlasher

Mmmmm. Not good. I suffer from crushed and prolapsed disks and these flare up from time to time. I did my back in lifting a stone fireplace when I was 23 and had many days in bed from that day on. Lifting things in the wrong position and if these are too heavy doesn't help. I had a good Osteopath to visit. They will also show you some excersizes to help. You will have to look for one that suits you. I found that small people couldn't do me as I'm over 6' and too big to manipulate easily. At 54 now I try to keep the lifting easy which is difficult. I also hire in younger folk if I can, this helps as I get a two man lift or they do the work for me:001_tongue: Another thing I have noticed as I have got older; As the daylight hours increase in springtime the work-load piles up, expectations are higher and one tends to work longer days. Bang! the old back goes. In my case two days AFTER I have done something so I have to think......How did I do that. Recently it was moving a 55mm Grundomat mole and all its bits and bobs into and out of a hole, before and after use. Five days incapacitated! You will hear that you will have to go easy.....That's bl**dy difficult but you really must try to, take it from the worst invalid.... codlasher

When I started at the tender age of fifteen the rule was NO CHAINSAWS. They were heavy, difficult to start and certainly had no chain brakes. I think they were Danarm saws but its thirty nine years ago so I've forgotten except they were yellow and much cursed by their Scottish operators! Me and my mate Robert were each given an axe, flat file and a 'bushman' bow saw. We were shown how to sharpen the nicks out of a blunt axe and then shown how to sned a tree working upwards from the bottom branches, each carefully cut flush to the main trunk. If not we had to go over it again until our foreman, Roddy, was satisfied. The bushman was for the thicker limbs and the rustic pole that was always cut from the top (another forgotten part!) This work, apart from teaching us the rudiments of the job in hand also strengthened our arms and taught control over our tools which could, and did, inflict cuts and bruises with careless use. Oh for the wonderful Silky saws available today! But we got the job done and with pride too. It's surprising just how quickly even a biggish tree can be cleaned ready for crosscutting with simple tools and a good operator. No noise, no fuel used and the fellow/lassie is learning all the time without the risks or costs of using a motorised saw. In my opinion this is a big part of early training that has been overlooked along with accurate cutting to length! Let him sned with you having done the felling, then you can walk back to see how things are progressing and do the x cutting while you are visiting. I suppose its similar to a two man chain saw operation with the fuelling point at a point half way between so you can check on your buddy. I have a feeling that you will be surprised how well the work progresses once you get into a groove. codlasher.

Try these. Wycombe was once the furniture capital of the UK so they have a good range of cutting tools. You could also send your old morticer chain in and they could advise you on its future... Southern Counties Saw Co Ltd| Saw Blade| Saw Blade Sales| Saw Blade Sharpening| Repair Services codlasher

How about some really well rotted horse/cow muck? It'll be gone in a year and the landowner will have got used to the sight then you could mulch. In my opinion it is unfortunate that the tarmac is so close. Are these pink flowering by any chance? These seem to have a very short life in cherry tree terms. There used to be a lovely avenue in the village where I lived, planted in the early 60's by my old boss. By the late 80's they were all dead. codlasher

Just looked at a Blakes hitch, looks useful as it works two ways. I use a rolling hitch but not in climbing as I don't climb. I will try it in the near future to see if it will do what I think it will do. Jesse I agree that things are sad and your final sentence is so, so true! There is room for tree planting though, gotta have young trees to cut later! That's another skill that seems to be overlooked. codlasher.

400ml to 15 litres is a strong mix! codlasher

I only had a roof mounted 560 on a county tractor it was great for lifting big stuff, never any issues there. I agree with the leaky valve block, I fitted a bigger oil return pipe and that cured the problem. The slew ram seals wore out fairly quickly and this resulted in an oily shower in the cab but as has been mentioned spares are never a problem. Irritating things like the grease points were never easy and I ended up stripping every one and meticulously cleaning them, after that no problems. Nice big grapple too. The Botex was the second crane to be fitted to the machine in 30+ years. It was fitted with a Wartsila ships crane originally by Chieftain Forge. codlasher

Love the building as the back-drop Peasgood. Do you know its history? codlasher.

I'd go for the logs simply as the journey would take me near that superb road that links Skipton and Leyburn. I try to get to that part of Yorkshire using that fantastic wriggly road! Not done it for a number of years but it sticks in my mind..... codlasher

Seems a shame to take the trees that survived the terrible storm down! Why not consider just taking the forked one out? Looking outside the confines of your picture I see very few other trees and personally I'd be looking to plant at least 50 on that patch and in a few years you'd have something nice to look at, something to hear the wind rustle and not have to look an the monotony of all those houses. Just my opinion though! codlasher

slackbladder has posted a link to a specialist product. Probably good stuff too. I use ordinary glycol based antifreeze such as Comma. The blue stuff. I have used it in my 1930's wooden fishing boat for a number of years. I tip in a bottle or so every winter to keep the bilges wet and stop any residual water freezing which is a wooden boat killer. I trust this method as I can put to sea without any worries of cracked garboards or stopwaters. codlasher.

Can't say for present policy but past policy was helpful when the company was EDF. UK Power Networks may be in confusion on this one?? We took down many Beech trees in the Chilterns, mainly over week-ends with the engineers co-operation. Local businesses objected to week-day shut downs as this disrupted their work so we went with WE's. Some jobs required the lines themselves to be taken down too so the man-count crept up into double figures. Jobs got done well and safely and everyone was happy. I would date this work around 2000 as looking at the current re-growth it'll need attention again but not with heavy equipment this time, just utility cutters. codlasher.

Reading your well written post why not consider a more 'helicopter view'? You can acquire the basic skills by working for a company I agree but if you can communicate effectively, write concisely and accurately, what is stopping you from managing a team of cutters/operators? Take your time thinking. I like felixthelogchopper's post in the recreational climb and difflock's Winter warning too and I smile, remembering one of the climbers that I worked with who was brilliant, agile, accurate and above all SAFE up in a tree BUT was absolutely hopeless with a saw on the ground. Horses for courses is a very accurate phrase here. Me, I was crap at saw work but put me on a machine....... codlasher

I broke one. It was quite a thickie too. I was pushing up some brash, from a dangerous tree that we had felled, into a field and thought it was a root. The old county tractor put on a bit of power and I carried on.......It turned out to be a BT cable that was just laid in the dirt of the gateway. This was well before digital cameras so no pictures but I had the farmer on my side and the engineer saw just how shallow the thing was and we never had to pay the £160 charge that MAY have been levied if the contractors had done a proper job. So; Take some clear pictures of just how shallow this cable was and remember the magic figure of 450mm which is the usual minimum required depth for most 'services'. You may be lucky......I hope so! Five years after my root incident BT closed this section of road and buried the cable in a proper chain-trenchered trench. I still have a CAT scanner 'just in case'!! Worth its weight in £'s codlasher.

I like the back-drop of Maldon with SB Reminder and your bike Geoff! codlasher

I still love my old 056! Purchased new in 1983/4 I think. It's been put away for quite some years (forgotten until recently) and this post has reminded me what a lovely saw it was and also how feeble I have become as I used to be able to use it all day without any bother. It still looks good and the paint is still shiny too! codlasher

If you are getting a combi can make sure that the filler holes on your saw are compatible with the fillers fitted to the combi can. You'll be cross if the fillers on the can are too big to fit into your saw holes! codlasher