martwizz

Found this in a churchyard on a maintained yew bush, about 10ft in height. The bush adjacent also had signs of the same thing, but none of the others had it (6 or so nearby, within 50ft) Its seems to be powdery green algae/mildew substance, but all the information I can find relates to its appearance on leaves. Is it just a surface growth or is it a parasitic bacteria/fungus? more pictures available (at a higher resolution too) if required! thanks guys!

2 inches on the IOW, still coming down.

i am a member of reddit, reddit is a website with hundreds of sub-forums for pretty much everything. within reddit, i am subscribed to 'subreddits' such as wood turning, arb (SFWtrees), carpentry and 'wtf' pictures. Well worth a browse, some really excellent articles pop up. Famous people do interviews on it too (i.e. schwartzenegger was on yesterday evening)

Just wanted to say thanks Rupe for the previous explanation of PL ins. Obviously i wasn't 100% clear on the purpose or implications of it. Like many others, I loosely understood it to cover major damages to the clients property. I appreciate you taking the time to explain! I still remember a quote from you some time ago, roughly along the lines of 'you don't need PL insurance unless you are planning on felling a tree into a bus full of children'

Got linked this and was surprised to see it wasn't already on here DMM Factory Tour [Vid] — News — DMM Professional Excellent video tour of the DMM factory, showing processes involved at almost every stage of.... product production? With a focus on karabiners Enjoy!

Liked the page "Facebook" is one word

Last year I had thousands of massive brown slugs This year I have hundreds of worms Hopefully next year the pile will dry out and I'll have something nice, like red admirals and puppies

That's got a wonderful grain! Was it a particularly easy/difficult wood to turn?

100% chainsaw?

I was surveying some trees yesterday and came across a semi-mature oak. It was in a fairly good condition, maybe 1ft DBH, no excessive epicormic growth, couple of hangers. Within 2 ft of the base there were two mushrooms. Both were white, very wide (maybe 100mm) and rounded. For some reason its the only thing i failed to take a picture of! From searching google images a bit, the closest thing i can find that resembled it was a portobello mushroom! I did not recognise it as a familiar tree fungus. I was just interested to know if there were any quick ways to identify the mushroom either as a detrimental root fungus or a mycorrhizal mushroom, without knowing every fungus off by heart. My gut instinct is to recommend having this tree monitored as it potentially has a fungal infection attacking the roots.... but it might just be mycorrhizae?

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-7884-36-Inch-Super-Splitting/dp/B004M3BAQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352028168&sr=8-1&keywords=fiskars+x27]X27 on ebay USA[/ame] £45 including shipping and import fees, sweet deal!

BBC News - Ash dieback: 'Wash after visiting woods' plea This kind of annoyed me actually.

I am self employed, and I invest half of everything I earn back into my business. Accumulating new gear pretty quickly, hopefully in a year or so, I will have all the gear I need to be able to run my own show entirely (bar a chipper). I don't necessarily plan to do that by then, but its nice to have the option. It's also nice having your own gear.

Saw an ad on TV earlier so i googled it. The general consensus is that while the ipad is still the best multimedia tablet, the 'surface' gets the edge on productivity, word processing and office based use, for example.

Cant beleive over 100,000 trees have been destroyed already. That was kept quiet! Like Hama, my concern is over the wide-spread ecological impact that the removal of ash trees would have, beyond the trees themselves. They are a part of food chains and habitats. Even consider that they will eventually be replaced by species which will probably be more shading, entire woodland ecosystems will be changed! The next few years are going to be a bit mental.

what issues do people have with the MS241/261?

If you live in Croydon, Gristwood and Toms have a yard nearby. They are a big commercial tree company. I would recommend seeing if you can get a few trial days with them, maybe get yourself some work. It would be a good initiation to the industry. Gristwood & Toms : Welcome : 08458 731500 Regarding your other suggestions 7.5 tonne lorries are difficult/impossible to manuevre into some driveways, sometimes we barely get our transit in and out of a site! Despite that loader being less than the width of a door/gate, you assume that all access is the same width. The number of sites i have worked on where the access between the fence and house is barely enough to walk through, with sharp corners as well, not appropriate for a wheelbarrow, let alone a mini-loader. I think most people would be happier with a £500 quote and a bit of a scruffy lawn than a £1000 quote because you had to spend twice as long using more manpower AND expensive machinery.

Im sure she can buy plenty of 6inch logs from B&Q for £10 a bag

Loads of people replied in the time it took me to write that, but I'll leave it there anyway

Disregarding the fact you should just get experience and work up to it slowly.... (i cannot stress enough how much experience outweighs the NPTC tickets. They really are a bare minimum.) here are my suggestions for your questions: CS 40 and 41 are not really necessary, reductions and felling techniques should come with experience and 39 really. 32 is not required either, 31 is enough. I would drop the brush cutter for a blower. the stihl KM tool is good, can be a long handle hedge trimmer, pole saw, etc etc. You don't really need a strimmer or brush cutter unless you want to undertake grounds maintenance work. Blower is essential though. You might be better off starting with just a transit, stacking and cutting stuff in there, maybe get a trailer too. A chipper is a massive investment, a big risk if you aren't sure that you are going to be a successful business in the next 5 years or so (or even like the job). Regarding groundsmen, you hire them in as and when. If you get a regular one, you are supposed to employ them on the books really, but you can usually get around it and just subcontract the same person regularly. Don't bother with agencies, just ask around and put an add in a paper or even on this forum. There is no way you can undertake any sort of serious aerial work without a groundsman (or two!) Either way, you will need employers liability (in addition to the public liability insurance that is recommended) Re lifting big timber? Cut it up smaller. If you want to move big stuff, get an arb trolley or hire a HIAB lorry. Personally i don't see the massive advantage of those tiny loaders, they aren't big enough for timber that is worth milling. I guess its down to what kind of jobs you are getting. Re stump grinding? If you cant dig it up, recommend someone else to do it until you can afford to buy your own. Its not necessary from the start, and plenty of people can do it after you are done. I would say start small, see what kind of work you get most. If you get more hedge work, get some nice ladders and a long pole trimmer. If you get big dismantles, you will need additional big saws, heavy rigging equipment and provisions for moving lots of timber. if you get loads of small fruit tree pruning jobs, just get a pickup truck, a trailer and a small saw. Hop up with a silky and earn yourself some money to get gear for the bigger stuff. Spending all that money on training (you're looking at 5k+ for your list), the vehicle, a chipper, the saws, the climbing kit.... There is no way that can really work, you would go bust in the first year, have to sell all the gear, and be at a massive loss. As i said before, and everyone is saying, you need experience first. Tree surgery is almost like the board game othello. "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master, and hopefully you wont lose any limbs playing"

After a particularly hard day of dragging or pulling out a lot of hangers, I'll usually dream about it all night. I often get woken up by the gf because I'm rotating the duvet with my hands and feet (thinking its a big branch that I'm trying to turn around to get it out the canopy) Glad I'm not the only one!

I believe that another commonly used name for that knot is the Highwayman's Hitch

preserving meat and fish Sugar will also have an extremely high value. Not only because sweet things will be absent from available food, but also for making jam and stuff.

Back to the original post... I'm less worried about how or why the world is going to end, more worried about everybody surviving it.... We will have to compete against 62,641,000 desperate others, with EXTREMELY reduced food, fuel and clean water resources. Think of the violence, the gangs, the hoarding. Will you trust people? How many people will you trust. Will you be a leader? Can leaders sleep safely at night? Where are you going to go for food. Can you fish/farm/hunt? Where is the nearest clean water. Where do you get a gun? Do you want a gun? Would you stay in your house? What's to say it is still your house any more? Would you kill a man for his resources? I'm sad to say that I give it a lot of thought on some days. I don't think its being pessamistic. Having a plan, and and maybe a box with some important supplies is being prepared. If it never happens, i have a box full of neat outdoors gear and maybe some cool new skills. Pro tip : one of the most important resources in a post apocalyptic world is salt. Start hoarding now!

boss just ordered PTT headsets, waited almost a week now and they still haven't arrived... for them to dispatch! best price though