countrryboy

I am left handed but use saw right handed. Didn't realise u were allowed to use saws left handed?? (well not all the time) I take it u also wear climbing protective trousers as normal type A's (i think) only really protect for right handed use My mate is a chainsaw instructor althou before that spent his life working in the woods doing hand cutting and laterly on machines so has worked the tools and says the exact same protection to the rear of the hand is pretty much useless. Fair enough if the protection was on the palm or fingers of left hand as that could be more likely to come into contact with the chain if u fell/stumbled. Has anyone ever known the protection on the gloves to have helped/saved anyone?

Why is right hand protection useful?? Surely that will be on the throtlle/back handle so should be reasonably protected by saw body/chain catcher. Must admit i never wear protective saw gloves, can't see wot protection they really give u and offer very poor grip in the wet so are actyally more dangerous. By sound of it proper cuting technique, proper saw and u ould not have had the accident, i hate top handle saws just for that reason never feel safe or balanced compared to a rear handled

No one is actually saying don't have a cat, just be a bit more responsible about it. If it gets out at the very least put a bell on it!! Its called a compromise so both the wildlife can thrive and u and ur neighbours can get the enjoyment of watchig song birds in ur garden again and u still have ur cat. No matterhow much u love ur cat i'm sure u'd also like to see garden birds too. Can't see the big deal. No dog other would ever dream of turfing ther dog out unsupervised to do as it pleases annoying the neighbours and wildlife Ur very lucky u live in this country almost every other country has a very different view on cats and the damage they can cause, but then again most folk in this country are so detatched from the countryside now and only get the 'disneyfied' view shown in spring watch where every animal has a name and gets on with each other:bash: Like watching a live wind in the willows Finally there is a good quote for u "The wildlife of today is not ours to do as we please. We have it in trust. We must account for it to those who come after" King George VI By the way that quote is published every week inside the cover of the Shooting Times How do u think many cat owners will fare when it comes to accounting for wildlife to there future generations??? Now i shoot and kill stuff for the table and to help wild bird conservation (vermin), so i take my share of birds, but i also put nest boxes out tonnes of feed as well as trying to re-intro grey partridges to my shoot. I sleep easy at nite knowing i have put back more than i take, plus on a few commitees for local wildlife trusts and do a lot of chainsaw/climbing work FOC for them

Ian is right above:thumbup1: U can only kill pigeons and other pest species under the terms of the general licence which are different in all 4 countries, so u have to check. Generally crop protection, environmental and wild bird conservation/protection are the most common used

It is a rather bizzare post??? Bit early to be on the bevy?? If i last another 40 years i'll be doing fairly well

Aye thats the way i'm thinking too Capetown. To be fair to the companies i have had prices off are fairly well established and they are pretty upfront and have said its not all its cracked up to be and mains gas is far cheaper etc. But i'm sure there is plenty of cowboys out there It's just (like many on here) i have access to tonnes of free or cheap timber (plus ur time) so it does make sense but the whole RHI/MCS thing is just 1 big rip off the same as the PV panels where, when the FIT came down the panels miraculously dropped by the exact same %. I may have a chance of getting onto a commercial tarrif but even with the 20 yr payback still find it hard to justify the massive outlay intially for such a small building Marco are u in the business??

Bren have u ever read any of the GWCT work?? To be honest most of it is not rocket science either, the more cats u have the more feed u need same happens in the wild. More predators= more prey eaten All the work is peer reviewed. Very few scientific studies are actually carried out in the field nowadys due to the massive cost, most are computer based analyising stats etc. If u don't trust the GWCT have u had a look at Songbird Survival, the also produce some half decent field work based stdies. RSPB is only interested in collecting money now and is more political now than ever (posibly well outwith it charitable status) as can be seen with the recent switch to covering all animals not just birds. All there after is cash as membership is declining The predators are living on anything they can, (althou most only eat road kill/carrion if u believe some, how they survived before cars is a mystery) most uk predators are oportunist and will just eat wot ever is easiest and just switch from 1 species to the next, as seen by wot cats kill and drag in, certain times of year its young birds other times young rabbits

Mst admit i find the views on both sides fairly shocking, u say live and let live but u don't really mean it do u. Well not if ur a small bird etc but equally u should not be going around or even threatening to shoot/harm/maim someones cat Everyone talks about 'modern farming practices' as the big evil, now wot the hell dos that mean?? Can u all list how the 'evil' of modern farming has changed around ur area in the past 30yrs? I have lived and worked in the same village all my life no hedges have been ripped up, there is not massive ammounts of pesticide or insecticide being sparayed about wily nilly. In fact very little has actually changed in the past 40yrs (apart from tractrs have got bigger and quad bikes). Infact quite the oppisate more hedges have been planted and more ponds dug and the advent of game cover crops/wild bird seed mix's has really helped Yes in some of the more intensive arable belts there will have been a fair bit of change, but most of that would have been 30+ yrs ago before mosrt of the agri-environmental laws came in Modern farming is just a catch all excuse same as (gloabal warming) spout it out and confuse folk In my area the 1 big change that most people don't realise is there used to be 5 ful time keepers and predators were kept under control, and in those days not many crows, badgers hadn't moved up yet, no magpies and very few BOP's, now no keepers and no lapwings, curlews etc and all the predators are as common as anything Even if u go onto some upland hill sheep farms where the only modern farming pratice is a quad bike lapwings, curlews,plovers redshank etc are stillalmost non existant as breeding populations, even most rspb reserves don't have vaible breeding populations of waders Yet u go to an upland sheep area near a grouse moor and it is absolutely teaming with wildlife an brids fledging young all because of controling predators. If u don't want to believe me, fair enough but loads of scientific work has been carried out on the benefits of predator control esp to ground nesting birds, try looking on the GWCT site (esp Otterburn and Sailsbury plain studies) and no matter how u look at it ur precious tiddles IS a predator. U say ur 1 cat has never killed a bird, fair play but that leaves another 8.5 million -1 to kill 55 million birds, thats only 5 birds per cat per year, i'm sure some cats will kill that in a day. I'm no lover of the RSPB and for them to actually admit anything bad about cats is quite something and probably massively understated so it doesnae hit there membership Yes own a cat but please put a bell on its collar and atleast have some respect for wildlife. Please Like i said i have put a small wildlife resreve on hold becuase of cats moving into the area and i have done a fair bit of coppicing and tree work to improve it, a real shame that 1 neighbour who doesnae even own the ground can put a stop to it.

I have been trying to get my head round this, i have been quoted around about the 12-15k mark for a tank and log burner for a 2 bed room house and thats not even the plumbing work. Which is a ridiculas ammount for such a small house esp with all the modern insulation/air tightness There guesstimating i could qualify for 2K a year in RHI payments but i won't know until the house is completed (full renovation job) and has a completion certificate to be green deal assesed. I just think these MCS fitters are charging a fortune because they can and because the grants are there. Just can't decide if worth paying for all the RHI/MCS and better of just putting a log burner in without the payments I was told the commercial rate could be dropping by 20% in Jan bringing it down to around 6p/kw which will be getting fairly marginally for some people esp if on chips and don't have a ot of storage

How can u possibly think cats have "naff all effect on song bird numbers" Seemingly there is 8.5 million cats in the Uk and estimate they kill 275 million prey items a year and 55 million birds.(according tothe rspb) That is a hell of a birds. Thats means the uk's song birds need to breed and fledge atleast 55 million chicks just to cover cat predation never mind old age and other causes of death. I see in the paper today a Wryneck has just been killed by a cat probably the only 1 in UK. I have no problem with cats (not a fan thou) but i do have respect for the countryside and my neighbours. I just can't get my head round how so many cat owners are happy sticking their head in the sand and not acknowledge the fact that their pet has an impact on other peoples lives and theyy don't have a choice in it. Even if u don't respect other people surely u should have some respect for the UK's wildlife it ws here long before us althou much of it won't be left shortly I manage a small area of woodland and was hoping to set up a small nature reserve in it and had started a lot of work, but some new neighbours have moved in with cats so nature reserve is on hold. No point in attracting birds in only to be ate by cats for fun, already lost a red squirrel to them this year. Is that fair?? Most of the other neighbours used to feed the birds but have also stopped because of the cats

I have just had to go throu gettin a bat survey done and seems to be a licence to print money, the 2 local companies wanted between 1200-1600 quid + vat to do a survey on a fairy small building. The roofer was going to strip and re slate it for not a lot more I knew 1 of the company owners from when i used to go to the local bat group and throu work with the llocal wildlfie trust, he was just starting out back then working for the council Similar to SP above done some phase 1 as part of my uni course but not sure if it will help massively. I found most of it is common sense and being used to nature, i'm sure with a life time in trees u will have a fairly good idea wot makes good roosting or faraging habitat will just have to study the individual bat secies preferences now

There is a lot of hypocrisy on this thread, but possibly because of the fact that generally on this forum we do cut trees down but we also plant and look after them and appreciate the value of nature. Cats are not evil and are just doing wot is natural to them, but i find it staggering that a cat owner thinks it is ok for there cat to go around the neighbourhood eating birds anywhere. Do u not think the neighbours kids may have watched a nest of song birds hatch and fletch only to be ate (sorry forgot they don'y usually eat them) to be injured then played with until if the bird is lucky the cat will actually kill it and end their suffering. s was highlighted in a post earlier about the blackbird hand reared, wot about ur neighbours right to have fish in a pond, or do a cat's owners rights over rule everyone elses. Lost a young red squirrel in my garden this year to a neighbours cat Most song bird species are on amber or even red list's due to their massive decline in numbers over the last 30yrs. Over the past 30yrs there has actually been very little loss in habitat over most of the country and infact habitat will generally have been improving in that timescale due to grants etc for planting new hedges. The main problem facing most uk species is Predatation wether from cats, corvids, BOP, mustieds or badgers, but most of the bunny hugging alleged 'conservation' charities will never admit that 'tiddles' causes damage as it will cost them money in memberships. And that is sadly more important to them now than conserving birds/animals At the very least ALL cats should were bells on there collars if allowed out, dogs have to wear collars Up in the Aviemore/Grampian region of scotland is the last stronghold of the Scottish Wild cat which is probably going to become extinct in the next 10-20 years mainly due to cross breeding with domestic cat's. They estimate their is only 400 left, but that could be massively over estimate of their numbers, makes polar bears, rhino's and snow leopards look common. Yet cat owners up there will still not get there cats nuetred to save a species yet there probably donating 5 quid a month to save an exotic species (same as all the rspb members that fed birds and have cats) Finally it is NOT LEGAL in the UK to shoot a cat, no matter how near or far from a house, there is a slight grey area over ferals more a matter of ownership criminal damage. So do not go shooting cats no matter wot ur opinion of them is. In NZ and OZ cats are routinely shot/hunted and poisoned to save the native species and in some cases in oZ the army has came out to shoot them. In Germany cat is considered vermin/quarry when off ur property and some dog breeds have to kill a cat before they are allowed to be bred from (or atlest that used to be the case until fairly recently)

Aye some sort of triple/double drum winch high lead system may work all u'd need is a tractor and winch and relatively easy to set up. Skyline might work too but more complicated to set up and need some decent anchor points to attach ur skyline too and possibly stumps to attach guys from ur anchor point, it more complicated plus need a hgv to transport it in and out and probably not that cheap to hire At a very basic level. If u can drag downhill and no damge/safety issues u could just about tie a rope on stems and drag them with ur pick up from the bottom. But can imagine that having safety and snagging issue's, will depend on the site Personally i would be leaving in longer sections if manhandleable, i think a long section rather than the eqivalent ammount of logs, esp if ur going to be dragging with machinery

I may be wrong here but was told u can't gas urself in a desiel car. So i'm persuming no CO? If its big enough to ride horses round i doubt it is enclosed enough to gas urself. Also i take it just chips of some description? Most riding ground use chain harrows/tines either on a tractor or quad and just buzz about tl level it

Sorry for this silly question and hopefully won't derail the thread, but how can someone apply to cut a tree down not on there land? Even without the TPO