green heart

Just like an unusually healthy, well-grown, dense, hawthorn hedge should do ! AND even better for nesting birds, small mamals and invertebrates. ALSO, highly resistant to straying livestock, humans and out-of-control cars, etc -I can report a Land-rover Discovery was impaled up on my (layed) roadside hedge, and was unable to get out, until my neighbour arrived with his chainsaw and massacred the hedge ! 🤨

Hmm.. I'm thinking more Staffordshire style -though I suppose that's as good as a Midland style to most. Thought Midlands tends to be much more thick or 'bushy' cow-proof style of laying ? Anyway, it's a -very- well laid hedge; I'd be proud to my name to the second length/photo. 👍

We adapted one of our home-made post punners, adding a return bracket, to stop half-round posts from twisting, while being driven. Quite good for holding any type of post though. Cost: just half an hour, with a stick welder!

At 61 I'm wanting/aiming to be climbing/pruning 3 days a week, in winter. But only when it's dry -in Manchester -call me fairweather ❄️ , and at the gym/yoga 2/3 times weekly.

Then give it a go, with the option to change your mind (without any penalty, either way) in say, 18 months time? Anticipate one or more break-ins and don't leave any power tools/valuables there overnight -it looks less secure than a cardboard box.. I think Mick's right, it does seem a high monthly rental cost -but then I'd imagine renting a couple of old back-street shipping containers might cost €400 a month, anyway ? We just bought three of them, including an office unit, 'temporarily' rather than rent them.. and that was 2 decades ago; they're still in daily use!

Goat willows do sometimes grow some surprisingly large burrs -like this small one. Keep an eye on it for a couple of years, if you know any wood turners/carvers, they love them !

Stuart, here's my thoughts: my own (UK experience only) is that any treework/forestry businesses that are unattached to a domestic residence, consistently tend to attract local unwanted night time 'visitors'.. regardless if they are alarmed. A second visit then follows, within 12 months, and so on. This can be surprisingly stressful and time consuming. Having a house (or occupied caravan/campervan by the work building) generally reduced those 'visitors' by 80-90+% Last negative: UK commercial rental contracts are like the Wild West, from a Tennant perspective 😳 Maybe things are different in France, tho ? So, I'd make an uneducated guess, that the welcome extra passing trade and enhanced publicity, from a busy location would outweigh the 'security issues/losses/ hassle ' ? -why not give it a try, with an 18 month 'get-out early' clause in your contract terms ?

Haha -yes ! -especially for you.. So, as you must have heard , the hero called Steve helped me find my missing post, earlier on.. nice to hear from you, fella. Long time no see -God høytid !

*Bump* So from a phone call with Makita UK yesterday, it would seem like the new 24m/s 40v Makita UC031G pruning saw (see Stere and Krams posts, above) should be on dealers shelves, before Easter 2026. However, if you can't wait, importing one directly from Japan was £1k -plus Import taxes, last time I looked! It seems the excellent 40v Makita UC029G pruning saws are now back in UK stock again, having sold out this summer. It's still my favourite small pruning saw, by a country mile. In other related news, I was fascinated to see the details of a new Echo 56v pruning saw DHS3006, boasting the (much improved) Mk2 battery pack, Echo's magical harness clip AND belt clip, an 8m/s chain speed, all weighing in at a meagre 1.1kg (plus battery). The motor power rating is a healthy 560W, and availability by March '26?. Quoted prices for battery, body and charger at £427- incl VAT I was told today. Although it costs more than most offerings, I suspect this might effectively grasp first place, in the Best performing small pruning saw section.. More details on the Echo website.

Wow, that's really, properly impressive, Joe Griffin... I so need to get back to the gym, right now, this evening -if only to see what 350kg looks like, on a weight bar! I bet I couldn't lift half that !? -come to think of it, I reckon our 6'' pto timberwolf weighs about that.. unreal. Well done, fella.

Looking at the current pay for Self employed sparkles (typically around a heady £300-500/day), that seems like an eminently sensible route onwards, from tree climbing. However, as AI quietly makes inroads into UK employed/redundancies, I expect a lot of other former employees will start looking to transfer to manual trades, and bring down those day rates back to earth. Demand and supply at work.. Personally, I wonder if the way forward is developing our own remote semi-robotic tree-climbing/cutting tools ! -I reckon Kram's skill-set can't be that far off tackling it, maybe in 2026?? 😉

Not sure of any Heacksler or Scarpur dealers in Manchester/NW, so no experience, sorry. But -we did have a Christmas cracker of an 'educational day' using a Forest master Professional 14hp chipper this week. Read on.. My Review/comments are moderated (for legal reasons!).. and based on a couple of decades of owning/using 4-8'' chippers for our work. We had also previously repaired and used a customer's (new) Forest master 6 hp chipper, which was ok-ish (considering it's size and for 'home use'). So after some consideration, we bought a 14hp direct drive 'Professional' unit (with less than 5 hours use), for one VERY awkward-access back garden job. My plan was to make/fabricate some obvious improvements to the input and output shutes -something that Forest Master's Tech director wouldn't agree to consider, on a potential new 18hp machine. Once on site, mostly chipping up weeping willow, the machine (almost) lasted for just 4 hours of use. In that time, we noted : A serious LOT of machine vibration -and noise too. We (partially) bent/broke one blade. Multiple engine fixings and lock-nuts rattled off/sheared off. Multiple broken welds on the output Shute -it was unusable and destroyed in the 4 hours work. 3 broken welds on input hopper flange welds -it actually fell apart, preventing any further safe use on our site. So then, short and sweet ! And, in fair defence of this unit: It has a VERY low centre of gravity -so is very stable. Light enough at 120 kg, for 2 men to just get it up and down a big 45° slope. Narrow enough to take through the customer's house doorway. It also chipped up willow at an impressive rate, though I'd be nervous about feeding it much over 3'' diameter, in hindsight. I liked that strangely familiar very shiny orange paintwork.. 🫢 It appears customer reviews of their machines must be invited by Forest Master -so I'm unable to submit one, anyway.. Would I recommend/buy another one: Sadly, er, not really.

Santa must have spotted your post -so there's none left in stock this morning -just 12 hours later! 🤫

Josh, Can't you get anywhere near it, using a Quad/scrambler/Off-road scooter type thing instead, perhaps with panniers or a crate strapped on ? Might be more fun than a sweaty walk with a rucksack full of gear and sandwiches.. 🤔

Get a quad bike or 4x4 etc to tow around a couple of water barrels and your Glyphosate, in February/March . Med/coarse nozzle on knapsack. You won't need any spray guards if you spray before buds break into leaf. You won't need dye if working on your own. Mix in some flazasulphuron, for useful residual control element. You should manage around 500/day depending on the usual variables.