TIMON

Nice one 10 bears. That makes perfect sense. Re-pollarding is what we set out to do but the customer changed her mind. I appreciate the info.

Once we had gone back to the original pollard unions the customer wanted it cut below them. Cleaning up was a pain.... Spread over 5 gardens.

A few pics (with a crap phone camera) of this pop job today. It was first pollarded about 15 years ago. Was a bit tricky in the wind. We'd already postponed it twice so we pushed it through today. Not a very pretty job but we're glad to have it finished.

Many happy returns Mr Fox. Hope the coming year is a good one for you.

So you're still a Calvinist then ?

Used to have a Scagg 36" flail and it was incredible. Would smash through chest high brambles and small saplings yet it would give a reasonable grass cut and leave stripes! Very versatile and absolutely bombproof...

Dax Johnson .... A moment in the life of me. One of the most moving and best pieces of piano I have ever listened to. Enjoy...

LOLER thorough examinations available with us as well West Midlands area Betel Treeworks 07595119775

Thoughts and prayers are with you Sean, I hope you have a speedy recovery.... Timon

I use a zig zag and ultra O's, it's meant to be tight to hold it "captive"

Sawpod every time too. Can't seem to keep my harness tidy at the best of times without dangling a silky as well.

Use mine on most climbs. I'll sometimes switch to a hitch climber if I'm working close to the stem. ( I find that the zigzag will "bend" against itself )

Nice one! We work out of Windmill house in BHAM. Jimmy speaks very highly of you and your work. Be in touch. Thanks

I was in the barbers the other day and another tree surgeon came in we got talking and I mentioned that we now offered a LOLER TE service. I asked him where he got his kit done. He just went quiet.

Sure... Check out betel.org.uk Basically were a charity that started by "accident" in Madrid about 25 years ago. One guy (a Christian missionary) helped one addict get off drugs who in turn helped another guy get off drugs who in turn helped another guy get off drugs who helped another....... And so on and so on. Now Betel is in over 100 cities around the world. Our centres don't have staff as such just men and women who have found freedom themselves and stay on and in turn help others and build residences and businesses as they move forward. Betel uk has furniture businesses, landscaping teams and tree work teams. We don't claim benefits for our residents or get any help or funding from the Government. I got helped off heroin over 8 years ago decided to stay and help build, met my wife here and we now run a men's recovery centre. Betel has been an incredible adventure for me (also I did all my tickets here as well) as it has for many others too.

Hi Mike. Our business is owned by a large national charity set up to help people break free from drug and alcohol addictions. The work provides the finances for our residential recovery centres and also provides those on the recovery programme with the opportunity to learn work skills, gain qualifications and develop a personal work ethic etc.. Me and my colleague are accountable to the National Director and the board of trustees. We have no shareholders and ours is a not for profit organisation. When it comes to being impartial I think we are where we need to be in terms of balancing safety, objectivity and economics. I performed the TE on my own kit this time but my oppo double checked my kit and vice versa. After that an "independent " LOLER guy we know also ran through it as well. I really appreciate your comments and we will certainly discuss some of the points you have raised, particularly those of familiarity and sentimental attachment. Thanks Timon

Both I and my colleague co-run our ARB business and we are the climbers as well. We both recently qualified as LOLER competent persons so we can perform our regular thorough examinations "in house" in order to: 1. Learn the principles of LOLER and increase our competency. 2. Become better equipped in our theoretical and practical knowledge of ARB equipment and it uses. 3. Open up another facet to our business by offering the service to other ARBs. 4. Operate our business at a very safe standard. 5. save money. (Not the main reason which is why I have listed it last) I don't see anything wrong with us doing it in house in our situation. I failed a number of items from my own kit which another independent LOLER guy told me he would have passed. I realise that being relatively new to this my understanding is limited, which is why I often seek advice and guidance from others I know in the industry who have a much greater depth of knowledge. Periodically we plan to have an external TE. Which will I hope demonstrate we are conducting our own examinations without fear or favour.

Tony, We went to do a quote for some further work at a job where we had felled a tree 2 years ago. Found this at the stump. Not sure what it was but it looked impressive. Timon

Sorry to hear that Andy, I did wonder where you had got to. Rest well mate. Pray that you get a speedy and total recovery. Timon

Sorry Kevin, I'm a bit slow on the uptake these days.... Too much techno when I was young...

NFU wouldn't touch our mog.

Aye! Technical jargon from here on in now. (PU ?)

At last..,.,,, We talked the owner into having it re-juiced. Tomorrow Time to put our new rigging skills into action (passed our CS41 assessment this week). Will post some pics tomorrow.

Congrats mate!

We did ours at Ian Morgan Arb in Staffordshire. It's a week long course and it's specifically for arboricultural equipment. If that's too far away he could probably point you in the right direction.