Mick Dempsey

No one is going to take offence. I remember raising this subject on a yank forum and being shocked at the painkiller use, but especially by the casual and widespread use of anti-depressants in the US.

Ps, going through this thread has made me feel a bit better about my painkiller consumption if nothing else. Some eyebrow raising stuff on here.

Four or five years back I had restricted movement and pain in my shoulder, couldn’t raise it above level at all. Did a bit of research, 99% sure it was a frozen shoulder. Anyway, I struggled on, climbing become increasingly hard. Turned up at a job one day, put Igor on his lead before opening the van door as usual. Unbeknownst to me he’d seen a cat an took off like an Exocet, the shock as he reached the end of the extendable lead wrenched my unprepared shoulder and the pain was so intense that I fell to the ground and nearly blacked out for a couple of minutes. Eventually I got up and the groundy retrieved Igor 20 meters away barking at a bemused cat on a gatepost. I thought I’d really done some permanent damage, but as the day wore on it seemed ok, as the days and weeks passed I realised it was effectively cured. It seems sometimes they put you under a general anesthetic to manipulate and free a frozen shoulder, I just skipped the anesthetic. Funny how things work out sometimes.

That’s very sad Stubs, I’m glad my old man went in 2014 (not glad but you know what I mean) before all this stuff.

I reckon Boris is toast, now the Tories are turning against him, they’re going to lose the next election with him, they might think it’s best to cut their losses, bin him and try and salvage as many seats as possible, maybe even stay in government with someone else.

Not telling!

Can’t see it myself, this question makes Pete 08’s seem well thought out.

We got another one..

Spot on Pete.

Maybe you have to keep a range of premium saws for the pros to keep the prestige element going, even if they’re artificially expensive. I remember reading how Maculloch eschewed the pro range for the more profitable homeowner models, then lost the caché of the pros using them and faded into obscurity.

I’d never tie just into the ladder, through the ladder and into a branch stem maybe.

Hmmm, not done too much research since October by the look of it. Stop using the word ‘chopping’ that is not terminology that chainsaw pros regularly use. You’re not using an axe it’s a chainsaw. Snedding is the term for de-branching a fallen tree. Did you pinch the saw at all?

Clearly, but tell us about your experiences and we can explain and enlarge, open the debate, we’re not just a free resource that’ll do your research for you. You're after stuff from us but not contributing anything yourself, what were you doing with the saw? Did you notice anything that made you think ‘that seems dangerous’ Did you get any training? Quid pro quo Pete as Hannibal said

Still at it Pete? Have you taken the opportunity (since you last asked about this in October) to use a saw? What saw were you using and to do what?

Buy cheap, buy twice as the saying goes. Get a MK11 Husky 550.

No bamboo, ever. They say it stays where it is and won’t get away, but you’ve seen Jurassic Park right? Nature finds a way.

The biggest colds I ever caught were with conifer hedges.

I wouldn’t take it on, removal or nothing. As an employee, just get on with it, think of the money. Or as Mark Bolam put it, get so pissed off half way round, plunge a 200t at full chat into your sternum just to end the misery. (I think of that a lot, too much in fact)

I’ll freely admit the torque/horsepower thing is a little beyond me, I get it but not completely. But I’ve driven 4wd pickups starting with the non turbo hilux in 98 to now. The improvement in power is amazing, towing a 3.5 tonne load was nerve racking back then, up and down the box, dreading hills on the motorway, an embarrassment tbh, these days a piece of cake.

Well yeah, and a remap, you don’t see the irony in that?

I had a Mk6, lot of turbo lag and gutless by modern standards, nice looking truck though.

So what? How many engines from 30 years ago reached 250k and are still going? Where are all these 20/30/40 year old vehicles? Fooked, crushed and recycled that’s where. The engine is now a consumable, send it back for fixing or recycling. The fuel pump went on my old Ford Ranger (the old Mazda based one) not economical to to repair, gave it away and bought a new one.

Firewood is all I’ve seen it for. Never seen a coppice of Hornbeam here like you see in Sussex.

The ‘no replacement for displacement’ sounds good and to an extent is true. But go back 20 years and the hilux turbo 2.4 knocked out 110hp now my Ranger knocks out 150hp at 2.2. Engines are more efficient whilst using less fuel. A 3.0 Capri was knocked into a cocked hat by a 1.8 golf. Formula 1 now use a 1.6 liter engine producing similar HPs to the older 3 liters, they’re more reliable as well, rarely does an F1 engine let go compared to the days of Mansell etc. Only the yanks with their cheap fuel run those big lazy engines.