Mick Dempsey

Very nice!

About what I'd expect, remember that's poplar, about the easiest chipping there is.

If a 25hp (at nearly a ton) chips better than a 35 hp one, especially with a single roller I'd be surprised to say the least.

It's in hand,

Withnail memes:001_smile:

Our greenhouse which was beginning to disappear under brambles is getting some slabbing put around it, plus a wall.

Here's ours. Toms, lettuce,aspargus, beetroot, celery, cucumber, butternut squash, runner beans, parsnip, carrots, onions (red, white and spring) Potatoes melons and broad beans are in the wood chip piles. (All the wife's work I'll confess, I'm more the flower side of things)

The Book of Jeremy Corbyn - The New Yorker Short read but quite funny, non political in case you think I'm making a point.

That clips been around a while now. Props to the guy for hanging on.

You ain't liking it anymore.....cos you're too old!

Sounds like you've got it sussed. I did read it as you climbed/did forestry related work till the age of 92 at first though!

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/members-only/108619-unusual-rigging-obstacles.html There you go johny.

No, not from what I could tell.

A few weeks ago I spent all day driving round doing quotes. So it's top this, top that, it was starting to annoy me a bit (not enough to reject the work of course, you'd go pretty hungry out here if you started selling 5% reductions) by the time I got to the last visit of the day (the furthest away) I was a bit short tempered. The clients had 2 birch (maybe 10 mètres high max) previously topped that had come back nicely (rot pockets not too bad) they were worried they'd fall on the neighbour's garage (no reason at all why they should) The man had a stick 4 mètres long he took it and held it up against each tree and said he wanted it cut to there, plus each branch to a meter long, a real "mug tree" look. I told him I could do better than that, I could make a nice job of it, re reduce it leaving it looking natural, he was unmoved, just kept tapping his stick to where he wanted it cut to. In a fit of pique i said I wouldn't do it, it was unprofessional I said, they were aghast, the wife got quite shirty and I thought to myself. "I've driven half an hour here for nothing" So I changed my mind and said "€400 plus the vat, we'll do it Tuesday late afternoon" They agreed (lot to be said for reverse psychology) The strange part of it was when we did it the wife said she couldn't watch, she loved trees and hated to see them suffer!

Ah, thanks, lucky dog.

Great pics, does she have a name?

Boris Johnson caught cycling to a secret meeting to un seat Theresa May (Just for laughs, not making a statement)

Don't apologise, (in fact I reject your apology!) it's your honest opinion. The thread only got interesting when you piped up:thumbup: I am a hack btw, you're right about that.

I don't really believe the narrative of log hungry tree surgeons misleading homeowners to fell trees. Maybe very rarely, but "usually" ...no. Perception of danger can be as good a reason for a fell as real danger, if every time the wind blows the client is worried it'll fall on the house, then removing the tree makes the client's life better. If the tree was any great shakes it'd have a tpo (in the U.K.) anyway.

So you convince the clients to have a tippy reduction when they wanted something else. In other words you don't do what they want, you do what YOU want to do......mate. Anyway you sound awesome, congrats.

Even if I were to believe your opinion affirming crafty contractor story.... I do the job, I make more money taking trees out, people are happy to pay more for it. Add the grinding into it and there's no contest. How can you ascertain the happiness or otherwise of the clients in these cases? It's entirely possible that maybe an ash has been heavily reduced twenty years ago then redone say 4 times in the interim. Then (maybe) it's got to come out. So what? In the meantime the client has had the benefit of the tree, has been happy that they have light in their garden because of the regular trimming, and at least the comfort that if it fell it wouldn't reach the house. Would they have been better off cutting it down 20 years ago, then staring at a sapling for a decade?

Why are reductions more lucrative? Not IME. The possibility of a call back in say 7 years time to do the re-reduction, is hardly enough for the greedy tree surgeon to rub their hands together Fagin style. The client may have moved, died, found someone else or simply forgotten who they called in the first place.

Some people like a certain tree where it is, if they have to chop it back every few years, and are happy to pay for it, so what?

Firstly the snarky comment about removal not being as lucrative. Load of crap frankly. Now moving on to rest of the post. "Please consider removal as an alternative" As an alternative to what? reducing/topping a tree? I've worked on willows that get hat racked every 7 years without any mercy. They come back great, there's no way you can just let them go in the space they're in. Clients happy, I'm happy, tree's happy Tippy tappy little reductions totally pointless or you'd have to do them every two weeks. So what does the professional body suggest? A removal! You're not in the real world Paul, and your organisation will always be on the fringes of the industry until you accept there are few absolute rights and wrongs in this game.

Lovely looking pup. Igor waiting for mum to come home.