Stoatally

Section of the branch that's effected

Westonbirt is a beautiful place. I had a brief look in the old arboretum yesterday and just get a proper look round. We're 'limited' to the Silk woods with the dog, but that's special enough. Did you go over the Stihl walkway?

On our way back to westonbirt to walk the dog. It will be weird seeing what's left of the show. Might pop in to the pub garden to see if anyone found my coat. I'll look forward to the next time I can meet up with more arbtalkers. And I'll have a look at apf tickets. My wife wants to know if there's likely to be carving and turning at apf? She wants a turned fruit bowl and we're after a carving for the back garden.

Nice to meet you Silky. Did anyone find my coat by the bbq?

Was nice to meet some folk last night. I went off to my tent and think I left my empty tins behind. Sorry! I also think I left a musto coat by the barbecue, don't suppose anyone picked it up? Id gladly pay postage to get it back!

I'll come look in a minute 😊 Just cooking some tea, then I'll grab a pint from the pub 😊

Work is done. Home to drop crap off and pick up essentials - tent etc. Heading there afterwards. Bout of shopping and browsing before getting to the pub.

Having a quick tickle on the gov.uk calculator it seems that tax credits are good if you have kids but not if you don't. A combined income of 20k with 3 kids estimates £650 a month. Sane income with no kids = 0

There's a little shopping cart to the right of the page

We have a small tree in the back garden, I think its an acer, but not sure which. It mostly looks full of health, except nearly a third of it is completely bare. One of the main branches has no leaves at all, it has buds but they look like they gave up a little while ago. Any ideas on what caused it? does it need any action? Also, any chance of a more definite ID?

The last figures google finds were 25k in 2014/5 Unless it means household income

I'll be at the pub camping by Friday night, not sure I'll make it to the show as it shuts at 5 and I'm not sure what time I'll be getting away from work in Bristol city centre, before doing battle with the M32

I'm always really envious of this thread. If only if known 25 years ago that this is the path I want to take, and then been able to find an apprenticeship like these! Very lucky people.

You can base tie using something like the ART snake anchor that has a shock absorption system built into it.

No problems. I'll tackle the hill going to other way soon.

Debating bringing the wife and dog camping on the Friday night so she can drive me in on Saturday. Think I'll get a quick peek in on Friday after work, then all day Saturday, some of it with swmbo. Is there an arbtalk catch up on Friday or Saturday. I'm a noob so won't know anyone but keen to meet people, have a natter and a cizzer or three

Finally got the little thing out. Its so amazingly small, perfect for my week on cs39. Hardly felt it attached to my harness, easy to get in and out of everywhere I wanted it and cut very smoothly. An awesome little saw, bar and chain combo. Couple of lads had 540s and they felt enormous and really heavy compared to the echo!

I've always worked on the fact that word count and markign schemes are there to give you an idea of what level of depth and knowledge the answer requires. 500 words is about 1/2 - 3/4 page of typed 12 point A4 (iirc) so it's not a lot of words and they are after a short, concise answer. 10,000 words gives much more freedom and expectation to really explain everything. Similarly an exam question with 1 point only wants a short answer, 10 points wants 10 bullet points or a similar length answer. What I like about studying sciences is the expectation to keep answers short and simple. I like to work out the number of main points that I need to cover and expand on each point enough to fill the word count. If I have much more to write I check the question to see if it's actually necessary. It may be that those writing 3000 words when only 500-800 are required are writing at a level or two above what they're studying. I've studied with lecturers before who have basically said once they get to about where the word count should end, they stop reading, so no point in going over. At Uni I was told 10% either way so made sure I kept to that.

I'm not afraid of a hard days work. I've managed to get a couple of days with local firms and survived. Not that many years ago I would do weekends and holidays with my ex father in law doing fencing and agricultural contracting, plus loads of work repairing his kit, welding / fabricating and stuff. I also reckon I'd be as fit as many college / school leavers are now, but I've also had the experience and know what a day at work is like. I'm also not stupid enough to know that 30/31/38/39 doesn't make me a tree surgeon, doesn't mean I'm fully trained and competent and able to set up my own company tomorrow carrying out fully competent jobs. I'm happy to work for someone for a few years, get more on the job training, pick up knowledge and learn from the experts. I'm also learning the theory side of arb too. What I do have over other people trying to get in to the industry is a good work ethic, I've worked for 25 years so I understand that I have to be somewhere on time EVERY day, I've worked shifts, weekends and travelled away a lot. I can deal with most types of customer, I can team work or be left on my own. I know that when I appear to have nothing to do, there's always something that could be done. I'm not afraid of a broom or a kettle. I have a full driving licence with 7.5 ton and trailer. I have an nv1 2 & 3 in motor vehicle repair and service, so I can fix quite a lot of stuff, I've been a welder fabricator and experience of farm machinery, tractor driving, fencing etc. I also know my limitations so I ask if I'm unsure rather than ploughing straight in a messing stuff up, I'm also confident enough too say 'sorry, I think I've messed up' when necessary and not try to hide it / blame someone or something else. I've spoken to a few businesses asking what they want, and self funded cs30, 31, 38, 39, emergency first aid + forestry and looking to have done rigging and large fell by the end of September. I have a full climbing kit, with relevant LOLER, husky 135, 365 and echo 2510 so I'm pretty keen to get into the industry!

It looks really useful to me

Nice to hear that other's have done the change too. Makes me wonder if I should look for a year long college course, part time to get a qualification as well. Or see what's available on day release.

I've done 2-3 miles with the dog from Badgers Lane to Berwick lane. Taken pics of each gate / stile etc. I'll go up past the orchard and on to Spaniorum hill later today if I get a chance. Greenman Access by Stotally | Photobucket They're pretty out of order. If I get a chance I'll try and name them or rearrange them, but it gives an idea of whats there

39 Passed today. Loving it. I spent this week playing on my lockjack and love it - its so smooth and easy. Need to find some local trees where I can practice and try out some SRT stuff. Looking forward to later in the year when I can start looking for work properly! Also thinking what I need to put on the shopping list and what courses to do next, if any. I was thinking rigging course and large fell. Also interested in the Treekit one day srt intro workshop.

Yes. Normally more units = a different qual, often goes Award > Certificate > Diploma

HCC offer 2 level 2 courses, their own HCC certificate which isn't QCF or the ABC / RFS level 2 which is QCF registered.