Vespasian

Hang on, don't you think the advice aught be try it out first.. a day or week doin the job before he decides its for him.. Can't see the sense of paying out good money only to find its not exactly what you expected it to be...

I'm sure if Jody wished. he could of furnished us all with the grisly details.. Its gotta be hard enough to speak of a good friends death without having to throw a biography in to boot..

My theory involves the loss of weight bearing down to mean the trunk might expand in some way as it hasn't the need to support the previous weight that it had.. You could test this theory out.. find two tree's of similar age an size close by to each other, pollard one and take measurements thereafter of both tree's trunks.. see if over the span of a few years the pollarded trunk hasn't gained some measurable girth on the unpollarded tree..

Funny thing is, I think it will.. Not sure how much it might be, but I'm sure its coming in the not to distant future...

Being partly right is good enough for me

Tried to get through that, made it most of the way before I gave up... amounted to, if you don't know the age of a tree, then guess.. Always be wary of experts bandying numbers and equations about, it usually means they don't know what they're talking about, and want to make sure you don't know that either.. A tree has rings to measure its age, if you can't count the rings then just admit the age of the tree can't be known.. other than its more than two hundred years for instance.. As to the girth of an old tree, its just crossed my mind that such is the weight bearing down on the trunk, perhaps its girth has something to do with the weight of the tree pushing down on the trunk, making for an exagerated girth, leading some ill informed experts to think the tree is much older than it is.. There you go, not even an expert and able to figure it out all by myself..

If anyone does a bit of welding I'll bet you could knock one of these arb trolleys up for hundred quid... build two, narrow access for the garden gate jobbies, and a wider one for better access..

and you know that because?.. Seems to me that UI might be a winning idea.. I especially like it because I wouldn't turn my nose up at ten grand a year before I have to lift a finger.. We can deal with the immigrants problem by encouraging less of it.. I don't know, we could "breed our own"...

Mystery solved then... .. might be an idea to phone em up see if they have anything cheap going.. might get something cheap seein as you live round the corner!!..

I was thinking the same myself, seen a few things of theirs on ebay just of late..

He can think what he likes, I don't sign on, and I like to see my contributions to arbtalk as enlivening debate. always happy to add my twopence worth I am..

what makes you think I sign on?...

I'm not a tree age expert, I'm just relating the news that some old wives tales about some old tree's ain't true.. I do have an interest in anthropology mind, never a bad thing to learn were we all came from.. how we all got here..

Nope, I think its a good thing.. can't get fooled by things, like stories of ten thousand year old tree's an such..

Perhaps I might just enjoy playing the devils advocate on occasion.. My ex girlfriend used to say I was always "so contrary", I thought about it then had to admit she was right. its what I'm like.. she also pointed out I was opinionated, which wouldn't be the first time someone had pointed that out.. I always listen to something and before I know it I'm musing on why they're wrong.. its a gift I suppose.. not everyone thinks the same..

Oh, I might see into that, just to nosy about some.. I might buy that bow an arrow he used for a laugh..

Someone not so long ago told me it was up to me to prove a claim.. well, lets see some evidence of a thousand year old tree with some evidence to back it up.. quite happy to believe it if theres a full tree with a thousand tree rings.. I ain't going accept a hallowed out tree as evidence for anything.. accept that its hollowed out of course...

I'm quite happy to believe the giant redwood is a thousand years old. because the evidence is before our eyes.. Not going to believe our tree's are anywhere near as old as there ain't evidence to prove it, just speculation...not quite the same thing is it..

See, the thing is I like to read a lot, articles in the thousands over the years.. on all sorts of weird and wonderful subjects.. Just happens a few years back I happened on an article that challenged all these tree myths and the author, whoever he was made a very convincing claim that all these ancient tree's aren't nearly as old as they're made out.. he'd found descriptions of churchyards from five hundred years back, no mention of a tree planted in the grounds, then fast forward a few hundred years and we have a thousand year old tree, been there before the church, why even before Caesar crossed into Britanicus .. its all mostly cods wallop.. Looks to me like some tree's just look old as apposed to being old... there is a difference.. And, if tree's can live to be a thousand years old, were are they now?... a country our size aught posses hundreds of thousands of these ancient specimens..

Funny how these old tree's are estimated as best can be gauged.. never any hard evidence is there.. and I wouldn't bother bringing David Bellamy along to prove anything., that idiot was shot to pieces live on TV by someone who was a real scientists.. Ruined the fella's reputation for good... as its ruined your attempt to prove something..

It used to be thought that churches were built on ancient pagan groves, the Yew Tree being an example.. Turns out these Yew tree's were planted after the church.. Just one example of Tree's being talked up as ancient when in reality they ain't half as old as they're made out to be.. I''ll hazard a guess there ain't no tree in Britain a thousand years old, nowhere near..

meantime, the idea might be trialed somewhere to see evidence of its utility.. perhaps some Scotish Island to see if everyone downs tools.. perhaps try different versions on separate Islands.. Errm, perhaps trial it on women only.. twenty grand each to ether live on, or add to their income.. certainly make em think twice about work when they could be sat at home looking after the kids.. I think I've stumbled on a winning idea and a good place to employ it...

thousand year old tree?.. I suppose they have a chance to count the rings now.. I'm guessing its nowhere near a thousand years.. a lot of these ancient tree's ages are based on speculation as much as science..

The idea is, one day there may be millions of people unemployed due the use of mechanization and robotics.. If thats the case, you can't go about calling em all scroungers and layabout, although a good few will be.. what about the innocent victims of mechanization?.. To be honest I like the idea.. It'd suit me if I was given five grand a year to start with.. I could use it to see me through the winter, get back to gardening in summer and use the money I saved by investing in new equipment.. in my case that five grand would be reinvested into the economy..

because I haven't figured how to do that.. anyway, its in general chat.. I thought that could be about anything..