drinksloe

Must admit i'm surprised they still allow it. Spent many a sat nite pushing a jenson on trolleys, very easy to push even up hills, but i wouldn't say its very safe. We usually had 1 pair for chipper and another pair for gear and genny/lights Usually/can be a pig to load, have seen both the chipper tip over and trolleys fly up (ramps are on a ledge over the wheels) In fact i mind 1 shift boys hanging of the spout to keep chipper upright and others standing on far side of trooley to act as a conter balance. That night the head H&S boy was there watching the fn and games and never said a word, the week before he put me of site (well back to van to get replacement) for having 1 mesh square out of visor broke, i complained so he put his pen throu it. Also seen once when turning the chipper on the trolleys 1 of the trolleys rise over the other, was well dodgy as well up track so no way to fix it if chipper rolled If the side pins were in it wouldn't have happened but never seen a squad yet put the side pins in, or even have side pins on the job

Also need to think anout harvesting/extraction costs. If good going a harvester might only take 1-2 days so any low loader expenses might seem expensive, same for forwarder. Wether it is a hand cut and botex extraction or a set up like BigJ's on here

It sounds like ur about to fail the 1st attitude test, to be fair the boy should be paying u but not surprising ur not cutting. I know nothing about chestnut coppicing but can see where the boy can be coming from,, If u can't judge every stem and access which type of pieces u should be cutting out of it he could be losing money. If ur constantly cutting strainer sized wood to posts or long stuf that should be rails (guessing strainers/rails will be the money pieces?) he could very well be losing money. Or if ur cutting to wrong specs and putting them in the stacks he could have loads refused where he sells them. I've been cutting for years and admit i wouldn't have a clue about chestnut coppicing, would imagine i'd end up stacking for a few days too (althou noy for free) Its the same in forestry for hrvester drivers need to know the prices for each piece, demand for different products/how big the pile is at roadside and assess each stem althou the harvester will help but to be quick u need to be doing it by eye Ps I'd buy a loggers tape so if they ask u to try cutting u have the gear, not much good without a logging tape. And used for other hand cutting work so not wasted money if u don't get on with this job

I hve a tipping trailer for my quad and quite a handy wee trailer, for general use hardcore, leafs, hard core etc. But the hieght of the ground doesn't allow the tipping mechanism to full tip before it hits ground/the pile of stuff u have dumped. So u end up with a load of 'skid mark' piles instead of a decent tidy heap. Never used it with timber so not sure how it would work, not sur eif u drive away would be enough wieght on the deck so it didn't just drag the logs along with u. Must admit i just hand ball them on/off have thought about tie a rope/sling/choker rond the whole load and driving off so they pull out the back, but u still need to stack them anyway so not a lot of benefit. I' imagine a wee compact tractor or normal tractor with loadr would be by far the most versitile as it can do so many other things with hydralic spools, linkage, towing etc. Other machines may be better for specific tasks and more specialised rally all depends wot ur wanting and how u want to use it. Everyones circumstances will be different so will machine choice

Ur not so bad if ur upgrade is cheaper. With the diggers i think u start from scratch again with ur bigger ticket. I think i'd still be trying to borrow a bigger tractor for the day (or tie some extra wieghts on urs to get over the 2.5T ?) just to save the hassle of needing a 2nd ticket/upgrade as u will be doing the exact same things anyway.

I take it it is a different ticket for sub/over 2.5T tractors (just like 360 digger tickets)? So if u sit it in a small compact tractor u then can't (well not ticketed) to jump on to a full size tractor/winch? But fine if u do the bigger tractor/winch ticket If so J i'd be hitching ur winch on to ur new big tactor then it covers u for every thing

I'm pretty certain with the new courses/numbers etc these courses have changed and is now just 1 ticket for windblow. In the past it was 2 tickets single and multiple as spud says, i think single allowed u to go into windblow of about 7-12? stems (depending who u asked) and multiple was going into acres of pick up sticks

The only tickets worth doing are NPTC the rest are jusut a waste of money. Some old retired boys used to cut firewood/scavenage windblow on the local estate and had done for years, then the forestry managemnt company wanted all saw users to be ticketed, the whole lot of the went away to local agri college got training and forestry company refused to recognise it as not NPTC. Have u work for the 360 and dumper tickets? As they go out of date if u don't do enough hours every 5 yrs, i thought about doing mine but that put me off. Got a few mates who have lost tickets after changing jobs and now are meant to start from scratch again.

Is fr jones not inabout london somewhere, been out at honey bros near guildford many many years ago when on railways. No idea wot else is in that area. U don't mention wot u want the saw to do? Would u even be better with a corded 240v saw if just using it in the back garden, be quieter than petrol and cheaper than both

Out of courosity why are u topping them and wots the timber used for?? Was surprised just how close to the road u were dropping some big tops down. Also this may seem a stupid question but near end of the video u were buggering about with a orange climbing line and small pulley wot was that for? Only thing can think of for pulling the bigger saw/petrol up the tree? As u looked like u were just on ur spikes otherwise Also why/wot is the notch u cut in the tree top i heard u commenting on the radio? Wild guess so heli logger can grab it?? But looks close to the road for heli logging Apologies for stupid questions but never seen 1 of ur vids before Cheers

Must admit for an electric i'd just go for a cheap screwfix 1 (or similar) I've got a Titan prob about 50 quid many years ago and never missed a beat, i used to have a lot of walls, concrete and patio slabs + kenne at my old house+ pick ups/quads so it got a lot of use sometime 3-4 hours almost constant use and still going strong. I might of had it 8+ years now, my bro bought an even cheaper 1 still going strong god knows how old that is. My dad treated himself to a decent top end matika and prefer the cheap 1's to it. The patio heads are really good if u have concrete/patios to do and make a good job To do a proper job on bodywork of a car ur far better with a hose/brush, fine for a quick job or doing undersides. But my dads expensive 1 is just as bad on car bodies

Must admt i'm with difflock here, don't think it is just as clear as they seem to have made out, unless things have changed recently. I know a agri contractor got pulled by the polis a few years ago, he thought it was likely so had already got written advice fron the head traffic cops for scotland. Basiclly he was hauling muck/dung in dump trailers between 2 farms quite a few miles away, because he had the contract to spread the muck at a later date he was allowed to run red, if the farmer was spreading it it was classed as haulage so white. he ended up getting a written apology from the local polis over the way they treated him and the traffic officers attitude to him and his workers There has been lengthy threads about this in the past for arb and red desiel, if its to haul and sell firewood from domestic arb i doubt it will be as clear as made out.

Fair play to u J for making an informd decision. Must admit got a lot of time for vegans as atleast they care wot there eating, most hunters are the same. Its the other hypocrites that annoy me shout about things like this but them live on packaged horse meat from supermarket, simply don't care wot it is, where it came from, or how it lived/was killed as long as cheap. Or the vege's running about wearing leather, might as well go whole hogg and just wear fur! I get the trophy hunting thing is a hard concept to grasp even many stalkers are pretty anti trophy hunting, until 1 makes in front of their own rifle, they'll soon shoot it then thou. I used to be pretty anti it till i read up on it a bit more. If it wasn't for those trophies expense most estates couldn't afford the stalker, and surroubding businesses would lose incomes too. Really how many folk are going to go on holiday in very rural scotland throu the week throu Oct esp if weather bad and kids still at school, yet hotels and B&B's will be booked full for 6 weeks with boys coming up for the stags hoping to catch the rut. There is something brilliant about going out with the rut in ful swing esp 1st thing in morning esp if some sika about too, got the reds roaring and sika whistling, even as a non stalker the noise is unbelievable. Also because of the high price for trophies it lets stalkers take more normal 'clients' out on the hinds/does which is all subsidised by the stags. Some places u can go out on the hinds for as little as £150 a day, thats paying ur stlkrs wage, posibly estate rifle/ammo, landy, argo/pony/tracked vehicle, posibly a 2nd person to drive the extraction vehicle, larder and chiller up to modern standards. Not making any money at those rates but it gives working lads a great chance On a well run higland estate those antlers on the stags head really aren't that different to u felling a prime (ideally just over prime)mature tree, or a farmer/stockperson showing a prime animal. They only exist throu good management practices. Just as u will have planted, sprayed round it, beat it up, possibly a few selective thiinings to give that tree the light nutrients it needs The stalker will have done the exact same with the deer, watched a load of young stags, shot the worst (either ill or genetics) left some and then every year shot a few more of that crop only leaving the best/biggest beasts. There is actually formula that tell u how many stags (and hinds) u need to recruit (born) every year to shoot a certain number mature adult stags, considering it will really be 10-12 years to make a trophy sized head. Really a balancing act as the stalker will want the best deer to sire as many offspring as it can to carry on the good genes, BUT after the rut in oct/nov the best stags will have faught and shagged themselves to skin and bone an early harsh snow/weather could easy see ur big money pay day die on the hill of starvation (great way to go out thou too much fighting and shaggin ? ) Really in my opinion shooting trophy class deer year on year is the best u can do in deer/habitat management, just the same as a farmer producing top cows/bulls/sheep or crops or a forester constantly producing trees above average year on year, it doesn't happen by accident. If u want to look at some truely terrible deer management have a google about National Trust for Scotland and the disaster they have made at Mar lodge 1 of the most famous red deer forests in scotland Or wot the John Muir Trust done up Assynt summer of 2015 (i think) and shot 86 stags and left them all lying on the hill to rot away, no effort to extract the vension (talking 8T of vension left) All the neighbouring estates which rely on stags for money had to cancel their entire cull for season, even now years later still a shortage of mature stags. If a hooray henry/toff land owner had done any of the above it would of been all over the papers but because its done by charities nothing is said

RIP Sheepys dad But if this is true and the 2 have been charged with firearms offences that is very bad news for scotlands hunting estates. It also should be challenged by some of the scottish shooting orgs, like many on here who do know abit about FAC law its quite hard to predict or understand wot they could of been charged with This has been brought about purely 100% by public opinion/backlash and that should never happen when ur charging folk with criminal charges. The goats would be wild/feral common all over scotland in some places and the sheep could easily be claimed the same. I didn't agree with her shooting the sheep, but can understand it was actually better for the estate and the sheep than being carted of to a slaughterhouse to be made into a pie, The lass has a tv show over in america on hunting so the ammount of bad press tthat could do to shooting/stalking in scotland is immense As an aside on a foresrty type forum both goats and shep will cause massive damage to trees in scotland and u wouldn't believe probably the biggest killers of goats in scotland are generally 'conservation' charities. Some of those rewilding charites (NTS, JMT, even RSPB) have a prety much zero tolerance on goats and shoot them on sight, often leaving the carcas on the hill to rot. Ps Trophy hunting not really my thing either (mainly as i could never afford 1) but those few bigger trophies with the really rich geusts/toff's is wot pays for the stalkers/keepers wage year round. Sustainable trophy hunting is also a very good form of 'herd' management if ur managing ur deer herd or land/habitat badly u won't have any trophies to shoot. So if ur producing trophy grade animals year on year ur habitat must be spot on and ur beast's fit and healthy, wots not to like about that. All a bit more complicated than just walking out and shooting the 1st animal u see In tree terms bit like managing an area of woodland so u always have 'X' ammount of big trees to fell every year, a balance between leaving them to seed for future and not cutting too many down but leaving space etc, so u should always have some more coming on.

The breathing excercises aren't very hard and the lass that taught it said with practice u can do them anytime say while driving, watching tv etc I think the excercises are more to test/improve lungs than how u breathe, thats wot the tapeing ur mouth was for to train ur body sub conciously at night and get it in the habit. Throu the day u just have to conciously try to nose breathe. Or if ur really doubt it (wich i totally understand as taping ur mouth up is not a normal thing to follow advice from some internet numpty) tape ur muth up the now while ur doing something easy say watching tv etc, so absolutley no chance of anything bad happening to u. But i really would get proper advice too and not trust an internet numpty and eave a big tag to pull it off with. West i dunno if u have asthma or not but i generally prety much ignore most dr's advice on asthma now i have had it so long i generally know my own body/asthna pretty well now (althou wouldn't want others to follow if they don't understand there's), there always mumping that i never take my daily puffer and never seen the asthma nurse for years. Had to see 1 a wee while ago as moved house/dr's and my blue (ventolin) instant relief puffers were full of sawdust and dented the other was 5 yrs out of date. Swimming is really good for it and like many things the fitter/cardio vascuarly u are the better it will be (even thou u have a demanding job, ur body will get used to it)

Which is why i did state not to folllow my advice and ask a dr. I just googled it and see it still is a 'thing', Buteyko and i wasnae too far away with those breathing excercises. A hold of less than 10 secs poor, under 25 not great over 40 pretty good (explained on website better) see its pretty pricey now thou years ago was just an evening class in a village hall. From memory the only thing that stuck with me was doing those breathing excercises and taping ur mouth shut, but it did help me Duno if taping ur mouth shut will still be the 'reccommended' advice but was 20yrs ago and i rarely breathe throu my mouth now and it clears ur nose a treat. Will also stop snoring

Aye if u think about it air is onlly 20% Oxygen so it takes time to process that in ur lungs probably longer when u've got asthna and there constricted, so when ur breathing fast it only makes the problem worse. (probably just circulating the air at top while stuff inside lungs never gets replaced) Ideally u want to breathe throu ur nose 100% of time, but never going to happen esp if having an attack, another trick put ur hands on ur head and stand straigt up just as if playing sport (just opens up ur lungs etc) rather than hunching with hands on legs which is the usually stance when ur puffed/blowing I mind with that breathing excercise we took outr heart beat at start of the meeting and end and over the 6? classes everyones heart rate had came down a good bit and came down further after the excercises. And it was a massive age range of folk from reenager to pensioner They reckoned when u can hold for 30+ secs it has loads of other benefits for the body too The medicine is pretty gppd now and will soon sort u out I think with asthna ur not went to take that pain relief pills either? Not sur ethe name never really take pills or owt

Have a look into Buyteko?? (some russian doctor) helped me loads. Dunno if still a 'thing' but used to do night classes in it 20yrs ago 1 of the things thery said which makes sense althou doesn't seem like it at the time if ur having an attack. When ur breathing throu ur mouth ur breathing TOO much air and ur lungs can't process it in time so when ur havig an attack and gasping/panting it only makes it worse, hence why trying to control/slow ur breathing helps. Abd when ur lungs are constricted it needs even more time to process the air Dunno if ur doc has gave u breathing excercises? Got loads as a kid. But the 1 i learned throu buyteko casses was breathe out till lungs fairly empty then hold ur breathe as long as possible before u want to breathe in again, and time it. Don't push urself too hard u will feel it uncomfy and mibbee even ned to cough u don't want to be passing out. Think they reckoned it needs to be 30 odd sec The other even more bizzare thing i still do occassionally (but probably shouldn't mention on an open forum or u should get a proper dr's advice) is actually tape u mouth shut at nite when u go to bed. Sounds mental but does work. Use that micro pore tape stuff (NOT gaffa tape) they say do it vertically at 1st and leave a great big 'tag' on it so u can pull it off if needed, ur body will do it sub conciously, then when sleeping with that on all nnight do it horizontally. Been a long time since i've done it but any time i feel a cold/blocked nose coming on i tape my mouth up and nose is clear as a bell again. As a kid i had very bad asthma, was often hos[italised and in oxygen tents think once spent almost a week in an oxygen tent in the hosp, thoose were the days when nebulisers were just becoming more normal, which were a godsend. Once got a real bollocking of a mates dad the local dr, we were drinking round at his prob about 15 and everyone else was smoking apart from me, seemingly i as at that time the nearest kid he had seen to dying that survived, seemingly i was turning blue in the ambulance as it blue lighted/white lined it to hospital. So he wasn't happy if i was smoking and i never have Now it rarely bothers me, i hardly take my daily puffer, only if i feeel a niggle usually if i have a touch of cold/infection and never carry my blue (ventolin) usually in a van

Just make sure u get NPTC tickets, possibly the cheap course is omething different. NPTC are recognised by everybody, some forestry companies don't recognise lantra etc But 1 hell of a lot to cram into 5 days, simply not possible

Mibee hard to tell from the photo, but there does look to be a few trees above it to anchor a block too. Esp if have the anchor low down on th eanchor tree (u could even put a tie back on it, another rope on the anchor tree higher up and tie it back to another tree base further up the hill to spread load stop anchor tree pulling over) If u have a few blocks as redirects (and suitable anchor points) the only thing that really affects the trctor position is the length of the winch cable. So ur tractor can be anywhere reallly. Possibly pulling the butt to a side, which ever side will suits the tangled crown might be easier as someone said earlier about the butt digging in if u pull it directly uphill. Or throwline to get a nice high tie in point and try to pull them straight again. Ur probably as well doing wot u said getting someone in and then watching, its not rocket science but everything looks easy when u have been shown the right/easy ways At same time also good to know ur limitations and stop, as thats when mistakes accidents happen if u push to far.

Dunno about the pick axe, esp if ur down a bit deeper but a decent sharp pinch its amazing wot u can dig throu. Just done a hand ball hill fencing job digging strainers in by hand and there was a few in 1 section where u were digging throu 2ft of flinty bedrock to get the posts in. Was some swearing going on at times and had to get pinch redrawn Doubt would of been vaible on this job but a rock spike on a post knocker is some tool (assuming no underground services) for a job like this a local fencing company could of came out spiked it in 30mins. U do get some chappers on some quite small tracked machines now too, travellingto the job would take longer than doing it. When i done vineyard fencing out in OZ they had rock drills/air compressors atttached to some of the tractors for drilling the post holes. No idea if tiny companies exist in UK that do small holes. Might be expensive but i imagine u will just be charging the clients if they agree to it

Just wondering will a capstan winch pull almost any sort of rope?? Now i know if u were just using some 13mm poly prop there would be a degree of strech which is not ideal, but say u were pulling smaller brash/limbs up a steep banking u could buy a load of polyprop and tie a few lines on so when u got to the top u could have a few lines ready just to be winched up (thinking or more solo operations)

I'm the last person u want to ask about H&S risk assesments etc, like agri mog says with timber it could chance massively if u find something u didn't expect or even if weather changes (possibly more for felling if wind is completely wrong direction) Every step in life is risk assesed (most folk don't walk in front of buses) and manage fine with out writing it down Dunno if u said in ur method statement u would 'chog' the tree down 100% to ground level so no actual felling cuts needed? End of day no 1 will see u do it if on the school hols anyway Not doubting the OP's ability but i imagine the school is wanting to avoid a situation like that clip that was on here a while back, some boys making a complete hash of a tottem pole and almost wiping out a cyclist. And there is plenty other clips on here of probably/possibly good enough climbers making pure ****s of relatively simple straight fells. I would imagine 32 would be a handy ticket for many climbers just for these occasions as will take any guesswork out of it. Plus a pretty easy ticket to do, most experienced/common sensed boys could do it with little or no extra training (fact is most of u will be doing it no and again anyway with no problems) Possibly even handier now as no big tree ticket anymore so saves u doing the next 1 too as u used to do if tree is over 32. Ps Just to complicate matters further with 32, does it still specify hard and softwoods? Dunno if it was the felling or the crown breakdown but sure u used to get an a and b part of ticket for hard/softwoods. Possibly if being very anal u shpould have it for correct tree type if that still is a 'thing'

That golfy used augers to full depth then stuck an extension on it and drilled again. But depends how deep u need to go. Take a bit of digging to 1.5m by hand, to deep for even shuv holers, they strugle after 4ft. If ur tress are arriving soon i'd get some test holes dug sharpish to see if it would work or on to plan C or D

It will all depend how deep the clay layer is and if u can dig/bore throu it. A local golf course had a massive problem with its greens 10 odd years ago and the grass was almost dieing off, and had lost most of their members. They drilled holes all over the greens (every few meters) think about 6ft deep filled with pea gravel type stuff and topped with just enough soil to take the turf. Their greens are some of the best in region now and membership is overflowing. Wot u said might work all depends on u getting throu the clay layer and wot is below that. Sining a pinch well in and giving it a good 'waggle' in a few places see if u can get throu that layer. U either have to get the water away either downhill throu drainage or ur cores or has been said mound ur topsoil up and pack it to try and stop water seeping in in the 1st place. A lot will depend on the site