drinksloe

I'd go with goaty's idea, althou if the boy is dodgy do u really want to be upsetting him? Will take a few hedges to pay for new tyres/trailer etc esp if it sits away from ur house Just incase trailer disappears or tyres mysteriously go flat throu nite

Do u not get on with ur neighbour? if i needed work done and a nieghbour had just started up i'd probably give them a shot. Can't sdee the council be bothered

I agree with some of wot u said about not getting bullied. Hopefully these contactors could keep u right and advise u, they will get paid off NR just the same as u. Mibbe send them a photo or 2 to save them coming out i'm sure they could advise u from that. I'd be dead against paying for it as u don't pay the power boys when they come to cut round there wires sort of same thing. There safety standard not ur's Assuming ur tree surgeon has said trees look healthy etc (look healthy enough in photo) there is no immediate risk or hurry, take ur time and try and get it sorted but don't be rushed I wouldnae side ur side up the trees on ur side as if it drags on will look horrible and if ever there was a freak wind the wrong way and a tree went over the line it could be blamed on u sideing tree up and leaving all the wieght on the dangerous railway side.

Hope that makes sense and not too cluttered. I put my amswers in ur post but dosenae seem to have came up in italics??

I'm with iveco here, there is nothing to stop them cutting the tree back to boundry at there own expense, and the fact they have already done the easy bit at there expense possibly helps. When i worked on railways climbed plenty of hardwoods in folks gardens far further off the track than that to take limbs of or side up whole tree and all at NR expense. But possibly things have changed or their chancing there luck. If u can get NR to do there side i'd have a quiet word with the cutting crew that comes in or there gaffer/surveyor (almost certainly be subbies), not a big job to take tops off while they are there esp if got a cherry picker on site. and if u offered to take the chip/logs it would save them a lot off work otherwise would have to be dragged to end of platform to be chipped. The time saved by putting chip on ur side instead of dragging would easy cover the time to knock tops off Do u actually want the trees removed? Once the trees are sided up u can have a look wot ur left with and make a more informed decsion. Probably would be benifical to top them atleast. But it will be far easier on tree surgeon if all the wieght is off the far side. U may even get away with doing any work without NR once they are sided up, or atleast be a far quickier job. But i really would stand ur ground and refuse to pay for any work on the rail side. (Does ur tree surgeon not know anyone doing rail work in the local area? who main contractor is or who subbies are?)

Have u looked into Australia or NZ? The dollar may be a bit easier on u than the £. Good luck too u anyway

I'm no legal eagle and others on here could mibee take this idea further. But if they are cutting the branches at the lower level at there own expense surely they have set a precedent so should pay for the cutting on their side right to the top. Then u just have to negotiate them taking the tops off the trees Not the type of job u could knock off on a sunday morning either without being seen

Like i said i was just a monkey on saw but i really doubt that 1. The company must be under pressure for cost cutting or just chancing there luck. With a bit of fore thought no reason it could not be added to a possesion and especially so as u don't need any gear on the lines so Road Railers etc could still come throu the job/site I'd really stand ur corner they could cut as much as they wanted from there own ground. 1 barginning chip u might have is if u volanteered to take the chip/brash. Be a pita to deal with in that situation and have to be carted or dragged of platform (or onto a container on track if possesion but even that is expensive as would need to be a RR and not a tractor with 3rd rail)

The trees look pretty healthy and if i was u i wouldn't want them taken down totally as will give u a lot of privacy. I would imagine NR would be responsible for that sort of work when it is as close as that. I would hold off until they offered to do it for free and then possibly ask them to top the trees a bit too. Would not be that big a job on a possession esp if u got a cherry picker in, not sure if u could work a cherry picker like there green zone with trains still runing. But we've worked chippers in situ's like that not sure if different rules for cherry pickers/mweps and i've been of rails for a while so no doubt things have changed. I used to hate the 3rd/live rail used to scare the hell out of me, fortunately only worked it on the 1 job for a few months I definately would not rush into anything, ombudsman is a good call but if u get no luck it might be worth speaking to a land agent/lawyer who has dealt with NR before, will cost a bit but cheaper than u paying for trees to be taken down

I'd defo be looking at ur title deeds and see wot they say about railway access to ur ground an any mention of trees. Where the trees planted before u bought property or by the railway themselves? I'd doubt trees will be so close/overhanging could be within the 3m where u'd definately need COSS or Lookouts, and even if they were within the 3m doesn't neccesarily mean they'd need a possesion (line closed) depends how dodgy the work is wether or not could be done 'green zone' I'd say if u have room in ur garden for trees to be climbed and a rope tied on and be winched over as a straight fell there really is little risk to railways, leyandi are quite predictable to fell. Might be worth speaking to ur lawyer or even a land agent that is more used to dealing with NR, might cost u some cash but ur talking about spending a considerable bit of cash. I would of thought NR are responsible for trimmming any branch within the 5-6m from nearest track and then try and do a deal over access to get them to reduce hieght if thats wot u want

I'm not an expert but used to cut/climb on the railways but just as a lowly basic grunt. Must admit i was never sure who paid for jobs but generally i believed NR would pay for the job themselves at no cost to home owners, infact we used to do extra work for home owners if they let us have decent access/cups of tea etc. They will be allowed to cut back to boundry without ur permisson, (used to work to a 5 or 6m clearance to nearest line) but ackward unless u have access to the stem. I've definately been on jobs where we have felled/severely reduced whole trees outside NR property and beyond the 5/6m clearance, i believed at no cost to the home/landowner owner as it will work out cheaper long term than constantly trimming the trees every 5 years I'd wait and see wot other advice comes in on here, don't think they can't bully u into taking them down with out legal things, esp if u don't want them down. Possibly NR are cost cutting but in past if they wanted trees cut back i thought the home owner cut a deal with contractor/contractors surveyor to top them etc in return for access etc or leaving brash/logs etc (normally all chipped/off site) I definately would not rush into paying large sums for their removal esp if ur not really wanting them removed. Do u have any other things u could use as a barginning chip with NR? Is access bad trackside ? always handy getting decent access away from trackside They used to work a sort of 5-7 year rota going round lines, so having a word with the cutting crew when they come may help and possibly offer to slip them something extra to do the work for u. Althou i think NR are far stricter now with small crews working in middle of nowherephoneing on/off and GPS , when i was on it they'd hardly ever know where u were or wot u were doing so would be very easy to do a few extra hours each nite to do a job like that It will depend how over hanging the trees are and how close they are to lines/overheads, but if u ave to enter railway land ur meant to have a COSS and other nonesense H$S bs

Not wanting to put u off but u may find it quite expensive as usually to do a climbing course u have to have some basic cutting tickets 1st. I'm quite old fashioned and no matter how good the course/instructors are u do ur real learning on the job under more experienced climbers, as for all the basics are the same every job is different. Do the other companies not take staff on and train them up? The other thing woould any UK qualification be relavent in Chile? or do they not have qualifications if no one teaching it? Good luck hope u get something sorted

Ur quite right, 1 boss i worked for even insisted the way u tie of a net on a strainer, certain wire had to be below/above the line wire, made absolutely no odds to the fence Most/all old school fencers in my area always put 2 posts and even had a stab near to gate post to take rails so gate posts were not connected to the strainers at all

Althou knowing stock movement etc is not the be all and end all either, seen plenty of shoddy farmer put up fences to see that, and some of those boys contract out to others. I read an fencing post/thread on here were a ad was pulling all his wire with his 4x4 or a ratchet strap 1 off my old bosses reckons the post knocker was worst invention ever for fencers, as know anyone can batter a strainer in and call them self's a fencer. Whereas pre chappers takes a bit of hard graft and skill to dig/pack strainers in by hand. Out of couriosity how many of u stiil put seperate strainers and gate posts in? (ie 2 posts either side of gate, 12 to strain wire 1 to hang/slam gate) Only 1 fencer in my area still does that and even he does not do it 100% the way he used to.

Aye i know mechanisation is the main reason but the ammount of jobs that no longer exist is massive (or possibly FC were just grossly overstaffed) I've just bought an old FC office/yard and used to be 30 men worked here and owned 10 workers houses even in the 80's, and this was a small satelite office with plenty other similar ones all over the district. Used to be FC fountains, EFC mini buses ferrying boys ll over when i was a lad never mind all the SE cutters If a tree fell over in the main office car park they'd haver to get subbies in to cut it up to get home now, plenty bodies but all shirt and tie. Found some old records looked like they used to thin trees every 5 years, now be lucky if trees are inspected eery 5 years

Must admit i'll be intrested in some of the post's too. I really struggle to get my head round it locally as since the big boimass power plant has went in doesnae make a lot of sense and relying in gov subsidies to push timber prices up. And even it is not very well thought out compared to the scandinvinians where the idea came from Althou i think lot of the commercail sof wood job seems to be massive differences in the way different companies approach it. Some companies esp nowadays put a lot of quite decent timber intot he local burning plant (which was originally only going to be burning waste, and by product and brash and locally grown willow) Almost all the farmers have ripped the willow out now, generally topped after 1st year to make it coppice then harvested every 3-5 years, to make money it will need to be 3 yrs so better ground. Whereas other timber companies having the harvesters cut 13 sizes on jobs with poor wood, just a nightmare for forwarder/harvester drivers 1 of the things i struggle to unerstand is in my area sw scotland timber quality tends to be poor as trees growing too fast so all knotty yet the new strind of trees can be harvested on an even shorter rotation Also where all the jobs went? even just 30 yrs ago they're usd to be loads of manual work and plenty of men, now local FC hardly employs any actual workers.

To be fair u could still strap right under the pallet just run it throu the bar at the ends, mibee better with open loops then and mibee 2 catchers on underside of metal so strap can't slip forward/back, so u could slide straps in them. So strops still under pallet and pallet strengthed by ur 2 metal bars

Ronnie rose snr was 1 of the first forresters to do that back in 70's and designed eskdalemuir forest with deer/deer control in mind, leaving big glades in areas where the deer want to be or where best food is for them so makes it a lot easier to manage them. Really when forests planting starting being designed as it is now, less straight edges and more hardwoods etc At that time most forests just tried to plant as many trees as possible into the acreage they had Wot trees were they planting Ruskin? Often willow is a favourite for planting to encourage them to fray it, but u can also buy various deer lawn mixes so u can plant an area with appetising grasses for the deer ideally somewhere u can shoot safely and get carcass out easliy

I've heard of red and sika nibbling bits of bark but often on mature trees when nothing else left to eat further north but even that is relatively rare, would rather hammer the fresh buds/leaders, but never roe or fallow. Doesn't mean they don't but i've certainly never heard of it Fallow are generally quite good with trees as a grazer, roe can be bad as a browser but generally more for nipping lead buds than eating bark. Are u sure not 2/3 different animals causing damage? Possibly roe doing the branches/buds and being seen so gettin blame while hare/rabbits/sheep even horses or voles eating the bark? All will actively choose to eat bark whereas deer normally don't. Looking closely at way bark nibbled or ripped and hieght should give u an idea of wot culprit actually is. Esp in E anglia i'd imagine even in middle of winter will be far tastier foods about than tree bark If u already have an active deer policy dependin wot it is and if it is definately deer damage u possibly need to look at it again, either need to shoot more or try a sort of 'stand buck' policy leaving the biggest to scare of the rest. But u will always get some damage no matter how good ur management is more about keeping the % down so crop still vaible in 30-40 yrs. So really depends how much damage ur whole wood is sustaining. Often the shoot them all is not really the best policy althou very widely used now with commercial forestry ground

I tend to agree with this. Deer ofen get blamed for all sorts and not always correctly Wot type of deer are they? Really quite unusual for deer to eat bark althou they can cause damage by fraying (generally roe this time of year or really a few months ago marh/Apr time, and ur larger deer about august time) If its fraying deer can stil knock trees about even with guards on. Most deer prefer to fray on willow before any other tree so possibly planting some wilow just for that reason and fell when trees are past vurnerable stage? I'd also stick it in freezer. Althou the old school stalkers often used the 'stand buck' principle for protecting vulnerable trees, basically a real big buck will cause less damage and hold a bigger area than a small/young buck, so better to leave ur big bucks around vurnable trees. Not really done as much nowadays as usually stalkers/rangers usually under to much pressure to get numbers throu larder

If ur a bricky to trade i would imagine ur cheaper doing a double skin block house as u could do all the work urself. While making kits is not rocket science it is still probably a wee bit more than hobby joinery. Just making sure u have the right timber in right places to be load bearing etc If u go down the kit route, U would probably be cheaper making the kit on site and helping a joiner mate to do it, not too bad to do I'm moving into the caravan this wknd about to start a self renovation job, not really ready for it as my house sold after 4 days which is quite unusual in this area. The stonework is already there but needs a new roof and a few thousand ton of soil/rock shifted from behind it before i can start My bro has randomly also just bought a site too and is looking at building a polysterene house (ICF, nudura blocks) which does seem quite an impressive system and pretty easy for diyers. Quite cheap too and saves on ur external/vapour proof plaster board at 27 quid a sheet

Like others have said they're really is no risk from the asbestous, if the roof does contain it) doing tree surgery work. The only real risk is dropping something on the roof as can be brittle or soft but as someone said earlier just treat as a green/glass house. When u think off the job u will be working 6-10ft above the roof in fresh air and never really coming into contact with it. Potentially more risk using it as a rain shelter or sharpening ur saw inside it, yet no one masks up to work insde sheds like that which are still very common.

Basicaly yes, better explanation than i would come up with in so few words. All just trigonometery in the end.

Use the stick trick or looking through below ur legs and pace back, never that far away. And once u know how to do it u will always be able to estimate height and can never leave it at back door so u won't forget it

Aye that was my point, u can buy cheap 1 or 2T winches every now and again in aldi for 20 quid (not very good thou, right enough) but gives u an instant 1T pull or 2T throu a snatch block, and doesnae take up much room in van. Even throu a 5:1 system if u can pull with 35kg ur only pulling with 175kg, but if its high enough that may be enough, but does seem an awful lot of hassle but worthwhile knowing just incase u've left ur winch at home but doubt i'd have enough carabiners to rig it up most days