Dan Maynard

I use a pole pruner a lot, it can save a lot of climbing on reductions and a longer pole is useful for that, but what you are asking about is slightly different. Personally I'd say more than 4m and you don't want to be doing much sawing with it due to the weight and awkwardness, but in general you are safer with a pole saw than working off a ladder because you've got space on the ground to get out of the way. I'd go for silky zubat pole as a simple pole with a good saw blade on, light and not too long, same spare blade as the handsaw. As long as the branches aren't thicker than say 3 or 4 inches that will be fine. The other types of pole are then about longer saw blade or longer pole.

Sorry for this mate, it is crap and I know every time you improve the security they break the next thing. I've put bars on the windows at my unit, they broke the door, security door they broke that, put shutters on the doors and they've climbed on the roof and gone through the cladding at the back so I'll put some reinforcement behind it and see what happens next. I think I'm lucky they haven't actually taken much away, this time the alarm was going so they left after a couple of minutes. On the bright side I had a burglary detective call and come to see what happened, so CCTV does seem to be worthwhile as they got recorded over by the pub where they had parked their van.

Big fan of my Muck Truck, doesn't care if it's up hill or down and with greedy boards has bigger capacity than normal barrow. Bang for buck it's a brilliant bit of machinery.

I usually reckon on about 0.5-0.6m gone in a pair of double fisherman's onto the crab plus 0.7-0.9 to make the knot so if you buy 2m you can try it, or get 5m and cut 1.5m off to start. Gustharts, honeys etc sell friction cord by the metre, I'm usually using the cheap stuff £2 ish per metre as it lasts me the 6 months between LOLER and then bin. Teufelberger Sirius, Marlow boa, Yale silver Streak etc.

The vents don't close completely so that you have to keep the burn going nice and hot. In general if you close down so the stove is slumbering then the flue temperature drops, you deposit tars in the chimney, and your particulate emissions soar so it's all round a pretty bad idea on a wood burner.

Thats where semi chisel chain would be a winner.

Brampton Valley Training in Towcester, give them a ring they are friendly and have a chat or pop in to the office. That's what I did in the first place, about 6 years ago and now I've done a load of courses with them. The starting point for nearly everything NPTC is the maintenance/cross cut/felling up to 380mm which is a 5 day course, plus a day for assessment if you want the ticket after. It's still known as CS30/31 but the numbers actually changed a while ago.

Ow!

Or you have kids of mowing age. Sadly my eldest has gone to university so this summer might be time for a change.....

Got to find one to buy, too - not that easy.

Doesn't sound like you have anything to gain by quoting the oak, if I have this right he's asking for another 200 but has nothing to base that on? If it were mine I'd do nothing and tell him to direct correspondence to my solicitor, I guess being US he might try to sue you for the 200 but how will he win that? The more you talk to him the more dodgy it gets, in my opinion.

Where do you buy files from?

The Avant has a better seat than the Rayco.

I kind of want to post something similar every time someone says they've converted to single hand. Injury on modified splitter is one of the few successful HSE prosecution of tree surgeon I could find online. Your own splitter on your own property fill your boots, but someone working for you is such an obvious PUWER flout they are likely to have a look and throw the book. My splitter is two hand operated and will remain so, ram return happens when you let go so it isn't a big hindrance. Otherwise make a bonfire of the chainsaw trousers, boots, second rope, chain brakes, and all the other safety measures to guard against pretty low risks tbh. There, said it. Now carry on...

I think the robot ones make sense if you're alternative is paying someone to drive the mower.

I was looking at these the other day, the bigger Makita ones hold two pairs of batteries and have a switch to change over. I don't see how you could go to corded mower with 1000m2 around fruit trees, the cable would be a menace.

Been sat on my jacksie with COVID this week. On the bright side, not had to fill up the truck. Every cloud, as they say...

What vehicle are you in? Different manufacturers have different ideas about what 4WD means, could just be that you used a bit more fuel than necessary.

I don't handle the volume of jobs that many of you do, so maybe wouldn't work as well but I put everything into Trello boards. (www.trello.com and also a phone app). The concept is simple, it's cards which you can put into lists and put lists on boards. I have a board for tree work, then start a card for each job enquiry, write job details onto. You can make whichever lists you like to put cards on, I have enquiry, quote to write, quoted, queue to do, done (need paid) and move jobs across. They can have dates, notes, whatever added so that you can make a summary of what's due as well. The great thing about a cloud system is that it's the same set of boards anywhere, so whether that's lunchtime in the van, in the office doing my other job, or at home when I've left stuff in the van it's the same set of up to date cards. Bottom line is though like any system you have to keep checking it and make sure you put everything on. I think it's far more important that you have a simple system and stick to it, than the system itself be perfect.

Probably obvious but if you are thinking of taking it on yourself a felling hinge made of that white stuff is not to be relied on, likely to just snap rather than bend so the tree falls any direction it likes. Seriously consider hiring someone just to get it on the ground.

Doesn't look the same no, I'd guess a willow or poplar. White rot is a broad description of decay inside the wood caused by many different fungi, so on its own not enough to say. That's why we look for fruiting bodies or FFB as identifiers. Some fungi start at cuts or wounds and spread down, some start at the bottom and spread up. HC and pop are not good at stopping the spread either way. Fungal spores are everywhere so it's always going to spread given a chance, bit like bacteria always around us ready to infect a cut. Some do spread through the soil. In any case these are pretty advanced and with that much of the top dead the bottom will have been starved. The danger of course is decay in the roots causing the whole thing to fall over. Looks like it's by a road in which case duty of care applies, best advice I can give is get someone competent to have a look as failure reasonably foreseeable.

That is delignification caused by white rot, those branches are dead. What caused so much of the tree to die is not apparent.

That's the other answer, we'll sell through Amazon or ebay. No regulation taken any notice of.

What I find most disheartening is when I work hard to reduce carefully so it almost looks like it hasn't been cut, and the customers answer is "oh I thought you'd take more off" Last time this happened I'd taken about 12 feet out of a birch and they waited till we'd tidied and raked up before coming out with it. Closest I have come to losing my cool with a customer - decided we'd have lunch break while they had a think and when we came back they decided they liked it after all. Sometimes I think it would be easier to mow it all off to stubs, customers probably just as happy.

Good feedback, thanks.