Dan Maynard

I have a couple of old table tops in the garage, beech and oak which gives me an idea.. You might be able to scout out an old second hand table to plane down and refinish? My brother got some old school science lab desks once, marvellous timber when taken down to a fresh surface. Obviously if you can find a good board at the right price but an old oak table with horrible looking legs couldn't be more than £100 on Gumtree?

I sort of get what you mean "President Trump recommended injecting disinfectant to cure coronavirus" = fake news, but that doesn't let him off the hook. Based on my viewing of the press conference video and transcript of his words he did make a whole series of remarks about things the doctors should look into - which were at best ill thought through and unscientific to the point of ridiculous, at worst extremely irresponsible and dangerous. He is a head of state, he should know better. Disinfectant kills virus in a minute, it kills all sorts of other pathogens too but we can't use it inside bodies. We'd have no infectious diseases in the world if we could, malaria, smallpox, cholera, TB, HIV, influenza, why stop with coronavirus? We simply need to kill the germs inside the body. He's made other remarks about using anti-biotics and the virus being cunning which are just bonkers too. And suggested using drugs which have not been tested. Bonkers.

There's a lintel bar there already, which obviously has to come out and can most likely be reused. Unless the brickwork is really loose it won't fall down while you're working on it anyway, in which case it is so loose you want to knock it out and put it back properly anyway.

Illustrated Guide to Pruning by Edward Gilman is the one I bought, can't remember who recommended it on here, sorry.

That looks a fun one!

Multisaver, as others said it's for dismantles only so need something easy to slide when unloaded.

It's heavy though? Like a 201? In my mind I'd like a small saw for conifer hedge tops where you don't have to keep pulling the cord and it's not say there pushing out fumes and hot exhaust on your leg/rope while you chuck branches down. Currently that would be the 150 job so maybe should get the 18v.

I'd love to be able to say that was deliberate but I'd be lying.

That is also a good trick, I think he said it is starting on the pull cord ok though.

Man that's tempting. Whether to get 18 or 36v topper though?

It's a gamble either way though isn't it? Could be a massive recession and lots of trees left for another year, firms not hiring. Then again a consistent thread over the last years on recruitment is it's difficult to find good climbers or reliable groundies. Scaffolding is a bit of an up and down industry I'd have thought as well, presumably mostly follows construction? I guess everyone has different motivations, you will have the physical and outdoor aspects so maybe the question is whether you have the interest in trees. There is a lot of good material online to start reading, and some book recommendations on this forum. Personally I'd try that before you spend on the level 2 arb course. And the usual advice is try to get some days with a local firm but that might be a challenge at the moment.

I think the problem is that the election freight train started years ago and now is travelling full speed towards another Trump term, very difficult to change course. I said the other day, comments about disinfectant like that would end a political career in the UK (compare to Gordon Browns bigoted woman quote) but Trump will now pretend he never said it and call any questions about it fake news. Within a week or two the Americans will have forgotten.

Sounds painful. Do you get a legal helpline with your business insurance or any other insurance policy? I'd be making some calls, you need proper advice about whether your claim has a solid grounding - on the face of it you should but they are probably the sort of bastards who know how to weasel out of a refund.

50 miles each way for me. Must be somebody nearer?

And yes, subscription for Microsoft Office is an interesting one. You can pay £249 one off fee for one computer now (£120 if no business use), so you're not forced into subscription. Or, in my business I used to pay £7 per user per month for hosted email and buy boxed copies of Office. These were expensive so we were still running Office 2010 until a few months ago when we bought the new laptops. I now pay £9 a month per user for hosted email, and each user can install Office onto up to 5 PCs. So Microsoft Office is now so cheap it's a no brainer. For home or single user though I would look at LibreOffice, it is pretty good. My kids didn't like it because the PowerPoint equivalent is a bit limited but if you're just doing quotes and spreadsheets it will be fine.

Careful there Les, in the last 5 years Mac's have got a lot more mainstream. Of the things mentioned AutoCAD, SketchUp, gimp, Microsoft Office, Libre office all available for Mac now. I still stand by the statement Mac are a premium product. They are good, but expensive so it's a bit like buying a Mercedes when a Ford is cheaper, more economical. I buy Lenovo, I picture them somewhere around Volvo, my 9 year old one is solid and dependable. I've upgraded to SSD like Spud and had new batteries every few years. We bought a load of the £500 ones earlier in the year and they are cracking machines. One other thought to chuck in is whether you have iPhone? If you do and so have all your photos, music, mail and so on with Apple then the MacBook becomes even more attractive because everything will share across nicely. If you are happy to pay for it then the user experience is great. I believe this is one of the main reasons Mac's are so much more popular now, they used to be really niche. If you're on Android then I would do a £500 Lenovo i5 8GB and SSD. Dell always had the reputation of falling to pieces when I used to travel around commissioning machinery. And don't ignore the refurbished either, these often come from large companies who upgrade in fleets every 2 or 3 years. It's a case of the right thing coming up at the right time though. And like car brand it's a personal thing, you won't get Les off his HP.

Do we reckon Don is going to haul that up a big tree later? Maybe not.

Looks vinyl sides to me too. Worth a question under warranty, they might say fair wear and tear but if you do the repair kit and it gets worse no chance of a claim. What about a nice seat cover, with wooden beads?

Remember, 95% of fuel problems are electrical.

I sometimes say to people if you ask three tree surgeons you can somehow end up with four opinions. I would be cautious, fruit trees which are regularly cut do seem to thrive on it but on the other hand sometimes old fruit trees just suddenly die. My take, I doubt you can reduce it hard without it dying so I would prune to maintain about that size. It looks like at about 7 foot up the stems get thinner, you can selectively remove one or two branches per year at that height or just above. Or decide that's it and plant some new ones spaced out ready for the day it falls apart.

I have a suspicion it will be harder to push on solid wheels, but easier than a flat tyre. What about arb trolley solid wheels? You can buy these as an upgrade, they would be strong enough for sure. I don't know how big the CS100 wheels are, maybe these could be adapted? Clarke PF395 Puncture Proof Yellow Tyred Wheel 395mm - Machine Mart - Machine Mart WWW.MACHINEMART.CO.UK

Sounds like you could get together with Spud and start a "smoky saw" thread.... Need video.

Spikes like harnesses don't fit everyone the same, definitely borrow some until you need to and have a chance to work out what you like.

Yeah I'm going to leave the jumping from tree to tree until after watching the advanced chapters.

When mine has done this it's dirty battery terminals or loose battery terminal bolts.