peds

If you are scattering wildflower seeds, don't bother tilling. They prefer it a bit rough and ready.

arbtalk.co.uk, 2034. A recent emigre Brit arborist trying to make his way in France starts a thread asking for advice on what to do with an oak tree that was "pollarded" 20 years ago. He can't afford a hover mewp or a drone saw, and he isn't sure about climbing above the new growth points to trim it back down. "That isn't a pollard," comes the first reply. "It's a very tall coppice job." "Just tie all the new leaders together and anchor off them, there's strength in numbers." the second reply follows. "How tall is your ladder?" asks the third commenter. Mick Dempsey, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips, leans back in his chair and takes a sip of crisp white wine, nodding contentedly. "La grande roue continue de tourner..."

Nothing wrong with that. I often recommend it.

Looking good dude. Glad to hear of progress, however small you think it is. Mental that we can just grow new bits of bone like that.

French town squares with neat rows of repeat pollards are stunning. Great way of keeping big trees in urban spaces. Can't find a picture after 30 seconds on Google that isn't a carpark, but just imagine a vibrant market with pretty little cafes and a fountain instead.

I could never side with the idea of keeping a laurel unless someone buried a beloved family pet or conceived their firstborn under it. They are an ecological disaster, contributing absolutely nothing to their environment - not even an annual leafdrop for either compost or humus. They are hugely effective as an evergreen hedge, I'll grant them that, but that's all your shrub is... an escaped hedge. Again, sorry if it has some attached sentimental value, but if the last remaining "tree" on your road is this sorry little thing, then you need to get some more in the ground ASAP. If you are really that bothered with that specific plant, you could dig it out of the ground with a digger and place it wherever, give it a bit of a haircut (ideally down to ground level...), and it'll probably just shrug it off. This'll give its neighbour to the right there a bit more light as well... what is that one, by the way? He might be a bit close to the fence, and the house, too... (Edit: the bark looks a little beechy to me...)

I'm all for keeping trees where they are whenever possible, especially if they've got sentimental value... but it's a bleeding laurel... get rid of it, replace the fence, plant something better in the right place. Horrible things.

"Future work" should only be the wrong tree planted in exciting places, not leaving extant trees in a sorry state. Scatter acorns in your wake instead of poplar pollards.

Choked slings around the stem for feet for sure, and if you don't want to teeter around on top of it, go underneath it. Takes some getting used to.

Bump. Got bar oil on the working end today, it's in the machine at 40, daisy chained in a mesh bag. I'll use the other end for a bit anyway, it was about due for swapping. Anyone got any amusing rope washing anecdotes? Edit: oh shit, should I have taken the zigzag off first?

A thought suddenly came to me... I wonder if a thin layer of tar coating the inside of your lungs would help prevent transmission of airborne plastic particles into the blood.

I never implied fighting, I implied breeding for profit. And your friend's sales tactic of buy three get one free is a shitty thing to do and you are a shitty human being for considering facilitating it. Boils my piss.

Oh, he's back.

Is it from the same home that had 8 Australian shepherds for sale back in November, or is this a different friend of yours with questionable involvement in dogs? Without hearing more details, my gut feeling tells me that none of you should have dogs. Try guinea pigs instead. Delicious.

Some of those big pallet crates you can cut away a few slats at the bottom and fish the logs out that way, instead of out of the top. (Edit: don't remove so much that it reduces the structural integrity to collapse though!)

Eating, drinking, and breathing microplastics every minute of the day probably isn't helping.

Why bake bread when you can buy it? Why carve your own wooden spoon when you can buy them? Why knit your own scarf when you can buy them? Why make your own barbecue out of an oil drum when you can just buy a Weber or something? Daft question.

Having your own transport will be a major factor in your favour. Get lessons now, book a test for your 17th birthday, find some cheap little banger. Try and get experience with reversing a trailer ASAP too. Hugely useful skill that will set you apart from some other candidates.

Seal skull. The similarities are remarkably few.

Looks more avian than mammalian to me. Bird skull with the beak snapped off. Could be a pelvis/pubis of a bird as well, more shots from more angles would help. Where found?

What might someone expect to pay for a 6 foot bit of yew suitable for a longbow?

Well... it worked!

That'd be an awkward time to find the rope gnomes had been up to their mischief.

Oh yeah, didn't clock the helmet at first. Proper yard sale, things going everywhere. Poor fella.

Garden seems awfully tidy for sending it towards the camera, looks like the rest of it has already gone the other way too... Definitely a frustrated shout as it starts to fall but before the real show begins, he knew something was up. Looking again, I see a saw flying down and left, and something else flying down and right... looks like a cambium saver. Not being rigged at all, and a stub on the falling piece caught behind his own rope? That'd be pretty gnarly.