5thelement

Cheap and not well organised, yeah, sounds great. 👍 Ive never experienced a course of four guys being assessed for aerial climbing and aerial cutting on the same day, the assessment duration times wouldn’t allow for it.

A decent instructor can pass on a great deal of information and knowledge, way outside the assessment schedule, if the candidate is responsive to it. I wouldn’t be paying any instructor who was described as ‘cheap and good enough’. 😂 Scott would be instructing so wouldn’t be answering his phone, as you would expect, there is an office phone and email address to deal with enquiries Chainsaw from a tree is a completely separate assessment.

Scott Fraser is an excellent Aerial Instructor, worth the travel time and extra money in my book, it’s only few days after all. I can’t say about Plumpton as I don’t know who the Instructor running the course would be ( it does matter). Tony Lucas is excellent and is a freelance Instructor who sometimes works there, if he is running it all would be good, give the College a call and ask about course dates and the Instructor.

I spent the entire day and into the early evening, in a darkroom hand printing the B & W photos I had taken at my friends wedding, I missed the entire event. I remember catching a bus to Wigan that evening to meet up for a few beers. I sat thumbing through the portfolio whilst listening to two old Lancashire women behind me talking about crashing planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, I thought it odd at the time for two gals off to bingo to be having such a subversive dialogue, it all made sense when I walked in the pub and saw the TV screens.

I tried all both Oregon TXL and EXL side by side with the Husqvarna X-Cut equivalents, matching saws/guidebars etc, although the Oregon looks pretty, the Husqvarna chains where far superior.

My first encounter with Rooting bolete (Caloboletus radicans), I’ve never come across this in the UK. Image three clearly showing the thread like roots associated with this fungi, found under Oak, SW France.

A whoppa of a Laetiporus sulphureus bracket on a street tree in SW France, host is an Ornamental Cherry.

Surely when you give them the registration details, model number etc you describe the vehicle you want to insure as a e.g transit tipper, you can’t really explain it any clearer to them?

Airports should run as normal, it’s the full checks at ports, imports/exports which may cause the delays. A hard Border was was Brexit promised so no one should moan about it when it happens. The current and previous governments never stopped handing out work visas for nurses/care workers or industry labour shortages, and I don’t think a handful of welding apprenticeships being created on Tyneside are going to be reopening the shipyards any time soon.

I was to believe that insurers only needed to be informed of modifications if they were in some way ‘performance enhancing’. My insurer told me this when I informed them that I had uprated my Defender suspension, which had increased the lift by 70mm.

I hardly buy anything from the UK now unless i have it delivered to my UK address and bring it back with me. Some UK companies I’ve used for years simply don’t ship to the EU due to customs paperwork and delays, or If they do I incur import duty which makes it too expensive. There are a few exceptions, Screwfix France can often be cheaper than the UK site, and Chainsawbars are still top draw performers.

Out of interest Gareth, as a farmer, has Brexit made any difference to your life, pros or cons, anything promised and not delivered, anything unexpected come out of it?

I don’t think there is any chance of us rejoining the EU, these politicians are just looking for a way to make the shit show work. Being as it has been largely an unmitigated disaster, with very little of the benefits promised being delivered, regaining control of our borders, the amazing trade deals with the US that failed to materialise etc etc. I can see why the UK wants to negotiate better terms with its biggest trading partner, it would be dumb not to. I am back in the UK for October and early November, I leave the day before the EU finally implements the hard border, I can only imagine the cluster**************** of delays and loss of trade that this will cause. Cue newspaper headlines “ Bullying EU picking on poor little UK”. “Bullying Eu trying to force us to rejoin” “It’s all the fault of the French”

The chain pitch will be .325 on both, but the light bar runs 1.3mm gauge chain, the standard bar runs 1.6mm gauge chain.

The dealer is selling him the stock saw as Stihl now have it set up, with the light type bar and chain as standard. He could just buy the power head and use his existing bars and chains if they are compatible.

The standard MS261 was always set up to run .325 with 1.6mm gauge chain, it pulls it fine up to 18”. It does perform better with the narrow kerf bar and chain combo though, smoother, chain speed remains faster in the cut, very noticeable when performing bore cuts. The saw can be converted straight back to standard as long as it has a .325 sprocket, just match the bar and chain to suit.

A good example of Inonotus hispidus, complete with the blackened remains of last years fruiting body, the host is Walnut, SW France.

Forestry England, as they are now called,have a team that collect seed stock from endangered species which they propagate and distribute to places like Kew, Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens, Millenium Seed Bank Wakehurst etc, they also trial alternative Forestry species at various locations in the UK. I was contracted to plant some of them out in trial plots over a ten year period.

Unfortunately none of these plots are mature enough to be producing seed.

Not related to Taxus, just a similar needle. I was never on site when the ‘plums’ ripened, this is one developing on a 50 year old tree.

FC site in Kent.

Most species were planted at standard Forestry spec. Species included various Eucalyptus, monkey puzzle, Chilean plum yew, Vietnamese golden cypress, celery top pine, Leylandii and Atlas Cedar to name just a few. The Eucalyptus have romped off at an alarming rate, the Leylandii are doing great, there is a mature stand close by that withstood the 87’ storm, this has been high brashed and is simply stunning timber, the Atlas Cedar really is magnificent though, the seeds where collected from a stand in a deep ravine in Turkey, it will tolerate up to -20C in the UK, produces a top quality timber, a great nurse crop option if the FC can see further than their own noses, just need to fence it off from deer.

Because he doesn’t know his arse from his elbow. 😂 What is it you want from the woodland, is it long term reward for your kids or habitat/wildlife creation etc? Site specifics like soil type, temperatures (high and low)and exposure to winds etc will all be a factor in planting choice. I have planted all kinds of small experimental blocks over the years, looking into the future proofing of forestry, with some very surprising results from the less obvious species.

I have previously had to clear fell a mixed block of Larch and Southern Beech, planted in the 70’s in East Sussex, due to PR. The Southern beech was looking fantastic at the time. Where is your location and any idea on soil type? I certainly wouldn’t be planting two tree types that are commonly known to be susceptible to PR.

Visited this very large Horsechestnut today as the customer wanted advice on managing/retaining the tree. Most Horsechestnut in my area, (including the two large ones in my own garden) are either showing early Autumn colours and dropping leaves, or are hammered with leaf miner, this one is almost untouched. The crown is in excellent shape apart from one main stem, there is historic metal cable bracing present. The rootplate tells a totally different story, numerous fruiting bodies of Ganoderma resinaceum, both old and new, some serious rot/decay in at least two of the buttress flares (possibly the cause/instigated by flail damage) and extending out along surface roots, and the start of a column developing. This tree is large and well within striking distance of the house. The customer would like to retain if possible, although the tree would have to be reduced by half to remove completely from the target. There are growth point to reduce to and I have seen sizeable reduced and pollard Horsechestnut here in SW France. I’ve never come across Ganoderma resinaceum on this host, If it where Oak, I would recommend a reduction and monitor, not sure how a diffuse porous timber like Horsechestnut will hold up to the Ganoderma in the long term though and felling may be the better solution. Thoughts ? #davidhumphries IMG_5441.mov