Retired Climber

More likely if grafted onto different rootstock maybe?

If someone has reduced it before make sure they haven't left half the arisings hung up lower down in the hedge. I've done reductions where half the rubbish taken away was old stuff I had to drag out from a previous reduction. As Steve says, stick your head in and have a good look.

Friction hitches are always a bit slippery when all components are new. The prussic can be a bit like that anyway, even on worn rope. I always found you needed to slowly apply weight to the hitch and dress the knot as it gets weighted. Also, lifting the tail of the rope and giving it a tug upwards can help set the knot on the rope. This stuff is hard to explain in writing. Where in the country are you?

I think it depends what suits you. I used to wear Buckingham spikes and really rated them. I haven't seen them for sale for years though, so not sure if they are popular (or even made) any more. I think that you can get a good idea of what will be comfortable just by trying on in a shop. Generally, for me anyway, if spikes are comfy on the ground they are comfy in the tree. Get to your nearest dealer and try a few.

I've still got some pieces of tree in the garage somewhere that I used to use to show clients why we don't top trees. Basically, tops of 'topped' stems that had decayed down past the point at which other branches were anchored.

It would make a really interesting resource if we all took photos of wounds each year to document development of the healing process. Maybe on our own trees, or trees of regular clients for whom we do regular work.

I think you are right. However, in my experience, everyone does a bit of everything. Just because you are employed as a trainee climber doesn't mean you should stand around doing nothing when you aren't climbing. Making yourself useful at all times is the key to getting a chance at doing what you want, imo.

I completely agree with your first point about training, but disagree that we were all useless at some point. Nodoby wants to pay someone useless, so make sure you aren't that guy. Anyone can grab a rake and tidy up a bit, run a blower round, cut up stuff ready for the chipper (even with a silky if no tickets), keep brash out of the way and off of ropes, keep tools tidy, etc, etc. Basically, always look busy, and make the bosses day a bit easier.

Someon was paying attention. 😉

I'll put it another way. If I were to think about that stuff all the time I'd drive myself mad. You must be psychologically more robust than me. I don't know enough about the subject the have an opinion either way really. A bit like you, I look after 'me and mine' (I've been self employed my entire working life too), but unlike you, I'm quite happy to let the outside world get on with it. I'm sure you'd suggest I'm sticking my head in the sand, and I wouldn't argue against that statement. For me it's a self preservation tactic though; I know myself well enough to realise that if I started down that path I could easily find myself quite obsessed with it. I'm best with problems for which I can find a solution. I'd struggle to think about the stuff you are thinking about, as, to me at least, there seems to be little we could do about it. It's the same reason I don't do as much as I could for charity. I think the more I did, the more helpless I would feel. My brother is the opposite, volunteers as a non exec director for a large charity, and carries quite a burden because of it. Keep safe ( and sane).

Look at the threads I've been involved in, in any kind of meaningful way. We start to have a sensible conversation (as Mick and I were doing), and then the usual suspects make some noise to get a few 'likes', and it all goes to sh!t. Anyway, we are flogging a dead horse here. Another potentially useful thread gone to the trolls.

Maybe we never actually get to the details because we always end up having pointless conversations like this every time I post anything and I give up.

If you keep thinking about stuff like this you are going to drive yourself bloody crazy. 🙂

Just a thought, but if some of you spent less time playing to the gallery, we might have a more useful conversation. Is posting some rubbish just to get a few of the regulars to 'like' your post really the best use of your time?

As I said, if I post anything that seems useful, maybe have a ponder or do some research. I'm offering nothing more than an alternative viewpoint; take it, or leave it.

You have that completely back to front. I too have many years of practical experience. I've been self employed my entire life, making a living by doing stuff. The academic side of things is not for me at all. I waited until I was in my thirties to go to University, and only then because I thought it would be an essential step in the process. University taught me very little, and all of my clients use me for my real word practical solutions, not my theories or academic prowess. I really don't see why we need to have these kinds of conversations. You know.as well as i do that Mick's arguements were completely full of holes, and actually I think he does too. We aren't talking about how any individual runs their business, we are talking about ways in which an industry could be improved. One such way may be to take advice (or at least consider it) from people outside of the industry who may know something you don't, or see something from a slightly different angle. The collective knowledge on this forum may be very deep, but it's also quite narrow. I thought it might be useful to have an opinion from someone from outside the usual repository of knowledge. As mentioned before, don't value my opinion on climbing or other manly persuits, but do give my opinion on these other matters some thought; it does have value.

I'm perfectly happy to give away information for nothing. I'm not doing all the work though. If something I say seems to make sense, or if it seems counter to the usual position on this forum, do some research around the idea yourself.

Priced it at 600 euro.

Yep, supply and demand is critical to understanding pay. However, if you take one step back and look at how the demand is generated, everything I have said on this thread fits nicely into the supply and demand model. Just to be clear, I gave an example of one problem in the industry, and gave one explanation for it. Contrary to Mick's belief, that explanation is right 100%. It is though, just one contributing factor, to one part of one problem. I'm not suggesting that I'm some kind of Guru with all the answers.

It's not my theory. Anything I mention will be very well documented if you do a bit of searching around. Humans are very predictable, and make decisions based on certain sets of rules. You can stack the odds in your favour by understanding these and using what they tell us. Some of the applications I use are my own, and I do have a decent portfolio of original research, however, anything I've said on this thread could be confirmed by any half competent economist. There is nothing here that's ground breaking. I've already suggested a few psychological principles, in passing. Have a read up on cognitive dissonance, and see if you finding it in any way useful or relevant.

An excellent point. The world of veterinary care suffers in the same way. Vets, and even more so nurses, are paid very poorly as so many people want to do the job. As a kid I loved nothing more than battling my way through undergrowth and climbing trees, then people paid me to battle through undergrowth and climb their trees. What a perfect job.

I'm not saying you are not experienced, I'm saying you don't understand the underlying psychology and behavioural economics principles behind what's going on. I'm trying to explain them in a way that may be useful for you and other arbs if they genuinely want to discuss some of the problems and solutions in the industry. I'm very open to debate, but your declaration that I'm wrong, kind of put me off. I honestly thought you'd have come back today, having had a ponder, and we'd have had a better conversation about it. I can't say this without sounding like an a- hole, but I'll say it anyway. I know stuff that nobody else on this forum knows, and I thought I could be useful. I wasn't the greatest climber, and actually I probably got into arb to prove to myself that I could do a proper man's job. I was the skinny kid at school, and wasn't exactly the athletic type. I have little value here when the conversation is of a technical climbing nature, but if we are talking content for your website, marketing, understanding clients, improving conversion rates, persuading staff to work harder or anything of that nature, my knowledge and experience will be unparalleled on this forum (or actually, any forum). Haha, I told you i'd sound like an a-hole.

Thank you. That is exactly the point, and much more concisely put than I have managed.

Do you think the 'rationale' may have anything to do with what they perceive an arb to be worth, per day, per hour etc? You know what I'm getting at. I can't believe you still think I'm wrong, having had a chance to have a ponder about it, but you still seem to just dance around the points, rather than moving towards an actual answer. Anyway ,maybe us discussing it is pointless, so I'll simply summarise my point. In a nutshell, one of the reasons that arb ( especially as an employee) is very poorly paid, is because the general public think it's a fairly basic, manual labour kind of occupation, and would struggle with the cognitive dissonance created by thinking they were paying their arb more than (what they would term) 'professionals'.

Out of interest, where do you think the figure in their head comes from? What do they use to set the original anchor? I'm not trying to be a smart arse, I'm genuinely interested in your opinion. This is basically what I do for a living, and I usually have these conversations with other behavioural economists / psychologists / economists, so your layman's opinions on the matter are very interesting.