Trailoftears

Its a bit like seeking out the holy grail really,a lot of boots including 'high end' ones,are obviously aimed at fell walkers with too much dosh with too many issues for daily work,too heavy/no toecaps/need loving care and so on.Still, I'm grateful for the progress that's been made over the years.No more frankenstein type,ludicrously heavy boots that suited deep sea divers more than outdoor workers.The placcy/composite toecaps plus midsoles make these so much nicer to live with.

I shy away from buying proper chainsaw boots due to all the points made by the o.p.Are they REALLY worth the price premium,are they heavy,will they last,are they viable to comfortably wear on a daily basis?etc.It would make more sense for me to buy decent chainsaw wellie type boots to wear when needed.But again,coming from a farming background I know only too well their drawbacks-hot ' n sweaty,poor ankle support,tend to lead to flat feet issues due to non-existent arch support and so on.

I'm not one for defending ins.companies,but they have some excuses at the present-lac k of parts/semi-conducters/the electric vehicle costs given a prang due to compromised batteries etc.But really,the advice is simple-walk away.They rely on customer inertia/lack of time/effort.This applies to all insurances/broadband etc.Insurance companies are exactly the same as betting firms-they cheeerfully take your 'stake' then move heaven and earth to avoid paying out.With insurance its all 'Actuarial',the science of risk and probabilities.This explains why,if you ask for your renewal quote a good month before its due,you will get a significantly better quote than if you ring them 3 days before the policy ends.In their book,you look prudent and careful by asking early.Equally,they see you as feckless and reckless,if you only worry 3 days before your policy lapses.Equally,this explains why it lowers your policy cost to add your good lady to it-even tho she may never want or expect to drive your works vehicle.Insurance companies see all male drivers between,say,20-65 as potential drink drivers.

Not quite on topic,but summer boots vex me too.I always aim for plastic/composite toecaps/midsoles which really makes a difference when you're doing God knows how many steps per day.Portwest do a metal-free boot for 35 odd quid which are lovely and light,but due to spending far too much time on my knees-and I'm not talking about worshipping Allah here-just split at the welt/split along the sole every summer-and waterproof they aint,so not so cheap as they seem.Went the other end of the scale and bought 2 pairs of cofra boots @£90 odd a pair-no metal/lightweight and dryplexxed.Made my midfoot ache a fair bit,and the leathers just seemed 'cheap' and seemed all soggy in wet weather.So still seeking the holy grail of summer work boots.

These have hugely impressed me,now done 3 winters in wet conditions i.e.streams clearing out trees from a redundant railway line.Utterly waterproof thanks to the e.s. version of goretex-dryplex.And I'm pretty confident they'll do another 2 winters too.By Engelbert strausses standards,these arent silly expensive either about £100 all in.Classed as Winter boots,but no interior fleece involved.As you can see from my pair-I'm not apt to go in for polishing or dubbin! Doesn't bother them in the least.Normally at this time of year I'd be switching to lighter boots for the Summer,the way the ground and weather is here, I'm more than glad to keep wearing these stalwarts for now!

I think pleasants bang on the money there.the reg /r has a larger tooth gap and lower/slower gearing speed-designed to do more rugged,hard back cutting.Where the t/trim version is designed to run faster and do lighter cut work at faster speeds.

Phew-glad to hear its not just me!My fave go-to ****************up is B/cutter related.Machine placed on the drive at a customers house/handle assembled/choke engaged/petrol tank v.carefully topped up to avoid overspill onto tarmac-then it can break down-sometimes talk to customer/grab helmet and proceed to last pre-use check-lift up strimming head vertically and re-length cord/clip ends of cord-then look with huge horror at the best part of a mug of premix fuel flooding the customers drive due to a complete dickhead forgetting to replace the petrol tank cap 😳

A double-edged sword in many ways.Many moons ago I was an employed engineer in a factory and the clocking in/out cack and being penalised for being 3 minutes after 9 say 3 times in a month did my head in-and also stupid,taint how long your in-it should be about HOW much you get done whilst there in my book.On the other hand,having been s.employed for 35 yrs+,it sometimes strikes me that I drive myself harder than I'd ever accept from an evil uncaring employer!Also I dont like how I feel guilty when on Hols seeing other people working whilst I'm idling about!

Really useful chart that, I'm looking to replace a rotten trellis structure that divides the ornamental/borders area from the working raised veg beds area with a couple of espalier apple trees to create a living fence divide between areas.So looking at that chart, I'm thinking the m9 rootstock looks perfect.Given the customers will want eating apples and they have russets already,can I pick any eating var,or do some vars do better on this constrained growth pattern? As far as I understand it,summer pruning is better/leads to less uncontrolled regrowth on this system 🤔

I'm glad its all sorted.Just out of curiosity,why are some circlips tanged and some not? Is it just to help with fitment problems?

Hmm,Prunus lusitanica (the portugese laurel) a much nicer version of the cherry laurel so often used for hedging.Lusitanica has a narrower leaf with red petioles and the usual white candlebra type flowers-quick growing and would screen well.

Looking again at your piccy-the 2 lower spindly horizontal shoots look surpless to requirements,but dont be tempted to cut them off flush with the trunk at this point.Leave 2" on each one for the mo.When you're creating/forming a standard/half standard tree the laterals are quite important in encouraging the trunk to thicken and mature,they can be taken off flush further down the line.

To be honest, you've been a bit heavy-handed there at its age.Let it find its feet for a couple of seasons.Unless there was a grossly 'wrong' shoot growing straight into the heart,I would just leave youngsters like that alone to concentrate on growing.Apart from nipping an inch out of obviously strong upright leaders.Remember the old adage-you can always cut out whenever-what you cant do is put it back!I would think by shortening the framework/potential leaders rather harshly now-you'll get an explosion of lateral undesirable shoots from the cut back leaders-if so,rub them all off with your thumb apart from the terminal ones.Looking on the black side-you may have encouraged growth below the grafted variety,so beware of any growth near the base of the tree.

Grand to hear the old beast lives again 👍 And spuds technical pointers re: compression (or not) are of great value for those of us that dont fully understand the inner workings of these 'simple' machines.

Not sure what these are rated at,deffo 15 tonne splitters-could be 20?They don't fail on many logs thats for sure! Under the vertical nut for filling at the front end, there's a larger horizontal bolt with lets you do a full drain of the h.oil.I replaced the original rather wobbly solid wheels with pump ups,makes it a tad easier to wheel around.They're not hugely fun to load onto a vehicle-even with two of you.