Lantra 2 day chainsaw course 31st May - 1st June 2012

 A full-on couple of day's work, but well worth it.  Both Paul and Jasmin had very little experience of motorised tools between them.  Jasmin had literally never even touched one!

Its simply amazing what can be learnt in two days and both Paul and Jasmin did exceptionally well to get through all of the maintenance teaching and also to get properly familiar with the saws in the wood.

There is simply no way an outsider would have guessed that these two had never used a petrol chainsaw at the beginning of the course!

Well done to you both, and make sure that you get on the saw again as soon as you can.

Lantra Pesticide Application 2 day course May 28th - 29th 2012

Sitting in a class room all day when its beautiful sunshine outside may not be everyone's idea of fun, but pesticide courses always turn out to be fun to teach.

This one was great because of the variety of people on the course, from Alun (a local farmer), Gwen (from the National Trust and Ryan and Kris (from a rail track maintenance company).  Everyone did very well to pass the PA1 test, especially Ryan and Kris who had driven 2 and a half hours each way to be there and had only had 3 hours sleep!  The PA6 course is due this weekend.  I hope you have all had a chance to get your heads around the figures!  Good luck to all.

Lantra 5 day Chainsaw course - 14th - 18th May 2012

Many thanks to Richard and Anthony for an interesting and varied week in the woods.  We were thinning larch in a farm woodland on one site, and line-thinning sitka spruce on a forestry plantation on another site.

We covered tractor winching and cross-cutting on road side for extraction by farm trailer and also a bit of wind-blow, not to mention a tour from timber felling to woodchip production and drying.  Never a dull moment!

Hand-held hedge trimmer course, Aberystwyth - 8th May 2012

Just a short, one-day course at our home venue.

Not the right time of year to be cutting hedges, but we scanned the hedge very thoroughly before starting.

Richard produced a perfect finish and was very easy to teach.  If only all training days could be like this!

Pesticide Application courses, Todd's Leap, Northern Ireland, 30th April - 3rd May 2012

Life is rarely dull, as a Lantra instructor.  Its a mere 5 hour journey from mid Wales to the other side of Northern Ireland!

Many thanks to our hosts, Todd's Leap Activity and training centre, for providing impeccable preparation and transport at all times of the day and night.




The course took place in bright sunshine, in stark contrast to the heavy rain storms over England and Wales!  I learnt as much about lock-keeping from the boys at Waterways Ireland, as they learnt about pesticides.

All of the people I met were extremely friendly and welcoming.  The countryside is beautiful,with lots of rivers and lakes, and the whole place has a feeling of optimism and industry. 

Thankyou to all who attended the course and to Paul who acted as chauffeur and chef all week.  I hope I'll be back soon!

Lantra 5 day chainsaw, felling up to 15" trees - 16th - 20th April 2012

In a week that was forecast to rain heavily every day, we stayed extremely dry!  I ran the first two days back to front to avoid the rain showers that never came.

On Friday morning we were pelted with biblical rain and hail showers - so we did the sensible thing and did some revision in a shed.  However, it was seriously cold for mid April.

Many thanks to Alex and Guy for making the course a light-hearted affair, and my sincerest apologies for the assessor's mix up with the assessment date on Saturday.

It was great to have two students training with us - we do free equipment hire and chainsaw fuel for students as well as a 10% discount by the way!

Lantra 1 day experienced operator Strimmer course - May 2nd 2012

Its the time of year to get your strimmer out again!

We have a good relationship with the local church warden, so we get a fantastic venue with lots of complicated bits to strim around, and he gets his grass cut.

We've been doing this course for a good many years now and some things keep cropping up.  For anyone with a big Stihl strimmer like the one in the picture - the black extension on the bottom of the guard is not optional!  Some users like to remove it so that they can have the cord so long that it grazes their toes.

To be fair to Gwen, this was an inherited machine, and I know she will find the black strip somewhere in the bottom of a dusty box in the workshop and will ensure it stays on the machine!  Thanks for a great day, and I hope your employer will buy you a nice new shiny 4X4 soon.