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.

Lantra 1 day Hand Held Hedge Trimmer course - 30th March 2012

Spring is here!

Had a very enjoyable day training at the BTCV in Penllergaer, just off the M4 near Swansea. 

If you get the chance, go and have a look at the Llys Nini reserve where they are situated.  They only have a small workshop, but they are working wonders with the reserve - creating a truly beautiful woodland walk, complete with boardwalk and benches.

We had a hilarious day with Jayne, Katie, Lea, Helen and Alan entertaining me and each other.  Great weather again, and our enthusiasm wasn't dampened much by the rough hedge or the broken hedge cutter.

It was my second visit to the BTCV this month, and I'm always unlifted by the enthusiasm of the volunteers.  Keep up the good work!

Lantra 2 day Chainsaw Refresher - 26th and 27th March 2012

What a beautiful work site!  Wonderful weather.  Great company.  Courses don't come better than this.

Sorry I didn't take any photos - too busy enjoying the day.  Aled and Josh took a two day refresher to update their training ready for their NPTC assessment.  Many thanks to Iwan and Gwyneth for allowing us to fell in their farm woodland.  It was refreshing to be doing a useful bit of work - felling European Larch to make way for a track.

Absolutely faultless conditions.  Bright sun, but with a cool breeze, and too early yet for the flies, two very rare perfect days to be in the woods!

Well done to Aled and Josh for passing their assessment the next day.

Lantra 2 day Pesticide Application Course PA1 and PA6AW - 15th and 16th March 2012

 Pesticide application is a tough course to learn and a tough course to teach.  It makes it very much easier if everyone is up for trying to make it as light hearted as possible.

Many thanks to Rob, Rob and Mav for making this one of the most amusing courses I have run for a long time.

Also, congratulations to all for getting very high marks in the PA1 test, and flying through the knapsack sprayer practical test.

A particular highlights of the course for me were the curry night we had at the end of the course, and the search for Pesticide related films.  Try these for size ....

'Pestisilence of the Lambs'
'Glyphosfatal Attraction'
'The Da Vinci Code of Practice'

Ho, ho, I hear you say!  Well, you'll just have to come on the course to work our what on earth I'm on about!

 At long last, a beautiful week of sunshine!

Julian and Craig 'enjoyed' some fantastic sunny weather felling larch poles in Coed Tyllwyd, in preparation for building a woodland workshop.

Julian was especially fond of the long walk uphill to the felling site - so much more stimulating than working on boring flat felling sites!

 For myself it was great to meet two people so committed to living on the land and working with wood.  It is a privilege to be able to meet people at the beginning of their journey or working with trees.  So many people I have trained have gone on to do amazing things.

Julian is already an accomplished chainsaw carver www.derwyddjones.com who now knows for sure that he doesn't want a career felling trees!

Craig has his own smallholding and is starting the road from IT Consultant to self-sufficient farmer/woodsman.

Just for the record, matter how successful you are or will become, at some point we will all be challenged by rewinding the starter spring!

Many thanks to Craig and Julian.  Here are a couple of feedback comments from them:


Craig: 'If I'd have known how hard this course was going to be, I'd never have done it ...... but having done it, I'm very glad that I did'

Julian: 'Thank God that's over!'

Lantra 5 day Chainsaw course - Felling trees up to 15" diameter - 20th to 24th Feb 2012

During the winter, this blog will inevitably mention the weather!

Sorry to Anna, Richard, Graeme and Adam, but this was one of the worst weather weeks we've had this winter.  Very high winds and rain all day every day.  However, thankfully the 'team' was made of stern stuff and we actually had a good fun course.

A highlight for me was taking delivery of a new Husqvarna 560.  I'm not supposed to be partial, but it really seems to be a quantum leap forward for chainsaws.  I'm getting the feeling I'm not good enough for the saw, rather than the other way round!

Anna takes the prize for trying the highest number of chainsaws (4) before finally settling on the first one she tried.  I think it was a good decision though!

We have also identified the need for a new helmet design for Graeme.  This picture is one of the only times during the week we could actually see his eyes!

Thanks to all for putting up with the abysmal conditions and good luck with your assessments next week.

Lantra 3 day Chainsaw Course - Medium trees 6th - 8th Feb 2012

 Its always nice to have a bit of a change from cutting small trees, so a medium tree course was just the thing.

Its also fun to meet people who've been doing training with us before and now return with much more experience.  The medium tree course is much more informal, because it is assumed that but this stage you will have all of the basics covered and will be able to handle a saw safely.  This course is all about the accuracy of the cuts.

 Its also more stimulating in that the trees go down with a much louder CRASH!  This reminds you that this is a potentially very dangerous game.

The weather was bitterly cold, but mercifully we were in a sheltered spot with no wind, no rain and no snow, so all we got was cold toes.  Frankly, it would have been more fun if the trees were a little bit bigger, but we had a few chunky ones (around 30" across).

On the last day, Ifan brought his 12 week old Spaniel pup, Sian.  I couldn't resist including a picture.

Many thanks to Ifan and Ali for a fun and relaxed course, and well done for sailing through your CS32 assessments.

Lantra 2 day Chainsaw Course 2nd - 3rd February 2012

Another interesting course for me, with Paul and Dean who normally use their chainsaws for chopping up heavy duty rubber mats that are used on level crossings.

Sounds simple, but the mats are made from recycled car tyres and so they are also filled with tiny bits of metal - not the best thing for chainsaw chains.

Their chosen method of using cheap 'disposable' chainsaws and Oregon Powersharp chains was one I couldn't

really argue with.

A very frosty day, but beautiful in the sun despite the -7 C frost.

Thanks to Paul and Dean for putting up with the continuing work going on around the new workshop.  Unfortunately it wasn't a match made in heaven, because the roofers couldn't hear each other speak because of the chainsaws!

Fortunately, we've come to the end of

the wood in our hedgerow, so its back to the woods for the next chainsaw course.

Hopefully, we'll have a finished roof by the end of Feb, and work should really take off after that.

Thanks again to Paul and Dean for introducing me to saws full of rubber dust and the finer points of level crossing construction.  The number of uses for a chainsaw never ceases to amaze me.

So far, we have carried out courses half way up Blackpool Tower, on Ascension Island on the equator, cut samples from 6000 year trees from a petrified forest and given advice on cutting up stranded wales!  There are also several companies that operate underwater hydraulic chainsaws for removing old railway bridge timbers (done with zero visibility and no protective gear!).  Even as an experienced instructor, there is much to learn from the people we teach.

Quad bike course - RSPB Ynys Hir - 30th Jan 2012

What happens at Ynys Hir when Kate Humble and all of her Springwatch collegues are looking the other way?

The wardens go zooming around the reserve on quad bikes - wahey!

Its always nice to do a quad course with the RSPB.  Everyone you train is so dedicated to working in the environment, knowing they will never make their fortune, but loving it anyway.

Its also true to say, that courses at Ynys Hir are generally very, very cold as you can't be zooming about during the nesting season.  This course was no exception with an icy wind blowing straight off a very snowy Cader Idris, across the Dyfi Estuary and down our necks!

Rachel and Nathan did extremely well and seemed to enjoy themselves despite the cold and Rachel's quad's attempts to refuse to start. Thanks for a great day.

Lantra Brushcutter/Strimmer Course 26th Jan 2012

Its a bit early to be strimming, but thankfully the grass in our local churchyard is showing some signs of spring arriving.

Many thanks to Emile for making the course an interesting one.  You never quite know what sorts of machines people will bring through the door on these courses, but Emile's machine displayed the greatest number and variety of faults I've ever come across.

Not a bad thing for a maintenance course, to be honest.  After fixing the wobbly drive shaft clamp, lubricating the dry gear head, clearing the gunk out of the airbox (missing the air filter), freeing off, sanding down and greasing both ends of the seized drive shaft and giving the seized starter spring a good clean and grease, we were finally thwarted by the machine not having a throttle trigger.  It suddenly became clear why the tickover was set to the maximum - to compensate for there being no throttle!  Not exactly a safe set up.

I was going to say its not the worst machine I've ever seen, but to be honest .......

Anyway, I really enjoyed teaching this course and many thanks to Emile for pitching in when the roof trusses for the new workshop arrived unexpectedly early.  Best of luck with your new 'quiet tools' grounds maintenance business.  I really must do a controlled race to see if a slasher really is faster than a brushcutter!

Lantra 2 day Chainsaw Course 23rd - 24th Jan 2012

A great two days doing a beginner's chainsaw course.

Three enthusiastic locals all willing to learn - makes it a lot of fun, so thanks to John, Michael and Rhonwen - I hope you enjoyed the course as much as I did!

The second day of the course dawned with heavy rain.  Yawn - nothing unusual about that I hear you say! However, it was particularly heavy and set  to continue all day.  We had a very local felling site - I had to clear some trees for the new workshop, so we only had to walk a few steps from the training room.

The combination of heavy rain, muddy field and the worst our local herd of cows could provide, didn't make for a very enticing prospect!  Imagine my surprise when the rain stopped!

Thanks to everyone - especially for being gracious enough to help me do a job that needed doing.  I really enjoyed your company and I know Sam the dog will miss you too.  Sorry I didn't upload a picture of you Michael - I think the there was something wrong with the file - I'll try again just to make sure.

19th Jan - Working on the new workshop

A welcome day off from training today.

I'm smiling because, despite my best efforts to destroy it, my car sailed through its MoT today!

Our new training workshop is taking shape nicely, and I'm now trying to make sure that the roof is the right shape and the veluxes are in the right place etc.  Exciting times though, because the roof trusses should be with us within the week, and the building will really start to look like it means business soon.  I'm slightly nervous about manually lifting the roof trusses into place by hand especially as they weigh 85 kg each and there will be about 25 of them!  Maybe its time for a Manual Handling course!

Pretty soon we should be able to enjoy a spacious, light work area, heated with a wood burner, hopefully in time for next winter!

First Aid at Work (including Mountain First Aid) 16th - 17th Jan 2012

A fantastic two days being trained by Russ and Karen in the Hafren forest.

Every three years, I have to go on a first aid refresher course, so it makes sense to book myself on one of our own First aid courses with our training partners.

As someone who works in a hazardous environment, I can highly recommend this course.  It is an intense and lively experience with loads of live role playing scenarios which leave you feeling completely wired, but also much more confident when faced with the real thing.

As a first aider of some 20 year's experience now, I have attended at least three life threatening accidents in that time and in two of those, I was the only first aider there.  I would urge you to take this course whatever job you do, because all of these incidents involved members of the public who were completely unrelated to my work.

This most recent course was typically perfectly paced and hosted in great facilities with loads of home cooked food and cakes and all for pretty much the same price as a standard First Aid at Work course.

Thanks to Russ and Karen once again - I'll be back for more in three years' time!

Lantra 5 day Chainsaw Course 9th - 13th Jan 2010

Finally a break in the horrible weather, but not quite soon enough for this course!


Daniel, Will and Fletch had to endure the worst of the Welsh weather on their first day felling.  The visibility was so bad, we lost Will and Fletch on the drive up to site.  We thought they were lost for good!  Sorry about that guys - I must remember to look in my rear view mirror instead of talking.

Day two started even worse - like standing under a cold shower, but by the time we had climbed up to the felling site and resuscitated Daniel, the sun was out like nothing had happened!

We felled loads of trees for the next couple of days and I'm pleased to report that all three passed their NPTC CS30 and CS31 with no problems at all.  Well done guys!