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!