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!'