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.