The message
from (Simon Avery) contains these words:

/snip/

Tricky with that size and with rotten boles. We kept a big sthil just
for those sorts of jobs with a 5'6" bar imported from America (not a
fun thing to start on a cold day, and if you stuffed it in the dirt we
were made to sharpen in on our own time - 12' of chain takes a lot of
setting and checking to sharpen so it cuts straight). I've seen a guy
use that saw 30' when taking down a wind-damaged scots pine at
Greenaway House (Agatha Christie's place nr Torbay) - quite funny
since he couldn't brace himself, the torque from the saw kept pushing
him away from the tree.

In the early days when we only had the Pioneer, one man would swarm up
the tree, rig up a block and tackle and then we'd start the saw on the
ground and hoist it to him. Later we got a twelve inch McCulloch and
another about the same size - can't remember the make. Later we bought a
little Stihl that could be waved about with gay abandon.

RH Because there was nowhere to take them down in one go we
RH (about five of us) spent four days taking them down from the
RH tops downwards.

Definately a slow job, and not one you can rush. Need a good bloke on
the ropes, both above and on the ground too. Seen quite a few near-
misses from a manic climber, and more from an inexperienced
groundsman. TBH, I'm quite glad I got out of that line of work.

Quite. We operated from about 1956 until a few years ago - no-one likes
to admit that they're getting past it! We still have most of the
equipment and do the odd easy job, mainly out of nostalgia. We are
spread out over most of East Anglia now, so getting a quorum is the most
difficult bit.

In all that time we never had an accident. Some hair-raising moments,
and some really funny tales resulting from certain jobs. And some good
stands of woodland we've planted in the past.

RH Our charge was one thousand five hundred pounds, but that
RH was thirty years ago. The nearest quote he had to ours was
RH three thousand, and one company wanted ten thousand.

Eek. It's amazing the difference - I'm pretty sure a lot of companies
take one look, think "Bugger that!" and put in a silly quote because
they don't want the job.

Oh, I'm sure that's right. It was a hooter of a job, and more so because
we had to travel about twenty miles to get to it. We didn't really want
the job either, but the householder was a friend of one of the
partners.....

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