New Career
After nine years of employment at SoPost and twenty three years more generally in the world of web & technology, I’ve left the my full time role to concentrate on a new career.
That career is split between tree surgery / woodland management and the production of craft goods from the output of these endeavours. Whilst you “can” just pick up a chainsaw call yourself a tree surgeon, I’m not doing that. I’m enrolled at a local college and taking a two year course. Specifically a City & Guilds level three advanced technical diploma in arboriculture and forestry. By the time I’ve completed the course I’ll not only have this qualification but also all of the NPTC “tickets” required to get professional insurance and work as a trained, competent professional in arboriculture and forestry industries. Chainsaw maintenance and crosscutting, felling, chippers, climbing, aerial rescue, using a chainsaw from a rope and harness and rigging and dismantling. The whole shebang required to work safely.
Last year I also came into the possession of an eight acre parcel of woodland in a larger 200 acre semi-ancient woodland. This is where I’ll be getting my hands dirty and learning the ropes of dealing with all things related to trees, woodland, local ecosystems and ecology. I’m sure lucky to have this in my life, it is a turbo charger for learning and exploring all things tree and woodland related.
I’ll be spending the foreseeable future as a self-employed person and so I’ve created a website called Life of Treedom and if you want to know more about it and follow my escapades, you can head over there and follow along. It is all still in the very early stages, but I imagine by easter I’ll have a few bits of video content out. If you know me in real life it’ll be a hoot for you. I still do freelance python and Django work, so if you’re in need of that – give me a shout.
So that’s the plot twist.
Blogging Again
So why start blogging again? Because I’m at the start of a new thing. and I mean really at the start – when I’m at work experience I’m sometimes the “tool holder guy”. Not the guy using the tool, not the guy deciding how the job will be done and certainly not the guy deciding what jobs to do. In true me fashion, I aim to be the best tool holder there can be. I predict what tools may be required. Other tool holders in the future will be told of my legacy.
Seriously though, being at the start of something new is a great chance to capture a lot of the learning curve. Often learning curves go undocumented but I want to capture as much as I can both for me and to assist others. The disclaimer here is that most of the interesting text stuff will be published on the Life of Treedom substack and the videos will be on the Life of Treedom youtube channel. If you’re interested in watching me learning how to climb trees, manage woodland, fell trees, use chainsaws and produce craft goods, then I’d suggest you get yourself signed up to the substack. You can subscribe for free. There are paid options that get you a few perks, but free will give you the lens you desire and until I officially launch everything in Easter, there’s no video content available for anyone!
The types of things I’ll be blogging about here is all the kinds of things that aren’t strictly related to Life of Treedom but that capture the learning curves.
And thats the first blog out the way.
Over and out.
Jamie C.