Why This 150 Year Old Tree Will Get Whacked?

This tree is a marked man. I feel that it is going to get whacked sometime soon.

I can’t believe I’m making a video about a tree, but here we are. There’s a new development going up near my usual dog walk, and this huge, ancient tree stands right in the path of the access road. I don’t know if it has a preservation protection order or if anyone's fighting for it, but something tells me its days are numbered. So, I thought I'd capture it while it's still here. Ever lost a place like this? Let me know in the comments.

Why This 150 Year Old Tree Will Get Whacked?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

It says "Reptile Receptor Site. Take extra care while walking." What the hell is that?

I want to tell you a story about a tree and a development. The development is happening behind me. I don't know if you can see this road. It's been half built, and the road ends here. And then after the road, there's this tree over here. That's the tree that this story is about because I have a feeling that this tree might not be with us for much longer.

I'd love to tell you where this is, but I won't—partly to protect my privacy, but also because it's probably a story that could happen anywhere. We're in the middle of the story. It hasn't finished yet. Like the road—the road hasn't finished yet. It's an access road. It just runs from down there. It's not fully built yet. There's even a footpath or cycle path just to the side of it. I don't know if you can see that.

And it's a straight line. And the straight line, if you keep it going, goes through there. And I don't know if you can see a problem with that. I'm not a construction expert or a civil engineer, but even I can see that the straight line of that road is very likely not going to have enough room to get around this quite large tree.

I'm not an environmentalist. I'm not even a "nimby." This tree probably affects—I don't know—it’s probably only known to about 50 dog walkers. Maybe the number of local people that are aware of it runs into the hundreds—not that much. And I'm not that sentimental about it. It's a pretty nondescript tree in a nondescript field. This is going to be turned into an industrial estate. And this field here, just on the other side, is going to be turned into 85 houses.

And there's a footpath. This is a public footpath. I've just come off it. But the footpath did run through the field, and there was planning permission to divert the footpath. That's why the footpath kind of curves around this way. This road over here—it's going to plow straight through here, and I've got a feeling that this tree is a marked tree. I think this tree is going to die in the next 12 months.

I heard from someone, another walker, and she was really upset because the building work was in full swing. She said that this tree has a preservation order on it, but it's right in the path of this access road. So I don't know if that's true. I don't know if it does have a preservation order. Whether it does or doesn't, it's in the way of a road that needs to run through here—a little side access road.

I'll take you a bit closer to it. I've not actually got this close to the tree before. I've always walked past it, and I've wanted to make this video for a while, just to document this tree in case something bad happens to it. At least someone, somewhere, has recorded this. So you can come along on this little piece of history that I'm trying to capture.

It's massive. I don't know if it comes across on camera, but it's about a meter and a half—maybe more, maybe nearly two meters thick at the base in the trunk. I'm not a tree expert. I don't even know what kind of tree this is, but it's huge. Should I stand up against it? I'm standing right up against it, and it dwarfs me. I'm not the slimmest guy in town, but even so, this tree is bigger than even me.

I don't know. This has happened before, you know? I remember my parents-in-law had some trees, and there was some construction work and—oops—a digger accidentally crashed through it. And so, you know, that's it. It's a shame, isn't it? A tree went.

And look, this road is on a complete collision course. Let me drive it through with this. Are they going to knock it down? Should we even care if it does go? I don't think all trees should be saved. I think it's funny, isn't it, that we think it's heresy to remove trees? There's something particularly... I don't know. There's just something a bit off about this one. It just doesn't seem right that, for the sake of maybe a meter or two that way, that thing that's been there probably for a hundred years has to go.

I'll look it up. I'll look up what a 1.8-meter diameter tree—how long that is—and I'll put that on screen now. That's probably how long this tree has been here. If you're better at aging trees than I am, please leave a comment.

I just had to get it on video and just wanted to share it with you because, more and more, I'm videoing my walks with Casper, who's enjoying the field over there. I'm sharing them more and more, and I've got a feeling one day this might disappear. And it just—I don't know—it'd just be a shame not to record it.

I don't think it's a good idea, building here, as well. I mean, obviously, I've got skin in the game. I like walking on these fields. Let me show you footage. I think I took footage—I'll put it on now—of what this was like before the construction work. I knew it was going to happen. I knew there was planning permission. I knew that the footpath was going to be diverted. So I captured this idyllic image of me and Casper just walking into this heavenly, sunset-lit field. I knew time was up.

So it was a reminder to me. It's a good thing. It's a reminder to enjoy what you've got. And I should enjoy this field now while we've got it.

You can really see the profile here. There's the road. It goes there, and it's going to go over the footpath. There were markers that people have kicked down. That marker isn't in the right place, the one you could see earlier, but the road’s kind of got to go up and sort of through that tree.

I'll take you into the other field and show you what's going on there. And it's a tale as old as time, isn't it? It's progress. You know, it's paving paradise for a parking lot. We're paving a nice dog-walk route that has no economic value. It's not even our land, so I shouldn't even complain about it. And I'm not complaining about it because this doesn't belong to us. And yet, in a way, it does.

I'll show you why up there—why it does kind of sort of belong to us.

This is something that the builders have done. It's part of the building work. Let me show you this sign. I've never seen anything like this. It says, "Reptile Receptor Site. Please do not move the fence. Take extra care while walking." What the hell is that?

These fences—they go all the way around this field that's next door to the field that's going to have the building work. And I think it kind of goes under a little bit of the ground. I don't know what "reptile receptor site" means. Does that mean they're going to move the reptiles into here and drop them in here if they find them? Or is it just a place for them to escape into and be measured?

I don't think this is dumping. I don't think it's fly-tipping. But all around the field, the last couple of years, they've had these bits of roofing felt put down. I've got a feeling they're for measuring bugs underneath. Either that or someone has evenly dumped a load of roofing felt around this particular field. But I do think it's for some kind of scientific measurement.

Look, the fence is pretty well built, and it's to, I guess, keep things in the field rather than letting things come into the field. I don't know. Let me know in the comments if you know what a reptile receptor site is.

When the signs went up, I have been careful where I'm walking. And I'm a bit worried about Casper over there doing his digging. I don't know if you can see him, but I've not noticed any reptiles or any snakes or anything. I guess that's what they're for—grass snakes, maybe? I don't know.

So, this is the other field. We're now on the other side. We were over there. The tree that it's going to go through is just there. The road is going to carry on into here.

And the other day, there was some building work. Some builders were in here. I thought this was like the first day of digging the road into this section, but it seemed not. Maybe it was just exploratory work. I've got some footage here. Let's drop that in.

I suppose, on the upside, we'll have a nice road that'll bring us up to here. There is a problem for the builders, which I'm sure they'll overcome—it won't be a problem at all. But this is a bit of a floodplain. This field gets so waterlogged. But this is where the 85 houses are going to be built.

This feels like a bit of a shame because there are deer in here, gallivanting around, galloping, frolicking. It could not be more peaceful. We've had so much fun in this field. I'm so grateful for it. This is where Casper does his weird gamboling—his weird gazelle-like jumping—when the grass gets long.

But I'm very aware that it's someone's field, and they want to make money from it. I completely understand that. It's just a bit of green being taken away, though, isn't it? Although we don't own it, we can at least see it, and we've got public footpaths through it. It's just going to go.

So, who knows? Maybe in future videos, you'll see me walking among construction vehicles. This will all be a massive construction site. I probably won't be allowed in, so maybe I'll be walking here in a few years' time with the houses and the roads already built.

I'm really glad I get to capture this on video. No one's going to watch this video except me, but at least I've got a little piece of it on the internet, on YouTube.

That road is dead straight. It's dead ahead there. You can see the end of the construction site there. I cannot see how the road will not just bulldoze through that massive tree. It's a marked tree. Honestly, its days are numbered, whether it's got a protection order on it or not.

But I'll just show you this—just how much. See there? Lots of molehills. I think this was a former mole house. What do you call a mole home? All the big Labradors love diving into this. Oh no, is Casper going to go in? Please don't go in, Casper. It will stink.

Yeah, it's this. And it looks like a puddle, but that is about the depth of a very large Labrador. It's almost like the thing that Dawn French fell into on The Vicar of Dibley. I should jump into it, shouldn't I? That would get me some views—more than me whining about losing a bit of greenery.

Casper’s very wisely walking around the edge of it. That is so deep under there. And it's not still—actually, water's running out of it down to the stream down there. So the drainage from the whole field—that’s what the water table is like underneath.

I really appreciate you coming along with me on this journey, allowing me to document the final days, months, maybe year of the tree in the background. I'll have to remember to make an update video, but I think I'm going to shoot videos in here anyway, so you'll see this background changing over the next 10, 20, 100 videos.

I still don't know if I should be making videos like this. They're fun for me, and it's really nice to just share these random observations with you. I'm going to call this video a Dad Delivers Success, but obviously, I think I'm going to call a road being plowed through a super ancient tree a Dad Delivers Fail.

What do you think? Have you got a place that you've lost recently that you kind of miss? Feel free to drop it into the comments. It’d be lovely to hear from you.

Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. I really appreciate you just coming along with these little stories. I shoot one every day, but I don't release all of them.

And right here are some of those other stories that YouTube knows you want to watch next.

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Why the third worst job in the house is this?

This is the third worst job in our house for Dads, or anyone. What's your third worst job? It happens when birds hit our windows. 

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Why the third worst job in the house is this?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

hello this is a really sad part of uh being a dad in my house uh Something's Happened something uh unexpected and quite major uh it's major because we've got a dog Casper and I've got to move this before he sees it cuz he'll just pick it up and he won't let go uh but what happened was a pigeon we think I was up at the heart but I've heard that a pigeon just went smack into our back Garden windows and uh didn't quite make it this is the imprint of where it impacted the the window did you say this happened before yeah the exact same spot and then the lips must be the window like really loudly we've just seen that this is the imprint from well this is an imprint it must be the imprint from what happened upstairs it's clearly look at the impact that it's that it's had on the on the window oh my goodness and apparently this isn't the this isn't the first time it's happened I don't know does that mean do I need to put like a cross of tape on uh on the window or some kind of warning sign that is just incredible the force that it must have uh hit the hit the window look at that so now I've got to deal with this and I've got a method for doing it so just come into the garage with me where is it there it is so most people around the world use this as a snow shovel come on we don't I've never used this for snow there's over warming for you uh We've not had snow for since properly since since Casper was a puppy but anyway it's not a snow shovel I've used this multiple times now for bird removals and I've got to do this onehanded I don't know how to do this should I look away till I'll blur it um I I want it I want it to be a clean sweep I need it to just go [Music]

uh and I really don't want it to fall off in the

[Applause] house have to kick it on sorry bird sorry sorry sorry oh so sad there we go let's going for a final

ride here we [Applause]

go this isn't exactly a Norah Smith video is

it no Casper

that's it

goes do jobs like these go to go to a particular person in your house leave a comment down below job done

that's

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How to rescue a dying Olive Tree

Our Olive Tree needs saving from our dog Casper. So I'm going to rescue it... but is it too late! 

I'm not an expert on tree care or Olive Trees, or planting, gardening,  potted plants or growing. But I do know how to drive to the supermarket and fill plant pots with soil. There's a twist at the end if you can stick with it. PS an olive tree is an awesome gift for dad idea!

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My dog is killing our Olive Tree... 🐕 🌳...is it too late?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Hello, welcome back to the channel. My name's Neil. This is the Dad Delivers Vlog, where I try new things to make your family happy. Today, I'm going to... I think I'm going to save a life. This is the life I'm going to save: our poor Olive Tree. There's a bit of a story behind this. So, there's the giant hole. It's from Casper. We just can't get him to stop digging in our garden. And we filled in most of the hole. It did get really deep, deep enough for him to bury himself in it, but we filled it up.

And I've had this olive tree for about 15 years, and over the last... Well, two years ago, it was in a... a case, what's the word for it? A flower pot, the plant pot! And it looked like this because we had two olive trees. This is the other one. And the plant pot got completely destroyed. This one, this one's been damaged. It got damaged during the building work that we had in the kitchen. So, this one is kind of hanging on in there. And look, it's still alive. But with my other Olive Tree, the story is not quite as rosy or Olive Tree because, as you can see, we've clipped it back to try and bring it back from the brink. I'm not sure that was a great idea. But look at... look at the root ball. I mean, is there anything left? I have no idea if this is still even alive.

So, I'm going to try and bring it back from the brink. And to do that, I bought this nice big plant pot that I got from the supermarket. I've already started cutting holes in it. I think, I'm not an expert at all, but I think I need some drainage in here. Hello, I can feel the force in this one. So, I'm going to do that. I've got an apple paring knife or a pear paring knife. I'm going to cut some holes in the bottom so the water can run out and also try and do this while not destroying my fingers. I think that's... that's pretty enough holes. It's just to let the water out. Let's fill it up right now! 

Here’s the earth. You can tell how long I've been putting this project off by how faded the bag is. But try not to make too much mess.

Okay, a bit of a problem. I think I'm gonna need to go to the shop and get some more Earth.

So, Casper kindly drove me to Aldi. Thanks, Casper. I'll be back in a minute. Good boy.

Compost, compost. Go for the cheap one, I think, even though it's my precious Olive Tree. I have no idea how much to get. If I take one in, maybe they'll let me find three bags?

We've got the Earth, Casper. I got it.

Let's get the poor olive tree. 

Oh my goodness, look what Casper's done. 

Oh man, it's got even worse. This was... say in the comments. Do you think... Do you think this is even gonna work? This could be a long series. I hope it's a long series because it means... We might have some growth. Oh man, now I know that this plant pot is probably far too big for the little tree and probably for even the bits of Earth that I've got to fill it. But it's... it's a start. And I want it to have enough space to grow if it does grow. So, I'm going to go into this completely positively.

I know this is going to work because I'm going to put so much Earth in here that the Olive Tree can't do anything but grow, grow! Let's get this into the pot. The bag has basically filled the plant pot already. It's loose enough, so I can just put my hand in and dig a little hole for the root ball. So, I'm just digging it in. I think we obviously need some more Earth to fill it up, so we'll get a second bag going in. Hopefully, it will just stand up under its own strength, what little strength it has. I've now realized that it's not straight. If this does survive, you know, in 14 years time, I think that would be annoying... that it's a bit to one side and probably not standing up straight, which was the whole problem with the other tree. If you're regular on the channel, you know that I've not been so good with the trees in the garden, and I think that's what this project, this video, is all about because we've lost one in the garden.

If you're a regular on the channel, you might have seen this eucalyptus tree. 

I made a whole video about how our tree is too close to the fence, and I didn't know what to do. I had to brace the fence because the tree was going to bring down the entire fence line down the side of the garden. So, I braced it, and we managed to get a wooden stud, just a plank of wood, to hold the tree back from the fence. And, oh, you guys were so kind in the comments. You gave me all kinds of tips. I've got them on screen now. You know whether to brace the tree or to lash the trunk somehow to pull it away from the fence and train it away from the fence. And then, you know, I got a comment like this from Dr Dee. Thank you, Dr Dee, because that's basically what we've done.

Look, it was a sad day this week where a friend and neighbour and tree surgeon all in one managed to cut the thing down. I would have filmed it coming down, but I was a bit too busy in the car trying to get some cash to thank him for his work. So, when I came back, I found this in the street, just the eucalyptus tree in bits and flying across the street. I mean, on the upside, it did smell really gorgeous while he was doing that, but the stench of destruction was sweet. And this is what we have left. And very kindly, they've left us with a single branch. I don't know if you call it a branch, a trunk, a trunk line that actually goes up straight and away from the fence. So, we're going to try and keep this tree going and we're going to try and train this one in the way that we should have done with the tree in the first place.

I can't let this happen again. I can't let another tree be destroyed on my watch. And there's something particularly profane about bumping off a tree. I think that's why I'm spending too much time on this. I have no idea if this is going to work. 

There's a slight twist at the end of this story that I really wasn't expecting. About a week after I shot that footage, we loaded up the Olive Tree, and maybe we should give her a name. Leave a comment down below if you can think of her name for our new Old Olive Tree. But anyway, we loaded it up into a wheelbarrow and took it on what I thought would be its final journey to the end of the garden outside the happy Hut, alongside its, uh, brother or sister, the other trees that haven't fared so well in our garden, something incredible happened a few days after that. 

I've just, I just had a look, and I can't believe what I've seen! 

On the side of the branch here. If I can zoom in, there is an unmistakable bud of growth. This is in one week. I'll see if I can go in with the macro lens, and even now, filming now, I've just spotted four others. This is absolutely incredible. I really didn't think I'd be saying this, but I'm calling this a "Dad Delivers Success." 

Hug your trees tight tonight and thank you for your thumbs up or hitting the subscribe button. It really helps me to keep our trees alive. 

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Hedgehog in our garden...

We get a visit tonight - and probably every night - from this hedgehog in our garden. It makes our cocker spaniel dog Casper go crazy, but we didn't realise it was there. So this is the first time we step out into the garden to see a hedgehog rolled up, curled into a ball.  Leaving a camera there for it to uncurl and walk away back down the side of the garage.

How this creature makes our dog bark like crazy



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Hello, welcome back to the channel. This is a quick little video about this little guy.

Last night, Casper, our cocker spaniel, went absolutely nuts in the garden, barking and barking. He wouldn't stop. He only does that when there's someone on our property. So, I've heard him do it when there's a cat outside or when some drunk guy won't stop knocking on our door because he thinks he lives here. Here's some footage of that; it lasted for a few hours. He must have been off his head to think that this was a good place for him to live. The police came and sorted it all out, and Casper got to stay in our bedroom for a bit, for the first and last time ever.

But this night, Casper was barking and barking, so we went out to see what the problem was, and I almost trod on this!

Oh! Casper, back!

It's a hedgehog, rolled up in a ball. I've only ever heard of this, to actually see it was wonderful. You might be able to see his face and legs in the middle there. 

Oh my God, is that a hedgehog? 

Yeah.

They're up in the air to make up that ball of sharp quills, and he's staying completely still. Well, almost. If you look really carefully, you can just about make out his breathing.

This is the Dad Delivers Vlog, where we try new things to make your family happy. And the new thing I'm trying tonight is helping a hedgehog in our garden. Now, I know it looks really light out there in the garden, but that's our camera compensating for the dark. This Hedgehog seems completely ready to just stay like this for however long it takes. I have no idea if it's a he or a she, which causes a lot of debate in our house. Most of the family thinks she's a she because of the Miss Tiggywinkle propaganda. Is it Miss or is it Mrs. Tiggywinkle, or Ms. or Mx.? Anyway, we didn't want to distress her or him or they. We all gave it enough room and stepped back, and I set up my camera and put down a bowl of water, like are you supposed to put a bowl of water down, I don't know. Anyway, we left the camera running and we waited.

[Music]

And after some time, it uncurled and went over to the water.

[Music] 

Do you want to see that again in slow motion? 

There it is, going to the water, and straight through the water. “I'm not having any of that!” And it trundles off quite quickly. I think I would have thought hedgehogs move slowly, but it's got quite a gait on it. Off it goes, under the trampoline. My son takes a few photos, and it seems really happy under there, which means I can get this footage of it for you.

I am calling this a Dad delivers success! 

When he'd had enough, I'm calling it a ‘he’, he went off down the side of the garage, and I think he might still be down there. [Music]

Anyway, thanks for letting me share this with you. It makes a change from the DIY videos, doesn't it? Thanks as ever for clicking thumbs up or the Subscribe button. It really helps me to keep this thing going. And right here is what YouTube knows you're going to love watching next. Can you please help my daddy get 10,000 subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks bye! This is going to be the proper one right?

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DJI OSMO POCKET IN THE RAIN? Can a storm break it CAMERA TEST!

OSMO POCKET IN THE RAIN? Can a storm break it CAMERA TEST!



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TRANSCRIPT: press PLAY to watch the video above
[WIND NOISE]
Okay this could go very wrong - Hello, I'm Neil - and I just wanted to shoot... I just wanted to shoot this test, erm, today seemed to be the right day for it - the question is can you use an Osmo pocket in the rain? Erm, probably - I'm guessing woah! Guessing the answere's probably not because it's not weatherproof I believe
but erm... where's my face track? hang on, no! I'm here. Face track. There,how's that? No!
So that-- so I've just had this, it--
I've just had this for what, two days?
And, yes?
"Is it waterproof?"
It's not waterproof - it's not waterproof or weatherproof at all.
Er... so I thought - so thought I'd answer the question "can an Osmo Pocket be used in bad weather or in the rain?"
And today I've chosen the worst storm to hit Britain in a long time - it's it's called storm Ciara - yeah -
Oh! I'm not even wet!
It's predicted-- we're predicted to have 50 to 60 mile an hour winds or gusts
I don't know what the difference is between a wind and a gust - maybe you can tell me in the comments below
This is just - it's just the camera test to see if a storm will break my Osmo pocket
You might see the flaw in this plan - but to me it seems like a good idea
The other reason I wanted to shoot this test is to see how good or bad the audio is
So I understand, there are a couple of microphones in the bottom there
Dad?
Yes?
The only thing that's wet is my wellies. Oh.
That's it - I'm not wet. You think my legs are wet after jumping in that puddle. Nah.
Let me give you a sense of how bad the weather is.
There are so few cars...
So this is a really bad storm - let me get my phone out. I'll erm... show you what the Osmo Pocket looks like.
You see there's a bit of rain on there - you might be screaming at the screen right now
To tell me to get it in! And get it dry!
But I really just wanted to see how it would behave in a extreme situation
[WIND NOISE]
Yeah I know this could go horribly wrong but if we get through this day then... The world's my oyster with the Osmo Pocket.
[WIND NOISE]
"If we get through this day then woah the world's my oyster with the Osmo pocket!"
[WIND NOISE]
Oh the flip button seems to work
I haven't got my... erm, so don't have any windshield on the microphone
I might need to wipe the lens
I don't have any wide-angle lens as well
I think that's gonna be the next thing that I get for this thing
[WIND NOISE]
But man it's cold and the winds are quite strong. Let me show how you how bad the winds - I dont know if it's coming across - because of the small screen - so I don't know how bad the weather is coming across - let me show you a shot here.
"I'm PeppaPig Reek!"
[WIND NOISE]
Yeah?
[WIND NOISE]
[WIND NOISE]
So anyway that's - This is pretty much the most extreme weather that we're gonna get here in the UK this year
So I'll leave in the description - I'll say if the automated pocket has died forever for good
And if it hasn't I put that in the description as well
I hope this video has helped if it has - it'll be lovely if you give me a thumbs up - just to let me know someone reached this point of the video
And if you're feeling even kinder why not hit subscribe, and thanks for watching!
Osmo Pocket RIP.
Can you please help my daddy get 1000 subscribers - just click on his face
Thanks bye! How's that?

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