Trees & Code
The winds of change blow again and I now find myself in two worlds.
Hello readers,
As always, there’s a reason I’ve not posted much recently. This time though it’s different (yeah, righto, mr-never-posts). I’ve been busy making more changes in my life to bring it into a configuration that better matches what I want to be doing with my (limited and unknown quantity) time on this planet.
When I set out on this little journey of mine, I called it “Life of Treedom”. The story was that I’d leave one career behind and start a new one. That kind of happened and kinda didn’t. I really wanted it to work and I almost convinced myself, but this post is the story of the “kinda didn’t” that concludes with a “what next”.
The Kinda Didn’t
Treeschool
I took a job at treeschool teaching trees and woodland management in August of 2024. This was meant to be the main income into my household whilst I did treework on weekends. I have much to say about education systems and in a later post I absolutely will. However, the relevance to this post is that my grand idea of “teach during the week” and “work during the weekends” didn’t really work out – at all. I didn’t expect that especially since my colleagues who I work with have that mixture down to a fine art.
The answer lies in what I teach and what they teach.
I teach theory and I have a classroom in which to carry out my work. My colleagues teach practical and they go outside to work. When working, I’m in a room looking at trees, talking about trees and mostly wishing I was outside amongst the trees. Sometimes I run the classes outside, but describing topics such as the cellular structure of wood cells (lamella, s1, s2, s3 and middle lamella) without a whiteboard or screen results in blank stares, many questions, little understanding and a waste of precious contact time.
My colleagues get to do treework on weekends because a) they don’t have to prepare anything outside of hours for practical and b) they’ve been doing it for years. However, when I’m putting together a three hour theory lesson (with breaks – obviously) I spend about nine to sixteen hours of planning. That’s basically somewhere between three and four times the length of the lesson. I teach 18 hours a week out of a 38 hour contract. That sounds reasonable, but it was taking between 54 and 90 hours of planning per week. This is before I get to any of the admin work (about 5-10 hours depending on the whims of my bureaucratic overlords) and certainly before any of the 18 hours of teaching are accounted for.
Egads. I knew it would be a slog preparing material, but I didn’t know it would be this bad. Mrs Treesandcode warned me. I didn’t listen and I didn’t expect how colossal an undertaking content creation would be for a teacher.
This is what the first year is like for all teachers. In the second year the preparation work dies down, and by the third year all of the materials are there, so you are basically in a nice loop. However, in order to get to that third year I would have to do nothing else other than treeschool. No treework and thus no business growth.
Long week. No life. Rising anger levels. If life was a game of chess, treeschool just declared check on me.
I didn’t expect that. This is the biggest kinda didn’t.
Software & Code
I did not expect to be enjoying writing software so much again. I thought that me and software were done, but it turns out that I just needed a nice long break from doing it.
Another “another” topic I’ll write about later, but I suspect my change in career had more to do with being burned out from being in an executive role. I can do it that kind of role, but I don’t “enjoy it”. There’s not a lot of writing code in that role (there’s some but not a lot) and I was well away from “the coal face”. Whilst tech work doesn’t make hard calloused hands, there’s definitely a production culture. I think that’s what I was seeking in treeworld.
Most of you will not have heard of Github, so I’ll describe it as a place where code lives and the place where you can collaborate on source code (open or closed source). I’ve been using Github since 2008, though most of the code from that time has been removed. One thing that Github has is a feature where it shows various charts of your activity. Here is an image that I put together from that feature that shows my activity from 2021 to 2025. Can you see where I lost total connection to the production culture in my role? (mid 2021). You can definitely see where I reached “peak treeworld” (Sep 2023 - Dec 2024).
More importantly, can you see where the interest returned in 2025?
It’s not something I’ve written about much because it was never relevant but behind the scenes here, there’s been a monthly income from technology work (the shame). Whether it be odds bits of software here and there or the mundane-to-some-but-not-for-me data protection work that I’ve been doing, it’s always been there lurking in the background. Fundamentally, it’s been keeping the lights on in the business since it started. I figured it would gradually fade away as tree work took over, but it hasn’t - it has come to front. I didn’t expect that.
So if treeschool is killing my time, preventing me from doing treework and I’m enjoying writing code again, what should a man do?
The What Next?
Goodbye Treeschool
I’m constantly assessing what’s the best way forward. There’s no science to it – I just use my gut. When The Estate wasn’t working out, I had a spidey sense it was time to move forward. After Christmas I had a giant spidey sense that Treeschool wasn’t going to work out either. So I resigned.
Leaving Treeschool is harder than the estate because you’re the teacher for a bunch of people who are headed to exams and formal work. Technically I could have left two weeks after I resigned (early January) but I figured the best (and most honourable) time to leave was after the first year and second years had completed their exams.. So basically I’ve been wanting to post this substack since January 9th (the day I resigned), but some of my students read this (hello, greetings). I certainly didn’t want them to find out about my exit from their student universe via an email from substack. That’s not classy. I also knew how it feels when teachers leave.
Out of the five teachers I had at treeschool whilst I was a student, three of them left in the middle of a term before exams1. Whilst that sucked massively, I have always been able to self-study and lead so to me it wasn’t a big deal. However, it did create some issues in the classroom dynamics which I picked up the slack on. I organised us, I prepared unit specifications and did the best I could to ensure our new teachers found it easy to pick up the slack. However, there was some turbulance and I didn’t want to create that bumpy journey for my students before their exams. With the exception of t-level2 students (who will be fine as I’ve given them a plan, even if they don’t know it), all of the other students have their exams on Monday 3rd and Tuesday the 4th of March, so I leave on March the 14th.
Life is short, I’m nearing fifty and the impact of treeschool on my life is the exact opposite of what I had intended it to be.
I was aiming for more money, more time.
What I got was more time, less money.
Nope. Do not want.
Hello Software
This next part is so bizarre to me that I don’t quite know how to write it, so I will just say it.
I’m applying for full time software jobs again. Not executive and not leadership - writing and authoring on the production coalface. I’d go as far as senior roles, but I’m interested in production culture and mentality. Ideally remote and preferably four days a week. I don’t imagine I’ll get that right out the gate, but it’s possible over time.
My logic is that if I’m going to sit in a room and look at trees, that room may as well be in my own house, the whiteboard may as well be the one behind me and I may as well travel as little as possible. The bonus with software jobs is that I don’t have to do any preparation work in my own time in order to do the job (except maybe thinking about puzzles, but that’s fine because it is fun).
I can hear you all asking…
hold on you wassock, you left a job in tech only to have a three year break, fanny about with trees only to return to a job in tech?
Yes, that’s exactly correct. Well done you for figuring it out. You’re so clever.
If you’re thinking that is the end of the road for me and trees you are wrong. It is just the end of the beginning – “the intro credits”.
The real story starts now.
Trees & Code.
Explaining my previous career to people in treeworld is hard. If I do a good enough job of it I can get people to understand it enough so that they say something like “ah, you write code”. If I majestically screw it up, they respond with ”I.T. then, computers and stuff?” I stopped correcting people if they said “I.T.”, but I always walked away happy if they understood enough to say code. Whenever I’ve met with people from my previous world, they always ask how “I’m enjoying the trees” or if ”I’m still doing the trees”. I don’t correct them to tree surgeon or arborist or mention forestry or woodland management. Trees is good enough.
So if treeworld sees my cyberspace world as “code” and techworld world sees my meatspace world as “trees” then there’s only one thing to do - embrace it. To that end, the name of this substack is going to change from Life of Treedom to “Trees & Code”. I’ll make that change by the time you read this and I’ll clean up the mentions of Life of Treedom as I go. The logo will need some adjusting but that’s fine. This isn’t a race. Oak doesn’t race birch.
As far as content goes, I’m going to start posting about the software stuff that I do. I know this may alienate a few readers, I’d be sorry to see anyone leave because of that, but such is life when you’re operating in a niche universe of trees and code. Remember, writing code is just a tool just like a chainsaw is a tool. Ideally I’d like to show a few of you how accessible writing software is - especially in Python.
My apologies in advance if the tech stuff turns you off.
“Sorry not sorry” kind of thing.
Online Courses
In 2013, after I had completed my teaching qualifications, I had a hypothesis based on the experience of others and some light experience of my own –
If you want to help people learn in the modern world, you need to get as far away from the education system as you as you can.
After six months working in the modern education sector I’m pretty sure I was onto something twelve years ago. I thought treeschool was different and to be honest, but now that I’ve peeked behind the curtain, I can see that it isn’t.
However, I still want to help people learn about trees, their habitats and how to manage them in urban and woodland settings. So I’m going to take some time to adjust, twist, finish and polish up the content I prepared for treeschool (in my own hours on my own machines – that’s important to note). When I’m done, you can expect to see me release onto teachable (or maybe somewhere else, but probably teachable) a series of courses related to trees:
Basics of Tree Identification
Basics of Tree & Plant Science
Basics of Tree survey and Inspection
Basics of Urban Tree Health & Management
Basics of Woodland Health & Management
Being free of the demands of a weekly teaching schedule allows me to go back into my own materials and finish to a way that I’m happy with. No classroom deadlines to hit, no corners to cut. I’m keeping the topics focused on the basics because foundations are much easier to communicate in a one to many style of learning. Once you start getting into intermediate levels you get into the realm of in-person courses where dialogue can be had and they really need to be done in person. Which leads nicely onto…
The Woodland
I have a woodland. It’s a lovely woodland.
Last year it was heavily neglected for reasons mentioned above (the estate, treeschool) However, this year I’ve rectified that error. I think I lost sight of the woodland and the role it plays in this new universe of mine. I was so busy being swept up domestic arb work and teaching that I forgot about it. However, I have rectified this mistake and I’ve been there more in the last week than I have in entire of last year.
So far I’ve planted many trees (1200 - 900 hazel / 300 oaks) and the hazels especially have been used to start off hedges that will inform the location of rides as well as boundaries between “out of bounds” ecology / copse areas, and “feel free to walk around” rides (woodland pathways). It also gives me a great excuse to practice hedge laying which is a discipline I fully intend on getting into. I have this goal of teaching meditation and being a hedge layer when I’m in my 80’s. I digress.
There’s a lot to do in this woodland and it’s all interesting. A lot more interesting than domestic arb work (have hedge, trim hedge, have tree, remove tree, big tree made into small tree etc etc). The things you need to do in a woodland are not just concerned with trees. I’m not knocking domestic arb work, it is a bread and butter income stream, but woodlands are more interesting. It’s like domestic arb on steroids.
Over this next year, I want to complete the formal woodland management plan and get that submitted to the forestry commission. Once I have the plan, I can get a felling license. Once I have the felling license I can get to work restoring the old hazel coppice with oak standards. Ten years after that work is completed, the woodland will have it’s own predictable income from the sale of hazel as a raw material, or goods produced by yours truely.
There’s a lot of infrastructure work to do. When we took over the woodland there were few if any clear paths (called rides in woodland world) to get around the place. To get down into the woodland from the parking space you had to slide / run down a mud bank. That bank is now a set of usable stairs and it’s hard to say what a difference such small things make.
There’s rides to put in place so that I have a space to drive a quad bike, small tractor or small digger. At first these will be made of wood chip (because I have a chipper) but once we have the management plan we’ll be able to apply for grants to install proper stone rides suitable for light timber extraction. Then there’s the water…
The hydrology needs to be sorted. Nearly all of the drainage channels are heavily silted up and that’s causing some upstream bogginess. Here you can see what a few minutes of work with a planting spade looks like. I was excited to see the water flowing again. Of course this will block up again in a few weeks, but it was enough to show me that I can get the water to move around the site again.
To do the hydrology properly we’re going to have to dig out the channels fully, re-locate the silt and that’s all going to have to be by hand. Yes, yes I know, “hire a digger”, but that’s an over simplification. I’ve got nothing to tow a digger to the woodland with (I sold the truck), there’s no way to get into the woodland without tearing the place up (I don’t want to tear the place up) and also - I’m not that good with a digger. So whilst I know (and agree) with the idea that a digger would be faster and better, for now that is not an option. One day it will be, but that day is not today.
As we dig it out by hand, I’m going to install drainage pipe wrapped in membrane to somewhat future proof the drainage. I’d like to do a proper job of it with gravel, but it is too much faff without machinery. There’s no way I’m carrying 150 bags of 25kg gravel deep into a woodland. Nope. That’s a job for when there’s proper rides and I can do it with a tractor or an ATV of some kind. Doing them by hand with pipe and membrane should give me a good five years of reasonably good drainage.
Tree Software - Dendromeda
Enough of the trees – what about the code!
Work continues on dendromeda, though it has been sharing my time with refreshing my technical skill set and learn a few tricks and languages. However, I’m still bullish on getting this app built and deployed. Truth be told, the break from authoring it has allowed me to focus the functionality. I’m going to build it around the idea of a very good, very easy, as accurate as I can make it application for tree surveys, inspections and allowing the public to report issues with trees in a “dendromeda managed area”. It’s also going to realistically priced so that the average user doesn’t need to commit thousands of pounds to use it.
It’d be nice to get it generating a little income and I’m sure you’d like to see how such a thing is done. So I’m going to write about that. It’s going to be a nice tool to use in my own woodland to demonstrate that the trees are regularly inspected, and to provide a means of the public reporting any issues with any trees. In software land they call this use of using your own software as if you were your own customer “dogfooding”.
“These trees are managed by Dendromeda”.
It has a nice ring to it.
Wrapping Up
So yes, my universe shifted again but I think it’s now pointed at something I was always headed for. A focus on tree work where I can learn and share whilst at the same time using my technology skills that I’ve spent a fifth of century developing. A blend of cyberspace and meatspace. Blue collar hands and a white collar mind. You get the idea.
Someone a lot wiser than me said that the best software people are the ones with a second profession. The doctor that writes code for example, will write better medical software than a doctor would who guided a software developer. The farmer who writes code will write better agricultural software than a farmer and a software developer. The software guy who understands tree populations etc etc.
It now feels like I’ve come full circle. I was Gandalf the grey and now I am Gandalf the white. I fell into shadow, but I’ve returned. Different, but the same. New purpose new goals. Basically - Trees & Code. A dual career of sorts.
Did I succeed in replacing the day job? Not yet, but then again I think the reality is that I’ll always have a job as an employee. They pay well and that money can be used to buy nice things like diggers, ATV’s, stone, gravel, trees, bandsaw mills and all of the other stuff that you need to restore a woodland and do tree work.
Maybe one day I’ll make enough of my own steam, but that day is not today and I’m comfortable with that because now I’ve got an outlet to my day job - trees. I didn’t have that before and now I’ve also got an appreciation for being in the production culture - where the rubber hits the road. Fair enough, techworld is more comfortable and you don’t risk death when you’re working, but then again treeworld doesn’t pay that well in comparison and it’s brutal on the body. The smart man balances these two things out. And in the end that’s all I’m trying to do, balance the books and balance my life.
Life of Treedom felt like birch, a race for competitive advantage, a hatred of shade and demands for full light - a pioneer species. Trees and Code feels like oak. In no hurry, can tolerate shade whilst young and in it for the long run - a climax species.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate your attention.
Cheers,
Jamie.
I don’t hold any ill-feelings towards any of these humans. I want to be clear about that. In fact, I’m still in touch with two of them frequently!
If I was to write for the rest of the life of the universe I am not sure I could write about just how badly designed the t-level qualification is.