All Activity

You'll only buy it well if you've got, or can get artic access. Unless you can find someone with a rigid but hard to find. Or try and find a local estate who will sell you decent cordwood per m2 that you can collect in your own trailer.

No pics m'fraid but top Springy stuff nevertheless: earlier in the week a tremendous racket blew up in hedge just outside the door of the outhouse that serves as a shed: then a blackcap (what else) perched on the front of the hedge right by the door looked in and flew off. And today a pair of ravens flew over with one, two or three times just while I watched, folding its wings and plummeting dramatically before swooping up and carrying on. Yippee! I'm a raven!

Likewise, thinking you're 25 years older than you actually are is a sure fire way to age yourself more.

Mark, you’ve clipped the sentence, so here’s the end. “,like I do”?

Eh, what's that got to do with anything ? Are you a bee? 🐝

Sounds like a great night!

There’s that peace loving tolerant religion at it again.

Dominate your market. Crush your quotas. Relentless follow-ups. High Impact demos. Hunt and Close. Sell Hard.

No apology necessary here mate. Tough hand you were dealt there. At least you haven’t given up and bought some massive elastic waisted trousers! Many would have. Mick’s Clint Eastwood analogy is a good one. Don’t let the old man in. Don’t start wearing leather trousers to the pub, like.

What sort of percentage would you say for an arrangement like that? What about splitting time? Most i’ve done was arb waste oak massive thing took about a week to get it all done by hand. I’d be hoping ‘processor grade’ would be fairly straightforward by hand?

I never climbed for coin . My mate was the climber . I have been up on occasion ( Willans T 22 , and 3 core , peeps will know what that is if they are old enough ) But mostly groundy / forestry stuff .

What age were you when you stopped climbing stubby ?

I would pretty much agree with all of that. Climbing isn’t a bother to me or my back. Years of dragging brash at awkward angles or lumping logs (that should have been cut in half) into trucks is what has largely contributed to an aching back. Bear in mind that I am 6’4” so it’s a long way down there and feels an even longer way to get back upright. We have a bit of a running g joke amongst the guys working. As we are getting older there are only so many “bendy downs and picky ups left” so be wise, work smart and don’t waste them 😜

The thing is Mark I was playing squash 3 times a week , judo at the local club , cricket in the summer evenings , clay shooting , going beating in the winter etc etc at the age of 50 . ( i thought of myself as a 30 year old 50 ) Then that myopic woman knocked me off my Fire Bade and my life changed completely . My age caught up with me and my Peter Pan stuff dissolved . Yes I was bitter and if that did not happen I would be still competing at a lever slightly above my age coz I was a fit fcuker . But hey ho . Sorry mate . Don't know what just came over me . I am a silly old sod .

100% spot on Mark What is hard to fathom is the animosity towards people genuinely using them from members of an arb forum 🤷‍♂️

I’ll give you a little example SP, for one days milling “ a regular customer otherwise I’d not have done it, and as any small business owner or self employed will tell you, your customer base is important” entailed a days sharpening and setting blades plus prep of mill, the mill like any machine will not run on fairy dust and no maintenance. Deliver mill to site on Friday 21st Feb. On site 0700 with generator on trailer Sat 22nd Feb, mill from 0800-1800 pack up and drop generator and trailer off at yard, back to site collect mill and drop off at yard, bit of maintenance and cover for shit weather forecast. Back via Turriff to collect kids at 2230 as I’m passing that way anyway and home for 2300. Back to mill on Sunday 23rd finish off the maintenance and collect blades ready for sharpening and setting for next job. Your version of events is literally fantasy land stuff. What do you do for a living SP ??

If you can get friendly with a local farmer you might manage to strike a deal on the basis of: he/she supplies the space to store and process it (back of a yard somewhere) in return for a percentage of the timber/logs. Added bonus of you only taking clean logs home rather than creating sawdust and splitting shards in your garden.

The thing that will age you more than anything is thinking you are 25 forever. Use your brain, experience and machinery, and keep training. Nearly every active arb I know who is past 40 does some form of training. It sounds counter intuitive, but work itself isn’t enough. Dempsey is a classic example of the exception proving the rule, but he keeps his wrists and forearms in tip-top shape with an extra large wine glass.

I've long thought a big job should have two climbers on it, a little one and a big one. The little one can scamper around being fast and light, set ropes, while the big one is humping the bollard in and setting it up. Chop and change as appropriate but definitely leave a good bit in the big one's tank for the big saw work at the end of the day. I (a little one) will often get to the 661 stage of the tree and ask myself what the **************** am I doing up here with this massive heavy bastard (doing simple chogging that anyone can do) when I'm already tired from being fabulous all day on the branchwork. Or just two little ones if it's gay stuff like pruning. Either way. Negligible extra cost over a groundsman only. I'm not sure I'd hire someone that couldn't climb, unless they had some other skill. And there's no site down time when the climber needs to eat but the groundsmen don't.

Quite a few of us on here go for a weekly treatment to keep the aches away. Doug even has his own personal thai bird 😂

Bet the climber part is a moody bastard and the groundy only took quick to accept offers of clients coffee...

Well oui, monsieur évident. But being mainly the former, it grants me the inner peace you will have no doubt noticed radiating from me.