How did you get into ARB

[Vespasian]

A family of gypsies moved onto our land, well a field ma dad sold em.. got to know all the local gypsies round about's and learned about their money making schemes..

 

At the time most of em were flogging carpets from the back of a van, cheap nasty stuff as thin as cigarette paper.. others did tarmac while one or two did the odd tree when they weren't doin scrap..

 

I sort of liked the idea of doin tree work and fancied havin a go at it myself.. never did any tree work with any of the gypsies mind, just struck me as a good idea..

 

I've been meaning to make myself into a tree chopper ever since, never seemed to get there mind, always somethin in the way. at first lack of a good chipper, these days its the back, keeps playin up whenever I do any damned tree's..

 

So I keep it small if I can, just the occasional tree.. but I do wish I'd done it in a serious way when I was a lot younger.. I'd of bin the Reg Coats of Bolton by now LOL..

 

But anyways, I should thank the local Gypsy community for inspiring me to do something I love when I do do it..

[Mark J]

I used to do post-production work for a multimedia company. After a relationship went tits up I decided I'd be happier climbing trees. Ten years on and I'm still glad I did.

[Marula]

I was a lean green killing machine that ate death and shat napalm, after coming out I briefly experience civilians in an office setting and realised it was a claustrophobic backstabbing environment. Looked around for something outdoors, came across "Tree surgery" and headed off to college, the rest is history.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Arbtalk

[Dan1990]

Wanted a trade. Chap down the road had a job going..fencing and tree work. Loved doing both but he provided me with low hours. So there was a company that carried out tree cutting around the power lines. They said if I got my cs30/31 then they would give me a job.. I did and now I'm a team leader.

[stihlmadasever]

I was sick of the millionaire lifestyle,driving my lambo's,shaggin models...my banjo string was in tatters...

So i decided to get a job that was dangerous,thankless and made you work outdoors in the wettest country in europe.

Love it..

[daveindales]

Started in forestry at 15 in 1985. Was the first job I was offered. Then went to college for 3 years. Myerscough and Houghall and started up own small business in 1995. Still doing it now.

[skyhuck]

I got married at aged 20, we rented a house that had an open fire, and estate I rent from had a lot of dead elms, as a boy I had always gone with my dad to cut down dead or unwanted trees for the fire wood, so I bought a secondhand husky 266 with 20 inch bar and started felling at the weekend and cutting up for fire wood.

Then got £500 gas bill so fitted wood burner with back boiler and upped production. At the time i was working in a foundry, but slipped a disc in my neck while grinding the snots of castings, while of ill I must of been walking bad with my head up and slipped a disc in my back. After 2 months on the sick I got sacked, I'd not worked there long enough to take them to tribunal.

So started working as a window cleaner, I like being outside, but found it boring and repetitive. I saw job advert for grounds man, but it said you needed your NPTC, I rang and said I had no ticket, but I had my own saw and was very keen. I started on £30 a day with my own saw self-employed. I worked with a very good climber and thought i'd love to do that. I sold my push bike for £200 and bought some second hand climbing gear. I climbed at work whenever I could and went out at the weekend and dismantled dead elms. After getting a bit more experience I went and got assessed for tickets 20,21 and 22.

The two climbers where I was working left to setup on their own, so I left with them, didn't work out.

Started subbing to a couple of firms,one was a long established firm that felled for timber,the boss was a great guy who taught me more than any one before or since. Needed more climbing as both firms would keep me going full time, but not always climbing, so did a days trial for fountain forestry ,as it was called then, they said they'd give me as many days as i wanted.

All went well for a while working for the 3 firms,then the taxman changed the rules on labour only rubies and fountain decided they were not having any subies at all. I went to the taxman and got a letter to say I was OK, but they said there were no exceptions and they wanted me to go employed, so I borrowed some money, bought a chipper and subbed to them as a small two man crew and advertised for domestic work.

 

I've never looked back, when the rain is running down the back of my neck I just think back to my days in the foundry and remember how lucky I am.

Edited June 18, 2017 by skyhuck

[skyhuck]

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/173-how-why-did-you-get-into-treework.html:001_smile:

[Mick Dempsey]

Good story Dave.

 

I was 30, still living with my parents, smoking a lot of dope, mowed a few lawns, bit of this and that. Started work for a landscaper who had done the 10week course at Merrist Wood.

 

I considered him the most incompetent and dishonest boss I had ever worked for, so I figured if he could do it, I could.

 

So I did the same course, learnt enough to get a job to actually learn the job, started my own thing after a year.....

[PeteB]

Asked​ my Uncle Dave for a holiday job while waiting to go to Polytechnic. Didn't get the grades I needed for 'Tech, so asked if I could stay. I enjoyed the graft, pay was good, people I worked with fun and went from self employed, to employee and then became employer with 12 lads. My only regret was not going to college but learning from books, experience or others. That ended after we lost some contracts and my now ex-wife, after 17 years and have been at GreenMech since so I can say that I have been in Arb since 1982.