A predominately outside and varied work life. How has yours been?

[daveindales]

Age 15. Took a job with EFG (Economic Forestry Group) in 1985, rather than a £25 a week apprentice gamekeeper. Lots of planting,  fence maintenance, Brashing, and a thing they called oceanic thinning. Never was quite sure what that meant. But we just thinned the trees and left them in the woods.

 

Got laid off in 1990, and made Wensleydale cheese for about a year. Got my old job back, with the forestry firm (name now changed to Tihhill Economic Forestry) Different name,same job. Always looking at the clock waiting for home time. Lasted about another year. Left and did NC Arb at Myerscough with Gerald Bonner et al. Left there and did HND Arb at Houghall for a couple of years. Left in 95,and started up by myself. Been doing it ever since.

[Mark J]

Got turfed out of school at fifteen, was more interested in getting hammered then education. Did a YT course in IT for a bit, went quite severely off the rails. Couple of years later got a job as a screen printer, then did an HND in Multimedia design. Animated things for a few years until at thirtyish I split up with a partner and was sick of me life.  Decided that I liked climbing trees so did an ND in Forestry/Arb and got a job with a local firm. Stayed with that firm for three or so years and then made my own way for the last decade or so. I've recently got a bit more qualified and split my time between climbing and surveying/consultancy.

Edited December 8, 2018 by Mark J

[Ratman]

I was recruited by MI6 straight from school and I can’t tell you the rest.

Wimp!

[Ratman]

Was Vesp your handler ?

You may be right Stubby! Hes clammed up and not giving anything away. Vesp has defo given him the hard word me thinks!

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, Ratman said:

You may be right Stubby! Hes clammed up and not giving anything away. Vesp has defo given him the hard word me thinks!

Vespies people and the Vespie circle spring to mind . ?

[Big J]

Dropped out of school aged 17 with a couple of AS levels. Parents going through an awful divorce and lots of other things too. 

 

I'd had a part time job catering at the local pub which I did full time for a year after that. Enjoyed the rush of professional catering - when you've got orders flying in and you've got to be ruthlessly organised to get it right. Brings out the German in me. 

 

Went to Nepal for a couple of months, met me now wife (from Northampton, not Nepal) and started doing social care when I got back. Worked as a home help with the elderly in the village I grew up in and enjoyed it. Moved to Manchester to live with Kathryn, and went into working with adults with severe learning disabilities and autism. Did that for a total of 4.5 years spanning a move to Edinburgh but hated it. People would enthuse about it being a noble vocation, but you're essentially caring for people with the intellectual capacities of squashed apricots and repeating the same routine, day in, day out for years on end. Enough to drive you demented. It's obviously not the fault of the service users, but like the lack of dignity for so many as they become elderly, it's one of the less positive aspects of improved medical care in the 20th and 21st century.

 

Anyway, during that job we moved to a country estate near Edinburgh. I got a chainsaw for doing firewood for the house, the forester saw that I had a good work ethic and said if I got my basic chainsaw tickets, there would be work. At the same time I discovered chainsaw milling. 

 

I did three years of three days a week self select thinning in hardwood stands around the estate and greatly enjoyed it. I also built up the sawmilling. I moved to larger premises with the sawmill, paused with the forestry work for a couple of years and focused on supplying quality hardwood for cabinet making. Got bandsawmills, forklifts, other machines. 

 

Starting a lot of work with elm harvesting up north, felling for myself but mostly for other people, selling parcels roadside, and buying and selling other parcels too. Spent a while looking for, felling and selling elm for veneer. 

 

Got into doing cedar for beehive manufacture too. Bought a couple of machines specifically for it. Chances are today that if you buy a UK manufacturer bee hive, the timber will have been cut by us. 

 

We then decided to move to Devon, so I sold the sawmill and went back to low impact forestry. Bought a little forwarder, a little processor and a nice 4x4 Sprinter to tow them. Have an alpine tractor with a winch now too, and looking at financing a Valtra with trailer and larger winch. We've got loads and loads of work ahead of us and I've never been busier. Enjoying a great deal too. It's nice to be in the woods and not having to deal with customers all the time. 

 

I've enjoyed reading this thread too and hearing the back stories of others on Arbtalk

[maybelateron]

Spent all my weekends and school holiday working on the dairy farm over the road in the 70's, loved every minute of the hard work.

First experience of chainsaw use was being shown how to stand on the tractor bonnet and cut back badly overgrown hawthorn hedge around the field. No PPE, no chain brake, no mobile phone, 1/4 mile from nearest house, farmer left me to crack on alone after showing me how. SORRY, DID YOU SAY HEALTH and SAFETY?! Lol 

Parents felt I should go to university, dad was a surgeon in NHS, older sister gone to medical school, I ended up doing the same. Coped OK with it, but always aware I took the more practical/pragmatic approach to things compared to many of my peers. Went into full time general practice for 14 years after a total of 9 years training.

Late 2000/early 2001 had  to take time out to sort out my head/depression. In the very lucky position of my wife being part time GP, so we could make changes and allow me to change to part time GP and set up my small business doing groundcare and tree work. Did part time GP for 12 years while also doing trees, at age 53 decided to quit the desk and go full time on trees etc. Regarding the medical job I feel I need to make it clear that I feel we were well paid for what we did and to my last day I still loved doing what I actually trained to do - dealing with patients, even the few difficult ones. It was the "constant change" of moving goalposts pointlessly that made me quit. It is the same for teachers, police, and many others.

I realise that I was in the lucky position for 12 years of having a stable good income to live on while investing in kit etc. Even with this fortunate start in the trade it is difficult enough to invest in really decent kit.

For three years we also had a grounds maintenance contract for a nearby up market housing estate, and this allowed me to invest further in kit. Having managed this I eventually packed in this contract, so we could focus more on trees.

I am now 59, well past my prime, but still climbing and loving every minute of it.

 

[Mick Dempsey]

11 minutes ago, maybelateron said:

Spent all my weekends and school holiday working on the dairy farm over the road in the 70's, loved every minute of the hard work.

First experience of chainsaw use was being shown how to stand on the tractor bonnet and cut back badly overgrown hawthorn hedge around the field. No PPE, no chain brake, no mobile phone, 1/4 mile from nearest house, farmer left me to crack on alone after showing me how. SORRY, DID YOU SAY HEALTH and SAFETY?! Lol 

Parents felt I should go to university, dad was a surgeon in NHS, older sister gone to medical school, I ended up doing the same. Coped OK with it, but always aware I took the more practical/pragmatic approach to things compared to many of my peers. Went into full time general practice for 14 years after a total of 9 years training.

Late 2000/early 2001 had  to take time out to sort out my head/depression. In the very lucky position of my wife being part time GP, so we could make changes and allow me to change to part time GP and set up my small business doing groundcare and tree work. Did part time GP for 12 years while also doing trees, at age 53 decided to quit the desk and go full time on trees etc. Regarding the medical job I feel I need to make it clear that I feel we were well paid for what we did and to my last day I still loved doing what I actually trained to do - dealing with patients, even the few difficult ones. It was the "constant change" of moving goalposts pointlessly that made me quit. It is the same for teachers, police, and many others.

I realise that I was in the lucky position for 12 years of having a stable good income to live on while investing in kit etc. Even with this fortunate start in the trade it is difficult enough to invest in really decent kit.

For three years we also had a grounds maintenance contract for a nearby up market housing estate, and this allowed me to invest further in kit. Having managed this I eventually packed in this contract, so we could focus more on trees.

I am now 59, well past my prime, but still climbing and loving every minute of it.

 

Wow, that’s an interesting story, qualified medical doctor!

[Big J]

26 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Wow, that’s an interesting story, qualified medical doctor!

Aye, but does he have his EFAW + forestry? If not, he's not coming on my sites! ?

[openspaceman]

6 hours ago, daveindales said:

Took a job with EFG (Economic Forestry Group) in 1985,

 I started with them them but 11 years earlier.

 

The company was formed by an accountant, Rankin IIRC, who saw a loophole between  schedule B and D forestry land.