A half finished job

[Hedge Monkey]

3 hours ago, Jackalope said:

If it's only 20yo then there shouldn't be much needing done yet, unless of course it has come up a mass of natural regen which is smothering the planted stock. 

 

From what I've gleaned the other woods are mature ash with dieback, some already laid over/hung up and you are, by your own admission, a novice to forestry. Ash is tricky enough to fell safely when it's healthy, add in the delight of deadwood dropping out of it and that's the recipe for an accident report.

 

Be extremely careful going into that.

Thanks, I will take care. From what I can see 80% of the ash is already down.

 

I've been felling since 2011 and felled bigger ash trees, but I've only recently received any formal training. As a precaution I've purchased a 2000kg winch and 4000kg strops. I'll endeavour to take someone along while working and I'll post some pics if I get the go ahead to start there. 

[dan blocker]

7 hours ago, Hedge Monkey said:

 

 

Looks like the operation was to take out infected ash. There will be some kind of plan in place for sure but lots of other woodland to manage and very few hands on deck. 

Reading through this, are you sure? “there will be some kind of plan in place”? Cos I’m not so sure. Not convinced that falling it all downhill towards the extraction point is ideal if your going to winch it out. Sounds like a cluster🤔.

[scbk]

When I see a half finished job I wonder what happened to the first guy, did he not get paid 

 

The red flag works both ways

[spuddog0507]

9 hours ago, Hedge Monkey said:

These are medium sized trees, diameter at breast hight would be about 16", the trees themselves must be around 12m. I was only up there for a short while so can't say the exact size of the plantation, but it's 4 to 5 acres minimum, with 50 to 100 trees down, at a gues

50-100 trees down,, when timber is down like this it can be very difficult to estimate the quantity, from what you have said previously and thinking there is hundreds of tonnes i think you will be very dissapointed to hear that from the size of trees you describe they wont even be a tonne each and then if it has dieback even less weight,, 

Has this job been stopped for a reason ? Is there a plant health order on the trees due to disease ? 

If no plant health order is there a felling licence in place,,

just be careful as you will be getting blamed for all of it if the other guy has fallen out with land owner, 

but like others have said why did he not finish the job ??

[Hedge Monkey]

5 hours ago, dan blocker said:

Reading through this, are you sure? “there will be some kind of plan in place”? Cos I’m not so sure. Not convinced that falling it all downhill towards the extraction point is ideal if your going to winch it out. Sounds like a cluster🤔.

I do all sorts of work on the owner's farm. Next week we're doing some demolition and I'll use the opportunity to make some enquiries. He's already said I can take his Land Cruiser and trailer up there to get logs (for him). Other family members have been given the go ahead to take firewood and I'll be involved in that too. 

There's plenty of other work to do around the farm and I don't need to get involved any further than that but if I want to take this on as a personal project, or get a third party in to help, I imagine he'd have my back. 

 

I'll have to see how things pan out, there might be more pressing jobs to get on with like extracting timber from other sites. 

 

As far as winching, there are a few trees that are still sitting on their stumps that I'd like to have a little go at, just for the experience. At the end of the day I might be needed elsewhere on the farm. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hedge Monkey]

4 hours ago, scbk said:

When I see a half finished job I wonder what happened to the first guy, did he not get paid 

 

The red flag works both ways

There hadn't been any fall out, we're all locals, family or friends. I think the guy they got in may have just smashed through the work so as to get on with other jobs that bring in more revenue, as we're short on hands. I'll have better idea of the situation soon enough. 

 

(I'll try to get some pics posted in the next week or two)

 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Hedge Monkey

[Hedge Monkey]

4 hours ago, scbk said:

When I see a half finished job I wonder what happened to the first guy, did he not get paid 

 

The red flag works both ways

We're all on good terms and see each other regularly, so no worries there. If there's a way to bring in some revenue and discreetly tidy up the site at the same time then everyone's a winner. Might end up being something of a labour of love though. 

[doobin]

Are you an employee or a contractor??

This has clusterfk and falling out with everyone written all over it.

[Jackalope]

10 minutes ago, doobin said:

Are you an employee or a contractor??

This has clusterfk and falling out with everyone written all over it.

I agree with doobin.

 

Sounds like someone needs to decide what the end goal is, then get an experienced forestry operator with the correct machinery in to achieve said goal.

[coppice cutter]

Personally I'd love to be getting in there and getting stuck in.

 

If it was my day job and getting paid for it as well, heaven!

 

Good luck and enjoy your work. 👍

 

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by coppice cutter