Andy Collins

I haven't followed your career to date, have you tried applying for full time positions? Have you posted in the Employment section looking for work? Have you written a brief summary of you skills and posted them up for potential employers to see? Try making up a photo and/or video CV and posting that of your abilities. don't forget Arbjobs and CTC recruitment too. Can I ask why you've left it until the last 3 weeks to look fo work? I'd guess you've known a few months now? Read Silky Foxs "in Desperate times..." thread for inspiration. If that fails read the "Stress" thread.

Well, not one to do nothing while I'm awaiting for Anglo-American to sort out a new dealer in my area, I went out and got a couple of cans to try out in my hedge trimmers, as that's where I can see it being of most use to me at this point, health-wise. 10 litres for £35!!!!! I remember moaning when petrol went over a pound a gallon! I'll admit, I can't see past that price, it's expensive, but I'm willing to give it a shot for a while, well I'll use these two cans then see if AAOC have got one of those dealers sorted by then.

Agreed, once a month we draw up a list of jobs to be done, these are circulated to all the interested parties to do as and when, machinery needs coordination and safety, so that's done when people are out of the way. You need a loose kind of organisation though, so you can move forward rather than run in circles. We got hold of an old wooden bus shelter to do up and make a small info centre/shelter, installed a timber henge from an oak stump that was cut vertically into segments and "exploded" outwards, and recently put benches around for people to sit and eat at. It works well, we get little littering to date, if there is any it's cleared by the volunteers to keep it tidy. We now have wild bee orchids and pyramid orchids amongst the wild flowers that have invaded, after about 8 years of naturalising.

I think it travels at something like 17000 mph, I may be a little out, but I know it's quick. On a downlink I was able to listen in for about 10 mins before signal dropped out. Actually 17500 mph

LIVE REAL TIME SATELLITE TRACKING AND PREDICTIONS track it here

Did anyone else notice this year how poorly foliated the Ashes were? As an aside, I've also noticed a lot of dead willows as well, especially re-pollards that haven't recovered.

Nice one! I'm a trustee on a charitable trust doing a similar project, except ours was a bare field to start. Try and get a small work party together, involve the community and it'll come on in leaps and bounds. We now have a work party of around a dozen people from all walks of life, we cut the wild flower area with an old David Brown and finger bar mower, I maintain the paths. Others do te there time and skills in their professions, such as printing to produce a calendar to raise funds to keep it running. I sell off wood chip to fund new trees guards and stakes. Every little helps.

Me, still chilled Stevie, what goes around, comes around, and you reap what you have sown I think it's in our make up, albeit in different ways, that self drive, that obsession with perfection, that OCD, but it's what makes us what we are, we are driven people, we make things happen. Maybe on a large scale maybe on a small scale, but we do. We feed off the stress, most of the time, but there is a fine line, if we tip over that line, the stress feeds off us.

Hence the 6 foot chopping board, she'll never lift it, let alone swing it

Yeah I think that's what I was thinking, saw it on Arboristsite or similar a long time back

Thie is interesting to me, only on Monday I went to inspect and carry out some formative pruning on some plantings done around 5 years ago. 10 of the trees were well established, got their feet down and were storming away nicely.one had died some time ago, 2 copper beech were out of sorts, signs of deficiencies in the uptake, and three had girdled roots. I carefully trowel led around the roots, and they still looked as if they come out of containers. I should have photographed them really, but just didn't think. The rocking of the whole trees doesn't bode well for their future. So I carefully severed and drew out some of the roots, sprinkied in some myccorihzae and re-staked. Personally, I'm not sure if it's a case of too little too late in this case. They were "professionally" planted, by a reputable company, though I think a jobbing gardener couldn't have done a worse job. I got the feeling the first ten or so were planted with care, and the remainder were shoved in as time was ticking away and they had to be elsewhere. Sorry for the derail DH:001_smile:

Hmmm idea, I now have a Xmas pressie lined up for the wife, a 6'x2'6" Robinia chopping board, she's gonna be made up:thumbup:.

Thanks Rob, yeah I followed most of the links in your site already:thumbup: made up the rails tonight, chuffed now

Find a way of chilling out, read the stress thread, that's why it's there. You will make yourself ill if you don't give it attention, it sneaks up on you gets you in it's grip and strangles the life from you. don't let it.

Still chilled out

Low,medium and high power, range starts at about 40 yds

Realistically, starting at the bottom and working for someone else with next to no experience, you aren't going to earn very much for a couple of years, £60 a day til your ticketed, then a slow climb up as your experience grows. You could go out right now, chuck shedloads of money about and gear up for say £15k, hire in a good climber and groundie and pay them a lot of money, take a bit for yourself and your kit, and you might see a return on your money one day...or you may lose the lot! If you're a shrewd businessman, you might be able to make it work, but a shrewd businessman would put his money into something with far better returns than tree work. I'd be asking myself why I want to do this job in particular, why take a risk at this stage of my life, why invest in an already saturated Market, in the middle of a recession, and isn't there an easier way to make my money work for me? If its a lifestyle thing, go WI a crew for a few years and learn what its all about before investing.

Yes agreed, top service speedy delivery of my slabbing rail kit. Nice one Rob

Nothing wrong with that from the pic SKS, quality work Did a hedge the other week, client asked me to keep it nice and straight, as he'd always done it in the past and wanted it to the same standard. I re-cut the bumps all out that he'd always left and bounced over, and got it level. A few weeks later I heard from another customer that he'd told them what a lovely job I'd made of the hedge, thank god I never did it to his standard.

If the cops are worth their salt, they will check out that fridge properly, it's the sort of cocky thing that lands the thieving scrotes in the dock. Sorry to read this Ian, hope you get sorted soon.

I wish I could do stuff like this, I mean I wish I could even think of original stuff like that!! Then I wish once I've though of it I could turn those thoughts into something as cool as that. Cool, thanks for sharing.

Game on! all the best

Personally, I've never had a proper bowline slip undone in any situation. Was it tied correctly, and did you clip into the right part of it? Buntline and anchor hitches are good end line knots, but loaded they can get very tight and hard to undo, and as Pete says they do hold the crab in the right position.

I've been in this since 96 and never put a pair of saw trousers in the tumbler, never seen the need, and never put on a wet pair the following day. Get a second pair, it far easier and better for you to.

My oldest lad gave me a hand now and again while he went through college, now has his own business, my youngest lad is a mechanic, no interest in tree work, but handy with the help on maintenance. So happy with the way both turned out