Quickthorn

For training in Notts, you could try Notts P T C. They're the county assessment centre, but they might have contact details of trainers.

Riseholme College, Lincoln is another thought. It is in Lincs, obviously, but not that far in.

I've come across one or two people who suggest you work cheap. One in particular used to say that you should work cheap when you're slack, and treat it as "contribution to overheads". He'd normally be telling this to people who he was helping to train (often people starting up), and there'd often be the suggestion of more work to come.

I felt for it once, and did a "day's" chipping for £120, to clear up the mess his real mates had made and should have cleared up, but it was such a mess it took 3 days, and to cap it all, the chipper blew a hydraulic pipe on the job. I spent £60 or so on diesel traveling, about £60 on repairs to the chipper and probably £20 on diesel to run the chipper. Lesson learned.

We used to call it the 10 o'clock bad news

 

Now i dont have a telly, rarely listen to the radio and dont buy a paper.

 

I am much happier, it used to kind of stress me without realising, all the doom and gloom. 99% of which didnt even have a direct affect on my life.

 

I think a lot of the present recesion is media driven, and they will prolong it.

 

Chuck the telly and see if your life changes

Got rid of mine 2 years ago. Don't miss it in the slightest. The only reason I'd get another is if they brought back live cricket on one of the "free" channels.

2010 started great for me, loads of work, then was diagnosed with cancer in September, had operation, recovered for a month, then started chemo...still ongonig now. So all I can say lads is that as long as you have your health and can work, try not to worry, there's far more to life. Wish i could climb a tree right now. Really depressing but hopefully 2011 will get better:thumbup1:

Puts it all into perspective.

Hope you're back up climbing soon.

The other use would be pulp. One figure I heard a year ago was around £20 /tonne.

Doesn't match up to what you'd get if you can sell it as firewood, though.

Im not sure how the younge lads that are thinking of starting up this year are going to fair, but I as sure as hell wouldnt want to be fronting the money for them.

I don't think anyone will..banks just won't lend to them.

I get the feeling that the new startups of the future will be rich to start with, or have access to money/kit/land at low cost. It's happening now in my sort of work. The people who undercut me are often diversifying estates or farmers, people who've retired early on a good pension and mortgages paid off and are now wanting a second career and those who've set up after an inheritance or big redundancy payout.

First half was good, these last few months terrible. I think it's related to local authorities tightening up to save themselves, plus other forms of grants disappearing, and that pays for a lot of the sort of work I do.

2011's going to be interesting in a not-so-good sort of way.

If you can show there's some personal use, business rates won't come into it - you'll be paying council tax on the place anyway. If it's sole business use, then they'll want the business rates instead of council tax, but they can't have both.

The issue will be planning permission.

Thanks for that. I thought it was fair as well, especially as the tree's still standing, and I've no idea what it's really like inside.

I certainly won't be offering any more.

On one site I work on, I was interested in buying one standing wild cherry for milling. It's 33 cm dbh, and there's about 0.6 cu. m of timber in there, reasonably straight. Any ideas on price?

I offered the equivalent of around £60 per cu. m, but the site manager's turned his nose up at that.

This idea of handing the power to the littlepeople may make more sense from a planning standpoint?

Power might be handed to the little people initially, but it will end up in the hands of that cabal of local business people - estate agents, solicitors, land agents, developers, big farmers, land owners and anyone else who plays golf with them - who end up pulling all the strings in an area. It sounds it's heading towards a cronies' charter to me.

Of course, it won't fly at the moment if this referendum idea is part of it, because people who have their houses already don't particularly want to see anyone else building houses near them (unless they're going to make money, like in "garden grabbing"). However, they're watering that bit down by the looks of it. It started off as "an overwhelming majority" in favour, now it's "more than half". I'm sure they'll get the "right balance" eventually.

I've got the old 346 and the 353. The 353 does have a little less power, despite a few ccs more - it's like a slightly tubby 346, a bit out of condition . What you do notice between the two is how slow the 353 is to pick up compared to the 346.

Having said that, my 353 seems pretty tough. I inherited it, and it looked like it had spent a year on the bottom of a canal - totally abused, never even cleaned - yet it's still going. I tend to pick it up when speed's not the issue, but the cutting's likely to be rough - dirty wood, hedgelaying, that sort of thing.

For firewood cutting, I'd pick my 346, and the newer 346 would be even more of a saw. If I had to buy one out of the two, it would be the 346, because the price difference isn't that great considering the extra performance.

Thanks for this Peckerwoo. As you're from SYorks, I hope you didn't get stuck at Anston last week!

I'm not too far from you, in N Notts. We've seen some incredibly low temperatures for here. After several nights - double digits, my (cheap) thermometer read about -17 on Tues morning. I couldn't get the truck started, possibly because diesel had turned to wax. Do you think we'll see temperatures down to this sort of level next week?

I'm still interested in studs for boots - did you get my pm I sent a week ago?

I've been using a lower tech method this last week or so - like my dad in the 70s, I've been putting an old coat over the engine as soon as I get in. It's a LR with the normally aspirated engine, and difficult to get going below -5 or so, but the coat trick's made a difference, I think.

Having said that, it wasn't having it yesterday morning. It was -17 or so, and I'm pretty sure the diesel had waxed up.

My chipper test consisted of-

 

Turn up for work one morning, boss sais meet a chap up in the yard at 10, no reason why???

 

Went up, bloke sais fill out the yellow test application form. pointed to a chipper, sais tell me about the safety features, stick some brash through, switch it off.

 

Passed 100%. So yeah, the system realy works..........

How long ago was this, John? Was it for the NPTC Certificate?

I'd take my hat off to Peckerwoo if it weren't so cold. He got it spot on.

I had to leave the house at just before 6am this morning - thermometer said -12C. I had to stop half a dozen times because the windscreen wipers were freezing when I used the washers, despise having 25% screen wash in the washer bottle.

3pm now and -4.

Another amateur weather forecaster I read was saying that Jan Feb and March will be mild, with an early spring.

 

if you would like more info I can post here and I am placing a large bulk order on Friday to Sweden.

 

Yea, I'd be interested in info on studs for chainsaw boots or wellies. Prices/pics?

We've got up to a couple of feet of snow now, after last night. Probably not that impressive compared to some places, but unusual for this part of North Notts.

Today's job would have been 30 miles away, so didn't even attempt it. I might have got there if it was just me on the roads, it was the thought of a 30-40 car tailback all stuck behind a stalled lorry or an old duffer in a Honda Civic that put me off.

The snow on the LandRover fell last night - there's an AstraVan somewhere in that pile in the 2nd pic.

Might be worth checking that bar sprocket and chain are all the right pitch - probably .325"

As far as I understand the VAT rule, you charge 5% if you are supplying domestic customers but if its a commercial customer you have to charge 17.5%.

 

No, it's 5% if the customer is going to use it as fuel, otherwise 17.5%. Doesn't matter whether the customer is domestic or commercial.

I think it's more that certain people resent being told what they can or cannot do on "their" land. The irony is that the tree they want to remove, and others around them, may actually add value to their house (something they're often obsessed with, IMO).

It ran before i fitted the new stuff but still died on idle as well so it must be the carb and it seems so fickle, think they are overtuned but awesome when running. Im looking at swopping it for a 268 or 372 really as they would be more reliable! i love big saws with small bars as well!!! im sure a carb would sort it out but itl just go out of tune quickly i imagine again!!

I'm sure someone posted on this a while ago. It seems that there was a bad batch of carbs made, and the replacements are fine. They phoned Husqvarna about it, mentioning carb problems, and they got a new one FOC. Is it still in warranty?

QT ; I can well believe that as a possible reason - even the most compelling reason. However, the timing of this has alerted the cynic in me to speculate that maybe the FC are enforcing this now in order to prevent any foraging ''issues'' prior to selling off chunks of our - whoops, sorry - 'their' estate.

I know that some people have been gleaning wood for years on certain sites. How embarrassing for the proud new owner of a former FC wood to have some peasant contest the fact that they are now no longer able to forage for wood on a site that had been accessible (to them, and others) for years.

I may well be wrong, but this action would certainly prevent such a scenario - or am I just being too cynical?

I think it's been an issue for a few years, from what I'd heard, and coincides with the start of the firewood boom. The H&S issue revolved around the concern that a lot of "weekend warrior" types, perhaps not too experienced in this type of work, would be hitting the woods with B&Q chainsaws etc, hurting themselves and then putting a claim in.

It's not just FC either. A friend, who manages a few woods around here, gets several calls a year, starting round about now, from people offering to "tidy up" these woods for free, in exchange for some of the wood they cut. A lot of them are amazed when he refuses permission.

I feel more sorry for the regular gleaners, who had been gleaning in their local woods for years without incident.

I've got a 353 that was difficult to set up. The solution was as simple as changing the fuel pickup filter in the tank, tho' you've probably done that.

Did it work before you put the new piston and ring in?

If not, it may be the carb. I think there was a bad batch fitted to 357s, and a lot of folk had this trouble. I'd heard one bloke rang Husqvarna about it and they simply sent him a new carb by return, FOC, which sorted the problem.