benedmonds

Polyporus squamosus Xylaria polymorpha? Any takers for the last pics? On beech

£250 per day! That's cheap... Working roughly from my accounts last year- costs/expenses 230 days on tools a daily costs are: £120 for a climber £70 for the groundie £12 insurance £20 fuel £30 advertising £17 accountants and office supplies, bank charges etc £25 new equipment and plant maintence £16 vehicle maintence £310 per work day it costs me for a truck chipper, climber and groundie. That doesn't include rent cost of waste disposal time spent quoting VAT So yes you were right to tell him to bog off! But you are still too cheap. IMO..

LA want us to have undertaken the stump course. Anyone know who runs it in the East Midlands.. Cheers

I am interested in others opinions. I undertook a climbing inspection and made some recomendations that differ from the LPA's tree officer.. What would you recommend: 17m tall Horse Chestnut The tree foliage was of good colour and density and the tree appears to be growing well, with plenty of new shoot growth. Previous tree works have left numerous (over 10) major wounds (15cm x 15cm) throughout the tree. The tree has been "reduced" twice in the past, in 1991 and 2002. Horse Chestnuts contain a core of largely unresponsive and non-durable wood (Lonsdale, 2001). Many of the wounds therefore have cavities, some extending up to 15cm into the trunk/branch. Re-growth from the previous topping cuts has led to growth of numerous branches with weak attachments. In addition the topped branches are decaying down behind the attachment points of the re-growth increasing the likelihood of failure. There is major (over 75mm) dead wood though out the crown. A root on the south side of the tree shows cambial die back with flaking bark and several cracks in the bark running up the trunk to 2m. There are several areas of sooty black exudates on the trunk and scaffold branches. This is likely to be the early stages of bleeding canker caused by Pseudomonas syringae . Understanding about this disease is limited at present and this makes it difficult to make precise recommendations about the management of the disease and affected trees. Unless there is an immediate concern about safety, trees with light to moderate bleeding and vigorous crowns can be left in place and monitored. Recovery may be possible and removal of trees which are still relatively vigorous (although diseased) may be premature (Forest Research - forestry and tree related research. 2009). A Tree Hazard Rating of 9 was assigned to the tree (from a maximum value of 12 with 12 representing a significant threat). Ratings have only relative meaning but the rating indicates that some management must occur to ensure the tree is safe.

We've got one that I found. I love the idea of it but you need an extra cone so the benifits aren't as good as they first seem. We also seem to have a cone shortage at the moment so don't use it much..

I believe they are trying to change it to a level 4..

If your selling your chip to AHS, make sure it's clean. We sold 3 arctics worth last month, the first had some straw and horse muck in so was rejected, the other two loads then got sent to be sorted and so we were only going to get 2 or 3 quid a ton. After paying out over £200 to load it I guess we'll not do very well out of it! Annoying really, We're very carefull about not contaminating with logs after a log caused several grands worth of damage to a muck spreader. I thought all the mixed stuff had been spread last year.. If we'd told the guy loading to leave the old stuff we'd have made a few quid!

We have a 222, the original alloy engine died, but apart from that it's a good machine. Comparable to the TW 190.

It's pretty simple. Some one posted a youtube clip a few weeks back.

Just price it to take into account the extra grief. It might be that they are still at the tendering stage and haven't even got the job. I had to price the same job for two different construction firms once! Didn't get the job either!

We've the Oregon one and its fine, but a numpty can make a real mess of your chains! For example, our now ex groundie, who had been using the machine for at least a year decided to grind off most of the depth gauges on at least 5 or 6 of our big chains. We have up to 8 chains for each size saw on the go at any one time and I'm still not sure how many he's knackered.. He also decided to put a 30 degree angle on the chain I'd sharpened at 10 degrees for milling (after I told him not to). It is a good tool but it ain't idiot proof!

Has any one used the Leica Disto D8 for measuring tree heights? I had a demo today with the D5 which has many of the same features except the one I want... Leica DISTO? D8 - The versatile one for in- and outdoor - Leica Geosystems - Leica Geosystems [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRQHzEJ4G8]YouTube - Leica Disto D8 Tree Height Video From Merlin Lazer[/ame]

I'm not sure of the legality, but we had our logo and phone number on a men at work, we just used the bit where End or tree cutting would normaly go. We didn't use it much though as it was a heavier sign.

You get paid twice.. Once for the reduction and then next year for the take down... That's what happened to us after the council refused my initial request to fell but gave permision to reduce..

We felled a load of big pops last year: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/3628-11-poplars-fell.html Got another 23. AHS don't do the chipping, cracking and forwarding any more. Who else might? In the East midlands. Ben

Especially if you have to change the blades first....

The crane driver on a big fell asked what the limit was on our old tranny once, after he'd lowered the second 1 ton lump into the back...

Don't be STUPID it's 3.5tonnes

You can claim child tax credits up to 50K a year. I imagine most arbs with kids are claiming.

Conversion rates of quotes to jobs.. As a quick study what percentage of jobs do you win? Just by looking at my domestic jobs over the last 5 years I compared the files in my quotes folder (1100) to invoices (700). That means I invoice about 64% of the domestic jobs I've quoted for..

We've been through the weights and measures disscussion before about 3.5 ton arb trucks... I thought the conclusion was if you are running a 3.5 tonner it's better not to know.... http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/large-equipment/2831-ford-transit.html

This is what I normaly aim for, + VAT. Normal day rate: 2 man team £440 includes one load of waste (+£100 per extra load) Extra men 100 for groundie or £150 for climber. Some variation for difficult jobs, especially if damage is a high possibility!

Quercus ilex is likely to become an invasive species with global warming. I think they already are on the Isle of White.

Can you get letters after your name with the ISA? I joined the AA so I could put BSc Tech.Arbor.A at the end of my quotes. It doesn't mean much to those who know but looks good, for £125 a year. The Arb Journal is very heavy..

Does anyone have a copy of an employees contract for a groundie, they'd be willing to share.. Cheers