Topcat

Had knee surgery and a problem with elbow(something to do with age).Luckily had Private health cover,makes you realise how good it is when your in this type of work.With the knee, saw the surgeon,mri scan Tues,operation thursday, two weeks off and back climbing 3rd week. Bupa is a bit pricey, but the company I'm with is £44 a month for family of 4 all covered. They have said they would do a corporate discount if we (site members were interested.

Or as steve says, get down with your sack intact, your doing ok.

Beech, willow, ash and conifer reduction, luckily not to long a drag, so most of brash should have gone by the time I touch terra firma.

Lee, add an indian to that and it would be not far off chapel manor a cpl years back...I remember a certain person had some very good idea's in the taxi back to the digs...lol. luckily we gave them a miss.

Busy..I have a Bobcat 320. It lifts a dumpy bag of logs and will stack two high.Might as well use it for feeding chipper and moving timber about in the yard so trying to find a small grab and rotator

when people talk about illegal I think they refer to "best Value", No contractor should be excluded because they are not a member of a certain Ass. Fair enough you have to be corgi reg for gas but you don't have to be on the Marshalls register to do hard landscaping. If all tree contracts stated "work to BS 3998" and you had to produce,insurance,certs of training where as method statements and risk assesments would be produced for each job within the contract. If the works not to Bs3998 the TO stops the job.

Local sawmill have a matador. The local estate wanted some big beech down and I mean big,that were on a bank leaning back over a road and row of houses. Their forestry guys would'nt touch them. We went in with matador, cable up 20 foot, little gob and about a 1/4 back cut, lots of black smoke,in digs the spades and over goes the tree. Unbelievable the power of that machine but still think I had some smelly stuff running down me legs at the time (I was doing the felling)

Ed...any idea where I could get a small grab a rotator to fit a small 360?

How many punters can we get through the gate at £10 each,thats what most places charge when there's a climbing demo.At least people would learn something.

I have been AA approved (89 -92) and have no interest in ever returning to the fold. It costs a fortune to get approved, but once approved you have to pay each year to go in the booklet. If you do not pay you're no longer approved. During the AA visits the questions asked are stupid. most of which have already been covered on here. One that I remember whilst looking at a cherry. Can you ID this tree? yes Prunus spp. Yes but what cultivar? Don't have a clue. Well if you look at the flowers etc, etc. I stated that I was applying to be an approved contractor Not consultant. At the time we were also Sthil and Husky dealers with a shop the lot. And what spares do you carry for your machines? Well Mr inspector if you open your eyes you will see we have about £175k in spares,new saws,chippers,grinders,etc. At the time 4 companies within 10 miles were all going for approval, not one passed. Reasons such as, reflector lense missing off chipper, must split shop/yard and contracting, not enough office cover. All 4 companies are still running. One is probably the biggest in the county,one sold out to a national company, another added a sawmill and the other is doing very well tks.lol. It's been said loads of times,That when the AA actually do something worthwhile that would benefit contractors, many more would join. It's time we had our own Association, we need some peeps to start TREE Workers action team, Then we could call ourselves ****'s for short. LOL

Had a woodline 7 ton electric for 6 years, Great machine if you can lift it, it will split it. Great for lending to customers after a big take down,actually made the diff in winning a cpl of decent jobs. Women love to use it, same as a washing machine,push button and go,no oily and petrol bits. Cost about £600.

you can't beat getting some time in on the ground in any job. I do a fair bit of consulting but I started off knocking on doors selling logs from a tractor and trailer. (many moons ago), went on to climbing, training with Fastco, got a qualification or two. unless your going to write "the tree was viewed from the ground only" on all your reports, your going to need to do some climbing. Besides I find the best tree officers and consultants are the ones that have worked in the job,instead of sat in office's with their heads in some BS or H & S manual

I bought a Echo top handle years ago and still use it every day. Needs to run with a12" bar,otherwise power not to good. Lot lighter than the still and a little cheaper. Never had a problem with it and to be honest never needed any parts. I will be buying another if /when this one packs in.

48 and still climbing a few coughs and splutters now and again but thats the fags. Seriously climbings the easy bit, everything falls downwards, on the ground everything needs lifting..Unless your Mr Ed and you have a crane on everything...lol I wish

Actually the LPA can't give you permission when you submitt a 211,notice. It's not an application so they can not decide it. They can,decide to make a tpo,decide not to make a tpo and let 6 weeks pass or not make a tpo and inform you before the required 6 weeks. Worth also remembering that the LPA can not alter your 211 spec. eg it's ok to lift 5 limbs but not 6.

Been selling dumpy bags for £55.Loose trailer,just under 2 cube for £120. Sold all my seasoned wood weeks ago,now on green but Only have about 30 cube left. Tried to buy a cpl of wagon loads yesterday. 1 guy has around 500 ton but won't sell because he can't keep up supply with his own customers.The other timber haulier wants £33 ton (27 tonner)delivered in for cord ready to go on a firewood machine. I know coal has gone up recently but oil has come down big style. In 30 yrs, I've never known logs go so quickly at what I think is good money and it's just not around here from reading the posts other posts

Bob, £120 a trailer load (mini digger size) or £55 a dumpy bag but del loose,mixed logs as they come. You keep all the cash, see me right for a beer sometime.

Have been advertising logs on ebay..Getting quiet a few people from w yorks, Donny, sheffield. Just wondering if any local guy's would be interested in filling orders that are to far for me.Of course there will be the usual commission payable...a few beer tokens.

Talking of Bandits...Anyone remeber a chap called Nick Rivett..He rang me back in the 80's.. said he would do me a demo next time he was close by to york.He was in Melbourne. funny thats a village 10 miles from york. Feck I thinks if he can't come 10 miles. He meant Melbourne in Aussy land. Sure enough 3 mths later the phone rings and he came and did me a demo...possibly the best chipper I ever bought.

Dave the dog....Where are you in NY?....have a job in York and I can't get the mog in. Willow and Sycamore to reduce. Very easy 2 days (day rate). Loathed to hire a tracked chipper....but if it came with a decent climber. would rather give the coin to a comrade rather than a hire co.

Took wife 1 hr to get to work this am instead of 15 mins. Usually council is pretty good here in York but I think they were late up today. Probably just aswell you stayed at home.lol

worked with a guy who always farted in the truck. "something had crawled up is a*se and died"

so you can use red if you are working on tree's next to a public road,but not in someones back garden. You can carry chip on the mog if it's been harvesting chip and your taking it to temp storage. So can I stick 5 quid of white in, in the morning to get me to and from the Job,use red while I'm chipping and show me reciept to the guy who pulls me? And then to confuse it all my vat registration says I'm in forestry....your honour

Hambleton Council took a contractor to court a few years back for working on a TPO tree removing deadwood. He was convicted and so was the client.

Try Tony at South cave Tractors. He used to be the fitter there but recently bought the co. A lot better to deal with and will try and help anyone not just the boys with the new kit. Just did me a new exhaust box for £90 and a almost new air filter £20 should have been £50 +.