skyhuck

So you recommend felling healthy Ash "just in case". I despair, our Ash really are doomed. I've done a fair few with ADB, most were fine, one was a bit nasty, because she left it for a couple of years. I think removal at the first signs of ADB is fine, but not healthy trees. How can we retain any of our Ash, if the healthy, resistant trees are felled? They need to be retained and allowed to produce future generations of hopefully resistant trees.

Yes.

I guess, but its predecessor the 536i had a standard deadmans.

Great saw, I've not used a petrol top handle since I bought mine. But the deadman's trigger is really annoying, why does it have to be slid back before it will depress. I'm sure they think it makes it safer, but IMHO, the opposite is true!!

Personally I think the powers that be ask the contractor that going to get the work, which Ash have it and bingo they all have it, funny that.

Yeah I was pretty pleased, I was worried about corporation tax, but the delay plus the profits £50k and under remaining at 19% is an excellent compromise.

Old school, nice👍

Probably out of stock and not wanting any sales.

I'm referring to the "grants" in the title of your thread.

Is it not just for hospitality? Most trades people I know have never been busier.

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished. “This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said. The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?” The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.” The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman. “I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.” The fisherman continues, “And after that?” The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.” The fisherman asks, “And after that?” The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!” The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

Don't look like Pear to me, Pear bark always has a sort of burnt appearance, IME.

Girls, surely? 😁

If running a business was easy every one would do it. There are no right or wrong answer, we all do what we think is best in our own personal situation. There are days when I wish I had lads doing the work, I could send them on their way and go back in the house and watch homes under the hammer. But the reality is I'm a climber, its what I do, its a large part of my identity. I get immense satisfaction from doing tough, difficult trees. And I'm blessed that at the age or 51 my body is holding up really well. In fact I feel better when I'm working, that when I take time off and sit about. My intension is to climb until I can't climb no more. Fortunately as I get older I won't need as much income. I've raised 4 children on the the money my climbing has brought in, my wife has always kept house, while I worked. Kind of old fashioned I know. As they grow up and leave the nest, I can work a little less, ride my bike a little more and fight ageing with every ounce of my being.

IMO this is quite shortsighted. A good reputation walks in very slowly, but can easily leave on horseback. If you send out poor guys, who do sloppy work, you can soon find the good reputation that's built on YOU, is trashed. Each business is different, I've been trading for over 25 years, spend nothing on advertising and have more work than I can do. Often my clients don't get other prices, I've been recommended and they want ME to do the work. Sending lads to do the work would just not work for me.

Aspen, Willow and Alder.

Thats another consideration, if work slows you can find you dropping your prices to "keep the lads busy" this can in time can lead to "buying work" waiting for the good times to return. I'm happier with more work coming in than I can handle, pricing it to make good money and not worrying about paying the bills.

I went down this road some years ago. In my experience good staff will soon leave to run their own show, why wouldn't they? So you end up with the dross, who just cause headaches and seem to think they are doing you a favour just turning up.

You want locktight, it’s pretty much supper glue, you put a little on the threads before fitting the studs or nuts. Any decent iron monger or the like should have it, it comes in different grades. I don’t use it on my chipper, but see no reason why you couldn’t.

It's ok saying people won't comply, but that's not going to open pubs, allow flights, holidays etc.

Not sure I agree, IME, the thing that tends to rise with turnover is labour costs. As you take on more work you need more bodies to do the work. There are only so many hours in a day, you can't do everything yourself. So you take on more staff to deal with with the extra work, then works slows a little, so you sharpen your pencil to keep the work coming in and before you know it you have the headache of looking at more work, organising said work, going round sorting out the mess the staff make, get calls telling you what you've asked them to do can't be done. So you end up going yourself and doing the supposedly impossible. It's very easy to find you're working harder, making less and not enjoying your work. In my experience you're better off staying small, reduce turnover and maximising profits.

Grow up

I'm no expert, but I was told the reason Sycamore is not considered native is its seeds are not found in our fossil record, so weren't here before the last ice age, but someone once told me the seeds are "gelatinise" so would leave no fossil record. Anyway I love em, great trees, the greenfly not so much.

I think it"s better to leave Sycamore in the length or ring for 6months to part dry and then split and finish drying. Or stick it through the kiln.