arbogrunt

have beens asked once for CS40 by LA. I said, why don't you ask for photo's of recent crown reductions instead of having a ticket for a one or two day pruning course?. If you are inexperienced, yes its worth it. That said, I know blokes who have been doing reductions for 10 years...and they are still awful!

glad you fella's are enjoying your climbing...but I'm still struggling to get to grips with 'recreational' and 'climbing' being used together....is there such a thing as 'recreational brick laying' I wonder?

it will be fine....until you start putting brushwood through it....

so, to summarise...we work too many hours, we don't get paid our worth...why do we do it?..obviously its the glamour of it all!

what a great bit of kit!...how does it compare in price to the 'Avant'?

Used to like Haix, but the quality has gone through the floor, Lavarro's are good value but make your feet smell!...its Meindl for me, comfy, dry and hard-wearing..also they're not bright read, yellow or any other odd colour that make you look like a clown

sounds like your boss is on the make to me. If your not happy, and your sure you can earn more money elsewhere with the same amount of work...move on!. I'd say £150 a day is fair for an experienced S/E climber with own PPE and saw. Be careful though mate, the grass is always greener !

just box clever and don't make her a rolling pin mate!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! stress?...no mate, I don't get it I find the best thing to do, is to try and work 4 days a week on the tools and give yourself a day for pricing/maintainance/office work. I've jacked it in before because of stress, this time round I'm going to try and keep it under control. Use your spare time, take up a hobby, spend time with the family. We ain't going to get rich doing this lark, so don't let it run your life!

its nice to leave a some logs on site....

..no brown sauce for me thanks...

ha ha! we're all gonna get sued by Ginsters!

Timbrel?...I'll give that a go. As an aside, I was freelancing for a firm a couple of years ago and they had a bad habit of mixing up glyphosate and putting it in Evian bottles!. Needless to say, one day it ended up in my sandwiches when the bottle split (its a wonder nobody drank the stuff!). Everything tasted metallic for a day or so and drank litres of milk for 24 hours. Apart from that I was fine. Am I doomed?...perhaps I should hit the pub a bit more often just in case?

MS200 is indeed a lovely little saw. When this old girl finally gives up the ghost (been performing admirably for 7 years now!), I'll get an MS201. The other great advantage is they share 90% of the parts of your top handle

here's one of the boys at the start of their apprenticeship!

since leaving school in the summer, I've employed my twin boys..they've passed their CS38 and are now training for their CS30...they do a day a week each and holidays etc. Its great to be able to give them work and to teach them to do a great way to earn a few quid!...anyone else got their Sons/Daughters on the firm?

year ago, I employed a bloke with a drink problem. I gave him a chance, knock the drink on the head and you've got full time work. He did this for a year and then fell off the wagon spectacularly, not turning up for work for 3 days after a weekend 'bender'. A freelance climber failed to turn up on an important job which had to be done by the monday. He called at about lunch time to say he was still stoned from the nights befores drug-taking, this forced me to work saturday and sunday to get the job done. They both cost me money and they both 'went down the road'. Oddly, they thought I was out of order! I have since worked for other companies where the lads smoke dope during their working day. I found most of them hard to work with due to mood swings and temper tantrums..sadly, I couldn't sack them, but I made my opinions clear. Now I've got my own train-set again..if they turn up drunk or stoned...they're sacked on the spot, zero tolerance from me.

start worrying when you dream about probing basal cavities...

second the Royal Navy stuff...its excellent and the zips at the bottom are big enough to get over a pair of chainsaw boots. I've got some Berghaus ones too, but I wouldn't trash them doing treework at a £80 a pair. At then end of the day, its a case of how dry do you want to stay, spend the money or get wet!

gyphosate!..I keep getting call-backs to repoison stumps, have tried large doses of salt same problem. I'm going to try and get some Amcide from France....failing that...its going to be an SBK/diesel 'agent orange' mix

my disco at work....

some good points on here...nobodys wrong..but its so easy for us to judge sitting here back in blighty in front of a PC with a nice cuppa. There will be protest marches by ex-servicemen..not just about this, but about disbanding more Infantry Battalions and the way the UK is going in general. The majority of people in the country are not happy about what has happened to it over the last 15 years and want things to change... https://www.facebook.com/events/267327056721466/ London_Demo heres two for starters..expect more court martials when serving soldiers are involved in any of this!

...I was more of a Chas 'n Dave man myself....GERTCHA!

thats a lot to own up to Mick!

looks like the march on Downing street will be on then!