arbogrunt

Bon Chien!!

My mate has a very bad-tempered little Jack Russell with terminal halitosis in his truck, it won't let you back in if you get out (unless you threaten it with a stick). Its finest moment was when it release a long squirt of canine diarrhoea onto the lap of one of his climbers!

Most firms I work for have their own rigging kit. I take my own in most of the time - personal preference - I like using my own kit. I get the same rate whether I use my rigging kit or not. I think a set of rigging kit, ground saw and an MS200T and spare go with the job - together with the tickets to use 'em of course!.

'The cost of being an arborist? a LOT more than just money!' hamadryad - you hit the nail on the head there mate (again!) I turned in my own company about 7 years ago and went freelance climbing. I earned the same as I was paying myself and I didn't have to spend saturday and half of sunday pricing up. The main reason I packed in was the stress, although my company was successfull and I had work coming out of my ears, it was a constant 24 hour struggle to make a profit. With a young family (that I didn't see much of) and a strain on my marriage on top of that, it was like a massive weight off my shoulders when I finally threw the towel in. A lot of us may be very good arborists but you can earn more by being a very average one and a very good businessman......I was not. Good luck to all you fella's starting out with your own firm, always remember...work to live, don't live to work.... It was an experience I'm glad I went through, I learnt a lot about Arb - and myself, but I'm happy to play with other peoples trainsets and then jump in my wagon and drive home at the end of it...

'Be better of as a rent boy, can work on me own then' nah, that must be a bigger pain in the arse than treework...and KY costs more than 2-stroke!

anti-histamene does the trick, I've always found that stings are worse when you get them near joints in the hands. Wasps, I hate the little buggas!. You need to be more carefull next time mate, you might have some sort of anaphylactic reaction (I've heard of people having progressely worsening reactions as their body uses up its resistance). I'd stick an epipen in the first aid kit.

blimey what a bloke!, that was one hell of a journey he was attempting for a very good cause. RIP

wow thats an interesting project!. I've never had to create habitat enhancement that big. I usually just bore in and up and widen the mouth of the hole. Love the idea of introducing decay fungi into the stem:thumbup:

as said, written quote for everything...and then amended for 'extra's'. Old dear or not, she'll be slagging you off whether you get your money owed or not. I'd just send her a solicitors letter, then small claims her if she doesn't cough up.

on the contrary, it was a fresh, cool breeze, not a sulphurous, wall paper peeling emmision that is against the Geneva convention

thats what I thought, but apparently its been put down to Winston first, there are a number of variations on it too

I used a Petzl Ecrin Roc for years, then went over to a Vertex, it didn't last too well but it was nice and light. Now I'm back to an Ecrin Roc, I like something solid on my bonce, these lightweight lids feel like they couldn't stop a catkin!

just as well, i love Bratwurst, but I couldnt eat em every day......Prost!

Shrek, we had this last night. I've had an open fire for years, but last night, for the first time, we had a Baltic-draught blowing down the chimmney!. I decided to light a fire to try and reverse the direction of it - bad move, we had smoke coming into the living room. I had to open the front door and put newspaper over the fireguard to make the some go UP the chimmney, then the newspaper caught fire. What a drama. What could cause this?

I'm glad my Granddad never thought like that!. I wonder what that blokes Army mates think of him.....not a lot I'd wager. 'We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm' Winston Churchill

How about making up a little booklet of leaves, sealed in a laminator?. Thats an interesting site Kev, I particularly like the 'obese dummy', imagine doing a pole rescue on that big lump...gives me backache at the thought of it!.

Todays job. Although the snow was quite heavy, there was little wind, so it wasn't too cold.

....a lunge for all seasons!

Don't you just hate it when you go arse over apex in the snow just as someone takes a photo!

our tracked chipper was frozen solid to the Ifor trailer just before xmas, we had to rope onto a tree and tie it to the chipper and drag it off!

gimp-masks tend to snag on visors, needless to say as soon as ebay sends me my new mask, there will be some lunging to be done! (not in the post office though)....bring on the arbogimp.....

Without sound too negative; heres to 2010..whatever it throws at us, may we overcome it!

'I'm disappointed that we didn't contribute something, Spike. ' ...Theres a whole new year coming up mate!......now wheres my hi-viz Kevlar thong??...

I would agree with that Ham, I rarely do 'the whole tree', (it takes too bleedin long for a start!). In this instance, the tree was in the garden of the wildlife trust HQ and they wanted to showcase a bit of coronet/NFP (thankfully they also had a lovely Horse Chestnut which I did a 20% crown reduction on using normal pruning methods!). The other times I target prune on these jobs are when trees are over roads and if were doing trees bordering peoples gardens, parks etc. The spec is generally left to me, so I just crack on and do what I think is right. It makes a change from 'normal' crown reduction/thinnning/lifting etc. I know a lot of people who don't like the principle of this work, but it has a place in the right environment. I can't say I've got any coro cuts in my own garden though!

'thanks grunt, sounds like you and me ave a little in common' ...are you deaf as a post too then?!