Mr. Bish

I want to keep upto date on the legal changes in Arb work as well as look at good trees and good unbiast product reviews or testing. Generally learn more about whats going on and what I am doing right / wrong. Are there any good arb magazines out there Or at least any with good private sale ads?

do you think it's an insurance claim? Made me smile

Well I was doing OK until the sun came out at the start of Feb. I am on buttons this month. My target before that was only £1,200 a month. I am just starting really and struggled to get that much some of the months.

They do have a feedback forum. I suggest some random spamming?:wave:

If there is anyone from Bournheath Tree surgeons you might want to go check out your gallery!! http://www.treesurgeonbromsgrove.co.uk/ I found you on the list.

Bosco. Can't really take him working with me often enough coz he's a plain menace.

Wow... Not sure I would have had the balls for that one... Good work.

Yes please. I have one that I wear with "fire marshall" on the back that I quite like.

I recon if you are taking the top out of single trunked trees (Pine, Larch, cedar etc) then it is "nasty topping" If you are butchering the crap out of beech, oak etc then it's reduction. I might be wrong tho.

Global domination! Erm. After the first week in Feb. my work dried right up. I meet all your criteria but have only 1 year climbing exp. Put me with an experienced and I'll work for cheap in the midlands. (Further afield if I have a bit of notice.

Jeeps... I asked for advise :-) not a long winded personal political feud about the rights or wrongs of topping. I'm not going to "top" these. I am going to remove two and dead wood / tidy third. I am pretty short of work right now but I will still walk away if the client wants the middle one topped because it will be like a giant totem pole. I believe with what I have learned from this thread I can convince him to let me do whatever I want. So many thanks for your experienced insights. Mr. Bish.

I have an extendable silky on a pole with the branch pruner attached. It was a £100 special and it's earned it's money 10 fold. Mostly I use it from the ground to finish whispy laylandii that are just to dodgy to reach any other way without getting scaffolding in. It is very time consuming and I get a lot of brash in the face but sometimes it's the easiest option that I have found so far. I used the saw up a rotton old ivy covered ash once. I didnt want to climb it, customer didny want the ivy off!. The cuts were very rough but I got the dead branches down with it, without having to risk climbing the rotton b#*ch.

Well the first thing to do is check the TPO status. They are just outside a conservation zone and he also wants a little work done to the beech that you can just about see on the left of piccy. If they are clear I will go and offer my opinion. The right hand cypress is half dead already and is coming out (My banker) :-) the right hand pine won't cope with a major topping as there just are no significant branches below so I am in favour of removing that too. then perhaps he will go with a thinning and smaller reduction in height. Thanks for all the advise though. I am new to this and it is just a bit scary. I have seen a few home brewed hackings around the town and really don't want to add one of my jobs to the list. That way I get all the work and can still drive past it every day without hanging my head. On a seperate part of the job..... Access is about 20 yards drag to chip spot and all waste to be removed. Purely out of personal interest how much would you quote for that sort of job? I have £540 in mind

Best of luck. It sounds like the sort of thing I would have liked to do if I wasn't getting paid to do it. I bet we all loved climbing trees as kids. Most people do. Then they get older and stop doing it? I'm sure there is a market out there but it's pretty neiche.

My first was one from E-Bay second hand 024. I loved it 260 superb 200T Just baught and it arrived yesterday so not done any work with it yet.

Okey dokey. I'm off now to take a few piccies. When I said a 40% reduction I meant in height. 1. Tree is nice and straight with a few big spars and heavy top 2. Tree is bent and sparse up top The red lines are about 40% - where he wants them chopped.

I am sure I meant scots but I may have scotch on the mind. Thanks for the advise. I can now go and make myself look slightly less stoopid on Mondays visit to the tree officer. Ohh they are 60 to 80 ft. and in reasonable health. I'd love to take the top out but I was under the impression it was not the done thing on these. I get to close a main road for a few hours too which is always a good thing I guess, and another first for me :-)

If you would like a site forman that sits and observes while smoking tabs. Occasional use of phone to look professional. I am available too :-))

I have two medium pines that the customer wants topped. I have told him that I didn't think it was a good thing to knock the top off those. I would prefer to raise the lower branches and perhaps thin. So my question is. Is it likely to kill pines by topping them? (About 40% knocked off the top). And if I bite the bullet and do actually top them. will they grow in weird directions like larches? The end result that he wants is more light in his garden and if I don't hack the top off I probablyt wont get the job :-(

Not sure i would fancy sitting in the cab while that thing is on full tilt.

That seems a great idea. I don't think my tree officer uses comps. I'll ask next time.

The area I work has loads of TPO trees and about 1 in three jobs needs planning consent. Like you the Officer was able to advise me over the phone. Sometimes he would say yes other times he would say do the paperwork. What you have to do it pop over to your local officers place and pick up a stack of Tree Work application / notification forms. You fill it in as best you can (Especially the map). If they can't find the tree then it will just delay things further. Then you send it off to your local tree officer. His office (sometimes) reply with a card saying they have recieved it and that they will let you know if they have any problems with the proposed work. Then you have to wait 6 weeks from the date they logged it as recieved. If you hear nothing then you are clear to do the work. Personally I have never had one rejected but I have turned some people straight down because the tree officer says things like "I know that tree and she has tried to get it removed before" or "No chance!" To be honest, it seems that if they want a TPO actually removed then you have little to no chance. If the work is minor then you will always get the go ahead but just have to wait 6 to 8 weeks.

I put sodium chlorate <---- Think thats what it's called. Then a little chain oil over the top to stop wild animals walking into it and the rain washing it away too fast.

The best advise up there seems to be "Trust your instincts" Even dead oak feels much stronger than many live trees. I was standing on a dead oak branch the size of my wrist yesterday and it didn't fail me :-) I wasn't brave enough to use it as an anchor though. Thats my instinct.

Thanks, I have just booked up on a corse at a place called Morton Morell for 38 and 39. Now all I need to do is go waste more damn money on some legal boots!