Tom D
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Everything posted by Tom D
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I work pretty long hours too but i do have a secretary who does my invoicing and accounts, she saves me hours of work and does a far better job than I would. She works from home and does the same thing for other local small busineses. I pay around £50 per month which I think is an absoulute bargain. I still do council perms etc, but i couldnt do the accounts as well.
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Is there a viable future for dry top quality logs
Tom D replied to yaxleylad's topic in Firewood forum
I've started to get asked more lately if my wood is dry, i think more people are buying stoves which need dry wood. I dont think people will pay much more for dry though, theres a guy round here who just logs up trees on site and takes them straight to the customer, he seems to do ok. I am trying to build up a regular customer base who want dry wood, i'll be puting my prices up next year. -
I insure my chipper as an implement of my tractor on the tractor policy, that way its covered wherever it is even if its not attached to anything. This was the only way i could get cover for it while it is un attended in my yard.
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I tend to keep in touch with clients, i just wondered if some of you guys had any contracts or other fancy ways of tying people down.
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I have lost a few jobs recently because I am quite busy and am taking around six weeks from quoting to working. People see other guys working just get them in. How long are you guys booked up for? and has any body got any tips for keeping people sweet while they wait.
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Never really bothered with forums before this one, however I think its brilliant. Having somewhere to exchange ideas and learn loads of tips from other arborists is definately a good thing, otherwise we only meet on training courses and trade fairs. If people bulls**t about what they've done or how many men they've got then so what, If people post dangerous or poor advice for novices to read then it seems other members are quick to correct them anyway. I say well done Steve on an excellent site, long may it continue. For what its worth I have one paye employee and one self employed employee a 3.5 ton tipper a landrover a tipping trailer a tractor with a loader winch and splitter and an 8" chipper.
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MOD I agree with pecon too, my insurer asked for tickets before insuring me so i'm surprised yours doesn't. Who is your insurer? It may be that you're paying over the odds for not having tickets, ring around and see if getting tickets would reduce your premium, it might pay for the exams.
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Black does look cool but its not safe for a ground worker. One of my groundies wears black the other yellow, looking from above you can hardly see the black one at all, he also says its very hot in the sun. I went for white. I do think the vents make a difference and are worth the extra couple of quid.
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Arriving at the job to discover that its not as big as you remember. The client saying "actually we'd quite like the chip" Picking off the ripe cherry plums before they go through the chipper. An enthusiastic thankyou from the client goes a long way.
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There are only two solutions to this problem. One is to have no regulation at all, the other is to properly enforce the regulations that we have and, as has already been mentioned, to have a CORGI type scheme. What we have now punishes the genuine small companies and rewards the cowboys and those who are prepared to take a chance with qualifications and insurance etc.
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Was on holiday in Italy last week, over there diesel's 1.40 - 1-50 euros which is almost as much as here so we're not alone.
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Too True.
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Saw this while on holiday last week, the tower was about 120 foot and the biggest of the olive trees was about 15 foot and around 18" thick at the base. the picture is a bit crap but you get the idea.
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Here's a "before".
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Who'd want a garden full of sitkas? We had to rigg the biggest one off the one on the right, there are 3 sheds, a fence and a wall right under it. Having seen the Hobbs review and video I think it could have been real handy.
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I'm a tree flex man, been in it for 7 hours today very comfy.
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I have one either side of my harness, they're great for slings when dismantling and spare krabs, cambium savers etc used them loads today.... i dont clip the saw to them though, they're only rated to 5 Kg. Here's me using them today. picture's too dark to see them though.
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I use Mat Cooper who is with the scottish agricultural colledge, if he can't do it i'll bet he knows someone who can. Contact SAC Lanark on 01555 662 562. There is also an NPTC instructor in you neck of the woods called Ron Clowes, he might be a loler inspector but i'm not sure.
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Dont chip squirrels, they're delicious, as for pigeons town pigeons are just flying rats, chip em all i say. I have never disturbed any other species though nor would I. Also its about this tiime of year that Bill Oddie comes on tv and tells us all not to cut trees in the nesting season. I think this is totally irresponsible, it is the tree surgeons responsibility to inspect the tree for nests prior to working, after all are we all supposed stop working for the next four months. If he does it again this year I'll be writing to the BBC.
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I fitted a fletnor to the roof of my landy you could het a few of these, or I think you can get something similar for chimneys which wont draw properly. try your local sweep he might know what they're called!
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I think it was about 80 -90 foot but i did'nt really think about it, i think they look taller because they are so thin, it was certainly pretty wobbly once i felled the top out.
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No pics though I coult take some if you want to copy it, I used to do a bit of welding so i made it when i first started out on my own. Its much kinder on the rope than a porty, I have seriously glazed my new lowering rope with my new porty.
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I really like the look of this thing, i used a grcs when doing my cs41 and i liked that too. I have recently started using a portawrap instead of a bollard which i made myself years ago. To be honest the bollard is much better than the porty, this looks like all the advantages of the bollard with the added winching ability. Does it have some sort of gearing like the grcs or are you just turning the drum when winching?
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Does anyone else hate these things? The attachments are so weak you can snap 3" limbs off by hand, I'm just glad we did'nt need to lower any of it. At least its not heavy.
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When I did mine about 7 years ago it was partially paid by the European Social Fund, this was arranged by the colledge and was available to all students who were employed at the time. I dont know if its still available but if it is its worth having.
