Ty Korrigan

A fresh sunny day subbing, truck n chipper, for one of my climbers. €2400 for two. I'm very happy he is making good coin on this job. Money is a great motivation. He can then buy a better purity of meth and a clean whore for the weekend.

9+10 May I've a large oak to takedown in a local town North of Rennes It was due to be given a protection order but money passed under the table in a nice restaurant (winked the developer) First, I was contacted and asked if I'd buy it. Then, if I'd do it for the wood. I sent the owner a quote for €10k with options including a buy back option of €600 as it is a nice stem for milling and the crown will heat my house for a year. Shortly after I received a call from the owner which was a bit tense but I held my ground. I firmly told him to get other quotes for the removal and to call sawmills himself if he truly thought the stem was valuable enough and that I was playing him for a fool. Weeks went by and I was invited to a site visit with representatives from the town hall, architects, notaires, adjacent plot owners and so forth. Amazingly, several of them assumed I would be doing it alone, others imagined me felling it despite the small area. A few images shared and I basked in all round admiration. I didn't have the heart to tell them I wasn't the one climbing, stolen valour me... I think I know why I won it because the owner was reffered to larger landscape companies by his architect. I know they certainly sub these jobs out to larger arb outfits so basically more than my healthy price plus a fat commission. I've even ordered fresh Bear Valley t'shirts for the job.

For us over La Manche, road closures and traffic management are free at least in my area (for now) This Monday, the commune (council) threw in a policeman and two commune workers to open and close for the buses (couldn't divert those) and to prevent pedestrians entering the felling zone. Also traffic light control and all your 'chapter 8' supplied for free on route nationals and departmental roads, A and B road equivalent. Often the set up crew stay with us if they have nothing else pressing.

I'm not upset, far from it. Puzzled about being misunderstood though. Maybe my English isn't what it used to be.

It was a rainy half term day and I would have otherwise been knocking out the old toilets in our new renovation. I did enjoy the day out though. Time enough for lunch and a beer near the river.

If you bothered to read my post, it is because although I don't win many British clients, the ones I do are generally larger jobs making it worthwhile pursuing. My point, seemingly lost for my usual band of critics, is that the client is equating tree work rates from 15 years ago to todays, for pines which have grown significantly since.

Jeepers, you people are making more if it than I. I went there not expecting to win it as the client is British. Throwing out your day rate without a solid indication of what can be achieved is both lazy and bizzare. If that tactic actually worked then none of us would need to leave the house to quote at all.

I'velong found that Brits here focus only on day rate not what you bring to the job or can achieve. This is confirmed by reading any ex-pat FB group on life in France. They will then look for the lowest day rate and as I'm far more than the 'day rate' of several other Brits working here I'd likely be laughed at for quoting telephone figures, something a British mill owner actually did respond. A face to face meeting is far more likely to secure the work and avoid any under pricing issues. To be fair, I have successfully quoted for single or lone trees by images alone but a quote of the size I was faced with requires more than a telephone figure banded over the telephone. I have not seriously underpriced a single job in long time now, preffering to price high and lose than fill my agenda with conifer flavoured headaches.

What thread is that?

How? What fool quotes for 10 days work from a few images?

Back to clients that make you go Hmmmmm... Since 2017 I found myself rarely working for Brits in France. A natural change, I non longer have a website in English or punt myself on the Ex-pat social media pages. Plus, there are fairly low numbers in our area anyway and so when I do get an enquiry it often involves an hour or more drive. I've 2 young kids at home so spending time with them rather than traveling for work is a priority and I've more than enough work within 15km of home to keep us fed and watered. One thing that really kills working for Brits in rural France is that they won't pay the same rates that the local urban French happily swallow. Add the extra time and cost travelling to quote and do the work should I actually ever win a job, they are a market generally not worth pursuing. Still, I kept one iron in the fire, an advert in the same rag that Dempsey advertises his male escort services in. A nationwide newspaper for Brits in France. I found that the few enquires that came in via this were generally of higher value and this offset the low strike rate somewhat. So last week, on a rainy day during half term, I escaped the house and toddled off to Southern Brittany, a 90min drive to visit a potential client having first asked to send images of the trees before hand just to make certain the job might be viable. A very ordinary 70's house in an remarkable location over looking the river Vilaine. Surrounded by tall leggy pines, it was those leaning over or towards the house, veranda, pool and lines which worried them as well as deadwooding the long driveway pines as they had lost a Mercedes windscreen recently to a dropped branch. During our meeting, I was regaled with the story of the last arb guy who worked there, his extraordinary abilities, his young lad who moved all the wood by hand, his magnificent chipper and the number of pines he did in a day (Must either be super human or clearly not the same trees) Thoroughly bored by this, I asked the client "Why are you not using this guy again?" Response, " Oh he was very disagreable and wouldn't work in the Summer and he was due to retire anyway" Looking around, I could see no sign of past tree work so asked when this had occured. "About 15 years ago" client replied waving to an area away from the house. A few days later I emailed an informal proposition just to get a feel for how I stood price wise. No concessions, quote based on my normal rate plus a small living allowance for the team as we would be living on site in a chalet for the work which would take several 3 days blocks. The client emailed back within hours. "Your quote is quite a bit more than we had anticipated based on our previous experience" Although I am not surprised by the lack of a win given my record with my fellow countrymen, I can't help but think this time it was down to the clients own perception, not taking into account the increase in rates over 15years and the increase in size of the pines as well as the technical nature of those around the house. So this non-client has certainly earned a long dry "Hmmmmmm" Stuart

In the States, there is a long history of Briggs Vanguard engine tuning. The 37hp upped to 50hp+ Used on swamp boats and buggies, quite a sub culture.

One of my entourage is a partner in the local large machine repair and engineering shop. They will do the job but sensibly recommend waiting until the warranty had expired. I guess the new generation of engines such as the 50hp fitted to the GM Evo205, common rail, turbo and assorted Mc****************ery are closer to car engines but still nowhere near as powerfull for their displacement.

I am informed the V1505 is restricted at the pump. I imagine the no-stress rev limits would require adjusting afterwards. I did look at the TP175, it has a genuine 25hp Stuart

Are you sufficiently greasing the rail? Scrape the clag off and apply fresh. Can't hurt.

The Evo being restricted to 25hp from 35hp hasn't created any productivity issues but I'm still curious about getting the engine derestricted one day. It was built to handle 45hp so I don't anticipate it falling apart. Stuart

I recently completed 100 hours on the GM Evo 165D It has the Kubota 4 cylinder 1.5litre engine V1505 restricted to 25hp I keep a record of the hours and fuel used as well as chip type and quantity. Currently hovering over 3.2 litres per hour. The consumption appeared to drop as the engine hours increased. Either that or I made an error and double entered fuel used on one job. Something which upon reflection, I think quite possible as we used Aspen containers for stock and could have included diesel for the tractor in with the chipper. Regardless 3.2 litres is where it is now so only a slight blip in my record keeping.

That is because the engine is a turbo charged common rail on that model.

It was all down to a TV news report about Ukraine being a major sunflower oil producer and the future shortage of oil due to the war. See, I wanted fish n chips, so toddled into Super U for Cod, spuds and oil. The place were Sunflower oil usually stood, shelves were bare, completely bare. I thought for a moment they must have moved the sunflower oil but olive and peeeenut were still in stock. Pasta in stock, flour in stock, toilet paper in stock, no signs of any other product shortage except outside people queuing deep at the fuel station. When I paid for my Cod but thought better of joining the mad queue to fill my car up. The next day, Sunday, the pumps were dry, no diesel. After the price had climber to over 2.20 euros per litre, it dropped overnight to 1.98 which was enough to start a panic at the pumps. Sunday afternoon, I filled the truck from my stock of diesel kept in Aspen containers as a reserve against the rather regular French madness of blockading refineries. The Cod and chips I had shallow fried the Saturday evening, a great economy in Sunflower oil...

Probably suffered more back pain lifting shopping and sleeping than ever I have at work.

The door lintel has 1635 engraved on it. We think that date is correct but the stones and beams are from a tower house or manor. The neighbour has a garderobe longdrop but walled off inside. I'm about to put those slate fixing skills to the test as I've 80m+ of roof waiting for my attention.

Tryanno-Solis Rex saved our backs loading this chunky lime.

Enquiries have dropped right off but as I was already stretched to breaking I'm actually relieved. I was planning on working a two-three day week until September in order to work on our future home.

I also find it disheartening working on a previously badly pruned tree. I get alot of urban trees people want retaining that have been through some very unkind hands. This oak was one where I again failed to sell my ideas to the client. It has a huge 'amplere' as they say here massive wide crown, quite a local reference. It now has a great deal of bacterial flux on the stem, strong enough to smell when cycling past.

This was what the neighbour to my client had done 2 years previously. I had quoted but the owner looked at me at though I was chatting non-sense and told me "trees like being cut" Still, they'll green up...