Ty Korrigan

Oh dear... Stuart

I wanted to be a tree surgeon or gardener from the age of 10. I paid my own way through college when in my 20's and again in my 30's I wished I'd done many things differently but this line of work has been one of my better life choices. I've tried retail, outdoor kit and cycling stuff but once you are salaried finding a second income is tough. At least with this work, if I'm short of a coin all I need to do is do some more work. I've busted a gut over many an underpriced conifer removal but there again, I regularly walk away with a rude amount of folding monies for doing a job I love. Many a holiday paid this way. Stuart

I challenge you to repeat that task 'daily' Stuart

In response to Stumpygrinder: 1. Higher percentage of quotes won due to being able offer a complete service. Running costs of a small pedestrian grinder are not an issue if your pricing well. 2. Apart from mysterious and never ending remote control issues on a larger machine, the main mechanicals have been belts, pulleys and bearings. Pretty simple stuff really. I found a retired engineer who likes free firewood to guide me when advice needed. I'm sure I can't be alone in that respect. 3. Never noticed a 'season' for stump work. Stumps go hand in hand with tree and hedge removals. Sure, some people will programme work to avoid nesting birds but in general, if the job is on then the stump needs gone.

Every tree removal qiote I do normally has 'Option stump grinding' The uptake on these is quite high, more than half for sure and the more urban the client the higher my chance of winning the stump. I'd need to make a detailed study of one years quotes 'v' invoices to be sure of figures. After the debacle with 'Lemon Plant' and the dodgy Carlton 4012 (cuts out randomly up to 6 times an hour at times) I'm going back to a wee grinder for a while. Watch this space... Stuart

I imagine that the Taliban would have a zero tolerance of 'travellers'. I wouldn't use birds as an example of tolerance, they also shit where they roost, take the Bristol pigeons case. Ty

Hello, You've got to like the monotony of grinding, be disciplined with maintenance and good with simple spannerwork. If you fit the bill then grinding may add a significant amount to your turnover. How you make time for it is your concern. I know many who prefer to sub stumps out as their own diarys are full of tree work. However, if your diary has regular empty days then grinding can be a profitable way of filling your agenda once you get to know your machine, different stump 'qualities', techniques etc. This all comes through experience, there is no magic formula of £ per cm. If in doubt, price high because grinding is unforgiving on machines. Some grinder manufacturers give a guide to typical grinding times. FSI do this and I find those figures to be fair. They don't account for stones and metal embedded within and assume sharp teeth. The latter is down to you and tooth sharpening is itself another thread. Cut your stump low as possible, trimming off dirty bark beforehand. Keep a stock of old but sharp chains for the task. A few minutes mattock work pays dividends clearing around the stump. David Cropper found a stash of .88 tank shells a couple of years ago and I was once shown a map of minefields around a Chateau which raised hairs on my neck. I also refused a grinding job on the Somme on a site never cleared and which still produces live ordanance. Anyway, I diverse. Mrs Miggins urban birch stump might not have any thing worse than a few bricks around it. Hedge stumps always seem to hide stones tossed by gardeners digging plots over. I take a large breaking bar, spade, mattock, earth and leaf rakes. Grinding shields are important, make your own from ply or beach shelters if your budget doesn't stretch. Personally, I like grinding and the money I make from it. Ty

Like piles of garden waste brought out to the chipper whilst on lunch break or dumped under the tree to be felled. OR... and this boils my piss, wood miser old b'strd client stands over employees making sure nothing bigger than a pencil goes through the chipper. OR... Client gives lads €10 for an extra half hours work when it actually cost €100 because now they are late getting home, stuck on the ringroad earning exhorbitant French overtime rates and I'm waiting at the workshop to unload and turn the blades before going quoting now after dark and don't see the fecking phone line running through the conifers so this job runs over by half a day. Phew, I feel better for getting that off my chest. Ty

I re-contacted the client but they did not reply. Of all the groups of ex-pats, fishing lake owners are probably the ones least likely to spend out on outside help for managing their property. I generally only ever get called in to quote if neither the owner, his fireman mate, the local farmer or any of the fishing customers are able to do the work. The work proposed is almost always über difficult and the budget slim to zero with clients seeing gold in them thar trees and often wanting me to not only do the work for free but buy the wood too. So if anyone out there would like to recieve details of clients like these then by all means contact me. Tree work in exchange for fishing perhaps...? Ty

There are a host of videos online if you need guidance with this... Stuart

The word 'day rate' seems to skew clients thinking. If I price a job and get it done in a day, clients don't bat an eye. Generally they are in awe of the whole process and are gratefull. However, if they had first asked me my day rate (for 3 men and a chipper), they'll go quiet and I never hear from them again. I imagine they then get the yellow pages out and call a handyman... Or a 'gardener' Stuart

So... Climbers over 50, the word pump and a need for aids to 'get it up'...? That sort of small ad that would make interesting reading although I do get these as pop ups after visiting the wrongs web sites... Anyway, All of the students 19-23 mostly, who passed through our firm on work placements used a prussik and almost all complained of much the same pumped arm issue plus tendonitus. I find manual wood splitting a good exercise for the forearm. Stuart

€19k = £16'500 Stuart

€19k = £16'500 Stuart

The technical doc suggests 6m3 per hour with it's 18hp engine. This video suggests otherwise despite the knives being (I am assuming are) sharp, this either being a new or demo machine. I've known home owners to have rented smaller versions of these machines before calling me in to chip up having given up after a weekend of forlorn and fruitless 'shredding'. Stuart

In France, only wine, hovels and talk are cheap. http://www.smaf-touseau.com/fr/broyeurs-thermiques/eliet-broyeurs-de-vegetaux-super-prof-cross-country-nouveau-avec-cheminee-d-evacuation-systeme-d-avancement-sur-chenilles_17984 Stuart

More boring than a Bugnot... Stuart

Cycle clubs don't normally meet on a daily basis. Weekends and traditionally Wednesday mornings. How often is this happening to you? Seems very unfortunate that you are so inconvenienced by cyclists. Stuart

I'm from Chichester area. Used to time trial on this road. In fact, I won the Antelope Hilly 25mile race in 1990 which used this road. Been over 2 years since I last rode on it during a visit to my parents. That cycle lane not only needs sweeping but has a very rough and disagreable surface to ride on. Stuart

On June 11th I appeared at the Tribunal de Police in Rennes concerning an incident whilst I was out training on my velo over a year ago on bank holiday here May 26th 2017. A car driver objected to my presence on the road as there was a 'cycle path' available. A shared footpath unsuitable for 30kph riding with cars, bins and old ladies with dogs on extending leads. In France there are few legal obligations for cyclists to use cycle tracks and none which apply to ones of this catagory. I ignored the drivers verbal abuse but he swung his car into me forcing me to hop onto the pavement and dismount badly, pulling leg and back muscles as I unclipped and tried to prevent a fall. Driver gets out, a bawling match ensues, driver grabs my shirt and raises his hand, I was truly terrified at this point and reacted, punching him in the mouth, driver lets go, runs behind me and starts attacking my bike, earns another punch. This idiot works as quarry lorry driver. And although he was wrong to engage me, wrong on his interpretation of the 'code de la route' Wrong to use his car to force me to stop. Wrong to abandon his 2 kids in the car to confront me. Wrong to attack my bike. The driver denies everything else, claims he just wanted to have a chat to me about why I was blocking the road (in his statement driver rants cyclist was at least 50cm from kerb) Driver went off sick for 127 days over 60 of which in a psychiatric ward being treated for depression as a result of me giving him a split lip (4 stitches). I pleaded self defence, as I couldn't run away, not wearing carbon racing shoes with cleats. Driver also has a previous history of mental illness. Already classed as a disabled worker due to his anxiety and depression. A side effect of his meds can be spontanious violence, aggression and anger. Yet... It is I who will be charged with a classe 5 assault, fined as well as pursued in a civil case for medical expenses, lost salary, corporal damages, compo for his 2 kids who where passengers in the car in a case possibly lasting years. If this is the case then I'm leaving France and moving to Morocco. I can't even hang myself as they will sue my corpse and take from my estate and kids future inheritance. I've gone over the day of the incident time and time again and draw the same conclusion every time. I should not have stood up to the driver but have given him free reign to beat me up. I might have just recieved a few bruises, broken ribs or I might now be fed via a tube with 24hr care. But at least I wouldn't be waking up to the merdre I find myself in. Dammed if I didn't but dammed because I did. My life is in an unholy legal mess. I've legal dossiers filling waking hours. Liquidating my business and facing a criminal and civil action at the same time. Stuart

Good story that. I once did a job requiring 4 men and taking a week with 2 chippers, tractors and grain trailers for chip, 30m mewp, Bobcat, large stump grinder. Quite an assembly of equipment. I was super proud, jobs of this catagory rolling in. The actual cleared profit, that is my spending money I could put back into my families pocket at the end of it, after all expenses, social charges, company tax and personal income tax came to far less than I make in day cutting domestic hedges for cash. Outlay being my own car, a light trailer, steps and hedgecutter. Oh, and a rake of course, lost without a rake. Yeh, felt good to assemble and command a veritable arb army but I can't feed my family on ego and adrenalin. I read a report on Carillion's demise and the slim margins they worked too. I saw that more could mean less. However, I believe I can grow a business again. Small enough to absorb those little cash rich jobs and large enough to satisfy the little boy inside me who needs to own a truck and chipper. I look back at my time sheets with wonder. At the time a source of pride justifying my efforts to build a business. My certificate of effort. Gold Star Stue you hit 80hours again. Well it was all for nothing. Except experience and one I won't be repeating ever again. Ty

Out here I often get hit by the 'Taon' or the giant horse fly. Painfull bite, spot of blood, swelling, itching for a week after. Then there is the Flower bug, something I only noticed last year. Again a painfull bite, itching and slow to heal. Ty

Thank you, I contacted Haeksler direct again via the enquiry form and recieved the info. Regards Ty

It could have easily developed further if Mum had been asked just why she wanted 5 sailors and she'd replied "Pour mon chambre" This scenario and suggestive inuendo like it can be found at www.matures-in-france.com... Ty

Modalert or Modafil. Bought online. Kept me going for days before when I tend to nod off at the gob cut after 80hrs. Guess it's better than snedding my own toes off... Ty