Ty Korrigan

Seems to be a French tradition to plant Gladioli to mark rows of veg. I was sent some everytime I ordered seeds n shit. I go up to the place every couple of days to water, weed and to be. I find being there incredibly relaxing. I left at 11pm a few nights ago after getting there at 8pm after work. I've inadvertently entered into a conflict with my neighbour over cutting back his invading vegetation. I put in a root barrier on my side to stop his bamboo from encroaching and with his verbal permission cut back everything that crossed the boundary. I did rather go to town on the cutting back and this is what has angered the neighbour as it exposes an area of garden he uses for growing cannabis (last image)

Skinny urban birch removal. I used the dull side of the teeth to clear the area around the stump of surface roots before turning the lead teeth and demolishing the stump in 6min. Clay soil, almost moistureless and it is only May...

Looks like I'm going to run out of work just in time for my 2 month Summer break. Still no finance to burden our affairs thanks to my wife's short leash on my aspirations. I was recently invited to bid on a construction project site clearance, a drainage pipeline under the main Paris-Rennes TGV line. 4 days work for 3, submitted my bid, nothing heard back. Surprised I was asked to be honest as public works ain't really my bag. I don't rate highly credibility wise not having much in the way of larger machinery and relying in subbies. I recently started asking a few people I'd quoted for and got along with but didn't win, about the winning price etc. Had a few honest replies. The winning bids have been very lean in comparison to my own and I wouldn't consider matching let alone beating them. I utterly dislike working for turnover alone. The Moroccanese accountant says "this is just the beginning" The building industry is increasingly suffering in France. Mortgage rates are 3-4 times higher than 12 months ago, material prices still painfully high. In the news again, construction companies closing down, often having taken much of peoples house money up front and leaving a string of part completed houses that the owners cannot access to finish them off themselves. There is merde ahead... Stuart Stuart

Grinders certainly jump in price from pedestrian to self propelled... Stuart

Are Bandit SG40 around the same price?

Curious as ever about new kit. Only 26.5hp engine coupled to a hydraulic motor at the wheel. Tracked, compact, wide swing. I rather like it on paper though I once rented a Vermeer tracked machine with a similar hp and was very disappointed with it's performance. Misbehaving controls leading to delays in moving, creep and a stunning lack of power I felt. I wonder if this new offering from FSI has better performance or is just a safe idiot proof machine aimed at the rental market? I've a colleague to call on with a Bandit XP75 for larger stump jobs but I need to arrange at least 2k worth if I want a decent margin from his services. My FSI B20 owes me nothing and earns great money with low running costs but is tiring for jobs more than a couple of hours machine time. Any-one know the U.K price of an FSI B31? Stuart

I recall All Seasons being quite vocal at the time as he too had a shonky 150P

My ill fated GM190 did this at around 28 hours on a recently laid driveway. I recall the dealer telling me I should check all connections daily.

Put this El Cheapo polytunnnel up yesterday. If it is even moderately successful then Mrs Lee might well give the nod for an 8x4 then we can really go to town on the 🍅🍅🍅🌶️ 🌶️🌶️ and 🍈🍈🍈. Need to then prepare for preserving, especially tomatoes as prepared puree and sauce. I lost all my Giant Mongolian sunflowers 🌻🌻🌻 to slugs as well as the emerging tops of my Jerusalem artichokes. I've now treated the area with organic slug pellets. Weird thing is you don't see dead slugs or slime trails. Apparently they feel crook, return to their hideout then discretely die. Nematode treatment next for carrot fly. My latest plant order has been lost in the post...

Hey! I'm an mediocre climber too but still better than the "I can cut it from here boi's" (And Mark Bolam...)

Blown 50 year old concrete posts set into concrete plaques built by Frenchmen that saw service building blockhaus and submarine pens for organisation Tod are a nightmare to replace.

Quite understandable once a business grows past the one man band stage with credit and employees. Otherwise, surely going out on the odd Saturday morning, 200t in hand and bagging cheeky amounts of filthy lucre for very little outlay, is one of the great perks of our trade? Also, those who find liquidating cash an encumbrance need more imagination. Holidays, hobbies and 'hores are all great ways in which to dispose of filthy lucre.

I'll be watching the plants for signs of deficiency or stress as they spread their roots.

It's a fine balance, mustn't be too greedy...

To add, I'm having a reed bed sewage system installed if the planning is accepted. The survey tells me from core samples to a metre just what type of soil is found at various depths. Sandy loam, no clay presence, high water table. I then bought a soil pH test kit and found it is 5 - 5.5 so fairly but not overly acidic. I then asked the farmer whose land borders mine and he confirmed it. So I ordered 3kg of sulphur granules from Poland of all places and mixed some with peat from Lithuania for the Blueberries. I'll need to top dress each year with sulphur to maintain a low pH. A few flowers already present on a couple of plants. I'm now reading up on preserving methods for a future 🍅🍅 🍅 project.

I'm not happy that I've paid for a top brand of potting compost only to find my own woodchip pile is better quality. Regardless, I'm germinating at home in fibre pots (bought 1400) before I take the plants up to our renovation. Today I put in 60+ broad beans in the fibre pots, roots bursting through the sides. Mrs Lee makes a thick gruel from them, some mountain Berber recipe from her Grandmother. I pulled back the black plastic to find my soil was very warm and moist, ideal for root stimulation. Shallots, red and white onions are getting going. Spunta spuds, a large variety good for chips are poking through. I screwed up on the spacing with these.My 50 🍓🍓🍓🍓 are settling in nicely. This morning I spent €15 on a tray of the celebrated Gariguette 🍓🍓🍓🍓 from the West Brittany which lasted no time at all. Lovely they were. Think I'll put another row of this variety strawberries in next year. Tonight I ordered another 2 blueberry and 4 raspberries 'Glencoe' as well as herbs for a shallow raised bed at home for Mrs Lee. Planted out a line of giant Mongolian sunflower 🌻🌻🌻🌻 then sowed a band of flower mix. Many parts of France are under a drought with some villages living in bottled water. Here, the water table is high and consistent. Hopefully I won't need to irrigate much this Summer.

and OFSTED...

Interesting thread. Is that £90k a before tax figure? I am quite pleased by our own figures last year but the time sacrifice required to better them consistantly when I have young kids and a current good quality of life is off putting. No employees, no credit and lucky with the work that came our way. Our income is limited by the range I'm willing to cover and the available time I'm willing to allocate to quoting. With 75% of clients being within 15km 20% 25-30km and 5% over the 30km, I try to remain local so to spend more time with the family. I don't actively look for commercial work, it occasionally looks for me though. One job that we won in 2022 was worth 19k, cost me around 3k in subbies including the stump grinder contractor so netting me 16k in 5 days. I doubt I will ever be able to better that but it gave me an insite into the kind of money sloshing around on public works projects. I try to limit myself to a 4 day week on the tools and fit quoting around what free time there is. If I was to expand my range even just a little, I'd eat into and even risk losing that precious family time. Many private clients are of course available only in the evenings and weekends with commercial being the opposite. Almost daily I think about growing the business to a size where I could run a second team to take me sufficiently but not entirely off the tools to allow time to manage, quote and fill in as well as renumerate me better given the financial risk I would be undertaking and I don't believe that at 53 it is too late either. MEWP, better truck (inevitable) telescopic, larger grinder, employ a clean living drug free climber from a monastic order, roadside signage, call myself the Breton Tree King and mumble inane advice in bizzare TikToc videos. My language skills are at a point I feel comfortable in meetings with recent commercial clients such as telecom mast builders and public works and we have a decent enough reputation to be recommended by the local authorities and invited back to work without them obtaining other quotes. However, with mature consideration, I wouldn't swap a salary of £90k for time with my family at this period. We are currently living in a sweet spot regarding time over salary over stress over quality of life and I'm reluctant to shake the mix up and lose it. Stuart

I am now, given the evaporation rate through the plastic. There is a loss from a hand driven pump fixed to the container but I though I'd use a pump that you squeeze instead then seal the drum afterwards.

Aspen 2 weighs 0.69 kg per litre. I'll Google translate their info on evaporation. The 5 litre are the worst size for evaporation a 500ml per year.

Yes, far smoother. The new 12mm lasted a morning's worth if frustration before I ordered a 10mm.

This is the one I use but my climber says there are more supple ones. Corde de rétention et de démontage KATUALI FTC - Ø 10 mm - 1 épissure WWW.ELAGAGE-HEVEA.COM Le meilleur rapport qualité / prix du marché ! La corde de rétention KATUALI de chez FTC offre un excellent compromis diamètre / résistance. Avec un faible allongement à la tension...

I've only ever done two, climbed one, groundy one. The sap never gummed up the saws but did make a mess of everything with the live one. A rinse with petrol sorted the saws out. The branches shocked the two other groundies, both arb students. I was surprised by how much volume of chip there was for the low weight. It was on this job I tripped whilst dragging and fell against the house wall making two holes. Exterior insulation... Stuart

I've both the 70kg and the 120kg The 70kg gets used often, it was out today in fact. There was no possibility of using a bollard as the trees were sandwiched between a fence and sheds on top of a bank. The 120kg, gets used far less but should have been today for the final lumps. I run a 10mm rope with both of the devices, so much slicker than 12mm An advantage over natural crotch rigging is the lack of friction when pulling branches up to clear obstacles. Stuart

I should film an opening and measuring into a glass measuring jug...