Ty Korrigan

Lightning struck cedar near Mont St Michael Brittany. No scorch marks. According to witnesses the tree 'exploded' around midnight sending shards over 30m. The bark is detached in many areas. Ty

St Richards in Chichester have a 'crutch depository' for want of better words. Ty

NHS crutches are transformed into Henchman ladders (which should also be thrown away after a single use) Ty

Site clearance on land purchased by council for future development. Many trees staying with all wind break thujas and lawsons felled. Monday we worked in torrential rain to fell and process all the hardwoods for our own benefit. We've a good thing going selling hardwood chip to gardeners and the wood went to the members of the team. We chipped 24m3 of decent chip to sell. 2 houses where demolished and the ponds, septic tanks and cellars backfilled with soil. This created a real problem for us and with the land drains torn up, the former pond fed by a spring and pockets of deep, soft, wet soil, our telehandler (rented) continiously bogged down and had to be towed free by the council JCB. Lucky for us we are on excellent terms with the council... Tomorrow, Friday should see the last conifer hedge felled and stacked then it's '5-6 pick up sticks 7-8 lay them straight' as we collect all the stray, dropped and driven over branches. No stumps for us on this job and frankly I'm dammed glad as the ground conditions are so poor and most of the windbreak stumps are out of reach of the 4012. There are enough stumps though to warrant a 30ton 360 with a pinch though. These would get recycled, soil screeded then chipped for bio-mass. I confess, I'd rather be doing domestic jobs but this main roadside location has been an excellent shop window. Chipper arrives in a week or so and we are expecting 200-240m3 cube which is 3 trucks. Ty

No, just the steering and the loader arm go stiff/slow from time time. Is this metal from the diff perhaps? Sometimes the transfer box gets crunched. Ty

Back in December 2015 I changed the hydro oil in our JD 1026R tractor at 450hours. The image dates from back then. There are 2 filters, this one is magnetic and seems to do it's job but is this amount of swarf normal? Periodically the power steering goes stiff and now the front lift intermittently refuses to drop at anything other than a snails pace. Could it be that particles of swarf are entering the 'hydro distribution'? That is the box that diverts the oil to where it is needed. Any ideas appreciated. Ty

I've done a wizzy and a bay recently up against a wall using sharp mattocks. Knife through butter but digging a hole large enough for a decent swing of the mattock was the real ballache. Ty

Genesis wrote a song called curse of the Giant Hogweed. It's a vile plant in every aspect. The Roger Phillips book describes the smell of the cut foliage as 'overpowering'. Last year I pointed it out to 2 property owners and explained the risks. One has mown and sprayed it, the other thinks it is quite lovely which is a selfish reason to propagate such a menace. Ty

I notice the drive to the head is via a cardon/pto shaft. Are there any self driven machines with the same? Avoiding either belts or hydro heads? Ty

Oh, yes, this couple had their landscape architect insist on poplar chips only. They visited in Summer when the trees have leaf and so the chip goes black and mouldy within days. They then asked for chip without the leaf. I said "Come back in Winter"... I then chipped up some cypress and cedar stems, no leaf at all and called them back. This they rejected because it's 'acid'... I can in fact supply large clean poplar chip from a landscape supplier but I re-sell that for between 50 and 80euros m3 depending on quantity. Not surprisingly, I don't get many takers and people usually fall back on my mouldy old chip pile regardless. Ty

Every tree gets priced, even when I'm cyclingbto forget about work. I've a bundle of cards with me I often stop a family outing to put a card through the door of a property with 'potential tree work'. Ty

Complaints about woodchip I get are... It's not very pretty (expecting the same little golden squares you get when bought in 70litre sacs or from Kelloggs perhaps. It's rotting!... (It's supposed too) I bought woodchip from you and it didn't last long... (Ah but I see your back again though) I don't want anything too acid... (Here is a bag of lime then) You infected my garden with mushrooms! (These are the babies working on your chip Madam, feeding your plants and inoculating your soil) Have you chips that are lighter in colour than these...? (They brought a colour chart with them...) Free wood also got a client a letter of warning from the Mayors office as we dumped it roadside of the property for a free wood collection for a bunch of useless expats who never turned up...grrr! Next week we are removing it all and more as there is another biomass job in town so it can be dumped on site to all go for chip. Ty

Or a shredder. Shredderererers outnumber chippers here and their 'product' is stringy and unsaleable rubbish (For 5 years anyway) Ty

The one we took down last June was also 150 years old (owner thought ot to be 500-1000) and 2m diameter. We quoted around 5k. It took a day to drop the crown using a 30m MEWP as it had been dead a while with loose bark (no targets) 2 days to clear the mess up and 5 hours for the stump WHEW! I see dead and young cedars regularly. Mostly Deodor though. Lost a return client in town here due to her cedar dying the year after one of my finest pruning efforts. Guess I should have sterilised my saw and worn a surgical gown... Ty

Just arrived on my Facebook feed. I know it talks of another sector altogether. 80% of self-employed people in Britain live in poverty | Spend & Save | Money | The Independent Ty

West of Brittany mostly... Ty

Ty

The Russians have been making their own for years... Here: Shoe Knife - Deadliest Warrior Wiki - Wikia Ty

Personally, I think a 50k gross salary is a pipe dream for most running a small U.K tree firm with 2-3 staff. Here in France it's purist fantasy. Ty

2 questions for the members of this parish: What is the defination of a decent tree firm? Who on here earns a salary of 50K? Ty

To our advantage, being in business here is hard. You pay social charges whether you work or not and these amount to 2-3grand a year minimum. Paperwork too. Also the weird business models you must work under put most off from running a business themselves and they see being employed as the easy option. Few leave college and just start up. You must attend a 5 day business course at the Chamber of Commerce or Trades before being allowed to run your own business here even at the lowest level. I believe there to be a shortage of college trained Arbs. Just getting onto a course here requires a stiff selection programme. No pay as you go tickets here. Ty

Hello all, I've had some great leads and advice here and by email too. Just want to say many thanks. Ty:thumbup1:

Weird the things that happen to some machines and not others.... Ty:001_huh:

Consumer law for the public is far tighter than for business to business. For example, in 2014 our Jersey based company lawyer advised us not to bother pursuing 'Lemon Plant' over a faulty grinder as the machine value was well below limit of what he advised as viable for a business to business case, 100k and it is worth the chase. If I'd bought it in my name I could have had my money back....after a brisk legal battle of course. Ty

Are there husband and wife tree teams who earn such salaries? Most 2 man teams would be happy just to gross that alone! Ty