Scottie

Going back to the original post, we had a similar situation, but granted no women. My boss got a rush job to remove '20ft of a tree which had fallen into a carpark/loading area' of a d.i.y store in Leeds. I and a college volunteered to go with our boss and when we got there it was a 60ft ash that had crashed down through the roadside vegetation and there was about 30ft of the crown in the car park. We managed to nearly fill the back of our truck with chip! We couldn't stop any deliveries being made and we did have cones and sign out to indicate we were working there. But alas we did get a couple of likely lads drive in through the cones and park on the yellow box. I just thought they were a couple of ***** and weren't worth the effort. I am sure everybody on this forum could probably tell you a story about the Joe public. I find that if you are nice to them and explain why what you are doing has to be done, they go away with a bit more knoweledge and understanding. Sometime you even get a job out of it!

Whats the 'Northern Show'? Does that mean somewhere as far north as Derbyshire or proper north like Northumbria?

I bet he was just on his way for a cup of coffee!!

It looks as if he has done that before!

The same Stihl Rep said that Husky for some reason put a twist into the anti vibration springs on the saws which shortens the life of the springs. Huh???

Asked a Stihl rep about the 192t and because they are not sold in the UK you will be the sole importer of the saw. This means the saw won't be covered by warranty in the UK and you will have to fix it at your own cost. That is what I believe. Also as I understand that the saw is not as good as the 200t and it is really for the Eastern European market. Please don't quote me on this but it is what I understand after I thought about getting 1 myself from Slovakia.

Left school and left home and went straight into a YTS to do Estate Maintenance and game keeping. Even before leaving school I was a volunteer at the local council run countrypark which later on gave me employment for around 5yrs. Also managed to get over to America for 3 summers to work for Camp America, but have also been a barman, 2nd man delivering white goods, a cleaner, cardboard box maker, delivered wine around northern England and worked with teenagers teaching them horticultrual and agricutraul skills. Been with the company now for nearly 4yrs and every day is a school day as they say. Love my job!

Who can bring up a comparison with the t200? ie. weight, power output....

Had a thought about this. If you say you have loads of room to store wood why don't you offer your land as a 'dumping' ground for the local tree companies in regards to wood. You might get all their crap but it all burns.

Work mate had to pee on my bar of the chainsaw to thaw it out this morning, the saw was running but the chain wouldn't go round. Pee help to defrost it. It was only around -12C when we started this morning.

Welcome aboard! What about the good old adjustable spanner! Fits everything.

Just wondering if there is anybody on here from Eastern Europe especially Slovakia or the Czech Republic. Cheers.

Wife told me that if staff in Slovakia are told to stay off from work they get 60% of their pay for that day. That seems fair to me. Like most companies, if we are not out, we're not earning, so no pay and no commision for the rep.

Yup climbing today myself, a nice slippy ash and a 40ft+ lawson cypress to knock down. I am sure I was warmer than my poor groundy. Did well I think to be doing that than cleaning ivy from a wall which was going to be another job. However was really meant to be going up to Sunderland to do some airspading.

A guy of nearly 50 hung up his spikes on friday. I worked with him as his groundie for the last 3 years and he climbed nearly everyday. His knowledge and experience is going to be misssed especially by myself who got into this buisness late on. He smokes 20+ cigarettes a day but could climb all day and never complained about being tired or sore, he just got on with it. I have only been climbing for the passed 2 years myself and I am 36 now. In that time I have learnt a lot but the best thing I have learnt is work positioning. It makes the job so much easier and doesn't make me feel as tired as quickly. Also I have been trying to use 2 anchor points most times and this helps to make the job easier for me when I do climb. Sometime I am reluctant to get into a tree but once I am there I really enjoy doing the job and I wonder why I am being so reluctant. I don't have the experience to do big take downs but I am going to gain it now that a main climber has left the company but I wish he was back so that I could get help and the encouragement to do it. Lately I have been thinking that I could handle stumpgrinding, being a groundie and doing the companies PHC because of my age but after reading some of the posts, I am just a pup!

Can the cold weather affect apple/pear trees if you prune them in cold weather like it is just now? Did some thinning out of some small root stock apple trees this morning and I was wondering if I was going to affect the growth of the trees while I was doing the work. I didn't remove too much, but still, there are open wounds and it was flipping cold this morning!

How low does the temperature need to be before you can legally refuse to do a job on safety grounds?

I just love my job, certainly don't do it for the money! Been in working in the countryside since I left school.

Some marital advice for the lovely Kate. Remember klunk, klick every trip....

I managed to do an NC in Estate Maintanence and Gamekeeping an another NC in Integratred Rulral Land use and an HNC Countryside Recreation and Conservation Management all at Elmwood College, Cupar, Fife. I would do it all again at the same college with the same people. Many good times. So I choose other.

Today when I turned up to the 'days job', we weren't to know the the husband was on his death bed (quite litererly). We were told by his wife that he was poorly and there would be comings and goings of nurses:biggrin: (they were good looking as well) and other people. We didn't think much of it at the time and got on with the job in hand. As the day progressed things were not looking good for the old man, his wife at one point came out and told us that "every time he closes his eyes I think thats it". We were feeling uncomfortable at this point and made the decision that we were nearly finished and we should just tidy up and get out of there. You are probably wondering why I am telling you this, but a while ago I read a book and one of the themes was about a white feather falling in front of you. The white feather was meant to come from an angel and it was to signify death. Well a white feather floated down in front of the truck when we were having lunch. Is this too much of a coincedence, the old man is dying in the house and the story from the book? I don't ususaly believe in this kind of 'super natrual' happenings, but this was too freaky! I am unaware if the old man has passed away as I write this, he probably has, but I don't really want to be in that situation again. My boss had no idea and I suppose we could have politely refused to do the job but at the same time I would like to think we were a distraction and a noisey one at that.

With other weather reports that I have seen it might just be us in the East that get the cold wearther. Leave the West to get all the rain!

Glad to hear you are out of hospital and back home for the time being. Will you be able to get about the house? If you can I am sure the wife will have loads of jobs for you to catch up on. LOL!

Don't get the chance to be rained off! Don't turn up for work, don't get paid! Don't mind getting wet, all part of the job, but it was such a lazy wind, it went right through me. Was cold, wet and miserable by 10am grounding for a climber doing an all round reduction on a horse chestnut in Bostan Spa. Then climbed and did a 30% reduction of a cherry in Wetherby. Damn it was cold!

Watch out for the sap, don't get it in your eyes, it stings like hell!