Taupotreeman

Until you open up the catalogue. Then everything looks good and you think it would look even better in your kit bag.

Plenty of time to sit on your backside when you're old and crusty and your legs don't work anymore. BUT......you do have to weigh up giving up a job in a nice warm office or vehicle to go back out and face the British weather at its worst. Sliding and sliming around in trees in persistant precipitation, snow etc. Personally I'd chose outdoors despite the weather.

Sorry to hear you're heading home bro. Hope all goes well back in the UK.

Now that's just nit picking but you are right.

The funny thing is several people kept posting that this comp was donkey's old yet all people could see was the possibility of a freebie. It's like the exam paper that tells you to read ALL the questions before starting, the very last question/statement being to fill in your name and name only then fold your paper over and sit and wait. Most people just fill out the whole paper without reading the questions.

As far as I am concerned there have been several different points raised around the one question so for what it's worth here are my thoughts. 1. I would do a couple of days free as a working interview if I thought there was a possibility of a job at the end NOT if I thought the prospective employer was feeding me the proverbial to get free labour. And it would probably only be a couple of days unless the prosepctive employer and I could negotiate further, maybe because they needed to see a wider range of skills. I think a week is pushing it a bit. 2. I often do work for free, in fact I dismantled a large tree for the local Christian Camp on Friday after seeing them trying to attempt it themselves. I couldn't live with myself if I walked away and someone died (not my problem I know but still) and I do the occasional tree for those in need, the elderly etc. The same as I might throw in a couple of extras at no charge. The warm fuzzies I get off it far outways the monetery cost. Plus, I leave the job with a happy customer and word of mouth is gold in this day. 3. If I wanted to further my knowledge of something and I could do this by working for another company etc I would gladly do this for free as the knowledge I gained would be of benefit to myself somewhere down the line. For example, I would happily work with someone like Hama just to have a tiny portion of his knowledge on all things shroomy.

Now you just want to keep it going to see how many more sign up without reading.

Heterotrophs

You should probably also read back through the rest of the thread; especially the begining.

Deep!

Never seen fibres on the trunk of a cordyline I have to admit. The trees I've seen have been clear it's just the fronds that cause the hassles. What type of Cordyline was it?

I've tried with choke, without choke, half throttle it just doesn't seem to want to fire up. I tried watching the fuel and when it's running low I'll stop and refuel. It's not too bad if I can refuel quick enough but if I take just that little bit too long it won't have a bar of it.

Maybe I'm getting confused with a Welsh winter. All I remember is Aberystwyth and rain. Lots of rain.

I have the same problem with my old 66. When I run it out of fuel it won't start. I have to leave it for a few minutes and then try again. Tried the plug thing but the plug is always bone dry though when i finally get the saw started up it sounds like it has been flooded. I have to feather the throttle until it revs enough that it won't stall.

Geez you'd get shot for doing that here. Dead whales are usually blessed by the local Maori, as is the land, and then they are buried on the beach. Nothing is allowed to be removed from them unless authorized by the locals and that's highly unlikely. Whales are considered guardians of the coast by some Iwi and are revered by many.

No tickets rquired here for insurance. Just go out, get insured (if you feel like it) and start cutting trees. I think Ive been asked once by Joe Public for evidence of my quals although commercial outfits require quals, experience, a H&S policy along with a set of procedures, first aid etc. Like I said before; there's plenty of mowing contractors here trimming and removing trees, some of which are way beyond their capabilities.

You might not but there's plenty of people who will get the guy that mows their lawns to cut down that huge tree in the back garden over the top of the green house and then wonder why it all went wrong.

Hama, the guy I did the conservation course with was Dr. Robert Widdcombe (Border Ecology). He was absolutely mad on conservation and we were out on the Wash at silly O'clock in the morning watching birds, out in the Riseholme woods watching badgers, checking out various carniverous bugs that could be used for pest control, dry stone walling and hedge laying. I always wish that I could have followed this side of things but in the end I needed to earn a dollar and the opportunites within conservation were few unless volunteer work was your thing. If this really is your thing I'm sure he would be more than willing to have a bit of a yarn with you. He's a hell of a nice guy and passionate.

I thought it looked like an ewok or something out of starwars. It's just how I remember a UK winter; dark, wet and miserble.

Interesting reading your post there Hama. I was taught at college (conservation at Riseholme) by a guy who started out as an arborist, turned lecturer in arb, turned lecturer in conservation and now runs his own outfit called Border ecology. I think he is now soley into preservation, conservation and enviromental stuff (stuff probably not being the optimum descriptive word to use) and provides councils etc with enviromentally sound planning etc. Is this more the kind of thing? He's a really nice guy to boot so might have a few pointers if that's your thing.

Funny, I had a lady email me the other day and told me she thought my price for clearing around the power lines was "a little dear" as the other company she had used for trimming a hedge was cheaper. This was after she had accepted the job. I decided to email back (if she refused to pay for the completed work) and outline my expenses. As I started working through the list I kept stumbling across another expense that I hadn't even taken into consideration such as retesting of insulated tools, first aid certs etc. Yaffle trees' post just reminded me of this. Sometimes we ourselves don't realise exactly how many expenses we have and the general public certainly don't. They seem to think it's just a man with a saw and a truck, all of which run for ever without fuelling, replacement or maintenance. Don't get me started on the time and costs involved in running around to look at work that I never get. My two closest towns are 50 and 80kms away respectively so to look at work can sometimes be a whole day job. Some people like to call be in for a "quote" only for me to find out they just want to know how to take the tree down themselves put pick my brains. That's fuel, time and money I could be earning elsewhere down the drain.

I agree with Tall Tree. I'm not trying to put you off but I'd hate for you to get a knot wrong and have it come loose on you while ascending or descending etc. Books are all well and good but they can't replace practical knowledge. See if you can get yourself booked on a course, even if it's just the basics.

Cheers xerxses but it was a long time ago now. Actually, WAY too long. I feel old all of a sudden. I don't do felling anymore for timber production so don't need to worry about the timber spltting but then since those trees I've never had timber split on me again. I actually tend to use the letterbox cut quite a bit on some of the gums here because that part of the tree seems to hold more on a big Euc. I only generally use a straight back cut on smaller trees otherwise it's an assortment of bore and plunge cuts depending on how adventurous I feel that day.

Brushcutter; funnily enough the Larch weren't that big but everyone of them were splitting up the stem, some of them had over a 10' split right through the centre of the stem. There was nothing wrong with the felling cuts as the other more experienced feller was having the same issues. In the end we lost so many butt ends the boss started chasing the hinges but even if you got half way through the hinge the butt would still tear. As for best practice; yeah, tell me about it. I lasted until the end of the job and that was it. Some scary stuff going on on that job I can tell you.

Join the club Butler. Never used a cambium saver in my life ( I presume I should duck for cover now?) because I got out of climbing for a while and when I got back in to it things had kinda overtaken me somewhat equipment wise. I do now use a hitch climber system which is most excellent for climbing but I can't really afford some of the other kit I would like so just make do. I seem to get on OK with the basics so if it does the job until I'm a little more flush then I don't have an issue with it.