Will Ayers

I really wouldn't worry about how other tree firms think of you. Life's to short to worry about the "he said she said" malarkey. Besides unless you are naming your self, "Tree officer tree care" very few people are going to even know. I've never once done background checks on my competitors!! Again life is too short. The only way it will realistically give you any benefit is that you should know the law.... As for the van... as long as it's not an absolute skip of a van, just buy whatever you fancy. It's not a marriage, you can sell it if you don't like it. I have a single cab transit that runs a 1200kg payload, which isn't too bad considered, and we still run overweight most days! And as for the profit. Our first year was awful we spun about 6k profit, but year four we turned over more than year one within the first two months. Had to go VAT reg and had to employ a few guys. Living the dream. Still not making a massive profit but loving every minute. And that's working a four day week!!

Yes. It's a difficult issue, but you need to be hard about it and refuse further works until full payment. As an employer I try and pay my guys straight away. When I was a subby I had a few guys that were slow and one that tried to get away without paying. I had to resort to small claims for one.

Sorry...... East Anglia, Near Ely

A client of mine is a big land owner, he wants to look in to producing wood pellets for biomass etc. he wants to explore whether its worth a punt at growing biomass in the less favourable part of his farm etc and also whether he can feasibly process and manufacture the pellets or whatever.... I just fell his awkward trees occasionally but he has come to me for advice. He wants to pay someone to take around the farm and offer advice etc. Any Biomass consultants worth there salt kicking around here? no chancers or armchair proffessionals he wants a true biomass geek who understands the ins and outs from tree to product....

I'm in!! Fingers crossed

I never climb on a doubled line. I find it totally odd now. Gave my lads zig zag a go on a doubled line while we were doing some rescue practice the other day. The device is fine but I hated having to tend my slack and it's just so labour intensive.

OMG I always say that the most dangerous part of our day is the commute but that wins hands down. What a shame, there's a big bill for someone. Will the operation get back up and running?

You can redirect in a way that the piece your static redirecting on is supported by your main anchor. So when you load the redirect it shares the load with the main anchor. But it eliminates bounce.

Jaysus. That is amazing work. What an awesome thing to be doing Reg. Does it matter where the tops go or are you just picking a hole in the forest canopy? Absolutely awe struck by the enormity of those trees and that work. Kudos to you!!!

I'm probably not old enough to be in here but I feel it! After a decent knee injury a year and a half ago I decided I either needed to advance my climbing technique or get another job. So I bough a load of SRT gear and to begin with, I hated it. After a week I could see the benefits and after a month there wasn't any doubt. I'm probably not as fast up and down as someone 10 years younger on DRT, but I find I get a lot more done while I'm up there than most of the nippers, and normally hit the ground quicker than them on a big tree. So I'm doing something right! Don't be afraid of trying new things.

Wowsers. That Birch is mega. I hope no one ever takes a saw to it.

Great thread Steve.

The Ely Plane tree. I used to sneak in to this garden, when it used to be an old peoples home, as a teenager and drink cans of fosters with mates while watching the ducks. It usually took the grounds men a few hours to find me before I was asked to move on. Now it's owned by a school that my eldest daughter goes to. So I took the excuse of an Easter egg hunt to sneak back in and have a look. It's only 100 m from my mothers house so I see the canopy all the time, but standing at the base of this tree is something else!!

I often find I'm lazier with SRT as I can just lace up different tips as and when I need them. So only get in to the tips to get there rather than needing to to get great access elsewhere. Sometimes my TIP is massive but my dynamic redirects are tiny as long as there is loads of them. The trick for me is to make the working part of your line as short as possible without running out, this makes throwing new natural redirects in easy as you don't have to pull 50m of rope up.

I'm hooked on this thread. But some of you have been true anchors.