Will Ayers

my wife looked lovely on our wedding day all dressed in white i've now got a dishwasher that matches my fridge

i forgot to bring my brain today john, i was all excited about the SRT, it was worth it for the giggle i've had reading this thread though. at least i didn't break anything today.:blushing:

it's going brilliantly! dont have much money to show for it but i have a new truck and loads of shiny gear, the money is steady enough and work is picking up. i am so glad i made the choice i did as i have been so happy working for myself. i have had the most awesome work sites both for myself and for other companies and its all looking rosie. thank you to all of you that gave me the push i needed and thanks to those of you who tried to stop me as you made me think long and hard about it all. this has been such a help, thanks arbtalkers.

heres my favourite tree, a London Plane in Ely in the garden of a care home. its majestic size is so overwhelming, so much so that i had to do a cheesy pose

i think those people that push themselves through a course and come out with good grades and practical abilities are as likely to succeed in a working environment, i think its the age old thing of horses for courses. i think its easy to see a good worker a mile off. as said before if they are keen to get stuck in and ask loads of questions then that marks them above the rest. i think there is a risk of people coming out of college with this idea that they know it all and are the big boys but when i finished my course this year our tutor told us that we were now successfully back at the bottom of the pile and any respect must be earnt. as for wether courses are rubish, yes, some aspects are. that cant be helped as the courses are required to follow a syllabus that sometimes bares no relevance to the subject. that said i went to sparsholt and did the ND there and i think they tie in all of the subjects well with each other. i'm sure it could be better, but by the sounds of it sparsholt is one of the better colleges when it comes to producing good workers, but i would say that wouldn't i!

i cant wait to see the pics, is there a video of being taken out at all? i rescued a Frisbee the other day, does that count for anything

cheers for that rob i'll keep you in mind, any other offers, its only likely to be a small bit of hedge trimmings?

hello fellow southerners. i have a few small jobs lined up which i'll have a small amount of rubbish to get rid of, its only going to be a bit of hedge trimmings and some small tree work but i am prepared to pay to get rid of it. if there is anyone near me (southampton/winchester) that has a bit of space then i'd greatly appreciate it. thank you will

are these prices staying the same at the welsh comp?

just bumping my thread works looking great for august but if anyone needs a climber/groundie during september and onwards the let me know cheers

its interesting to hear that other people have difficulty pricing. i am just starting out as a elf employed climber and hope to be getting my own work in more regularly, last week i did a site safety survey on a huge site with a full written tree report, the site was 1600 acres and i assessed all trees on the path/roadsides. i charged £460 for the survey alone. i found 16 dangerous trees and did the work over 2 days, some big takedowns some just needing deadwooding. me and a groundie (£70 a day) £380 per day. wood and brash was left on site. in a way i feel a bit cheeky taking so much money for three days labour but when i think about the work that went in to the report and the speed that the survey and work was undertaken i think my client got his moneysworth in hindsight i could have charged more and got away with it but i hope to have more work from him in the future. does this sound reasonable or am i getting it wrong

cheers guys i think i'll just leave it to soak in the bath for a while with some hand wash detergent the reason it got so pongy is i worked away from home for a week and it was a wet week, i had no where to dry my gear as i was living in a tent and it seemed to rain whenever i tried to dry stuff, when i did get home the smell was quite strong and the missus started complaining.

what it says on the tin my ropes were all smelly so gave them a wash, they are all new looking and nice but my harness just stinks and is covered in pooh what can i do? i tried washing it in the sink but it hasn't hardly dented the stink should i put it in the dishwasher? i read this on an earlier thread but am a bit dubious

if its horrible weather then you could go down to calshot, they have an indoor climbing wall and other rhings, or you could see if you can find some deer in the forest IMO the best place to see them is north of beauliu, park at pigbush and walk out in to the beechwoods, beautiful part of the world, they do wicked cream teas in Lyndhurst and they have an oldie worldy sweet shop as well as a farrari garrage to drool over:001_tt1:

come over to mine and have a cuppa

i've got an astra estate and it does me fine, i might upgrade to a truck when work picks up but no need at the mo as the vauxhall ashtray fits all my gear and the missus and a dog, what more do you need?

here it is from the ground sorry its sideways

60.2 metres so just a shade under 200ft and we didn't go right to the top as we didn't want to risk damaging the tree as its a pretty important one. i took the photo from the tree next door which was also a giant, we anchored in to a 2 wrist thickness so not too far from the top

this is tom from Sparsholt college up Englands tallest tree. i love this pic.

yeah peter is your best bet, awesome bloke, and i believe he'll get rid of any big bits of timber as well. i'll definitely give green woods a call, i spend alot of time up that way and hope to move there soon

ahh dammit i could have done with one more day up there. i was in Ely for the last week and a half. now in southampton, just got back 2 hours ago. whoops.

what are the benefits of 11mm rope, whenever i've used it i have ended up with sore hands and asking myself why people use it

i dont want an easy life stox i want to enjoy my work, you have outlined how to not hate line work but not how to love it. i know im not suited to it, my original question was should i follow money or should i follow my heart. apart from the steady income i cant see many benefits from linework. i dont like easy days i like ocming home shattered, i dont agree that siding up trees is acceptable i think it is a terrible thing to do to a tree. the axium of uniform strength that trees have ensures that the tree is balanced while taking in to accoount the wind and angle it must grow to get sunlight. this is an amazing thing that trees do, when we hack half of the canopy off they react poorly, you may say that they react well as you have seen rapid regrowth on the side which is cut but what the tree is doing is rebuilding its balance. this means it has less strength to cope with pathogens, make flowers and fruit and has a reduced overall growth rate. next time you side a tree up go round the other side of the tree about a year later and you'll also see die back in that side. knowing this i certainly couldn't find enjoyment by siding trees up.

that'd be more than enough for me to tick over on at the mo, you live to your means and my means are meager cheers mate, perhaps i'll do a post in a few months saying how ive done

i was 24 when i went back to college and now i am a fully quallified arborist. if you cant face taking that much time out of work then i'd go for the tickets while working as the little brother of shrek has suggested. i was lucky enough to save money to go to college but if this isn't possible then drag brash rain or shine and smile and obey whenever someone asks you to do something. good luck mate and welcome to arbtalk