Will Ayers

Today's tree, a lovely looking walnut. The job spec was to remove anything overhanging the car park an to the boundary and to re-balance the crown with an over all 10% reduction. Sent using my pudgy fingers on my phone.

We,re on to our third one. The first one I bought for 700 quid and it lasted me through most of college. it was a beauty but it caught fire on the m25 at 3am on the way to a job interview. (Still made it to the interview and they gave me the job) second one was bought straight after that, loved it, so economical and lovely to drive. The ecu went on it and cost a bomb though. We sold it after a good few years as my wife wanted a focus. The focus was okay but drank so much fuel in comparison. We sank that one in a flood and immediately bought another Astra. It's an 07 but they are the same engine same build as the 05 I think. Very good car, super economic and lovely to drive, the 1.7 is a good engine with enough torque but still economic. The first Astra had done 230,000 before it gave up. Never cost me anything up until then. Of course there is always going to be exceptions to this but I couldn't recommend them more highly. Sent using my pudgy fingers on my phone.

Done. Sent using my pudgy fingers on my phone.

Target this industry or any other and the taxman will find self employed guys who pay more NI and more Tax than employed. Of course he will also find guys that do the opposite. As a self employed guy I love being able to work all over and not having to rely on one company to keep me afloat. If work dries up with one company it doesn't bother me one bit. Whereas if I was employed and work dried up I'd be on my backside having been given the toe. So I have to pay my own tax and NI, fund my own PPE saws and gear, therefore I can charge more. And from what I've seen with local companies, I can get more done in a day than the average employed climber. (That's not to say there aren amazing employed climbers out there, way better than me!) Sent using my pudgy fingers on my phone.

Pigeons galore! My pigeon shooting permission is huge and has vast fields of rape that are really hard to decoy at this time of year but we've been having a great time roost shooting. Off this evening to stand in the rain. I often find that foul weather makes them come in a bit hastier. Had a great evening earlier in the week when it started chucking down snow a dusk. Sent using my pudgy fingers on my phone.

Yeah all good buddy. Still climbing like a hooligan most days. Best if luck to to matey.

Hello jack! How's business. If I lived nearer then I'd jump at the chance. Hope you are well.

I think you'd be best off starting a new thread on this topic as its probably falling on deaf ears here matey. Your entitled to your opinion but in the same way I don't go in to churches and tell them why I don't believe in god, I think it seems silly to come on this thread and tell people who shoot that they are dumb. "sorry mate my ear defenders were down what was that? Don't shoot things! Ha not in my lifetime!"

Love it. For all the bad that can be said about shooting poor defenceless animals (overpopulated vandalising thieving poor fluffy animals) the very idea that our countryside would be better off without pest control is laughable. I recon that if you gave it 6 months in your dream world their would be public outcry about the lack of quality food on the table. And if you think intensively farmed meet is horrible then support your local shooting fraternity! We can provide you with endless cheap wild food that a lot of people think isn't good enough.

Dark ages of land management eh! Never seen pigeons ignore every deterrent goin in order to get at oil seed rape then have you. Here's a pretty poor bag of 35 on rape the other week. That's my mate Acer looking proud of her work.

Punt gunning! Amazing, how did you get in to that! I loved to read about the old boys on the washes making a living out of punt gunning back in the day, but I have never met anyone who still does it.

Been helping out as under keeper for the first time this year on any spare days off I have. 15 shoot days on that land and 4 on the in-laws farm. The big shoot has shown good number with a peak of 204 birds and a low point of 86 (beaters day was down at 48 birds but I wasn't going to count that one!) our little family shoot has done well on wild birds, we shot 76 mid season and stayed in the 40's for the other days so all good. It has been hard to keep on top of the feed this year as it has been so wet. We lost a good few birds through disease from wet grain etc. but any birds that did make it were good quality. Lookin forward to the end of season now so I can get out and hit the pigeons, causing havoc on the rape. Safe shooting.

I love wistmans wood. It's definitely a favourite dartmoor spot for me. That and cuckoo rock over near Sheeps tor on burrator reservoir. Beautiful!

Dave?

We were rock climbing in Wales the weekend we found out my wife was pregnant. Now we have a 4month old and haven't been climbing since. Won't be long till the wife is back in her rock boots now! I wouldn't risk it with Emma as soon as I knew she was pregnant. It's just not worth it.

Hello Neil. Welcome to the forum. When I first started out in tree work I did my CS30 in hope of getting work, I found that no one wanted to know until I had some experience and that's the chicken and egg scenario we all have to overcome to start out in tree work. I ended up taking two years to do a national diploma in arboriculture at Sparsholt college in Hampshire, I worked for nothing but fuel and lunch money for a while just to get the experience. Slowly I built up more and more contacts. As long as you are prepared to graft ridiculously hard for not a lot of reward, always be ready for a hard day and never grumble at the horrible jobs, you will do well. It's always useful to have big ears and a small mouth when you are starting out. Listen to advice and use it, it's being given to you for free!

Where can I get one of these bumper stickers steve?

welcome to Arbtalk! where in norfolk are you? do you have a vehicle? and how far are you willing to travel for work? I am a freelance climber working for a few companies but its always useful knowing a good reliable groundsman.

i just bought a few odds and ends from jonsie's and they promptly called me saying they didnt have the smaller first aid kit in stock, so they sent me the larger one for no extra cost!!!! and they threw in a freebie as well to say sorry!!! that is amazing service if ever i saw it!!!

im a self employed climber, working for loads of local firms, i dont do much if any of my own work and boy am i glad that i dont have to pay out insurance! my question would be, if something did go wrong on site, and it was my error, and the guys insurance didnt pay out, or perhaps he lied about having the right insurance etc... am i still in the clear, the liablity would be his right? or is it like driving someone elses car having been told you were insured on it, crashing it and then it being my liability?

I'm a self employed climber based near Newmarket. Mobile: 07903832321. If you want any references they are available on request. Cheers.

my wife recently went down with nora virus she caught from a delightful spewy pediatric patient at work.... i was worried about loosing work if i got it, but after a few days of holding her hair back and washing out the sick bowl, i was still fine. i think there must be some truth in the fact that im too busy to get ill. whenever i have time off i seem to get a bit sniffly. work seems to push it all out! but that said if you really are feeling minging it is a terrible idea to go in to work. it is dangerous as we are operating saws etc but more than that we are likely to give it to our colleagues, they'd rather you cancelled a day than put them out of work for a week.

12 but i have never had a cuddle from Steve Bullman awesome test!

My 13 mm splices work fine on the RG but that rope looks horrible to splice the problem here lies with the splice not the Rg. If you are having trouble with 11mm ropes then go for an bit of iMori or poison ivy where you get the best of both worlds, a skinnier rope that feels thick in your hand. I hate super skinny ropes in the winter or when it's wet but get on fine with these slightly thicker ones

sorry Lee it is obvious what your stand point is but... my dog came to work from the first day i had her as a pup, she grew up knowing it as hers and she loves it, never hesitates to jump in and curl up on her seat! i usually give her a run either in the garden i am working or if the customer looks a bit iffy about dogs i take her up the road for a pee and a sniff ... I'll admit that in the early days i worried about her in stuck in there for long periods, but now i crack on with the job and get stuff done. i don't think about her til I'm out of my tree. I've never had a negative comment from a customer or an employer. when she stays at home, she hates it! she thinks i am punishing her and tries to sneak in to the truck when I'm not looking! i can understand your viewpoint but i have to disagree. My brother has an office job and leaves his dog at home all day every day, gets home late and occasionally walks it round the village. whenever the dog does go out he goes mental and has bitten me twice! i'd much rather have her sat in the van than alone at home going mental!