Rupe

What your saying is the same as what I was trying to say. You right there is no legal requirement for anyone to have public liability. I wasn't suggesting there is. If the company you are working for doesn't have it then theres no need for you to have it either as you won't be taking responsibility for the contracts as a whole. (by contract I mean the particular job you are on at any given time) The climbing is a minor part of the job, and if something goes wrong then the company carrying out the work is responsible. If they are not insured then that does not mean that the responsiblity then falls back on the climber.

Yep. Your not really a subby but that is the term often used, so you don't need seperate insurance. If for some reason you are not covered by there employers liability then they need to change the policy so that you are covered. There isn't a policy you can take it instead of this other than personal accident cover which woudl be upto you. MOst people fret about Public liabilty cover the most. And again you are covered by the company you are working for. They are doing the job and must have insurance. But if they don't have this insurance (many companies don't) then nothing you can take out will cover their jobs, even if you are the climber. You are not taking on the responsibilty of the contract as a whole, and don't need insurance.

Nothing and nothing. Are you a tree surgery company acting as a bonafide sub contractor to other companies, and therefore carrying out all the management of health and safety on site and providing employees etc?

I'm trying to see what holly you mean? Oh, in the first pic heading for the chipper? Um, we just found that lying on the floor in our lowering area! Thought we would clear it up!!

Its ok to use anything within its own limitations. Karabiners are fine, if they bend the rope too much than that is a limitation, work within that and alls good!

And some other pics. Difficult to get many photos when all hands are busy, so most were taken while chogging down as there was less other work to do. Got some video but not great. Will look at it at the weekend maybe. Not sure I can make it anything very informative.

Here you can see the secondary rigging point we used to keep the loads away from trunk. It worked quite well. All branches could be swung round to that one side and dropped in a little gap between the yews.

Dismantled this today. The corsican is a bit obscured by the Scots pine in the first photo, but you can see it poking out the top and left hand side. It had a big side branch sticking out to the left, easier to see it in the second photo. Underneath there are several nice Yew trees to be retained if possible. We could drop the ends of the side branch off directly onto the drive, then we lifted the larger wood with the grcs and lowered it in a gap behind the larger yew, so as not to damage it. (the yew).

Fair point, well put! I wasn't offended but it was an unecessary comparsison to what was merely a jovial figure of speech, suggesting that I probably can't make this particular event. But I didn't really need to add my thoughts to this thread, so I apologise too.

No need to take me literally, of course there are plenty of worse things in life. No need to try and shock with examples of worse things. You get the point! Seeing as its just up the road from me it is something that I could see/do. Watching unspeakable acts in Afganistan is a less likely scenario don't you think!? I'm sure it will be great fun, I can't wait to be filled in on the details.

Yes and I agree with what your saying too. I guess id the right person comes along you have to pay them enough to keep them. And a 30 year old is likely to want more than a 20 yr old. SO if you want the 30 yr old then you have to pay for it. Of course if the 20yr old is simply a better employee, for whatever reason, then you should pay them more. The younger you are though the more time you have to get experience and therefore extra money, and so a little less pay now and a good job where you cna learn will pay you well in the long term. It was a general comment I made, of course all circumstances are different. Generally older folk seem to be more reliable but of course there are plenty of exceptions form young and old. There is the genuine point though that 30 yr olds are cheaper to insure for driving, and that is a good thing. However I know some 20 yr olds brought up on a farm drivign tractors and trailers who I would much prefer to have driving my vehicles than someone older with no experience.

Marlow Gecko would be good. it comes in 37m lenghts. Cut 12m off and cut 4m off that for a lanyard. Leaves you with 25m rope, 4m lanyard and 6m spare. Sorted.

Not at all!! If I took on a 30 year old newbie I would pay him more than an 18 yr old newbie regardless of experience!! Basic PPE is all thats needed. My first employment I was given a harness, a length of rope and a chainsaw. It was up to us if we wanted karabiners we had to buy them! I'm not saying it should be like that now, but you can't give them everything. And holiday pay does not have to be 24 days on top of normal pay. You spread there normal pay out over 52 weeks so they get a consistent income. i.e. 70 a day worked is paid as 60 a day including holidays! (roughly) Then you only need to pay enough to keep them from going elsewhere! Its an employers market at the moment, its competition just like quoting for work. What can you provide for the money. 60 a day learning new stuff all the time is better than 80 a day in a dead end job learning nothing job! Its nothing to do with good bloke bad bloke, its to do with good employer bad employer! Create a package that is mutually beneficial and go from there.

If its only 25m then your not going to be throwing it very far! The yale will fit in a tiny bag for a spare rope, but if its for your main climbing line then, at that length, any old rubbish will do. Maybe wait till you nick a decent length rope and end up with only 20 odd meters of useable rope and use that?? Is it for conifers or what?

I can't think of anything worse than standing round watching someone else do tree work and then talking about it for hours!!

I think this idea is not so good. The groundie has to let the rope out AND keep it taught to make it work. Thats not easy! I know we are only talking small loads, small enough that you could actually just chuck them, so lowering isn't that necessary. Wouldn't it be easier to tie the lowerign rope off instead of installing a lowering pulley, and then clip the load directly onto the line (with a pulley if you want) groundie then only has to keep the line tight enough and it will come his way, slacken it at the right time and its hits the ground. So, basically it is then a simple speedline. The forces involved are no different to stevies idea and so we are still talking micro loads that can be manged without any friction tensioning device.

But by guessing, not asking what the other quotes were!!!

10 less than any other quote she gets!

Morning!!!

Diplodocus?

You could clip the splice directly to the hitch climber, and then the load clips onto one of the other holes on the HC. Beware of the additional side loading on you rigging point, trees aren't strong that way! But small loads it look ok.

Wow Dave, thats an exciting night in you've got yourself there!!

I could have a rant but thats not like me.....

£60 a day!! Full time? No way. Does he live at home and need picking up every day or is he a bit more advanced than that? I would pay more for someone whos moved out of home cos they have greater commitments to meet and it suggests greater responsibility. As an employer you don't need to provide PPE, BUT you have to ensure he has it and uses it!!! Now if that means you buy it or he does, thats up to you. Its proabably best you buy it if he's on minimum wage. And throw is mobile phone in the chipper if he makes/recieves a single text message except for at break times. Get it over with, he won't do it again!

13k at Full retail price, maybe, but none of us need to pay full retail if we shop around. Startign at 9K does not leave much room for profit margin etc. Something fishy!! What tree business holds stocks of spares like that. Fountains maybe??