Rupe

My old boss bought some land with agricultural tie and he did arb work not forestry. He had soem problems but found a case where it had been allowed in the past and he got a laywer on to it and all was ok. So it can be done. I can't help you with any facts though and I hope I never speak to the bloke ever again so I can't ask, sorry, but I remember it well at the time. So you don't need to prove the definition of forestry but you need to find cases where this has occurred before and use that as a precident (sp?).

Employees should be on less than freelancers/self employed because they have the benefit of job security. If you have enough work they should work out cheaper. Its only when you are low on work or have breakdowns or bad weather that they cost more. The sad fact seems to be that if you have employees you have ot ruthlessly make them work in all weathers to keep the money flowing. That is the one part that I don't agree with. Risk assessing a job means takign in to account the weather and saying no if its too wet/windy. If you can swithc jobs then thats fine but many compaies with employees have work booked out and dates written in stone that they won't change whatever the weather. This contradicts so many safety guidlines that I feel I would prefer not to employ, but if I could and make a go of it I would. I would like the security of knowing someones turning up everyday rather than always phonign round to book the staff in at often short notice and tryhing to fit in with the weather etc. its a pain.

All of the above Stevie. The last beech we did only I only took one load of wood and didn't even touch any of the rest, which suited that job just fine. This one is closer to my yard so its more convenient for me to take some, but some will go un seasoned and some will hire my splitter too. And some will be collected by other, my two groundies are fillign there pick ups every day and another guy will take soem and he sharpens my grinder teeth in return. I definatly am not lookign at going into firewood as a business as such, but since I stopped work before christmas its been firewood money that has kept me going through the snow etc. and I'm very grateful for it and don't want to run out next year. I won't be going out of my way to get firewood in though. Anyway we got nothing doen today except shiftign wood, it chucked it down all day! But the client gave a cheque for part payment so money in the bank at last!!

Yes, many should be employed. The HMRC see it as exploitation if you don't employ them. I'm not suggesting you are exploiting him but many are being exploited. There was the lad on here who was getting paid nothing or one day a week at best but had to be available everyday just in case his "boss" felt like working. Thats exploitation. Paye is not that bad. If you have guaranteed work for the guy then it could be ok. Everyone bemoans paying holidays etc but you calculate that into the day rate anyway. So for example if you pay him 70 a day now self employed and he pays his own tax and gets nothing for holidays and he does 47 weeks for you thats £16450 that your are forking out. You PAYE him a salary of £16450 paid over 52 weeks of the year thats £316 a week gross. you then give him 270 ish of that and the balance piad in tax. You are, in theory, no worse off and he is less exploited! Only cost to you is hassle, a little bit of employer contribution to NI, but the killer is keeping him busy on wet days or shortage of work etc.

Lets say you quoted for a job, and you get it and you are insured to do it. Then you get your guy in to help you and he screws up and damages something. YOU have screwed up and damaged something. You can't say, your mate did it. You are doign the job if your name is on the quote then its your insurance. You can be sat in the office if you want but you still screwed up on that job, and you take responsibilty for whatever happens and whoever does what. You can't then claim on there insurance. If your insurance literally does only cover you plus one named employee then I would be wary of getting someone else in, but them having thier own insurance won't help, they can walk away. Its you thats doing the job for the client. Now if you genuinly are usign this guy as a subcontractor then thats is where the insurance company is saying that he must be insured, but in the example you give he's working for you. Own tools means nothing, fixed price for job doesn't mean alot either. If you (or your one employee) are grounding for this guy then you can't balme him when he drop a limb on the house. You are still in charge. And, if he drops a limb on the house after you repeatedly told him to do it a different way then it is still your fault for getting him in in the first place.

Sure, but that is then a genuine sub contractor, i.e. another company/person like yourself doign tree work. What you have is a labourer workign for you. My groundie is self employed, and he works for others firms and he tells me whne he's available and how much he wants for each job (or thats what it says on his invoices) so I use him per job not per hour. He's not insured, you all know waht I think of that, insuranc eto keep the HMRC happy is not right IMO, and as he's not employing anyone he doesn't legally need any insurance. Its a grey area, but its one that has been exploited in our trade for many years. If you require him to come in X amount of days each week then that is employment so unless you can find a way to exploit the regs then you should employ him. It is a hassle for one bloke though, I did it once and it wasn't worth it. Scaffolfders are possibly working under the CIS scheme. I don't know for sure though. And mechanics is a whole other situatiuon. Even employed ones have to provide their own tools so that on its own doesn't make some one self employed. Even some full time tree surgeons provide there own tools.

I've sold more firewood this year than ever, without advertising it, so I'm gonna make more effort next year. I often get people to come to jobs and help themselves cos it saves me movign it, in this case I'll do a bit of both, plus I've got same people buyign it unseasoned for next year so I can deliver that directly from this job. Better get back to it now!

Probably have to dice it down, it gets fat at the bottom.

Oh thats just an old ring off a cambium saver. Its not specifically for rigging, what you need is a hub!

Yeah I know what you mean. POV is the name of reg's cam but mine is still filming POV style. I'm quite impresses with it now, and with the right batteries its lasting two day of work easily! Thats energiser lithiums btw, as advertised on tv for digi cameras etc.

I'll do my best. I think the helmet cam is proving fairly good so far though.

Having said that, we are still within our target financially.

Three all together, but only two of us on tuesday when I made the last video clip thingy. Its going a bit slow tbh, but we can only take a small amount away each day due to time to unload etc. so once the truck is full of chips, thats us done. I can't empty and get back in time to do anymore, and if my main groundy goes to empty then I can't do any more rigging, and the third person is just an extra pair of hands on deck really.

There may not be much in the way of pics, no one spare to take any! The will be more vids, but nothign is gettign rigged particularly big. It all so criss crossed that I'm havign to disect it as I go along, but smooth flowing small stuff is better than big hung up messes.

Freelancers don't need insurance, they are covered by the company/person they are workign for. Only Bona fide subcontractors require insurance but that is a whole different ballgame, as they would also be supplying further employees etc.

Plenty more video but won't be able to edit it for a few days yet.

The rigging set up is still working well but then I needed to move the pulleys round a bit to finish the back section over the road.

And then tea break this morning.

So this was how we left it the other day.

Not fully sure why its coming down, it was surveyed and permision given for removal on the results of the survey. Some root decay etc. We'll see! I don't tend to get involved in that sort of thing, I prefer a third party decision and then I just tender for the work as requested. Yes, the sound on the camera is not great but it pics up higher frequnecy noises ok, and not my voice which is a good thing!

Its really not necessary with the hitchclimber cos the tail of you rrope attaches directly to the hitch climber, thats the whole point of it.

14, 13? same same but different!

You need to tidy that workshop mate! Jees what a mess!

13 is great! I had 16's only for years and managed fine but that is what got me into using slings so much as its easier to than tieing the 16. 13 is great though, easy to tie. And I'm gettign more into just tieing, it has a more natural feel to it than slings, more minimalist!!

What size are you going for? 13mm is really nice. 16 will do everything and 19 is ok, but I hardly ever use it.