Rupe

He really is not a subby then, and you should be paying his tax. Imagine if you had just given him less each week and paid the difference to the HMRC, then he would not be having to do a tax return that he isnt capable of doing and you would keep your worker and the tax would not be dodged.

Agreed, if you have someone working for you 3-4 days a week regularly then they are effectivley employed by you. Self employment mean you have the freedom to work wherever you want and not be tied to any one business for set amounts of days per week. One way of proving that "could" be that they only earn a certain percentage with one company, I think 80% has been mentioned somewhere. So question to rosyweb, does your "subby" earn another 20% of his total income from other places? (ideally not one other place). If all the money he earns is from you then even if that is only earned over 3-4 days a week then he is employed by you. He is not truely self employed. Providing saws and PPE does not make someone self employed either. In fact some companies make employees buy there own saws/ppe. It come out of an allowance which is paid on top of the wages but forms part of the employment contract. ( I believe they get taxed less or zero on that allowance) There seems to be big confusion over holiday pay here. Holiday pay is not paid on top of wages. You dont GIVE anybody holiday pay and you are not paying them for doing nothing. If you have someone working for you full (or part) time as an employee then they are entitled to days off. You then spread their pay over the entire year so they get a bit less each week but they still get it when on holiday. Its the fair way of doing it. Same as PAYE tax is paid from week 1 even though you dont really owe any until you have reached the tax threshold each year. After the first week of work the tax is worked out on the assumption that the person works at that rate all year, otherwise they would pay nothing for the first few months and then pay a lot for the rest. SO the HP is similar, you get paid a little less each week so that you still get some when off work. So, the business owners out there who think they dont get holiday pay so why should the workers, then you are being a bit naive...... you do get holiday pay, its in every job that you do. If you go on holiday of have time off then that must be being paid for out of every job you do each throughout the year, so there is no reason why the people who work for you cant have holiday pay either all your doing is paying them for 45 weeks of the year but spreading the payment over 52, its not rocket science. Of course the scary thing is keeping them in work, and I understand why so many (me inlcuded) dont employe poeple, but if knew I had the work I would employ two people straight away and leave them to it. Of course in return for that they lose the freedom to work for other poeple or do their own jobs.

You need a loler inpspector specific to the equipment being tested, arb loler inpspectors cant do machinery cranes etc. If its Ag machinery then an AG tester is required and chance are they all charge 3 hr minimum.

Prob best that I don't even think about it,. Got quite a lot I should be getting on with here.

I like the idea of it, not sure I could actually afford to be away from my own work for too long though.

Swimming is really really good as well!

I feel your pain! What painkillers are you using (if any). It took me about 5months for it to get better, it will happen if you can get by in the meantime then you will be fine eventually.

Just to clear up any confusion, sciatica is not the same as a prolapsed disc causing pain in the sciatic nerve. The latter is much worse. Sciatica is simply swelling of the sciatic nerve, somewhere along its length but usually in the lower back (not necessarily near the spine) it is very painfull but it will come and go and can be eased with anti inflammatories such is ibuprofen. The pain usually goes into the buttocks and upper leg but not much more than that. I slipped or prolapsed disc is different, if you slip the L3'L4 disc then it will impinge on the sciatic nerve causing very similar pain to sciatica but its not the same reason for the pain. Depending on the amount of prolapsed disc it wont go away as easily and so the pain is much worse and longer lasting and ibuprofen will not be much use at all. The pain can extend all the way into the foot and toes. Other discs will impinge on other nerves causing different pains and symptons. You should consider a slipped disc to be like a hammer blow to the thumb causing a black finger nail. Once the hammer has landed on the thumb there is no reversing that event. But the black nail will grow out in time. Same with a slipped disc, there is no going back but the body will recover and the prolapsed section will die off and be discarded but this can take months so in the meantime you have to manage the pain and keep moving as much as possible, rest is not necessarily a good thing but of course if the pain is severe then it migh be the only option. In my experience climbing is good for a slipped disc so keep at at, lifting and poor posture is the worse and so using a large saw on the ground is probably the worst thing to do. So anyone with a slipped disc you would wish you had sciatica instead, and anyone with sciatica is lucky, ibuprofen and paracetemaol and maybe hot/cold treatments should ease it.

As long as you get rid of the junk Andy!

accumulative familiarisation Yes, we all know about that, but its called Boiled frog!

I only just read all this. WTF!! If you dont truct yourself checking your own kit then you should be climbing, or rigging, and with that much kit you probably shouldnt be doing either anyway. "You cannot Examine your own equipment" Yes you can, or course you can. As long as it genuinly passes.

Sure, but influencing to a point of using dangerous kit is a whole different thing, the fact that any company is doing a loler check (or any check) kind of suggests they want to run a proper company. So I do think that outside inpsections are going to be more harsh, and if these inspectors sell kit then thats financial gain influencing it, but in the other direction.

Oh ok, so not a realistic question for me to ask then, but even more well done to you in that you have changed a lifetimes worth of habit/behaviour.

I was once told that the HSE would rather see in house loler inspection than no loler inspection, but treequip is right it still has to be a proper inspection. I personally feel in house is better than getting someone in who fails more kit than necessary just to justify his existance.

A tree motion harness without the floating bridge is as much use as a ferrari without wheels, or any car for that matter! Just go back to a T22, it will last longer anyway.

What I meant to add is that metabolism increases as you are light and fitter so you can then eat more. Being overweight slows you down so the food you eat is used less and its a vicous cycle that you have so far overcome and no reason for you not to continue with it forever. Also you should have developed some muscle while hauling your heavier self around for however long it was that you were overweight, so now you have the muscles that lighter people spend ages in the gym trying to achieve, result all round! Out of interest, how long ago do you think it was when you were last the weight that you are now? I'm 6 months into a similar experiment (thats how I'm approaching it, its an experiment) and I'm not ready to publish any results just yet as the next few weeks could go all wrong!! but so far so good.

Andy. Loler wasnt brought in for tree work, it wasnt brought in because tree workers needed it or because they wernt checking kit, it was brought in for all work at height and tree work is included in that. So we are complying with a policy for all work at height, not specifically for tree work and not because we particularly need it. If you can check you own gear and never have an accident then you must be doing ok, but HSE wants to see records of those inspection and so getting a loler inspector in a ONE way of doing it, but most inspectors seem to think they are some kind of authority and end up confiscating kit or destroying it needlessly.

Thats really impressive well done. You'll probably find that as you are now lighter you can move faster and do more and therefore eat more calories without putting on weight. Its a very simple balance of calories in and calories burnt (over a long timescale) that makes you either put on weight or lose it, And as you have shown its a long term effort that gets results, quick fix diets dont work. Keep to your new diet but eat a bit more and you should lose abit more or maintain your weight quite easily.

I dont usually expect a VT to self tend unless there is ignificant amount of rope weight below, like 20 feet at least, so if the zig zag only self tends with lots of rope under then thats ok with me.

If it doesnt self tend then they wont sell any, why would anyone pay for it instead of a lock jack or spiderjack which both self tend. It would be a pointless device if it didnt self tend but I would imagine that the type of rope used is critical. Once we have all figured out which rope(s) work well with it then I'm sure it will be fine.

Bloke planted it, another one drove the digger thing.

Building regs are for new builds and extensions, like you say later on its not illegal to fit your own stove. My flue came from the same place that quoted me £1100 for fitting so it's the exact same stuff that they would use plus it was them who told me (and encouraged me) how to fit it, and they said its so easy that I don't need them to do it. It's size is exactly right to give the right amount of clearance at the rear and both sides. I would have loved a bigger one for more heat and bigger logs to go on it, but that would have contravened the regs. Also the hearth protrudes well over the required distance. Making sure things are done right is as important, if not morso (do you see what I did there?), than the paperwork to prove it. I re wired my house and have done quite a bit of plumbing, moving radiators etc. I wouldn't do gas fitting as that's illegal! I have no problem with people doing tree work, good on them for having a go, its only tree cutting after all!

I had nothing to do with the sourcing/planting of this hedge, I just trimmed a hedge that cost £30K to install. I knew it was being bought from abroad but its not for me to try and tell this particular client (or any others) how to go about their projects. And as it was done well before the chalara issues were brought to light no one has any reason to feel bad about it, its just a hedge. its done now and I'll continue to trim it.

I've had my TW for 3.5 years now, its the second one I've owned. I have not yet used the two spare pairs of blades that came with it as I have three sets that I bought for the previous machine about 6months before I traded it in. So I'm using the same three sets of blades for 4 years now. My mahcine is fairly low use, we only turn it on to chip so its done 500 and something hours in 3.5years but those hours will be chipping not just running. Change the blades at about 20hrs a time and get them sharpened, so if someone could do the maths, thats a lot of sharpens per set. Call it 600hrs (including some from the previous machine) thats 200hrs per set, changed every 20 hrs thats 10 sharpens per blade and they are not at the minimum line yet. close but not quite.

It is a good example of what can be done. With Yew you either need patience or money. This client has lots of one and little (if any) of the other.