monkeybusiness

I’ve got a few sheep, started off letting a friend graze his sheep on my 4 acres at home, ended up buying 10 ewe lambs, started renting land and grazing bits here and there that customers wanted maintaining, bought another load of ewes with lambs at foot (40 odd extra ‘lives’ in total), sold/ate the male lambs, bred all the ewes and kept all the ewe lambs for breeding, ended up with approx 100 sheep/lambs etc a couple of years ago spread out all over Cheshire (which was a major pain in the arse!). Have wound it back in now to 15 ewes that have all been bred by us along with a ram I bought last year, have just turned 8 of last year’s lambs into approx. 150kg of meat that we will eat and sell (I swap some meat for grazing - FYI 6 butchered lambs just about fit in a chest freezer), have got another 17 lambs to turn into money one way or another before this year’s lambs start appearing in April. It’s good fun but there is definitely no money in it if you place any sort of value on your time. It is really nice to know that the meat in the freezer has never seen chemicals/fertiliser/antibiotics etc and had the best life possible. It’s brilliant for my kids to see/do too - both were shoulder-deep lambing during the first lockdown aged 9 and 11 which isn’t something they’d have learned at school!

Everyone needs yew in their lives!!!

Insurance is a strange world. A close family member crashed whilst drunk and wrote their car off (fortunately nobody else involved). They were arrested by the police and subsequently banned from driving. The insurance company paid out for their car (with full knowledge of all of the circumstances)!

No - just enough to pay for a helicopter or small island, I’m not greedy.

I was only mentioning it as the boss of the company was very confident that there was definitely no body anywhere he searched with his specialist kit (sonar possibly?). I can’t really think of a more horrendous job than trying to locate a body underwater in zero visibility and have nothing but admiration for anybody undertaking such a role. I’m not sure what would possess anybody to take a police diver role to be honest, they are certainly made of stronger stuff than I am.

I know of a company who had a fatality whereby the most senior experienced person on site was struck by a tree knocked over by the tree he was winching over. HSE were all over it and ultimately found nobody other than the deceased at fault as he put himself within 2 tree lengths of the tree being felled. Employers liability insurance didn’t pay anything to the family as the deceased was sadly deemed responsible for his own demise. I’m not sure how life insurance would work in the same circumstances but I am sure that insurance companies are incredibly slippery buggers…… I’d definitely research the point with them (whether 2 ropes etc or any other incident caused by a variation away from best practice).

Very sad story. Did the external experts search the area the body was recovered from I wonder? Won’t do their credibility much good if so…

Not wrong. I have a great oak buyer who has an outlet supplying the Japanese market with a specific product based on extremely wide boards - he pays top money for timber that most consider oversized. There will definitely be a buyer out there for big yew sticks (there aren’t many pieces of timber out there like these) and I’ll research it next week - I thought I’d ask on here on the off-chance someone knows of such a buyer. But I had forgotten about the hobbyists, armchair experts and mongs who frequent the place in fairness!

Nope. Money isn’t an issue here. I’ve been taking trees down for 20 plus years and have never removed yew of this size and quality before. The comical ‘price per tonne’ figures bandied about are irrelevant.

Ideally I’m looking for a cash sale so am going to knock that potential issue Baccat(ch)a….

Clearly am thinking I’d get any pointers towards serious buyers on here 🙄

My Hilux is dreadful - 2022 2.8 auto. It drinks adblue too…

That’s firewood money!

No (but needs to be around the price of a helicopter with leather seats and fold out wheels like Airwolf) and no - I didn’t even take pics today. The owner might keep the timber and use it himself but a decent buyer would probably sway him to sell. 5 decent sized straight single-stemmed ‘maiden’ yews, DBH of the biggest approx 30’’ (possibly a bit more), they are 50-60 feet tall. There is a lot of nice useable timber in them. We will be craning them out so aren’t restricted on size of lumps, and they won’t get beaten up during removal. I’m toying with doing the job for the timber (which would be a first for me, and it’s not because I need the work, I’m just trying to work out if that’s the most profitable route for this job).

I can get them transported anywhere.

Hi Joanne - I have some large yew trees to take down in Cheshire mid-March which would provide the timber you are looking for. Give me a ring on 07970188050 if of interest. All the best, Dan

I wouldn’t read that woke crap either tbh!

Cheshire

We are going to be taking down some big (2-3 feet across) yew trees with good straight stems in the next month or so. Anyone got any suggestions of who might buy the timber, either as sticks or we could mill it to spec? (I’d consider swapping it for a helicopter or small island).

I can’t help but lower my estimations of you as an active Daily Mail consumer - I’d rather be £500 poorer than support that hate-filled rag!

Google Wrexham Radiators - they will see you right (if it can be fixed they will fix it, if it can’t they’ll supply you one at the right money). Wonderful people!

Nissan terrano, don’t think it’s standard though!

Crane a MEWP in over the house, crane the arisings out to deal with roadside as you work. We would probably climb those though based on the pics, but would want to see them ‘first hand’ to be certain.

The stop bar setup is better on the road tow, and it’s much much easier to swap the starter motor. Get one, you’ll love it!!! They must be the most underrated chipper out there (I’ve had 4, two of which are now with the gypos sadly).