Stephen Blair

Have you got the digger? if not then they may not take the money until then.

Morning! Dry and cloudy here! I’m just going to put the waterproofs and wellies on before leaving house just to be realistic!😂

Morning! Wild night here! Up and away early down to Fife and Perthshire to look at jobs!

Just 30 plus years of graft and stress! I’m pretty high strung and don’t deal with stress well. So I’ve implemented changes that should help my future health.

Late here too, up and out for physio then some breakfast and then looking at a rather tricky site! It’s actually not that soft he said 😒

10 years on from me starting this thread and my Arbdigger life has come to an end. Had to face facts that my back can’t take the bouncing about and sitting for hours. Luckily I’ve a good friend who has 1 with lots of attachments who loves sitting on his.

Just hearing me on the phone is too big a risk Mick, those on the forum who have will vouch for that! 🤔

My best repeat customers I have never met, I get a WhatsApp, I go and look, take a few pictures, mark up a line of where it’s getting cut back to or mark the removals, show them on a pic where chip and logs will go, send the price, they give a time frame it suits because it’s usually an Air BNB , I do the job, send finished pics with an invoice, money gets sent straight away! Proper job done!

I stopped answering my phone about 17 years ago so I could remove that type of customer, the bolshy arrogant type. Leave a long informative answer machine message stating how is the best way to get me to get in contact with them promptly. The good people follow the instructions and send me a text or email and the more information they put on that text then that allows me to go on my phone and vet them and their location, so when I do get back to them I’m in a more knowledgeable position to give them answers. If I see any red flags I’ll put more filters in place to see if I can draw out their true colours and the best way to do that is talk money straight off the bat, minimum price job, money up front and get them to send lots of pictures of the job, I usually never hear back from them and hopefully they go and annoy the opposition😂, but tbh I’d rather give a fellow tree guy a heads up of a bad customer and vice versa I’ll call them up asking about past experiences if I get told any tales of the other guy this or that.

Old canker?

Does this mean the end of the Stunt Fell leave the rigging kit in the van and just fetch me the 500i!!!! surely not!!!🤔😂

Morning Excels1or, thank you for changing the thread title! I’m now starting to think it was your bad customers that were in the wrong! Sometimes a few bad ones slip through your defences, learn and tighten up the gaps! Have a good day! 👍

Morning, cold and dry here!

You’ve annoyed me with your thread title, right now I can only think of 1! Be a good chap and change it!

Morning, up and out early. Sat in the jeep with heaters on after 2 hours in the rain with the flail! The rain still managed to run down my neck! I thought it was lifting but still steady! Beats climbing through a Connie hedge and dragging brash though! 😂

Oakley doing his Uppies !

Started a new project creating shelter and dry habitat areas for young Cappercaillies. On the end of the first day heading back to the jeep there were 2 scratching around on the first patch I did that morning. They took off just as I got to them but I managed to get a picture of 1 in the tree.

Here! Enforced day off for me today, nice frosty morning here!

Late again sorry! out early for work

Afternoon, forgot to sign in earlier! Started a flailing job to create better habitat for Cappercaillie

Sell your kit, bank the money and tread water for now. The security of money in your bank will help your healing process. If you need kit for future jobs, hire it in or sub in a squad.

A few days working around Loch Tay with the Flailbot.

Morning!

Morning! another 200 mile round trip flailing! She’s currently parked up in a Bracken patch with 2 missing front teeth! Stones🤔