Stephen Blair

I dropped these trees about 5 years ago so hoped they would of been pretty rotten. So I tried with peeler first as the tip on the corkscrew is £300 and the ground is stoney. After a couple of hours of bucking bronco I decided, screw the £300 let’s use the cone. Single pass busting up all the stumps with cone. Then start with tooth bucket digging out what I can and passing back making fresh pile for lad in Avant. When I need the stump peeler to either cut or mattock I swap between and work my way up and turf patch fill and pad down as I go. The customer is aware it needs soil and seed in spring if he wishes it to blend in with the rest of the lawn.

Managed to get back to the stumps yesterday afternoon and this morning for a couple of hours between climbing job, customers happy. Job list is getting shorter for Christmas so happy days.

Grew up helping my dad do firewood and getting sent up trees to tie a big rope on for the tractor. Made my first coin at 14 pruning a big cherry tree for an old guy called Mr Grant, he just pointed and that’s where I cut. Did my felling ticket at 19, mucked about on garden small trees until I was 22 then bought my first harness and spikes and went from there teaching myself in the woods around my shack. Word got about I was the lad who cut trees, got my first job that year for a tree surgeon, lasted 5 weeks as he was an idiot, then got a start as a climber for a better company and that was it, 6 months there on the dead elms then started myself in 1999. Finally did my climbing tickets in 2008. Still on the saw and climbing when I can’t get the young ninja subby out. But prefer sitting in a machine now.47 now.

Special root stump murdering kind!

Volume of material always stays the same, a chipper allows the material to compact easier. Before I owned a chipper I’d mash it down with the saw in trailers, then tippers and you could really cram it in. Especially with a high back door. 90% I was told with a chipper. bonfire 99%

I discovered I was a dick in under a week and once I’d got all the Ego out in black and white on a screen, threw a tantrum and got humbled by the good nature of the veteran member I’d insulted and the patience of Steve Bullman giving me a 2nd chance I discovered I could make myself a better person by listening to others.

When you hear it squeaking!

This raises a point that I overlooked in my previous posts and what I didn’t consider before! TRUST! It is hard earned and easily lost. Your family farm will of worked with their neighbours in the past and will know the boundaries. When working for a new customer no matter the reward, monitory or timber or use of a machines, it’s important to keep the scales evenly balanced, not every day it will be a 50/50 deal but always remember to balance things up when pay day comes is what I say.

That was my mates Hilux, we called it the Pig. He bought it new and added all the bits over the years. I go between Fb market place for local sales, Gumtree for local and a bit further afield, EBay to cover the country and Arbtrader for bespoke tree trucks.

Able

Spud use your positive attitude to encourage others, not to explain yourself. The good ones are watching and appreciating you.

This site is about all things related to Arb, if the site was mostly about bills to pay, there would be a dedicated forum for that. I got into tree cutting because my dad did firewood to heat our house. The deal was, the farmer gave him the tractor and trailer and he got the blown down trees. He did this with every farmer in our area, he also shot their foxes, they gave him bullets and a lamb for the freezer and bags of potatoes and anything else he needed. We got the pigeon shooting and I was allowed to play on my motorbike in their fields but I also had to help round up the sheep when asked. We helped with the hay and silage , money was never exchanged, but labour and gratitude and the feeling of community was always there. When I wanted to get into Arb, the same farmers I helped as a kid helped me, a place to have a bonfire, a loan of a tractor and I always repaid them with tree cutting and anything else I could as they got older. I learned how to climb and fell by asking a farmer if I could fell the dead elms on his land for practice and he offered me his tractor and trailer to lift the firewood. I limbed up all round the fields to practice climbing, the guys I gave the firewood to for free helped Chuck the branches back into the woods. The same farmer gave me an old prefab to rent for peanuts, I helped him with the sheep and helped out where I could. Rarely a good gesture doesn’t get repaid along the way. Some will take advantage but that’s the minority.

Great idea Tom, I’ve had these types of deals with guys over the years and still do. Yesterday my friend was out with his winch and he passed me up a big chain, it was his cousins that he lost over 20 years ago! It’s a part of him that keeps his memory going! I hope you manage to find some peace in using your brothers tools doing something he must of loved and involving your son in the process. There’s so much more to log processing with your family than saving money.

Today

I have the beak on the forks for the Avant, it’s excellent for lifting multiple irregular lengths and if you can only get in to lift 1 side due to ltd access. When it comes to brash it’s as good as you can imagine. 1 bolt and it lifts off.

Nice 1 Mick! I put mine in today for additional Aux and auto hitch! I bought mine a wee friend last week! This is my village Big Rig 😂

Middle bits not that important mate! Good job Climber chimp!😂😎

The 250 was twice the machine of the 200, the 280 should be an animal. It was mostly conifer I did when I had them.

Ran TP's for years, simple, well built and reliable!

When it comes right down to it and you are ever sitting across from a Tax investigator, that’s who you have to convince. If they say no, you will have to pay back the tax that that offset saved you plus the interest .

Proper job!

Good news!