Stephen Blair

i am getting to the stage in my business that i can pick and choose my jobs, i very rarely get the bigger trees to do in my area because thats the ones that folk get lots of quotes for and all the newbies love the big wood, hell i did when i was younger. I suppose i have a very one sided view becaus ethats the only side i have seen, and i can only compare jobs to the ones that i have been involved in. I have been involved in planning applications to remove 20 year old topped sitka for over a year that has taken a lot of time and effort, then the day i turn up a builder next door bulldozed over 60 trees for houses, But that was a different department, and guess what, the site is lying empty and has been for nearly 2 years as the housing market has went belly up. But i know the guys in the council have to earn their money too, council tax and planning makes money i suppose. and i know the tree officer must have a hell of a time explaining that in the middle of a conservation area.

we live in a selfish world john, i only know how the world works, all my above posts have been describing what i reckon happened, some in jest but i know why people cut down trees. Only the reason for cutting down a tree can make it ok or not in some folks eyes. I work for the customer, pure and simple thats my job. Thats how i make my money which pay my bills and keep a roof over my kids heads. I very rarely do work on big trees anymore, i tidy folks gardens to be honest, but i have taken a lot of trees down in the past, in early hours, on sunday mornings, bank holidays times where you know there will be less grief. All with permission but it is less hassle with fewer people about because time is money. It must be hard for you guys who's job it is to save and look after the publics trees to see them being felled, last night was mostly banter between dean and i for a bit of a laugh but i definately agree with a lot of you guys believes and knowledge on the matter, i just know the realities better.

maybe dave but he is off mine, lol. i have been mis informed or big bro is talking porkies. but at least we are still twice the southern amount. but i will investigate further when i can be bothered.

loose is definately the key delivered in spring time for the customer to dry. but what are the chances of that?

i am not saying what i earn as i dont know, well i do know what i earn i just never know what i am going to have to spend. i always change things about and try different stuff to keep it interesting. just now with my set up, gloria and a van, i am doing great. cash flow is good and work is plentyfull. even if the wee chipper blows up it is still cheaper than my old mog tyres to replace and same with my van. but no where near as much fun

we can charge what the market allows tom, just now a lot of guys are struggling with have a go type guys in their area, and most folk need to be burned by a cowboy or amateur before they learn. And if you have kids and a mortgage you cant just stop working.

it depends how good you are tom, and how hard you want to work. i think 30k would be the expected wage of the guy you are talking about

just get a little trailer then joe.

i do believe it was a tyre burning pyromaniac that offered me the solution to my damp trousers.:sneaky2:do you still carry your range of diseased slices of wood to make into stumps for the tree officer deano. i remember finding that in the back of the land cruiser, i thought it was a flooring catalogue from b+q:lol:

watch the barbed wire doesnt catch your trousers on the fence there parker

they make their own josh, a big stencil rolf harris pen and the back of a wetabix tin:001_tt2:

slings

Nice avatar there dean, i love how you captured the death of the tree yet ironically have the 5million volt power lines in the back ground. nicely done

unless you are doing it by hand in your local stream then a lot of time, money, concrete, fuel goes into dams, reservoirs and getting that pipe into your home to supply that cold water

get some slings lol

mine is made of locally sourced wood, dean and dave imported theirs from africa made from ivory and then had it decorated with snow leopard fir:sneaky2:

van v pick up is a tuff one. pick up is great for carrying stuff but poor for tool storage and vice versa. so if you are mainly cutting and leaving then get a van, if you want to remove and deliver get a pick up

yes we do, and for good reason, the modern disposable may get thrown away and go for landfill, we use 'nature' which do rot quicker, and it has been proven to make less of an imprint compared to the older method of washing and re using linen nappies.

you would be the one laughing joe with that great little pick up.

i can understand why you guys have this view, because you only see so much from your armchairs. be a real conservationist and tie yourself to a gate at your local powerstation:sneaky2:

where did your lamp come from dean, was it hand crafted in your local town and delivered by pony?

i have sold 2 machines both which had 240hp 6 cylinder diesel engines, and i covered approx 200miles a week in them and added up thousans of pto hrs, tranporting green waste all over my area. now i run one van, remove NOTHING from site, i create log piles, habitat and compost heaps in customers gardens. I very rarely work further than half a mile from home. 1 tank od diesel lasts me a month. my wife uses 10 pounds petrol a week now aswell. We are installing a log burner and i am seriously thinking on starting working with pigs/goats/chickens and worms for land clearing, fertilising and composting. While we are cleaning out our marmite pots with hot water made from gas to save the planet the alaskans are mopping up oil with seal pups. I am not condoning any behaviour, i am just saying it the way it is, the world will always be just fine, mother nature has plenty of time, we as humans dont, so maybe we dont belong here. unfortunately we are down rd that we probably cant turn around on, maybe slow the journey but not stop it. if we wanted to save the planet the folk in charge would just pull the plug on the power stations and oil refineries. job done, that isnt going to happen, making flush cuts and dead wooding an old lime in a field wont help either, it may make us feel better but thats about it.

its hard for me to take conservation seriously when there is a wooden clad house in the back ground, a bt pole to the right and a fence n stabs around the field. that tree will coppice away and do just fine, in the grand scale of things maybe the tree could of had its life extended, but what would that involve. a future of site meetings, 5 guys quoting every time, the cheapest guy from 100miles away getting the job and all this time thousands of miles of vehicles burning fuel to extend the life of an oak tree to help the environment. and guess what, in 50years time it would be felled, why not fell it now, replant and forget about it, in another 50 years hey presto some more fuel.

well up here in north ayrshire we have 27% tree cover, you guys down south must of been crap at knitting in the old days, we would just stick on a jumper and not cut down all the trees.

it was at least 2000 years old, the guys were all blitzed on cider and whisky, it was summer salstice and about 4 am, they came out the pub trying to dodge their 4 week bar tab bender, they agreed to fell the old oak so the pub could get sky sports, it was easier than erecting a scaffy pole in the beer garden to fit the dish, so grandpappy and his mates dropped the oak and logged it to save the embarrassment of being barred from the only pub that has a car park big enough for log lorry,county skidder ans 4 landys.