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alistairmagee

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Everything posted by alistairmagee

  1. Im interested to hear what other people think about the yellow pages! I spend approx 3-4k for adverts, ad words and yell.com with yellow pages, every year, I dont particularly think that the service is very good or ever has been, but do and have made more money than I spend with them. Is a bigger advert better? would you increase your coverage to other areas/ Books? what do people think about using local numbers to hide your actual location, or would you just stick with your own Contact numbers, evan though potential customers seem to want local tradesmen? how do you advertise? My renewal date is soon for the Yellow pages, trying to decide is often too much of a head ache. Would appreciate to hear what others think and do!
  2. I lived in and worked in sweden for 4 years, we used Aspen fuel for a short time and found the same problems, so we stopped using it! I carnt remember now what the problem was, but it was the fuel type, not the saws! Jon Hartill will know if you ring him!
  3. I got my first stump grinder 5 year ago, Id highly recommend the Bandit Side winder, for narrow access and power to size ratio,I think it would be hard to beat. Its still going strong, it can handle stumps up to 3ft across easily. I bought a larger rayco 2 years later and then sold it again, but kept the Bandit, its a very good machine
  4. sky hook, I suppose that it may be too early to know, im my experiences like yours too perhaps, life is shaped by good and bad experiences and its those experiences that determine wether or not sisters and brothers are close when they are older, but if by the sounds of things you are the loving and devoted farther, I think the fact that you children have that solid backing behind them, they should do.
  5. Fair enough and fair point Taupotreeman, should nt of bit back at you like that, didnt get round to apologising, but will do know: sorry for getting the wrong end of the stick! And with reference to Mr vine, dont see why some one who doesnt know anything about some one has to be so rude!
  6. Having another one of me is a bit weird, especially when people you know see him walking around and he looks at them like "who the f*** are you looking at". He was the more dominant up to the age of 8, as I remember, But i would nt of said he was now. I think other peoples reactions to us being a twins can and did effect our relationship. But after we were split up, we have both lived very different lives, why the interest in peoples siblings? Alistair
  7. Hi shy hook (dave), im the youngest of 2 brothers and 2 sisters, My identical twin brother is 4 mins older than me....
  8. Jonnyvine, I dont beven know you and your so quick to judge a book my its cover, one accident in 14 years of tree work and you think it ok to pull holes out of someone! The only person who isn't acting like a pro, is you! Is your life so crap that you have to be so negative? if you feel like you have some thing to prove, then pop along to the next Uk tree climbing comps and enter..... we would all love to get some new faces this year, you would be very welcome and we can chat a bit then. In the mean time, I wish you the best. Alistair.
  9. With respect Taupotreeman, I though new zealand was a great place when I visited, I loved sky diving in lake Taupo. that said: You sound like you have a bee in your bonnet, ill agree to dis agree with your self, but by the sounds of things you give the impression that you have never been under the control as a subby for another company. I do like the raw honesty of my tree surgeon fellows, but i am as experienced as the next man, and have proven this many times in my working career and at comps, but sadly this does not matter to you, one wrong of circumstance is clearly enough in your eyes to judge accordingly, I can be as judgemental as the next man, how ever i often choose not to be as its easy to criticise. i do take your points and have read them now 3 times, but like I have said, it was not my decision nor me felling the tree over a highway. A risk assessment can also be one that evolves as the job develops and as some one else has said, fore sight is all very well. and i do not agree that felling a tree across a road is the way forward. I posted this thread not to receive sympathy but to discuss my experiences, despite what you think, as I have not mentioned the details of who the other contractor was, he also was not a cow boy, but despite his actions this may appear so. he is a 3rd generation forester with over 30 years in the business, with 6-10 people working for him, with a turn over of nearly a million. your question: was this an accident that could of been avoided, well if i could of looked into the future then yes of course, but at the time in my opinion it was not foreseeable, do you really think id want to get injured? come on lets be realistic in all of this..... looking at the threads on chainsaw accidents, many experienced peoples of arbtalk have also had chainsaw and near miss accidents, im sure if we all think on, accidents can be avoided, but during the heat of the moment while doing a job its not always for seeable. like I said, i have learnt a big lesson in all of this, and id hope that my experience can be a lesson to others....
  10. from my experience with having items of kit on HP, id just say, that you should defiantly read the terms and conditions of payment. I have alway tried to buy all my plant from my own funds, however, i did have an instance once where, when I bought a new chipper, I paid the vat and half the value of the machine and took the rest over two years only to find out that the company who supplied the finance on behalf of Orange plant took yearly sums from my account, the company apparently claimed that it was some kind of perk, taken from the customer for how ever many years I had the machine after the sum was settled, for setting up the deal, the only way I got out of it was once I sold the machine 5 years later, this seemed really unfair and a crappy way to sting the client for extra funds.
  11. I appreciate the different views and thoughts gone into your replies, ultimately in one way or another, I have paid a heavy price and have excepted my role in the chain of events which lead to my injury. Another different way of looking at claiming for losses, is that evan if I had had my own injury cover then I definitely think that my insure would have sort to recover their losses with the other companies insure, as all insurance companies will do. So ultimately I don't see any difference in me doing so myself, however an accident is simply that! "an accident", there is no way that i could be expected to have foreseen a tree top landing on my head despite the way in which the guy decided to go about it. The tree was already on the ground and my situation would have been some what different if he as the chainsaw Op had called out a warning or some words of intentions which led to him dislodging the tree while snedding it. neither myself nor my groundy were using chainsaws at the time, only clearing debris as so directed my the contractor whom I was working for. I hold him responsible as my employer for the days events, as would someone who works under my direction. Someone mentioned the interesting point that: what if the top had landed on my groundys head! then off course i would of expected to have had the claim on my insurance as he was working for me and i am his employer, but like I said above, my insure would of gone straight after the guys insurance any way. Despite what people think, for obvious reasons, I have left quite alot of detail out as not to give the other guy problems. I can see now after reading peoples reactions that it does not appear to put my actions in a very favourable light, and in my defence, as i said, its not that way i would have gone about it. I have learned first hand the severity of having an accident at work, a positive note to take away from all of this would be to learn from this event.
  12. Jonnyvine, im not the the head of a company who sends lads out to shitty jobs and in bad weather then gets annoyed whens its not done on time, always try to lead by example, plus i would always normally be in the tree! id struggle to see how a company who was out at work every day was nt making over 120k a year,
  13. myself and jon turnbull both did our arata training in 2008, we both did the course for level 1 over a week with a company called narc in London. I carnt quit remember how much it cost, but it was interesting, but trying to get into working with it was just simply impossible, i even offered to work for free just for experience and did nt get any offers. a must of really sucked!
  14. i gaffed out on a tree take down, while using a ms200, ended up slicing a 5 inch flap of skin from my left under forearm, didnt dare take my hand of it when it happened in case it pissed out of the main veins and blood vessels, managed to self rescue and went to hospital to get stitched up. im always aware when using my ms200 now, always the remember the sickening feeling of that days events.
  15. Hi, i bought 200 hundred of them 2 years ago for the same reason, i di split straight into them from the processor and then stack them up to dry out, i think its a great way to do it as it saves alot of time on handling later on. the vented bag allows the firewood to dry evenly and the bags are pretty hard wearing, ive refilled mine several times. they cost approx £5.20 each and are well worth it. I got mine from a company called ukbags i think, they were based in cumbria some where.
  16. I agree skyhook, but this situation was different, i was only there as a sub contractor with my groundy for hired in help, it was not my job, nor had i seen it and nor was i in control of it as the boss from the other company was on site and directing the shots. in this instance according the HSE evan a self employed individual is the responsibility of the contractors who's job it is! and in any ways I did nt fell the tree top on my own head and nor did my grondy, so I don't see the difference mr sky hook, In an ideal world every thing would be simple and straight forward.
  17. sky hook, Ive driven into London on other occasions, to work for big tree companies who have policies where they don't climb trees if they are diseased,they use platform where possible, then they sub the work to other sub contractors like me who supply the equipment and staff to undertake the jobs they don't want to do, imagine arriving to a job thats cost you money to do before you even start and then you get there and realise the tree is so knackered that its not safe to do and the big company has nt allowed in the price for a platform, is it really an option to turn back after paying out all that money and piss off your sub contract client that spends tens of thousands of pounds with you every year. surly most people would try and find a compromise and try to do the work like I have always done. these companies are often very accredited, since going AA approved, my whole stance on doing dangerous works has had to change, because I would be liable and responsible as the AA approved contractor who should have known better and would of been taken to the cleaners. Ive climbed and worked on bigger and more dangerous trees that !5 -20m larch tree, my point being that is really clever to climb up it anyway, as i could of ended much worse, often as a sub contractor i do not see the job before i get there in the morning. it was guys job not mine, i simply tried to make the best of a bad situation. ended up being worse off any way as it turned out, oh as an added bonus I dont get the 10-15 k a year from that company any more either as he now has the hump with me for making a claim against him, so actually 33k is nothing to what the figure could be.
  18. im not a subby climber, like i said i run a tree company with my own client base
  19. Skyhook, i run a tree company and as result I have very real costs as do all others,my actual day rate was 350 + vat per day to turn up and contract. I have a turn over of more the 120 k per year. imagine getting to the point where you sell off equipment like your timber crane and truck bought for over 20k new not 3 years ago, simply so you dont go bust. and paying your staff because its not their fault you carnt go to work.....
  20. Hi Every One... I wanted to post this thread to see if anyone had any opinions/advice of like for like experiences either as the employer of the employee? Last year toward the end of October I drove to a job to work as a sub contract climber for a day, as i have done many times before for this particular Company. Upon arrival I was confronted with the facts that the task in hand was far from ideal nor was it partially safe in relation to the way I would run a job of similar size. The employer for the day asked me to climb up a 15-20m high larch tree which was situated over hanging a roadside and dismantle it as per the consultants report, However with no traffic management and only 2 people on the ground of which neither were wearing high-vee and had no means to control the traffic/ public. The tree was leaning at approx. 35 degrees over the road and was growing between other broad leaved canopies, the road was steep and in the middle of the countryside where the speed was set at the national limit. I took one look at the tree and the situation and politely declined, which in turn was met with the response that he would fell it across the road and myself and my groundy would stand watch while he did so, at the time i was thinking well its not the way I would do it, however the road was relatively unused and so as a percussion i parked my sign written vehicle across one end and so did the guy we were working for at the other. The Guy cranked up a saw and started with a back cut rather than the conventional directional felling cut, I watched a safe distance as the tree started to splitter and buckle under the compression of its own weight and fold over. The tree fell across the road and landed into the canopies of some beech trees on the other side of the road, the guy then began to sned the stem and managed to get the tree to fall to ground level and continued working his way up to the tree top. mean while, myself and my guy started clearing the side branches and disposing of them back on to the verge where the tree had been felled from. approx 3-5 mins later we had cleared the branches and started moving the logs, all the time watching the tree being cut up in case any thing moved or rolled over, I remember seeing my groundy walking from in front of me on the road surface picking up a log and walking away to my right side and behind me, I glanced at the tree being worked upon once again and bent down to pick up another log, I picked up the piece of timber and turned way to dispose of it.... I then heard a Loud panicked call from my groundy shouting "watch out" I glanced over my right shoulder to see a large tree top falling towards my head, and it was only approx 2 ft away, I instinctively turned to protect my face and head, and felt the full force of it strike my right shoulder and flatten me to the tarmac! It all happened very fast, I rolled over as the tree top passed over my body and I fell face down on to the road surface, and rolled side ways down the steep road, as I did so the heavy tree top which weighed approx 400kg trapped my ankle and as my memento carried my down the road i was stopped and trapped by the tree top, at this point I felt and extremely sharp shooting pain on my left ankle as i later learned it had broke under the stress. The guy and my groundy went straight to work removing the top and clearing the road, meanwhile I was left on the road surface in a great deal of pain almost crying as my ankle swelled to the size of a football in my boot. To top it all off the guy wondered over to me 2 mins later and made some remark "that I had not been thinking about what I was doing" neither my groundy nor the boss of the day made any attempt to help me up or see if I was ok! which at the time i remember thinking they were both t**ts. i finally got myself up and hopped to one side of the road, and tried to get up the road to my van, 20 mins later my groundy finally brought the van to me once the road was cleared and he drove me to hospital. At no point did the guy I was working for make any effort of an apology and he made no attempt to help me in any way, he failed to surrender his insurance documents and report the accident to HSE, Finally when I did manage to get some insurance documents, in december after already being off work for nearly 2 months i made a claim against him for loss of earnings, his reply was that despite hime directly employing 6 people and using sub contractors that my broken ankle was simply an accident and he/ his company was not at fault. Its now the beginning of april, ive been back to work full time for about 2 months as I simply couldn't afford to be off any longer with no money coming in, I had to sell 2 items of plant machinery so that I could get my cash flow going again, ive lost 3 months of work during the busiest time of year and in total it has cost me over £33,000 in lost work and jobs I had in to do. His insurance company have still yet to admit fault and offer a settlement, I am not motivated by the money or a pay out and i never have of would be, I am pretty annoyed and frustrated at how some one can cause all that pain and stress and then try to fight his end as if he was the one injured party. His work and life style has not even skipped a beat since that day...... For 3 months i couldn't drive, walk, see customers, make money to pay bills and i simply got very down and depressed, after working the past 8-9 weeks after getting back to work i have only just cleared my dept of being off work for those 3 months, my ankle is still not completely healed. This event has opened my eyes to the risks we as tree surgeons take and further more the implications upon ones well being and life as a result of an accident at work, its not the first time or the 100th time i have been contracting around the uk and got to site only to confronted by such a situation where people do not appreciate the risks nor respect the implications of what can happen... im sure others will have experienced such instances too. thanks for reading my thread, would be cool to hear what you think.
  21. Hi everyone I wanted to put the feelers out to see, who may be around my area. Im looking for a Groundsman/ Climber with nptc tickets to work with/ for my company. I would prefer it if the person was over 25, motivated and wants to climb. A full Uk Driving License is essential and again would be better for me if they have a pre 97 or trailer license. Im a competent and very able climber, not particularly looking for a **** hot climber, more an individual who is open minded, motivated, punctual and has the right attitude. Must be willing to travel, As I still carry out Nationwide subcontract works, also must have some kind of tree works experience and the willingness to learn. I live between Northallerton & Darlington, covering and working in my local areas of Teesside, County Durham & North Yorkshire. I often travel up to 50 miles to work on a daily basis, I have some nice equipment and the ability to work efficiently. Good rates of pay available, with the possibility of added CASH Bonuses. Ideally, id rather any interested parties are self employed to start with, but would not have a problem employing the right person full time. Any one interested, can send me an email with their details and an informal cv to [email protected] Thank you, HOME AM TREE SURGEONS Alistair.
  22. My name is alistair, Im up for contract climbing if you have spare days. if you want to know anything about, me/ rates call me or email. [email protected] 07886028830 HOME AM TREE SURGEONS Thanks
  23. the threads and info is great to hear, does any one have any experience on cuting up heavy sleepers and such like? I have a job to quote for a civil defence contrtactor who wants 100 or so 1 ft square posts cut off 2ft below sand level on a beach... does any one have any ideas? I thought about using a big stump grinder instead? would appreciate some feed back, thanks. Alistair Magee 07886028830
  24. i think its a good idea to turn it into an arb festival.. but from my experience doing demos. i found it very demanding spending loads of time showing kids how to climb trees. great for them but bloody boring.. ok if there was a small charge and donated to some good cause. i wish the big wigs at the top of the AA & the ISA would swallow their differences and work together and create a show that hosts the competitions and demos all at one site.

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