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I am currently paying about £1750 for 5mil pl, 1mil EL and 1/2 mil PE I was working on a tender last week which required 10mil. Roughly, Lycetts wanted an additional £300 for 2 weeks and it was about £500 more for a full 12 months.

I felled the top out of a wrc and got had a squirrel on my sholder. Does that count?

I would rather not say on this thread as it would be easy to work out which college i meant. I really don't mean to through mud, but I have been extremely frustrated with this place as they are also the nptc training centre for the county. It is only a few miles from my yard, yet I have had to send employees to another county for assesment as they wouldn't assess them without having been trained there. Last time I had 2 guys who needed an 39 assesment and we waited 4 months before giving up. Got 1 in 2 days from another centre.

The college near us has been offering arb courses for 6 or 7 years now. Some of the lecturers did the course and went straight on to teaching there. I know 1 guy who was offered a job as an instructer whilst on a cs31 course. The upshot of this is students being "guided" by guys with no industry experience. Its a real shame, but the course has no credibility with local employers. Personally I have found that it is easier to employ totally inexperienced guys and pay for the training than get students who are equally in experienced but think they are above starting form the bottom as they spent a year at college. Every year one will try to set up a firm and fail. 1 mature student even invested £60,000 into a start up and I have never seen so much as a branch on his truck. This isn't a rant on colleges as I bet there are good ones out there, its just the one in my neck of the woods isn't so great. I guess if you are serious about a college course a little reseach into the employment success of previous students might be very usefull before coughing up the cash

We often sell stuff like that to a guy who resells to turners. I would suggest storring it out of the sun in your yard and saving other bits through the year. Flog it all for several 1oos when you got a full truck. What we get most for is all the 2/3 inch stuff you normally chip, turners love it. English Yew much better than Irish stuff as it has more colour. Robinia, Sophora, Laburnum, Plane, all that sort of stuff has more £ as timber if you know the right person to buy it. You could try asking wood turners who the buy their stuff off and deal with the dealer.

Like it or not a wcl is essential. The EA recently clarified that tree surgeons are require to have one. I strongly disagree with it, another mafia tax but there it is its now in black and white you need to get one or risk a fine.

Fat ones get less cos they can't prune.

Any photos? Doubt its squirrel damage on Willow, they seem to prefer Maples and Beech in sunny Devon

I don't quite see the logic. We already have functional flexible bracing systems which I guess would be cheaper to install both in materials and labour. If I am not being dumb cos I have had a tough day, I would say my first impression its that is an over complicated way to deal with and everyday problem.

Experience. A good understanding of physics for lowering and a good understanding of tree biology for pruning. Someone who loves a new challenge.

I use 2 petzl ascenders but with a foot loop on the lower one, backed up with another sling 2 d ring. Not backed up with prussic as both asscenders work independantly I would go with the red straight ascenders(dunno who makes them) if I bought mine again, as the petzl are designed for a slight incline and need to be tilted slightly if running up a verticle line which means a slight tweak in your technique.

So am I right in thinking that, you can chain the timber as usual, but you are attached to it via the basket. Cut it, come down, un chain, go back up? I have some crane experience, but never from a basket nor do I know anyone who has to chat too.

Called them today, £450 for a day plus £375 delivery each way! Thats a little more than I had estimated. Another option could be to use a man basket from a mobile crane. I can get a 50t crane (40m boom with and aditional 18m jib) for about £400. Does anyone have any feedback on using a saw from a man basket? Has anyone done this?

I'm near Exeter but this job is on the Devon/Dorset border. Can be deliver to my yard or the job. The jobs mine so no messing about, just need to find the right machine.

I need to hire a tracked platform for a forthcoming job to monolith a very large, very dead Douglas Fir. Needs to be 30m and reach 7/8m out, plus needs to be tracked. Does anyone hire such a thing or know where I could get one for a day mid to late April?

Well done for retaining it. Too many peope would have felled it and charged 3 or 4 times as much for the job. Our creeping crawling mates will be most gratefull.

I'd go day rate for sure, if the clients happy with the work, it could lead onto future works on the estate. I have about 10 large estates, all day rate and work on trust and its makes for about 30% of our teams work. Sure you won't get through an extra few priced trees and coin it for a day or 2, but these things often lead to more work and other good contacts.

Are you quoting for works from a survey? or are you quoting for what you think needs to be done? The problem is when 2 different contractors end up quoting for 2 different specs. If a survey has not been a done would the client pay you to do 1? then at least you can prioritise the works and other quotes will be based on the same spec. If its a repeat cleint and you'll end up with the job anyway, I would just price a day rate.

Is it a woodland or an area TPO? If it is a woodland TPO your client should have been encouraged to ensure the woodland is under good management before the order was made. If it is a woodland TPO pm me and I can send you some more detailed info on how you can object.

I know of a Rigidoporus bracket within the cavity of an ancient Yew. Havent seen or heard of it on Taxus before.

Plant Oil, about £45 for 25l

If you are working on a tree with tricky access, or carrying out high risk work why not install a rescue line. I get the piont about self rescue and agree, but we should plan for the worst, you only get one chance.

We are currently working through a shed load of clearing up due to snow failure for the NT. They estimate 500 trees have been damaged on an estate near exeter. Everything from Rhodo's to Redwoods, most of the Cedars have had some damage. We have not had that amount of snow down here for 20 years so the trees have not developed to cope with that type of loading.

We do rescue practice every 6 months. While subbing I did work for a guy who had to rescue his mate from a pole. They only had 1 set of spikes. The guy got 1 spike off before passing out through blood loss and the chap I knew had to get up the pole with 1 spike. Casualty never returned to work and the rescuer was still shaken up by it years later.