Highland Forestry

Reminds me of gorse clearance on a rail job we did - two weeks of nothing but gorse and dog rose..... I still have nightmares about that job.

sweet! i'll have to remember the wheelie bin trick!

Did it get the sap out??? I used terps once to do mine but it stank for weeks.

I generally get paid on commercial contracts at the start of every week or 7 days from invoice.... but have had some real nightmares, especially with one company who held on to 8k for 90 days. I dont do any work for them now.

All ropes just out of the washing machine and drying off as we speak ... along with my saw trousers now in the tumble dryer.

How true is that..!!

yeah..... lovley ey! That coupled with manky wet stinky sawdust (covered in it) and the slime..

Did 14 of them last week.... much smaller than todays though and some of them were straight fell. The top anchor was rubbish, you're right but it was about all I had to work with... I was using two lines most of the day although you dont see it in the pictures much, but on the pics I'm using my flip line to choker in to the limb i'm blocking down.... I think I have trust issues with my spikes, never feel that safe on them and always paranoid about slipping out so tend to rely on the ropes first and the spikes just to keep me up. I feel like I was working on the edge of my comfort zone and well and truly out of it today and so thinking about it now I really did learn alot and have learnt alot about the characteristics of dead elm in the last week

Sounds like a plan!!

I now pay an accountant to do everything, he has a book keeper who does all of our paperwork... costs me about £700 for the year but that is all the book keeping, personal tax return, company accounts and 4 VAT returns and free business advice and the boy is chartered... used to do it all myself but really cant be bothered now to tell you the truth. I never got my returns in on time, never got the tax done on time and always made mistakes. Do all my own pricing and site visits etc, but it's just not possible to be on two, three or even four jobs at the same time.. I have two guys which are good, and are paid a bit more.. I call them foremen and they are always site safety supervisor also. Their main objective is to liase with me and the client and to make sure everything is done how I want it done. It does work out very handy, and you dont have to pay them that much more than usual, but an extra tenner a day can save you a whole world of hassle and stress.

It hardly stopped raining all day with us... was soaked. The big lump you see in the pictures we are going to try to sell.... looking for a buyer as there are several elms to come down, as well as beech and horse chestnut. The tree was so slimey I nearly called it off... really struggeld from start to finish with her but got her down eventually. The estate were adamant that we were not allowed to damage any of the rhododendron bushes below the tree, which was a nightmare so most of the limbs were lowered. The big wedge you see in one of the pictures is my new lucky wedge.... we made it after the high lift wedge wasnt big enough but we've kept it as it worked so well.

Bloody hell!! Is that a compliment from the shrekster??!! Cheers Stevie! Took me till 8.45pm to get un-stuck unfortunatley, but hey-ho.

Sorry the quality isn't great, pictures taken on a mobile.. Was a good day until I got the truck and chipper stuck getting off-site!

Some pics taken by my groundie today..

Tried that on Friday..... Never known anything like it.. You call the helpline and they say they won't change thier decision so if I want to appeal it I have to write to them and they ''will do thier best'' to deal with my enquiry within 30 days!! So I asked to be put through to the business management team, spoke to them and said to them that if they couldn't or wouldn't change it or increase it at the very least then I would close my account... The cheeky sod on the end of the phone said close your account then Mr. O'Brien and then HUNG UP on me!!!!!!!!!

I had built up a really good relationship with my bank over the last couple of years, they were always helpful, polite, knowledgeable... I was able to borrow easily, and pay back on good terms.... the Bank of Scotland 'were' a fantastic bank for me untill everything went pear shaped about 6 months ago.. My turn over has gone up, profits are slowly creeping up and so everything on my side is working in the general direction I want it to, albeit slower than I would like.. So.. That gets me to thinking, it's the bank deciding to be greedy hard faced bastards and nothing I've done particularly wrong. I do have an overdraft facility which is 10k - there are times when I have needed to use it but happy to say we're not in it at the moment, however, they just sent me a letter saying that from November 11th the overdraft facility will be reduced to 1k - how the hell is anyone meant to run a business with a 1k overdraft?? The wages going out every week can be in excess of 3k, and if you dont get paid promptly from a client it's easy to dip into the overdraft for a week or so. Last year I was offered a 20k overdraft, and decided not to take it but to stick with the 10k as it was more than plenty so in a year we have gone from being able to have 20k now down to 1k - there's something drastically wrong with that somewhere!!

Hi All.. Just wondering if anybody has any thoughts on the best bank for business banking? I'm looking to open a new business account, but am struggling to see any defined differences between the banks. I'm currently with Bank Of Scotland but thier service over the last year has dramatically declined and with a letter from them last week stating that they are reducing overdrafts and upping rates I've decided to make a change. Any thoughts most welcome, particularly from those with limited companies. Cheers, Matt

Good looking tree Tom - nice job!

I still don't get the clown thing???

I would sub-contract it out to a respectable and trusted firm or take on an experienced climber and two groundsmen, get a chipper and do it in-house. Bear in mind you'll then need to comply to all the HSE, get additional insurance etc etc. You could run a 3 man team with chipper full time for a year and make a profit on 150k.

Good job steve - looks an impressive tree. Been on dead Willow and DED Elms this week myself, tricky buggers some of them. Got a nice sized dead elm to take down on Monday, will have to get some pics taken.

sounds nasty mozza.... hope its better soon mate.

Just imagine how many steaks you could get out of him!!! hehe Yep, each to thier own...

Nice pictures there! The head would look great on my wall..

SSTS - To tender for Network Rail contracts you will also have to be Linkup approved which is a minefield in itself. You'll need a dedicated member of staff for pricing, and probably a dedicated member of staff for administration.. it's a nightmare and it's what keeps the little guys little and the big guys big. Deffinatley sub-contract your way in, there are lots of big companies doing rail work, Tilhill, Fountains, Carilion, Trac, QTS to name a few. As already mentioned you will need a COSS as well as all your H & S in place, you'll need up to date LOLER inspections and all the T's crossed and I's dotted. Personally I found my experience of rail work to be good work, not enough money, and lots of messing around and a phenomenal ammount of red tape. Network rail have recently cut all thier budgets so it's not the mine of work it used to be and that's why we're not on the track at the moment but hope it goes well for you if that's what you decide to do. LA work is cut-throat as well - but may be more up your street, contact your local councils and ask about getting on the list.