Highland Forestry

Is that what they call fracture pruning??!!

Dean - I've been using the Berthoud for our commercial spraying contracts, weevil and weeding and have had no problems with them..... and very comfortable too! The lance is extendable which saves even more on your back and you get a good range of nozzles for different applications. The handle can be used on either side and is easy to put in an upright position for transport and the frame the tank sits in stops it from tipping over when filling - great knapsack!!

lol!!

That's the impression I got as well, but..I wonder how that equates to RRV equipment.. as in mogs on the railway. They go on the road and on the rail, all on red..

Filthy horny catholic girls??

What about mogs??

What do you call a ''normal'' day rate??? NPTC must be taking a huge cut for the course and assessment fee because some of the costs of training and assessment are pure daylight robbery.

As far as using and operating the chipper, I honestly feel that I learnt nothing... not one thing.... to me it was a joke. I lost two days money because of one day training and one day assessment AND it cost me for the course and assessment on top of that. One thing I did learn that I never knew before was that the length of the hopper for feeding has a minimum length, which if I remember is 1.2m?

500 cube, as in cubic feet??

Sorry - yep, a tonne.

builders should be shot. That is my input.

Great video! Some really interesting fells there.. Would love to go out to oz for this kind of work!

Now that kiddie could help speed production up on the de-veg! (Surely that is illegal??) I'd be scared witless of it too if I was feeding it.

16k a year equates to £320 a week if you only have two weeks off a year.. and 20k works out to £400 a week.... that all works out to £8/hr and £10/hr - £64 and £80 a day... seems low... PAYE climber on £64 a day? madness!

What kind of timber is that?!!?!!!! more like 28 cube to a lorry load..

In forestry applications, very roughly, one cubic metre is approximatley one ton. I often to timber stocks on harvesting sites up here and I always use this: Length x Height x Depth x 0.6 = Answer (all in metres) The 0.6 bit is a calculation which alows for air spaces between logs as well as for softwood such as sitka and pine. If the tree is still standing, it will be hard to determine exactly what the weight is, but if you can work out roughly how many cubic metres you'll know.

looks a bit of a generous 25% reduction!

Same here only commercial is around 80-90% of our turnover.

Point taken.... You have a PM

I earn good money compared to alot of people I know... I work fucking hard for it too! I keep the boys going because I believe it is important to provide local jobs wherever possible and because I enjoy the fact that there are not many contractors about that can do what we can and provide the services we provide. As far as how much of the coin is mine, I would take this opportunity to point out that I spent an absolute bomb on training, have continued to get more quals and more training, I have bought all of my kit, all my climbing gear, paid off my mitsubishi which was a 5k loss and bought myself a new vehicle.. I have fully furnished a house from scratch and put a roof over our heads. All of my bills have been paid. I only owe money to the tax man..which will be paid. I've built my business up as best I can and I do the very best I can. In the last 12 months I have been working through all of this whilst still recovering from glandular fever and pneumonia in the last few weeks. There are limits to what I can charge for a days work - it's not the most affluent area here... I've made mistakes along the way to where I am now, and no doubt will make more as time goes on, but I am out there day after day working my nuts off to get to where we need to be... All this would be different in so many ways if we could get bigger contracts, if the forest industry was more stable, if the grant schemes were up and running properly, if we werent getting screwed on training costs, assessments, kit, the works.. I am a man trying to make a living in hard times, and it's not easy... Sorry if any of the above sounds nasty, I dont mean it to, but that's how it is for me.. I wish it was different.

I would explain to your customer that it is in no way at all a one-visit job, and that continued treatments will be required... It is a nightmare to get rid of... just when you think you've cracked it, it re-emerges!

Thanks for the advice guys.... I do take it all on board, and I really appreciate that folk talk from thier own experiences. As far as invoicing goes, the invoices go out like clockwork every sunday night/monday morning and most of the payments come in the following week... however, the ones that havent paid up have been chased and I realise that you cant let it pile up ontop of you.... did that in april and now paying the price for it. Regarding small pain in the arse jobs... I have turned some away unless they are en-route or i'm at a loose end. The mental wheeling and dealing is a very valid point... I did a job for a very very big forestry management company months ago now, hoping i'd geta shout for bigger jobs and take it from there kinda thing...... still not been paid although i've been told it's on the way, still...... its not paid till it's in the bank. Stevie - I dont want to take over the tree surgery world in the highlands, I want to offer commercial services and take on big contracts. I love it up here and I enjoy the fact that I can go to work, earn good money, keep the boys going and see plenty of people all around me that cant be bothered to work - their loss my gain. It's like stepping stones I guess..... gotta keep climbing those steps.

Cut the stems at waist height, and fill them up with glyphosate..and then keep spraying!!! Japanese Knotweed is a sod to get rid of, we've just managed to get rid of a small patch in a woodland site and that was with re spraying every couple of months and burning after we had killed it the first time..... the re-emergence should be sprayed as soon as it starts coming up. You could use propyzamide (kerb) as well, it's residual and shuld help stop the re-emergence. Other than that..... good luck!

Cant believe we're getting advice on the forum on the precise technique of how to recieve a kick in the bollox.... LMAO. great.

Well..... erm...... that is precisley what I'm tryng to do stevie!!