gensetsteve

I can see the point of loler. A trained eye physically checking lifting gear has a point in safe guarding your life. What annoys me is a geek with a clip board and no experience of what you have been trained in and fine tuned over many years demanding you write down pigeon fashion your intended actions on site. Sometimes it feels like they are compiling a manual for a low paid idiot with poor grasp of english to try and follow. The idea that H&S is a european thing goes out the window when you see builders in flip flops using sticks for scaffolding around the med. H&S really got going during the labour government time could this have been their new trade union idea to slow the country down to a crawl.

Putting the hours in when young and building your business is good. I am in no way knocking hard work. But my youngest son was born very poorly 7 years ago and spent nearly 2 months in the special baby unit. My business was 13 years old and luckily due to good mates and loyal work mates both son and business pulled through ok. The business was robust enough to survive without me doing 80 hrs a week. Family is more important than money or business. A business is a vehicle for making money or at the very least a living and can be replaced. If you look after people ie girlfriend, wife, kids employees they will look after you and your business.

I think your right about the litigation. You write a method statement and operate outside of that and have an accident they can wash their hands of all responsability even if they were partly to blame. H&S = pass the buck. Its also easier for large companies to employ one geek to write endless reams of babble than a small business. Sometime I get sent a cd with 500 pages to read understand and sign. Luckily we have plenty of other work and a shredder that copes with cds

So if mine plays up stick it on ebay and by a Huskey yes

Thanks guys for all the options above I am sure one will work out. I have been busy onsite for months and keep getting stuff on excel mainly H&S stuff

Most of the time the only man who knows how well a company is doing is the man who owns it. In the past my business has had plenty of work and lots of new kit but underneath I was paddling like mad. Other times the kit was older and the work slower but the books looked much better. Imo Businesses are built on common sense and good decisions not working long hours and living on the bread line.

If you all want to earn £100 a day you will if you all want to earn £350 a day you can. If you all undercut ea other your all stuffed. Supply and demand if too many people are tree surgeons it will drive the price down. Some of the easiest most looked down on professions are at the moment earning good money and before anydody takes offence I am not talking arborists. Tree surgeons in my opinion have to risk their lives carrying out a skilled proffession often in hostile conditions and it s hard work.

I understand the idea is to make people aware of the risks on site and to prevent accidents and make the work enviroment safer. But I have come to the conclusion this week most of it is about creating cushy jobs for spotty faced university grads that dont want to do the work themselves get wet or dirty. The test of a good health and safety man is how much paper, grief and hassle they can cause for no good reason or effect Rant over time for a drink

I need to open microsoft excel files but dont need to create them. Being a tight git dont see why I should be forced to buy excel. I tried to download a free package which down loaded a load of rubbish incl Imesh . If you ever get the chance to download Imesh DONT although not aggressive malware but its not far off and u cant uninstall it easily.

I have a ms 390 and a 260 . The 390 has alot more grunt without being hard on the back. If I am cutting 10" stuff 260 allday if its mainly over 13" 390 is better. I have a 20" bar .325 so bit more power. I have been ringing 3ft stuff from either side should really buy a bigger saw but have better things to spend £800 on. I paid £150 for it about 3 years ago and its done a few hundred hours and we just clean the filter and put fuel in it.

Check chain is evenly sharpened use a bench grinder every now and again. Chris has made a good point i have never even thought to check and I have been badly hand sharpening our processor chain for 5 years. Normally if we have this problem the teeth on one side of the the chain are bigger than the other.

Round hampshire its about £35 - £45 a tonne + £12 a tonne haulage up to about 40 miles. If It costs more we wont bother at all this winter to purchase cord.

round our way less people make kindling than logs. The kindling is made and sold a week later. We make logs and season for 12 months in the hope they may sell

Good point about water not being sterile. I have used the shower head at home a few times with good effect without further problems. You need luke warm water to stop shock on your eyeball but getting the dirt out asap seems the best plan.

Luckily we spent too much time last spring making kindling so we were not overstocked on logs but that was more luck than judgement

Most kindling machines 6 in max. I think the kindling pro does 9 inch. I would think the machines would struggle with the hardness of oak and the pegs would not come out square as the blades cross at 45 deg angle if that makes sense.

A strange request I know but one of us always seems to be digging dust dirt or something out of our eyes. We are using googles where ever possible but fine dust will always get in and beech seems to sting llike mad. I know they have these eyewash stations but they are a one shot then chuck away at £5 a bottle not cheap and often not effective. I am thinking a proper mains connected unit with a hand wash heater turned low to take the chill off. I crawled under our landcruiser before going on hloiday got something in my eye and spent the week squirting ointment in.

If we had a crystal ball and could tell what the winter was going to do we could be minted. If it was going to be a hard winter you could buy in a 1000 tonnes of cord and sell the lot. But if its mild you dont want to be sat on £50,000 of wood. I forgot to mention the double dip recession and the storms which killed alot of business. One customer of ours spends £1200 a year and had a huge ash tree blow into the garden. Unless you have a large retailer taking your wood I would keep it as a side line and not put all your eggs in one basket.

I thought after selling logs for six years I would post my experience of last winter. It may help someone decide how to run their business. We have had a good and enjoyable time untill winter 2011. The winter did not really happen and our sales were down. We are just slightly more expensive than our local competitors at £130 for 1.5 cu metres tipped. Our logs are a mix of seasoned beech ash oak and sycamore now. Luckily logs are a side line to boost our income. I may have missed a trick and am open advice and views. We have a good advert which works a treat and we dont normally need to advertise but last winter we did. Most of our wood is bought in cord at around £40-£50 a tonne so if we drop our prices it wont be worth doing. My conclusion is if its a mild winter the cheap loads will last and business will be slow. If its cold and wood is short cash in and charge what you like. But last winter heating oil was 40% cheaper than 2010 so that did not help either. Logs are worth doing if you have arisings and time on your hands but the biomass market is pushing the price of cord through the roof because of their 50% subsidy. I have no idea how much we will do for this winter but I still have half the cord from last spring.

Unless desperate to keep our customers supplied we would not bother with offcuts its too time consuming.

I would say £5 for unseasoned chestnut now would be about right. In a hard winter £7 . Is it sweet chestnut or horse I find horse ok to burn on stove or open but very light when seasoned. Sweet chestnut spits like made on open fire.

You may be able to get round the tacho rule if you stay close to home not sure, u will need to check. My discovery will handle 250kg on the hitch if you have nothing in the boot you need to keep rear axle under 1800 kg. The hitch will wear out quick . If you mount crane in middle things would be alot better. I would fit an engine on the draw bar I find electric pumps painfully slow. Otherwise it looks a good bit of kit if you have good access.

Sycamore feels lighter than ash when seasoned and tends to go black as it dries I seem to remember. If ash grows as well on your land I would go with that.

Sorry about the rant but the thought of getting the wash board and mangle out after a 14 hr day in the pouring rain sort of hit a nerve.

If we all sign on the dole we would have time to wash up in between daytime tv and meals out at Weatherspoons. Not having a go at anyone on here but getting sick of being told to work harder for less by the politicians and the eco warriors. If you have a business and kids and both work labour saving devices are a god send.