DN22 Gardening

DO NOT buy second hand ropes on any account. i've seen lads pulling vans out, trees over and all sorts with their climbing ropes. is your life really worth saving a few quid !!!! a second hand harness is a possibility if you give it a good inspection, and it comes from someone you know. caribiners i'd also personally steer clear of, again you don't know their history. we live close to Clumber Park in Notts and i've taken my son climbing there a couple of times but we've never been caught. i suspect they'd flip if they caught us swinging about 50' up in the canopy

its not a case of 'O' license for us. its more a problem with space. we've just enough room in our yard for the transits, trailers, tractors etc. the yard we rent for the logs etc isnt secure enough for equipment. there's a well maintained iveco 7.5 tonner coming up for sale soon in the village, and we've thought about getting her. swapping one of the transits for the iveco's not an option. :confused1: the ammount of running about that the vans do wouldnt be possible in a thirsty, speed limited wagon, but it would be nice not to worry about being overloaded. we've got a nice little conny clearence job coming up, 42 40'ers to remove. the iveco'd be perfect for that

as above, the twin bladed stihl ones with the little downturn at the ends of the blades, brilliant on an FS400

we do the odd nationwide service for a transport firm who specialise in abmormal loads. alot of the time its escorting a load along a route and tidying any broken branches etc. we have an hourly rate per man, from the door. a mileage figure for each truck, including extra rates for towing the chipper chipper, inc trailer a maximum working day, after which, if its a certain distance from base, lodgings are payable. the list goes on and on i based mine on a quote i got from a large groundworks firm whom i asked for a quote for some remedial work to the footpath. they charged for everything down to the last nut and bolt, their day rates were frightening to look at. a 360 driver, no machine, was £180 per 8 hrs, the machine a further £240 per 8 hrs the best one was "hire of any specialist equipment" which boiled down to anything hired in. the charge was Speedyhire's catalogue prices plus 25% !!!!! we give a list of standard kit we're sending 2- MS341's 2- MS200t's 1- Pole saw 2- Climbing kits etc anything above this has a day rate for hire 880's go out at £50 per day (but not yet needed one ) just make sure you list for every contingency, including cancelation fees, we forgot this one originally and after having a couple of jobs cancelled the night before they were due, we had a chat with the contracts manager who agreed a small fee. not much, but better than nowt

i'd be asking to fill up at his expense, on a "as and when basis" when you think you've done £50 worth of fuel, put £75 in to cover wear and tear n insurance. the reciept goes through your books, and you put the appropriate milage on your timesheet to cover the money for the fuel bought. as mentioned by stevie, if any of my subbies have to provide anything, from saws to stumpies, they get more than adequately paid for it, it keeps them happy, and i get quality kit for a fraction of the hire price. have a word with your boss, tell him your concerns. ask him what he plans to base his payments to you on

i'd get it on the builders forums buddy. just about every builder near us has either an l200 or navara brilliant idea, hope its makes you your fortune

we sell purely Arb waste, so if my figures don't match up to yours....tuff say £25 per transit load (approx 2 cube) to get back to yard. (wages, fuel, wear and tear) £15 per cube processing (my lads do it on price work, takes one of them roughly an hour to do a cube) £15 per cube delivering (fuel, wages, wear and tear) £15 per cube for storage, crates, tractor etc. £ 0 advertising, all ours is word of mouth, or included with our arb side --------------- £ 57.50 per cube we sell well seasoned h/wood for £75 per cube leaving £17.50 per cube profit. the main reason we do logs is for ease of disposal of timber. we've sold a lot of loads this winter of un seasoned, unsplit rings. seems to be more profit in it that way. i really don't know how the full time timber lads do it. what with around £30 per ton roadside, transport, etc fair play to em

sell the woodland to me

lol ive just had the same conversation TY guy who i use occasionally wants to come full time on the books when asked how much an hour he'd want, his reply was "well i've got a big mortgage, and the car payments are fairly high. i'd need around £20 per hour" after ten minutes of laughter i told him if he found someone willing to pay an inexperienced groundie £20 per hour, to give me a ring. i'd be a groundie for that, never mind that there climbing mallarky...

its a day made for taking the kids to the pics i think

if i was starting again, from scratch, the first things i'd buy would be a couple of good sets of hedge cutters, and a long reach set. we make more profit, for less outlay on conny jobs than any other. start by doing jobs at the weekends, or use your holidays. when you get your 30/31, let it be known that you'll take small jobs on. a tipper would be next, get it signwritten. build from there. enjoy it

keep a tight rein on your cashflow. that was our worst problem ( and still is ) the best jobs are the ones where you get paid at the end of the day. we're only a small firm, one tree team, one landscaping team, and two lady gardeners. on average we're owed about £5,000. never had any BAD payers, just seem to run around chasing cash alot of the time. no matter how much you emphasise (spellcheck please ) IMMEDIATE PAYMENT, the larger firms pay when they're ready. price accordingly

good luck with whatever you're planning buddy. my advice get a GOOD accountant, NOT someone you know. I save every reciept i get, for everything i buy, put em all in a folder for the relevant month, every quarter pass them to my accountant, who tells me which i can, and which i can't put through the books. the little bit he charges me is easily offset by the ammount he saves me. cashflow'll be your hardest issue

we process purely arb waste we cut into rings on site, approx 8 / 10" and depending on the size of job either load into one of the transits, or straight into cubic mtr crates. the crates then go back to the yard and are stacked according to species. we then use a home made towable splitter and split when we've nowt else to do, either full days, or if we finish a job before 5 ish. one man can produce a cube in an hour no probs. we have an old leyland c/w loader to do the lifting

Jensen here used em all T/Wolf, Greenmechs in every size, a few bandits. when i started on my own the only chipper i was buying was a Jensen. In the five years we've had ours, apart from blades and service items, all its had is a new ignition, and a new battery. cant fault it

put the vid on youtube. is the link if it works

soz, apparently the video of the actual fell is the wrong type of file it was only a short one anyway, i had to stop filming just before the back cut to get the clients wife out of the drop zone....again..... APPARENTLY, that was the best angle for her camera !!!!! also the best angle to get squished love !!!!!!!! anyway this it what it ended up being.... sorry the last couple are a little dark, it was getting late

hi all we did this today, and for once it wasnt me climbing so was able to take a few snaps. large ish willow, power lines, phones lines, "try not to damage my daffs" the usual started by rigging all the limbs overhanging the powerlines, not helped by nasty little split up the trunk once that was done, big fell time....... (best bit)

i was always against itunes related products. got 200Gb of music on my hard drive and didn't like using itunes. waited until my phone went belly up and orange refused to fix it and bought a iphone 3GS. i was told its the best one they've made yet. seems a very good phone. i like the fact that i've got a camera, music player, email reader, games player, phone, etc. all in one device, always at hand. I didn't buy it because i was 'brainwashed', and you defo won't catch me queueing up for the latest one.

we worked for network rail (not one to take shortcuts ) absailing down sheer cliffs doing deveg. we were anchoring onto fence posts, the pickup, anything that was secure. are you sure you need IRATA ? if not, can offer experienced climbers, pics available of work done

only had a problem once local morrisons garage where we spend ALOT on fuel (approx £3/400 per week) filled the red jerry can with unleaded, then the two stihl combi cans, then £100 worth of diesel in the truck. went in to pay and was given a right bollocking by the twelve year old behind the counter, apparently its morrisons policy that you're only allowed to fill two cans at once. not in the best of moods after a public bollocking, i asked said 12 year old if i could bring two 45 gallon drums "bring what you want, as long as there's only two of em"

i usually average 12hrs a day at this time of year. so, say 60 from monday to friday. did 5 hrs on a job yesterday (saturday) to finish it. came home and started ripping the bathroom out !!! i'll be fitting some of it today, the rest next weekend does this count as work ???? that of course dosent include the hour or so each night typing quotes, invoices, m/statements, r/a's etc. or the nights i'll spend at the end of this month doing the books in rediness for our end of year in fairness, i was told when i went self employed "forget your weekends and evenings, they no longer exist" and he was right

looks as good as the tempest one have you got any pics of the piece from the ram to the bit that pushes the wood againt the blades ?

Taking a damsen down on friday. Log's about 10' long and about 14" dia If i remember correctly the log looks twisted. Any good to anyone ????? Or shall we ring it up for logs....

used to use the one at mansfield a few years ago, can't remember what the scale of charges was but if you go on their website it'll tell you. i seem to remember that if you spend over a certain ammount you'd get a short warrenty, again the website should tell you.