Jon Lad

It's difficult to say whether £400-£800 is realistic because you don't say how long you've been in the industry before setting up in January, also what else you'd be bringing to the table in terms of kit and / or personnel along with the truck and chipper; to estimate what you might be able to charge.

Two yew trees trimmed to form.

Recent TPO applications and CA notifications that I've made to a local planning department to carry out crown reductions have been declared invalid; due to them not being: "sufficiently accurate or clear". I had stated that the crown was to be reduced by (eg) 2 metres all round and for many years this has been acceptable, prior to that a description of the percentage that the canopy was to be reduced by had been, eg 20% reduction all round; then the suggested amount in metres of the reduction was preferred to a percentage. However they now require: the current height of the tree; the current spread of the crown; the proposed reduction of the height; the proposed reduction of the spread at each aspect eg "laterally reduce crown spread by 2 metres at east aspect"; the final height of the tree and the final spread of the canopy. I wondered whether anyone else has had similar experiences with their applications or notifications, due to a change in the crown reduction specifications required by tree officers in other planning departments?

I’ve set young lads on in the past, only to have them leave once they’ve learnt enough to (sort of) get by with. I haven’t bothered since the last. I didn’t think it worth my effort or time training someone, to only not get the benefit from them working with me for a few years; after they’d reached a decent, commercial skill level. If you can get a good subby climber, who’s on the same wave length as yourself work-wise ; it’s like finding gold. Good call re buying a MEWP, a pal of mine has one and since he got it rarely needs subby climbers now.

I have found the old saying about relationships in business to be more and more accurate the longer that I’m in business: “How it begins, is how it goes.” If you start by accommodating folk - late starts, early finishes, random days off with little notice given, paying them early so they can afford their rent / car loan or repairs etc. Then in my experience, they will never stop expecting that and suddenly turn into wonder-worker; they’re just going to want you to continue doing the same or seek for you to accommodate them even more.

I had thought that was Chris Packham clinging to the machine. 🤔

With those slender points to the leaf stalks, could it not be a Rhus of some type? What height is it?

Great video! Thanks for posting that.👍🏻

IMG_3762.MOV

You did well to get it looking like that, given how far the customer wanted it bringing down to. 👍🏻

Thanks so much for posting that. 👍🏻

I have been invited to join one locally a few times but never have because of the reasons others have already mentioned: you're tied to weekly morning meetings; folk in it not really understanding what work you do / don't do and then recommending you for what you don't; also being expected to recommend someone that you've no idea is any good at what it is that you're recommending them for, with the potential blow-back that could create if they're not. In my view, there are better uses for your time and money to generate enquiries and work than this.

Warmed both charger and battery up - no change. I shall probably end up getting a replacement.

🤔 It’s possible.

I read that online. I can’t understand why though as the charger and batteries were all in the same place they always have been. Thanks for the tip though, I will warm them up and try again. 👍🏻

It’s not the red triangle that’s flashing, it’s the green battery but that’s all it does; regardless of whether there’s a battery in it or not.

How long had you had it before it packed in? No, the batteries weren’t warm; the charger was flashing before a battery had been put into it and when there was one put in, it just continued flashing the same way. It’s the only time I’ve had a problem with the charger itself and it will be way out of warranty by now.

I have had a QC330 charger for a few years now, it has worked fine during that time; today when I plugged it in there was no sound from it and the green battery light began flashing without a battery put into the charger. When a battery was inserted, again there was no noise just the battery light flashing on the charger and nothing flashing on the battery itself; it didn't begin to charge despite being left in it for up to ten minutes. I wondered whether it has happened to anyone else with this charger?

That’s a great point. Also, how often is it that a job is either completed in a day or not by how much you’ve done by lunchtime; I find that if you haven’t broken its back by then - you’re going back.

Quite right. That’s easier to do with Leylandii & Thuja though, as a lot of varieties of Lawsons (in my experience) just don’t have a growth habit which allows you to do that. I would suggest the best option here may be to see if the customer was amenable to remove it and replace with something else, since it’s a fairly sizeable “top” that they want off and what they’re going to be left with with in the end will not look great; no matter how long you spent trying. “Trying to turn trees into shrubs” is a great description - might have to pinch that one. 😉

I’m not sure you’d be able to give that a “flat top” tbh, the way Lawson cypress tends to grow with pendulous branches that sweep up at the ends; if those end’s don’t come up enough you can end up with the point you’ve reduced the stem down to, being visible as a stump above the growth which you’ve taken it to. That can sometimes be difficult to get customers to understand, when you try and explain it to them.