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Exactly my thoughts, less mess and the other thing I have got alot of other work due to the half hour chat with the customer whilst unloading by hand, plus as above you dont leave a pile of dirt/sawdust/bark etc on the customers drive

No pics again but when I had my hicap it was permanently overloaded from being filled with 8 foot lengths of ash to being filled to the height of the cab with 4ft rings of oak, but think worst thing we moved with it was an old 500 gallon metal heating oil tank, lifted it in with the tractor thought I was struggling with it on the couple of miles back to the farm, turned out was still 200 litres of kerosene in it, workshop was warm that winter

Hi Jon, I've got a Clarke one from machine mart, can't remember exact model, was the bigger one with compressor on it, have used it to jump start tractor and bobcat and its still going strong despite diving off the back of the bobcat and smashing the casing

Other half said Morrisons was the same on saturday, I siad will be loads next week but she reckoned were already restocking the shelves with garden stuff

Didn't that used to be known as customer service?

Just spotted this on facebook, anyone fancy applying https://secure.malts.com/index.php/en_gb/Friends-Corner/Become-Lagavulin-apprentice

I was an early starter, my dad used to put a splash of whisky in our tea/coffee if we had been out working in the cold weather, but after an optics race while I was on YTS during which I consumed a very large amount of whitehorse and passed out on the sofa in the caravan on a night when it went down to -5 and woke up with no feeling below my neck I didnt touch the stuff for years but last year got presented by my mum with a load of bottles that I had been given as tips etc over the years that I'd left behind when I moved out, so I'm slowly getting back into it, treated myself to a bottle of Tullamore Dew at xmas, thats a nice smooth irish one, one I do like which isnt directly whisky is Innis & Gunn beer which is brewed in whisky barrels and is highly recommended

That'll be the one then think it was army surplus looked brand new and he wanted £25 for it was a good few years back mind, almost bought it just for curiosity value

Was going to tap him up for a bag of coal for towing him out but he seemed a bit stressed

I got offered an old Danarm by the farmer I used to work for when I first started, said to me one day theres an old saw over there behind those hurdles if you want it, leant over to pick it up and nearly went head first over the hurdles due to the weight another farmer oncew offerd me and a mate a saw when we were at his place foxing, he dragged a big wooden case out of the shed, dont know what make it was but pretty sure it was a villiers or similar 4 stroke engine and you pulled a lever to turn the bar over so the engine stayed upright, was a two man job one each end, we passed on it needless to say

Sunny and warming up here today, unfortunately that meant I found the coal man had slid his truck off the farm drive on my way out to deliver some hay this morning, pulled him out and damn me on way back in he'd got stuck again, good job the other tractor was the other side of him down the yard so I could pull him back again, then had to tow him all the way to the road

Now I am going to sound like an old fart, but last year or so my memory was getting worse than usual but found taking ginseng tablets helped, as long as I remembered to take them

I had one years ago, did the same thing would run fine through the first tank of fuel but once warm wouldnt restart until cold and it was like that from brand new, never had any other problems with it always cut fine and handled anything thrown at it was just the hot starting was a pain

Thats sunny Derbyshire again Jon, we were scraping the farm drive 4-5 times a day unti yesterday as it was drifting in as fast as I cleared it

Just uploaded this one I took the other day, starting to give now but still having to walk down the drive to the yard as its like a bobsled run, ok in 4x4 but not risking it in the van, this pic is the field behind the yard while I was checking sheep, ditch is about 4ft deep and the hedge is about 3ft high on top of it to give you an idea

Nice job again mate, always nice to boss a big old hedge back into shape, sure it will be sprouting like a good 'un now the light can get at the stumps

Give that man a cigar yep sat nice and tight about 6ft above my head and waited patiently while I took the pic, wish I'd had my proper camera with me never do at times like that though

Ok not the best pic as the camera on my phones not great but can you spot whats in the tree

Last one of the season, should have been another one to do but the snows put paid to that, this was a second lay hedge on roadside, nice and young makes a change

Theres a website called backloads I think, where drivers can post that thier delivering something somewhere but coming back empty so that they can pick up a backload to save running empty, on the return journey might be worth a look

Few years back I ended up with the job of tidying up the gardens on a big old georgian house, gardens ran to about 4 acres, was the clients father who lived there with his house keeper, he was in his late eighties and the gardens had'nt been touched in years apart from mowing the lawns, there was some ivy on one of the out buildings growing up the roof that they wanted cleared, that had about 6 inch trunk, unfortunately once I cut through it realised the ivy was holding the roof in place! that called for some very hasty emergency propping against the wall plate and had to leave the rest of the ivy in place

4-6 ft drifts today, had to leave van at end of farm drive and walk to the yard through them, digger man came and cleared the drive and 2-3hrs later was just as bad again, can't even do owt in the workshop as everythings under a foot to eighteen inches of snow where its blown in under the eaves

Depends wether I'm going first thing before work or last thing after work as to wehter I'm tidy or scruffy, don't really think most people are bothered, just make sure you turn up a the agreed time, be polite and listen to what they want, then advise accordingly

Some interesting points being made, thing is, you don't need a course to teach you to id trees or fungi, you can read a book, difference is if you do the course you can show a box ticker a piece of paper that says you attended a course, but unless you see them at different times of year in different weather different seasons etc you won't always be sure and thats where experience comes in, same with cutting trees, no two are the same you need the experienc eto read the tree, to know which way it to fell it safely etc, I know my experience is mostly in hedge laying, but I could'nt stand in front of hedge and say to someone else, cut that out, lay that etc, I have to be doing it, its very hard to explain 22 years of experience in all types of hedges to someone else its a job you have to learn yourself and I guess its the same with trees, you can learn the basics on a course but until you do it and learn what works and what doesnt you won't know, because you cant always have someone following you round telling you how to do the job, two things I always remember being told, 1) The man who says he knows everything knows nothing, and 2) if you don't learn something everyday your doing something wrong

Been snowing all day and drifting too, amber snow warning through til 9 in the morning and then back to yellow snow warning and looks like staying til at least tuesday had to ababndon van half way up the hill and walk home again