csservices
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Everything posted by csservices
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Once had an argument with a customer because she wanted me to take the logs away again after I told her it had alder in it, turned out she thought I meant elder burns lovely and splits easy if split green
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TCP just dab it on neat stings like a b**ch but should draw it out by morning, I get full of thorns reguarly during the winter with hedge laying, either that or pop them out when they go sceptic, worst one I ever had was a 3/4 inch hawthorn thorn when a branch whipped back and stabbed it into me calf muscle took ages to get that one out
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As has been said burns well if seasoned properly, but can take some splitting
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Pulled one of those out of a hedge bottom a few years back and got paid to take it away, spent two years sat on a trailer at the farm till I got fed up with taking it off every time I wanted to use the trailer ended up weighing it in cos nobody wanted it
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I have seen willow used by knocking in willow stakes into the stream bed and then weaving withies inbetween in the same style as woven hurdles, or another alternative would be to use large stone ie old walling stone banked up on a slant to protect the bank at the stream edge and then plant above
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As above I bought a pair of wellies when I first started and have hardly worn them as they weigh a ton, a decent pair of boots is a much better choice
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Been back to doing some saw work recently for first time in nearly two years other than bit of logging I hadnt hardly touched anything, went and helped a mate clear some roadside trees while the road at the bottom of his farms closed for repairs just after xmas and had a an awkward ash and multi stemmed sycamore to deal with and after that pitched into a big rough hedge up at my dads, which I've been putting off for about 3 years now cos had lost the "love" of the job for want of a better word, after a day hard at it getting scratched and full of thorns my Mrs wanted to know what was up cos she hadnt seen me so happy in months
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I've always taken a pack up, burgers or chips lay to heavy on me if I have them at dinner time, one must have is a scotch egg and some coffee for second breakfast somedays recently one packup has last 3-4 days with the cold days and not stopping for dinner with trying to get stuff done and yep I always moan about being skint but I'm moaning more at the minute cos i'm so skint I havent had any smokes for a week
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I'm sure I was told years ago that if I worked for 4 days a week or more for more than 6 weeks at a time then the person I was working for had to take me on as an employee? More recently when I was subbing reguary for a guy he told me his accountant had told him to invoice the work as works as per estimate rather than just putting labour at x hours, as apparently thatsd another way around it as billing it like that means you are billing on a per job basis rather than just charging labour which would mean you could be construed as an employee
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Forestry/woodland work, day rates?
csservices replied to Andy Collins's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
I charge myself out at £85 a day for anything that involves labour, if its felling work that includes my own saw etc and I'll pay any lads with me who know what thier doing the same, labourers, ie for dragging etc are on £40-60 depending on age and keeness only time I charge different is on tractor work or for hedge laying or fencing which are both charged on meterage so you have to get your finger out -
I was waiting for someone to mention the towing eye, I had one once years ago while shifting soil around a yard on a job, was a wet day and the soil wouldnt come out of the trailer, while trying to jerk it free the word eye on the trailer jumped off the pick up hitch and the drawbar joined me in the cab, luckily no damage done but needless to say it got a new tow eye on it asap
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Cant get any timber at a decent price round here, could have done with some this year to keep the money coming with all the wet weather followed by the snow, I've had nigh on two months with very little work I could get on with picking up now though could still do with getting back on the logging job though to help the cash flow in the winter
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The mrs got me a border fine arts model of a whippet, looks just like my old dog we lost last year and the complete Blackadder serie's Mum and Dad got us a selection of pickles, chutneys, pate's and infused cooking oils and some cook books, best get the kitchen finished
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Bear ion mind that if you go gritting with a tractor, quad or unimog that you cant run it on red diesel, as its not agriculturl or forestry, there was a guy last year or year before had his tractor and spreader impounded because he was gritting supermarket car parks on red think it was £1000 fine straight off and they were investigating him for back tax on previous years
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Well if thats right I stand corrected but I do know that if you buy sand its by the ton and if you buy soil off them which comes in nigh on the same size bag they call it a cubic metre
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Payment on completion or send an invoice?
csservices replied to Big 'Ammer's topic in Business Management
Depends most regulars and larger jobs are invoiced by post on 14 days credit, one off's and small jobs are usually cash on completion, although just collected a cheque on saturday for a job done in july! had to doorstep the bloke on his way out to walk the dog, best not bounce now -
Just used to tell them a cubic metre is about the same size as a bulk bag from the builders merchants most people seem to have an idea then even if thier still not sure on what thier getting
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I use a 45 gallon drum, burn anything thats too small for logs and light it with the splinters and bark that come off from cutting logs a full drum will yield a feed bag full of charcoal and I can get £15 a bag for that but as it takes 6 hrs for a burn its not going to pay well I just do it as a way of using up hardwood waste
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Very nearly bought one of those avants a few years back very handy machine, only reason i didnt was that the I got offered the one I had on demo for about half list price and as usual turned out to be to good to be true on closer inspection turned out to be 2 years older than I'd been told it was and hours clock had been disconnected to keep the hours down
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Bonfired our artificial one earlier in the year to make room in the loft got a few hundred norway spruce to pick from up at the farm, if anyone this way is looking up to about 15-18ft at a guess and I wont charge anywhere near the garden centre price
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Its the same with the fencing and landscaping job, I dont bother with garden fencing now really cos theres always some numpty with a van who says they'll do it for some stupidly low price, even with agricultural fencing I know people who are barely charging enough to cover the diesel thier using, never mind thier labour just to get jobs, and landscapers who are the same, shows in the end though, you can do it cheap or you can do it properly
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Is it ever going to stop raining?
csservices replied to TimberCutterDartmoor's topic in General chat
Absolutely siled it down this morning again woke me up about half 5 it was raining that hard -
I've heard it enough times now to know if something along the lines of "if you give me a good price there will be more work for you" means "I think your daft enough to fall for this and when I want the next job done I'll try it on with someone else" and "I can give you a hand with it if you want" means "if you come on your own it'll be cheaper" no it wont cos you dont know what your doing and will get in the way
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Is it ever going to stop raining?
csservices replied to TimberCutterDartmoor's topic in General chat
Nice and warm and sunny here today, still to wet under foot to get on with much, went back to a fencing job yesterday for first time in three weeks and wasnt to bad in the morning but rained most of the day, and made a mess getting the tractor back out at the end of the day -
I used Medallion, their good strong nets and never had any problems with delivery
