oldwoodcutter
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Everything posted by oldwoodcutter
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Alder conversion m3 - ton?
oldwoodcutter replied to Boy English's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
Best of luck with that Adam [emoji106] -
I certainly wouldn’t lend my truck, chipper, saws or anything to staff. If they put a job my way , and I get it, then yes , generally 10% ( within reason) popped in their pay packet as a thankyou.
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Staff woes, getting ready to chuck it all in
oldwoodcutter replied to Scott95's topic in General chat
But on the other side of the coin, I had a very slow raker and dragger who was permanently in bottom gear, a guy in his late 40s but funnily enough fit and strong and something of a comedian . When I set on a second labourer (who worked like a trojan and had a first class work ethic) this indeed spurred on the first guy to levels of productivity hitherto unseen, and they both worked their nuts off until leaving a year later, both for personal, but very different reasons. -
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I’ve seen all manner of so called jewellery on hapless youths turning up for work on their first day, you name it, they’ve had it pierced and adorned. Taken quietly to one side, and a few well chosen words of advice and they have been unplugged, unhooked, dismantled or unscrewed. Our work is dangerous enough without inviting anything to be ripped off.
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Often you’ll rock up to price some hedges that are well shaped and look to have been cut well and regularly in the past. I immediately say I can see they’ve been well looked after, who normally does them for you? If they say it’s ‘old Bob the gardener down the village but his knees have gone’ I know works for an ounce of shag and half a gallon of petrol, I explain we can never compete with him, and often the customer is agreeable to paying tree money on hedgework.
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I had this today, as usual I priced a tall pine to be dismantled on the high side of good money , and the customer said oh we thought it would have been more, and promptly gave me the go ahead. Makes a change from the moaning minnies I suppose.
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If you can walk, cut, and breath at the same time, 6 tanks through, and have a good clearer upper, quote him £750 and wack it in a day
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Just picture in your minds eye, with however many cutters and clearers you have, how long it will take. As Steve said, it’s all about width. Price it high enough to make good coin, if they say that’s expensive tell him to do it himself then.
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Cutting to handy lengths is always a good idea, as Is halving or quartering rings and awkward big chunks. Leaving out lumps that take 3 men to lift are not normally preferred by the goblins.
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Might have knocked a bit of sense in to him, prat.
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Tractors and trailers trundling along mile after blinking mile at 20 mph without pulling over, driving straight past lay-bys and pull offs on main roads. The ones that occasionally do pull over look to be older generation, the majority look young . This really is the height of bad manners and selfishness to my mind. Last week we followed one on the A149 for 6 miles and he had his phone stuffed in his ear the whole time with traffic behind us to the horizon.
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Even this heat is better than working in the pouring rain, that’s what I always say.
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If they can breath and pull connie branches to the chipper at the same time £8 per hr. If they arrive on time every day with boots done up and remembered to buy a sandwich and a bottle of red bull from a local garage for their break £9. If can do all of the above without being told, and their mum don’t ring me once a week at 7am to say their little Jimmy is too stoned from last night to get out of bed, and anyway he’s locked himself in his bedroom then the young fellow deserves £10 in my estimation.
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Ive noticed that it seems to be a habit nowadays,for young fellows to spend the greater part of the journey on the passenger seats of my tipper to the job site, with their hand down the front of their trousers. I find this very distasteful and have explained so, but it seems that it’s a habit that’s difficult to stop. I turned a blind eye to it for a start, but had to say something I’m afraid.
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Amputation is an option, but may be a step too far Felix, yes Billy it’s blackthorn.
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I have one in my knuckle from a fortnight ago, that night mrs oldwoodcutter produced her needle wallet and as usual tried to dig it out, i levitated off my chair at one point, but it wouldn’t come out for all the tea in China. I’ve tried every trick in the book since, but the begger won’t come out. I’m leaving it there, may grow out.
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Have you noticed that bringing out coffees is often linked, almost before they have put the tray down, with “now can I ask you a favour, can you just - lower that 40 yards of bramble choked conifer hedge by 4 feet, or take off that one and a half ton of bough over the conservatory from that scots pine with no top in. Yeah, give us a minute I’ll sort a price out for you missus.
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How to grow my business, how did you grow yours?
oldwoodcutter replied to Chipperclown's topic in General chat
Do self employed bricklayers or electricians go onto the big sites and work for way under others doing the same job? Do petrol tanker drivers (British) chug up and down the country for peanuts? Of course they don’t, there’s enough trees in the country for all of us to make a good living, and if you underprice every job day in day out the only people that are winning are your customers, who will let you work for the crumbs off their table all day long, while you’re on their property with the sweat rolling off your back. -
My lads are under strict instructions to not do any ‘can you just, without calling me first, as we all know that some customers, if given an inch, will take 10 miles. And talking of peeves, today again I realise the chipper has been running flat out for the last 10 minutes with no one within 50 yards of it, and all 4 doors of the tipper are wide open, the seats and dash hip deep in chip dust and leaves.
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They say that, apart from your family, you are forgotten about in around 6 weeks after you’ve gone, that’s a sobering thought at my age when I switch off the light at night.
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How many hours do you put into your business?
oldwoodcutter replied to Stefan Palokangas's topic in General chat
and when you’re in your sixties you can walk around the work site watching others work hard making money for you.
