oldwoodcutter

As Shane said, even with some charge in them you can be in trouble. The mk6 and 7 tranny's twin batteries have to both be in tip top condition for starting and running correctly.

Ms200t. Dolmar 5045 460 Spudded to the max. 660

Or rigging everything down but lifting the chogs off like a challenge in britains strongest man,and throwing them down to make holes that could be mistaken for the start of the channel tunnel.

When working in domestic gardens, doing whatever you're up to, it's always the 'finish' that your work is judged on. Leave hedge clippings everywhere, or twigs all over the lawn, or stones and clods on the grass after stumping, and you'll seldom get asked back. Leave it clean and tidy for them to look at long after you've gone, and they may just invite you back to take some more money off them next year.

Ah, that explains the unusual smell coming from your trousers I noticed on Friday Stumpy. 🙂

LT - conceit and arrogance personified.

I dare not give some of mine a 7 day cooling off period as the job would have been done in the meantime by someone else for £10 less by the time I turned up to do it, handshake or not.

That's a good one Muttley, the impudence of some people is astounding. Cheeky git.

Too rough to work here as well. Went down the gravel pit for a couple of loads of 14mm to freshen up my house yard, as Mrs old woodcutter complaining of getting muddy shoes when around her rotary line and her car parking area. Happy days

Steer clear of pricing anything up 'dayrate' because after mid afternoon the customer will be watching you like a hawk, and if you go much afore 5 he will be knocking your day rate down, 'as you didn't work all day'.

Hey Stumpy, we're good to go at 8 Monday morning 🙂

Before the days of h&s a farmer asked me to help him out by spraying up in his corn drier for saw toothed grain weevels. I remember using his old knapsack device for a couple of days,no mask, rats everywhere, i spent the next week at home either on the toilet or running to it,got so debilitated had to go to the docs in the end. Worse was just after i left school got a saturday job at local butchers,i worked in an old poorly lit shed out the back cleaning the weeks dirty meat bins and trays using cold water and soda chrystals that took the skin off your hands.The shed also housed several used 45 gallon barrels that all the old bones and unsaleable smelly stuff went in. Meat fed rats about as long as your arm lived in the barrels, walked between my feet all day and even used to come onto my washing benches. Think i stuck it for about 4 saturdays before i had enough of that, especially when my girlfriend at the time told me i smelled of meat of a saturday night.

When i went into my dealers last week he rather impressively showed me one he had chained to the shelf. It looks well built and is certainly light weight. He didnt talk me into buying it, but i did forget what i went in for in the first place.

With the short days of winter, sat in front of my log burner drinking tea for days on end, reflecting on the small fortune i spend on advertising and the phone not ringing, i too lost my mojo in january, but with spring just around the corner,things are slowly beginning to move - ime getting my motley crew together again now for a couple of days each week, and getting a bit more of a spring in my step.

So many of my tree worker friends are struggling at the moment, they're putting a brave face on it trying to compete with the lunatics pricing work for peanuts. Trying to maintain a thousand quid float in their company accounts is a reality for them. Whoever said running a sole trader tree work company was easy?

Ive seldom come across anyone nowadays who makes a good living from the FC . I always seemed to get the feeling the commission were letting me have the crumbs off the table.

But still keep it user friendly Steve, i have a bit of a job keeping up as it is

Thats a good one Gary

From a personal viewpoint, that gesture of kindness and civility is almost unheard of in my area. That would make my day too Dave. Sometimes the client, after all my pleasantries and talk through of the job in hand are done,when it finally comes to me giving him the price, turns on his heels and walks back into his house without hardly uttering another word.

I'm finding this thread very worthwhile, all tree workers are in the danger zone,be it the saw,the climb,some mad car driver coming through the work area, or a chog just missing someones shoulder when he switched off for a few seconds. The small mistakes do indeed all add up, some accidents appear to come from nowhere,but they've actually come from the small things in retrospect.

I have no scientific evidence, but from personal experience when i am cross cutting hardwood all day and wearing a mask, i dont cough and wheeze so much as when i didnt bother. A friend was watching me cutting cord,couple of years ago, and said how i looked to be completely engulfed in a dust cloud, which i hadnt realised, being in the zone. As an aside, i wear one when splitting on still dry days now too,and feel the better for it.

Thats a good one Geoff, i needed a laugh tonight

I dont keep records of quotes that are successful but it feels like around half are won. Some days i can price 3 jobs and not get any, or another day get them all. Admittedly i do now sidestep jobs that i can smell are going to be trouble, or overprice ones that look awkward with a capital A. But,by and large,yes about 50%. and that includes a few of those overpriced ones

Impressive, thanks for posting.

Sandringham never did pay well.