Gareth Dalzell

Try the hop shop uk. Think it's a wine\beer making online store. They do loads of different sizes. About £1 a pop

Sweet rigging and production guys. Using a pole chainsaw from a rope and harness - interesting:biggrin:

Don't forget to sort out a website. We've given up on advertisely anything other than well sign written vehicles, a decent website (with good search engine optimisation - whatever that is?) and do a good job and look tidy on site. Spend plenty of time on your customers and grow it from there. I reckon in 22 years, other than the above I spent less than £500 on vague advertising. Also target specific areas/companies/people/organisiations you want to work for.

We always detach from the vehicle and leave outside on a concrete yard away from other machines -I've always been a bit uneasy about charging batteries around lots of combustable material and petrol. Problem in this case was it was the next door tenant.

Mr H, Thanks for you response. I can assure you, your posts rarely tell me anything I already know and I,m always much appreciative of your help. I think you,ve hit the nail on the head - I,m starting to realise the Symptom cause and resultant effect here.

Thanks guys for the ident - I,m just starting to get my head around sorting out the different fungi around us and that was one of my reasons for posting in the hope that you two would "hop on" and give me a heads up::Many thanks. There certaining is a fair amount of internal rot- probably 30%, but the stem still seemed to be functioning properly. what alarms me is that the rot plate and main roots seemed sound and solid. ? As you mention shallow root and slenderness ratio is looking plausible. Certainly scared the b'jeesus out of the hotel staff.

Absolutely frightening - it's one of those situations that doesn't bare thinking about

It's the ClandeboyeLodge Hotel Bangor. There's another Ash adjacent which we are going to drop today which is showing numerous signs of rot and basal decay.

The path was put through this area in 1994 just before the hotel openned. It's not visible from the photographs but there are some massive roots that are still sound running below the path - including two big ones around 200-250mm in diameter. Certainly this didn't help the tree but I,m not sure how big a contribution they had the tree falling. I think the ground level may have been increased slightly but again only 4-6" max. My photo editing/detailing is not very good but in the last picture I'd tried to mark in red that the center of the main stem is mush - about 300mm of the center, this extended up the main stem decreasing as it rose to about 5m high

Cracking job. We got a Talon grab from them last year for grabbing timber with the bucket still attached. You'll wonder how you ever did without it and why you didn't get it sooner. Enjoy:thumbup:

We were greeted by this on site this morning. We'd actually gone down to do some heavy shrub pruning but this blew over last night at the front of a hotel at around 9pm - in not very strong wind. We'd noticed this fungus below in October - the culprit? Diameter at base + 1m would be 30"

you make it sound like a collie:lol:

Stihl 460 with a 20" bar. Please Mr Stihl don,t fanny about with this one and change the 460 to a 461. I,m happy with the high emissions and vibrations it reminds me I,m alive:thumbup:

Awesome detail - you can almost sense it's personality

North West Forestry Services? or something like that based in Stranolar?North West Forest Services, forestry donegal, tree trimming donegal Or if you can travel give try A Total Tree Care in Belfast A Total Tree Care Company - Belfast, Northern Ireland or Arbortec in Ballycastle Arbortec

Sounds like another great project. Keep the photo,s coming of the next project and one of this one in action.

Nice bit of work. I see you,ve left a enough room for a crane on the draw bar.I see there is a nice wee truck mount manual crane on eBay you could use for an idea. Might want to beef up the pressed steel hitch if you,re going for big loads - looks like a 750kg but I,m probably wrong:blushing: As for the condition of the workshop - looks all to familiar to me:biggrin:

There are some modular options available and there is the ISA route if you are looking for a qualification. I can put you in touch with various training providers who can take you through all the various levels of the NPTC/Landbased Industries route. Or there are the intensive options in England which one of my colleagues completed last year. If you change or post another thread title "Distance learning Btec options" our something like that someone on here my pick up on it. With Northern Ireland in the title I think you,re missing half the question you are asking from the title everyone sees. I haven't tried but if you search threads on here there may be something on distance learning options. Hope this gets you a bit further along your enquiry

Have a wee look in here. Home | Labour Relations Agency Its a site we use often and its neutral

I,ve often thought it strange that you have your van tested and yet you can tow this massive weight with untested brakes behind you along the public road - and bearing in mind how strick they are with braking effeciencies on the towing vehicle the trailers brakes could have been seized for months.

Thank goodness someone else brought this up-I thought I was the only one who,d been stocking Rovers posts just to see his chest:lol:

I guess it all depends on the subject matter. We have the Equality commission over here and "displays of emblems likely to cause disharmony in the work place are not permitted". This would be fairly specific in Northern Ireland. Personally a bit a artwork doesn,t bother me although I am aware of the affect it has on little old ladies:lol:

I guess there,s may not be as much wet stuff where you are based. I like the chequer plate hopper on the crew cab. Very smart:thumbup1:

Hi Andy, sounds like you,ve had quite a time of it, but at least you appreciate the need for a careful recovery period and the impact rushing back out might have - even if you felt you could. I see you,ve been in Arb for 15plus years -is there anything you could draw on from previous careers that could be adapted Into your career and interests now. I also See from your website you are delivering some courses and design work. There,s got to be some reward in this and potential for development. Now that nptc/city and guilds are moving towards the ITA route it may be easier to get into this area with your experience. Sub contracting the big tree jobs is as mentioned something you may be obliged to do if your customers can not wait. We have in the past rebranded subbies on our site with our company profile and often sub into larger companies by rebranding as their company. without knowing your financial commitments it,s hard to imagine how far you need to go to live and stay sane. I think as you mentioned the frustration element is the hardest bit it handle. I wish you well on this the next stage in your business.

If you follow the link to the suppliers web site you can't help but be impressed. Between 100-200 staff iso cert. modern factory. Mr Huang looks like a busy bunny. It takes very little for a production line to change from making low grade to high grade products and the capability is there; as mentioned before they are producing a product they feel is demanded by the end user.