Ian Flatters

It was more of the third party saying the tree is required removal as nothing can be done because it was lifting a wall and path. I was independently asked to draw up a counter proposal to it. Bridging the root area, installing cellweb. The reason I had to do a valuation is because it had been costed for removal, so the trees value had to be given a monetary number. It seems numbers are easy to weigh up against each other in the legal process these days. You know the value to remove is £600. Cost to do bridging is £800 but to retain the tree its amenity value is £1500 if that makes sense.

The only time recently I've used a valuation system is the heliwell system to value a western red cedar in the rear garden of a property. In a nutshell it was going through solicitors as the neighbour was trying to get it removed and I was asked what it's value could likely be. We won because the other parties consultant was really pushy about removing it and the valuation cost was higher than their removal cost. Other than that I can't recall ever valuing a tree to be honest with you.

One from last week when I actually climbed [emoji23] we were following tasks set by the councils consultant to open up space around a pretty cool and ganrly old oak. Coronet cuts used for when it dies off. Cedar was carried out a few weeks back by the lads.

Like a Christmas present and play day out. [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]. Incredible piece of kit a forwarder. Fingers crossed he said I can do a free day in January, I said sure as I know you'll be playing catch up the next day.

Finally got this one ticked of my list of things I'd like to try. I wasn't the best but not the worst he's ever seen have a go. So I'll take that as a small victory. Then got the truck with road tyre well stuck 🤦‍♂️ removing said small victory into defeat. Couldn't upload the videos but they are on my Instagram feed for the next 20 something hours. Also second skid steer turned up today.

Some bits and bobs. Working a site which is getting ready to be redeveloped after taking nearly 300t in sweet chestnut and oak stems. Mostly large butt's too. A Saturday reducing 2 oaks sympathetically, planting some trees at a former hospital and basically what I spend most my days doing currently walking around locating trees a third party have surveyed for 2 large councils. Pss live is a terrible system to have to use and one I'd strongly suggest avoiding.

Does climbing on and off machines count? [emoji15] I switched with one of the lads in the afternoon on the first day and spent the second day in the mewp on another part of skinny alders. It was nice to get up and do a bit of climbing but in reality my climbing these days are really just climbing inspections, conifer hedges, or when someone's on holdiay/sick. I'm just needed in the office or consulting too much sadly.

Lime mick, all being reduced for polytunnels to go up so marks and Spencers can grow posh veg, fruit and salad stuff. The height is so it can be tree sheared in the future quickly and the sides will be done with a flail.

A couple of recent sites. Been all go lately with surveys so it was nice to spend a couple of days on with the lads.

I guess the first thing to take on board is you now have someone 5 days a week and the costs that come with employment. You'll need to get your head around net and gross wages and the additional expenses that comes with paye. Holiday wise unfortunately you can't overly control when they take it. They are entitled to take it or request to take it. You do have the right to refuse asked dates and we have refused from time to time, although these are mainly when someone asks for a week off with a weeks notice. If your off on holiday I'd advise getting a subby in for the week to cover your role as you'll get an income whilst off as such. Weather is all about the clothing you provide. You have to provide suitable ppe, workwear for your working environment. So buy rain jackets, etc for them. It is after all about being prepared for the weather. Always a 6 month probation period. Training clauses are absolutely fine and common these days. We use signed training agreements with a 12 month period. We have used this in the past and even at court level to reclaim monies owed from doing the training, passing the courses then leaving and setting up a week later. Your a business not a charity. Contracts are key, get signatures on date of issue. If they turn up to work for 14 days after without signing it. It basically means that they were happy to come to work and the contract is valid. Contracts, even ours have a zero hour clause if work runs out or dries up. Again you need to cover yourself. Ideally you'll need to get an employee handbook drawn up too. This basically levels the playing field as employees have way more rights that the employer. This with the contract is how you build in your rights. However..... In the grand schemes of things its much better imo. Especially with the lack of climbers about, either freelance or employed. We have literally spent the last couple of years training 4 greenhorns up from scratch.

Hi everyone, After seeing a couple of threads on specific hobbies I had a thought. Start a thread and see what others do, you never know something you may have been thinking about, turns out someone on here's doing it so you can ask questions. For me it's been paddle boarding, every Sunday we go out on the quiet river and just enjoy it. Its been a fantastic stress relief and something out of work or work related stuff. I'm by no means anything more than a beginner but enjoying the time paddling, falling in, seeing the landscape a way you rarely do and lots of wildlife.

A few recentish bits and bobs, works been manic with new staff coming on board and others moving onto grasses greener in other counties. I rolled the stump grinder through forgetting I was working on a 17 degree slope without putting the dual wheels on (being lazy and paid for my laziness), then smashed a lot of teeth and pockets off on a large piece of metal. Clearing windblown over the highway, Norwich Cathedral site and asbestos covered roofs and oil tanks. Enjoyed having a play in my mates 2.6t arb digger was nice, just showed how underpowered our little 1.8t is.

100%, we've been surveying a lot of vicarage and rectorys recently and part of my scope is to measure and check the boundaries are correct. Most are but I've had 3 sites where the neighbours claimed the hedge is there's and tried to take a few metres of land. In 1 case the knackered tree turned out to be the churches, just the fence was the wrong side. [emoji23]

She was a beauty so we pollarded her a lot lower so it can be retained, as much as I hate doing a pollard I had to agree with the recommendations it was the best option for retention.

A few recent bits and bobs

I reckon we've had about 10 cars end up in the middle of our sites because they said, we thought they were stuck on red. Fixed traffic lights at junctions no bother. Temporary.... Nearly classed as invisible as stop go boards. But I do take the greatest enjoyment of making them back up out of the site and then let the other direction go first to make the point. Makes a rainy wet cold winters day a little bit more enjoyable doing that.

Cheers, sadly it's what people expect in my area, lots of second London homes, mainly bankers who love posh vans I guess. I'm still trying work out how I can offer a prime next day service for an astronomical fee. [emoji23][emoji23]

[emoji23] Good to know a few years to mature and sort myself out a bit has reduced it from 10/10 to a low 7.

If anyone's interested it's called heath assured who were with, through peninsula who do our HR and legal stuff. My wifes just told me health assured is the one the NHS use for their own staff so I guess that says it's quite good. One random thing, I called up about struggling with sleep. I was getting about 1 hour solid then awake for an hour, back to sleep for an hour. I genuinely was convinced it was stress or anxiety that comes with the daily grind of business. Turned out the first thing they told me to do was cut sugar. So I cut sugar down massively (also realising how much sugar I was actually eating and drinking in a day), now I have fantastic sleep compared to before. I get 4 hours straight regularly and I'm edging close to 5 hours, so I hope I'll be onto solid sleep in a few months. Ps Joe, I know kind of what your going through. My wife struggles horrendously with aniexty after having a major wobble mental a few years back after having to have a full hip replacement and being told that she could never have children naturally or be pregnant as it would put her in a wheel chair for the remainder of her life (it's a pretty hard pill to swallow that one so I can appreciate how she felt as I felt awful too, but life is what it is and we can always adopt I guess). She's much better and off pills, for her yoga in the morning really helped her and counciling with someone better at it than me was worth it too as I'm pretty rubbish at that thing.

Just over 2k a year for our company but it covers all 9 employed staff and their family. The single person one and family I think was around £300 for the year.

In fairness I was writing it in the truck. We signed up to a service through the HR and legal company we use. It basically gives all employees and thier family 24hr access to councling and wellbeing apps. All calls are normally answered within 4 rings and any call back is within the hour, no matter what time of day or day of the week. Someone you've never met may be just the person you need to chat to at that time.

As the world becomes ever more aware about mental health and employee wellbeing is it becoming more standard to have these in place? Our story... We've had this in place for around 4 years now after one of our youngest lads father sadly took his own life and until covid it was barely used by any of the lads. My thoughts about it have also changed, before I saw it as another expense sadly and wrongly so. With having access to 24hr 7 days a week it not only covers employed staff but their spouse and children. It covers most things including alcohol, drugs, loss of a loved one, loneliness, anxiety, stress, sleep and a whole lot more. I'm now fully behind it and believe that it's a great cost to spend. But I guess my question is more of because men do find it hard to talk and most of us have had bad days, weeks, months. Do you think this would help you as a business owner or an employee? I mean it's helped me as well, my early to mid twenties I was, well a arrogant dickhead to be fair and honest, losing some arb friends who just walked away but then it wasn't something you talked about so much back then and I don't blame them or hold and grudges. I'm sure there's a few posts on here that would back that up my knobbishness from years gone by. Sadly I didn't have access to this stuff and had a long road to recovery over the years but I was lucky that I have wonderful support from my wife and real friends that helped me hopefully become a better person with me feeling better in myself over the last few years from using it. But whilst sitting in the truck waiting for the rain to pass I was wondering if I'd had access to it back then how much better I could have been sooner. I fully accept some might read this and think it's a load of tosh but wondered if it may lead to some positive conversation with tips of how others got better. So I'll start off with a couple of things that have seriously helped me. * understanding that somethings are out of your control. * breathing techniques and yoga (yoga with kassandra helps me most mornings on YouTube [emoji6]). * openly talking to friends and family about your struggles and stresses. I have loads more but its stopped raining so I'm about to jump out of the truck and crack on surveying but please post your advice or even maybe take that step and voices your worries, you never know a member on here may have been through what your currently starting to experience. Apologies for the waffled post I'm writing it on my phone and the gramme police haven't turned up to correct me yet. [emoji30]

One from our lads yesterday. I'm spending everyday currently banging out gps surveys and taking a rapid covid test each night [emoji30]. Really enjoying seeing a great team of lads getting stuff done.

The crane thing was a bit of jest. I'd certainly say the micro chipper is your best option.

Have you thought about a wee chipper and chip into a wheelie bin? See it a few times on Instagram. Might make shifting it easier. Or crane and just lift it out.