Paul Jenks

The pool of oil is just the excess from the bar lube. The pump is factory set, used to be adjustable, don't know if it still is. Once you get it into some wood and a bit of dust finds its way into the oil tank it'll soon slow down. I'm with the others on the twisted vs straight shanks. Personal preference. Still bloody uncomfortable after a day with a big saw hanging off your harness.

The ms200T's and the blowers seem to be the worst culprites. Rubbish manufacture. Made in China, assembled in Germany. EU loophole means they can market as made in Germany. Typical value engineering but sadly Stihl have no alround competition. (IMO)

All our guys have first aid. One of them has battle casualty first aid. We train all our guys to climb and effect aerial rescue and then get them certificated. We regularly practice aerial rescue and time it. Hamadryad summed it up by saying that calmness is what is required. The more the guys are put into pressure situations the more likely they are likely to respond well when the crisis comes. Good training, however, means that the crisis is less likely to come at all.

Bummer about the paint, but on a serious note we always used to carry kit around in the hopper of our chippers but it ended up continuously splitting the joints and our jenson had to be welded at least 3 times. It was partly to do with the weight of stuff we put in it and partly down to the assymetric support strut position. I.e. It only had one and that was set to the side. There are also legal ramifications as when you transport gear in towed plant it automatically becomes a trailer and leads you into the realms of MAM and train/towing weights.

I believe the Tech Cert course is to become modular from 2013/14, (might even be sooner), which should mean you can spread the load.

Or you could get someone to go in at night and fell them

My wife did our books for the first year in a ledger bought from WHSmith. As we grew I started using a bookkeeper who spent 2-3 hours a month sorting out my receipts and formatting them on sage for the accountant to do the year end stuff. Now the office does most of it whilst liaising with the accountant when required. I've been with my accountant for 7 years and he helps with all our submissions, getting rebates where he can, sorting my P11D, dividend payments, off setting depreciation against corporation tax etc. If you're good at climbing stick to climbing and pay someone else to do better and faster the stuff you don't like. I detest accounts but fortunately there are people out there who love it.

I'd say the reason for not stopping an LDV is exactly because it could be a pikey wagon and they simply don't do that.

Doing other types of work can be a distraction but if you or your guys have the skills then it can be a good revenue stream. Typically, tree surgeons are more expensive to do fencing and landscaping as they still have to pay for their chippers and saws and insurance. However, if the client is happy to pay why not.

What were the dimensions of the trees? If you look at Fig.59 Page 95 of The Body Language of Trees by Mattheck and Breloer he gives a table of distances from the base of a tree whereby the severing of structural roots will destabilise the tree, other health issues notwithstanding. With the distances you've mentioned the trees would have to have diameters of less than 500mm, measured above the buttress roots, to have not been seriously compromised by the works.

From my experience of this type of chronic injury from both tree surgery and rowing it's often caused by gripping at the same time as using the fingers. Usually holding and using an MS200 one handed. When you grip something the muscles tighten around the sheaths that carry the tendons for your fingers. If you then use your fingers, or in this case your forefinger to pull the trigger, the friction inside the sheath builds up and can become inflamed. The most cost effective way I found of alleviating most pain is stretching. Very few of us stretch enough or at all and it makes so much difference to your flexibility and resilience to injury. 2 stretches for your for arms: 1st stand facing a wall at arms length. Lift your arm to horizantal with the back of your hand against the wall, fingers down. Gently lean against the wall keeping arm straight. As the pressure builds along the outside of your forearm hold the position for at least 30 seconds. Release and repeat for both arms. For more advanced stretchers turn the fingers outwards. 2nd stand facing a wall at arms length. Lift your arm to horizantal with the palm of your hand against the wall, fingers down. Gently lean against the wall keeping arm straight. As the pressure builds along the inside of your forearm hold the position for at least 30 seconds. Release and repeat for both arms This needs to be done regularly but don't force it. It's not comfortable but shouldn't be painful. Everyone should do it not just folk with current issues.

Also depends on how many miles you want to do privately. The old adage goes if you do alot of business miles buy the vehicle yourself then charge it out on business usage at 40p/mile for the first 10k and then 25p/mile for anything after that. If you do alot of personal miles get the company to buy it and pay for the fuel and other expenses. HMRC are cracking down on this and you really have to do your sums to get the most tax effective way to do it as you will get a personal tax hit either way. Talk to your accountant about which way to go and then to a finance person to get the gen on which method of paying for a vehicle best suits your pocket, (might be buying 2nd hand). Then look for the best vehicle. Then start haggling with the vendor. Be prepared to walk away.

It's actually less than a bulk bag, they're usually about 0.8m3. I use those plastic builders truggs to bring the logs into the house. The ones I have are not that big and to use 2 in a day , 24hrs, you really have to be getting the fire stoked up good and proper. The fire place I've got allows me to stack a bit of wood either side so it gets a bit more drying prior to going into the burner. Also the wetter the wood the more deposits go up the chimney and stick to the sides raising the potential for chimney fires.

Every now and then nests get stuffed but most of the time my guys are very good and pull off jobs when there is an issue with wildlife. The potential fines are frightening and for bats the police come round and slap the cuffs on. We do a lot of work with ecologists and they survey the tree prior to works if there is potential for habitat. In the case of this old tree there was and is obvious potential and this should have been picked up on the initial site visit and noted on the SSRA. As a percentage not many companies do this but once you've been exposed to the wrath of Natural England you tend to try and get it right. Fair play to you for stopping. It's expensive stopping jobs and frustrating too I just got used to it. We do try to educate our clients about the potential for habitat, (and the fines associated with non compliance), and they will often pay for an inspection. Of course sometimes they won't.

Well it would be as the front axle is soooo overloaded. We find it a bit bouncy.

Depends on the access and the proximity of the tree to vehicles but I think 3 grand is not too much for a tree, certainly with the manpower you predict to have on site.

We have one. It's good little truck with 4 year warranty. However: It's quite cramped in the cab. 3 can fit but boy is it friendly. Strange gear box, hardly ever use first. Loads of pull and goes like a train. A word of warning. We ordered one very similar to this with an almost identical body/storage design. When it arrived the front axle was on its load limit without a driver or any tools and the weight overall was 3.2 tonnes, allowing us to carry about 300kgs, assuming no driver or kit. We sent it back as not fit for purpose. Having bought the vehicle seperately we then had to have a greatly stripped down version to try to get the payload up to about a tonne. We put the original body on a new Isuzu 6.2tonne vehicle. This is a very good truck. I'll post some pictures when the guys get back.

It also depends on the amount of heat they want versus the most heat they want from the wood. I.e. They will get more heat by opening up the vents and letting the burner draw lots of air. The most efficient way to use a log burner is to load it right up and shut it right down. The burner then acts as a radiator rather than a fire. We have a tiny log burner and only tend to burn ash and beech. If it's not too windy it'll stay in all night, 8 hours. If we leave the vent open about 1-2 hours but christ does it get hot. Most folk like to see flames and that's when it's not working efficiently. Our little burner can keep in for 24/7 with as little as 0.5cuM a week.

I agree. 'Slamming' is a pejorative term. I'll be a more selective with my choice of verbs and adjectives in future correspondence.

Haix used to be very good and durable but we've been having issues with the metal plate coming through the side of the sole on some of the boots as well as the whole front part of the sole coming off. It's difficult to define fair wear and tear but we get a years guarantee for the Lavoro and it's half the price saving us about £1200 per year. Goes back to getting your gear from a local supplier. If you can take something back and slam it on their desk they are more likely to act. They are the ones who supplied you with defective goods after all. It's down to them to take it up with their supplier.

We wanted to use a crane to lift a big horse chestnut out of a garden in Oxford. It was 52m from the proposed position of the crane. The biggest untended crane we could get was 100tonnes and it could only lift 1.7tonnes at that reach. Also the insurance premium ramped up to near 5 figures as the lifts were to be over several houses. Needless to say the lads did it the old fashioned way in little bits through the house. 18tonnes of tree.

Other industries tend to use fall arrest equipment whereas we use taut line systems. If you have been trained and certificated for checking fall arrest then do it otherwise leave it.

I broke a couple of ribs about 4 years ago. I was handling a lump of eucalyptus in windy weather, (ok I admit it was too big), and instead of just letting it go I held on and got pulled over onto the stub. Yeeouch! Luckily I had just cleared my line so I could descend by myself. Once on the ground I couldn't move for 10 minutes or so by which time the paramedics arrived. Fortunately nothing else was damaged so after a handful of Neurofen Plus I was able to move about. Tried to stay away from the painkillers a bit as they encourage you to do more than you should. I did a big climb, a dismantle partially over a building 5 days later high as a kite on solpadeine, scary. Took about 2 years for there to be no pain at the injury site.

Very nice piece of work. A joy to watch. The team work looked good and I agree the ground guys are really very good.

We always get our blades sharpened professionally, but the company knows what they are doing and typically asks whether the blades are to be skimmed or taken back further. In 7 years we've only had one issue and that was where it appeared that one of the blades, or knives as they call them, had been dropped and had a nick in the edge. As I say this company are good and usually point out defects to us, i.e. hairline cracks.