Big J

You're right to draw the line between tree surgery and forestry. I've worked with so many cutters over the years and the spectrum of ability and work ethic is huge. Some cutters are very talented, but lazy to some extend. Others are talentless but work very hard. The unicorn is the hard working talented cutter and there aren't too many of those about. I know a few and work with them whenever I can. To put it into context, on a site a few years back, I was working with a couple of my best cutters and one of my worst. Same trees across the site. The two skilled cutters did around 27t a day each on average in decent douglas fir. Felled and processed. The other guy did 6-8t. It's situations like this that make minimum wages very tricky as production rate when you're unproductive can put you below that threshold. That being said, when I was felling a lot (25-28 years old) I was really bloody fast, but I did take a lot of breaks. I only had an on or off setting, in terms of felling. That's probably why I'm a bit broken now 😄 I did feel pleased with myself the other day felling 230 relatively small (50-60ft, 6-12" DBH) spruce at the harvester in 15 racks in 3 hours. Still got it - even if I needed physio afterwards 😄

When I was hand cutting, I used to follow a pretty rigid routine, which worked well with the chap I used to work with. Two tanks (of fuel in the saw), breakfast. Two tanks, lunch. Two tanks, second lunch/tea. One or two tanks then home. That was a 07:30 to 16:30-17:00 day. It worked very well and we usually took breaks of 20 minutes, 30 minutes and 20 minutes. Motor manual chainsaw work is hard graft and you have to make time for refuelling yourself. I always cut quickly and put a good tonnage on the deck. Now that I don't do so much cutting, I tend to take fewer breaks, or eat as I'm driving the forwarder. I do get annoyed if people take the piss with breaks, but I always breaked regularly and worked fast. Everyone is different.

The statements from Sarah's family are wrenching. There is no punishment that could really befit the crime. For a police officer to so heinously abuse their position of public trust and power defies belief. I doubt that he'll last very long in prison. Unless he's completely separated from the rest of the prison population, I'm sure there will be a queue of fathers of daughters lined up to put an end to that monster.

Surely it's much more than 12%. Current minimum is £8.91 so it's over 50%? I believe that it's a 12% increase on the national average wage.

Epic rain here today, both on site and at home. Rain gauge at the bottom of the lane has recorded 55mm. One of the torrential showers today coincided with a brief stint out of the cab chucking trees at the harvester. A complete change of clothing was needed at lunchtime

I think that property ownership is pretty common in rural areas even amongst those of modest means. Not to say that there aren't rental properties, but they are far harder to find. Why would you bother spending £8k a year on a house in rent when you can buy it for £60-80k? I wouldn't blame you for leaving Scotland. The lockdown trashing of the countryside has underlined how a significant minority of the country are ruining if for the rest of you. Of course we get litter down here too, but it's not in the same league as what we used to see in Scotland. It's a shame, because so much of Scotland is so pretty.

I know that the tax burden is very high in Sweden. I'm not pretending it'll be anything other than that and I'm sure it'll still bite 😄 But, having a mortgage free house and limitless work, alongside much improved (for us) freetime activities will take the sting out of it. Everyone has to prioritise what's important to them, and for us it's not money. Maybe we'd eventually make more money here, but at what cost?

I'm on my fuel card so about £1.11 plus VAT. It had never occurred to me before but isn't it wonderful that we pay VAT on the full amount? So we're charged VAT on the duty. A tax charged on a tax. Fabulous. 😠

Both my wife and I got fuelled up fine in Tiverton today at Esso. Seems to be a lot more supply there without the massive queues we have in Cullompton.

I would say that that is a little bit ambitious. It's not that the machines can't produce that, only that you can't do anything else. So clearing sawdust, clearing the offcuts, banding packs, moving them out of the way, maintaining machines, dealing with jams/breakdowns, changing blades, sharpening etc. We used to do lorry loads of western red cedar for beehives at 35 cubic metres a time. We had the big Trakmet TTS800, the multirip saw and the frame saw. It'd usually take us a hard three-four days to fill the lorry with a 4 man team. And then an easier day of tidy up and resetting before doing it again.

After a long stable spell, it's wild out there this morning. I could hear the rain lashing the window overnight. 6mm so far on the gauge. The forecast for the week is pretty poor. Autumn has arrived.

Local Esso garage has a delivery at 22:00-00:00 so I'll fill up on the way to work tomorrow. Perhaps I'll drive a little more economically than usual 😬

I wonder how long it'll be before people start putting red in their tanks. I've got hundreds of litres of that and a van fuel tank with the fuel light on. All stations in our town are out.

I suspect that you have a slightly different perspective living and working in Norway, which I feel is the most capitalist of the Nordic nations. I however defer to your experience in the matter. What is worth noting though is that the Nordic Model of Socialist Capitalism is very different from the Socialist Hell that the right in America so often categorise it as. Yes, it is very supportive of entrepreneurs and yes, it's possible to make a lot of money there. The difference is that throughout all of that, there is a rock solid social security safety net. I'd argue that part of the reason that the Scandinavian countries have been so successful in recent years is that the risk of abject destitution has been largely removed from the public consciousness.

I think with that idea of Scandinavian capitalism comes the notion that the acquisition of wealth beyond the point of ever needing any more is distasteful. The principle of Lagom is rather important - not too much, not too little, just right. The distance between society's poorest and richest is much smaller. If those in this country with ample means refrained from exploiting every loophole and crack in our taxation system, we'd have a much happier (and better funded) society, as well as a lot of unemployed accountants. That's a win win in my books.

Joint warmest September on record so far. Unlikely to hold that position with it cooling next week, but will end up as the second warmest on record.

Queues at the Tesco forecourt as I passed a few minutes ago. The Brex-pocalyse is upon us..... 😬 😆

Yup. We're in Sweden next month. We might possibly buy a house when we're there, we have a tour of the school the girls will go to, meeting a few different work contacts, have started selling machines/vehicles and reducing outgoings and commitments. It's rather liberating, and nice to have the time to plan. We rushed moving to Devon because of our older daughter starting school, with the whole process from the decision being made to moving only taking 6 months. This time, we'll have had almost 3 years by the time we go.

It's back on again this morning 6c outside and 18c in the living room. I prefer 21c. It helps that I probably have more firewood than I can realistically burn this winter and I'm not taking it to Sweden with me.