arbmark

Ha thanks guys - i'll shut up then!

Not really bring tools Mark - labour only really, ppe yes - if its tree work then i make a point of not being taken advantage of - even cutting up logs or just a bit of easy felling. They dont get the gold standard for nowt! If i put the harness on, then i get them to call their bank manager!

Thanks for the advice.

Hi Folkies,

I do a bit of self-employed farm labouring work on the side to keep the monies rolling in. General animal feeding, farm sitting, tractor driving, construction, farmsitting, so all labour-only really.

I dont really know what the going rates are so if you dont mind divulging yours, i currently charge £11/hr here in the southwest, just wondered how much any of you guys charge as i would really like to up it!!!!!!! Baby on the way.

i have all the trappings and overheads of a proper arb set-up to consider although i cant expect farmers to pay those rates, but i do want to charge for my varied er, skill-set!

Thanks

Mark

It's called an allistec rob d sells them their designed for detecting metel in timber for milling. I think the depth is 8" but I think it picks up deeper depending on the size of the piece

I would think stuff up to 25/30" diameter you would pick up just about everything in the tree useing the detector running it right round the tree

On larger stuff it's just going to reduce the risk

All in I think it's well worth it to reduce hitting metal saving chains and time sharpening. It's not cheap I think it was about £160 but it pays for itself in a year or so

I'm always finding metal in the area I work in so it's well worth it

Nice one thanks for that......Not that RobD again!!!!!

You beat me to it! We need to do nothing and carry on as normal. How many people have an ash in their garden walk on the leaves going to work and then travel 30 miles! How many farmers have flailed their hedges and moved from one holding to another?There seems no point in spraying boots etc. If you don't have this disease next spring you will have. Leave all trees and only fell for safety or as part of your usual firewood/thinning programme. Any felling of live trees now will only kill off those which are resistant to the disease.

most sensible real world words i have heard yet on the subject. get it framed

Looks good, at a price

what ever happened to hand tools, you all been spoilt:001_tt2:

yeah! its not as cool as a side-axe.

a normal power plane world do the same job and, hey it would do truer surfaces too, just a bit slower

I got fed up with hidden surprises and invested in a metal detector

Now I check the stem from the ground as far as I can reach and mark any metal found

I haven't hit metal since I've had it so don't get misshapen file hand hardly ever

treemoose how deep does it read - is it reliable for largeish daimeter trees - the sort that might have enveloped a metal stake etc!?!?!?!??

Think yourself lucky my picture isn't of me in those flesh coloured sequin things they seem to wear on 'that show'...:biggrin:

 

Ref the regs, they're typically long winded, but the closest I ever found to defining to whom LOLER applies is this passage...

 

 

 

In black and white that means we can do what we like in our own homes, but as soon as we set foot outside of there then LOLER applies.... I do however believe there's a grey area around this....

my sister hasnt managed to get me anything from her wardrobe work in da capital - the DOI hi-viz takes some beating.

yeah good excerpt - cheers. Thats actually pretty clear.

I wont pry into why it doesent apply to you but the best explanation is that you are acutally Craig Revel Horwood who as we all know likes to play arbz at weekends.......

So, i didn't really sell it, and it seems no-one else either watched it or felt moved to comment on it, which is a shame as it was really amazing stuff and well worth an hour of your time.

 

*Spoiler Alert!*

 

Basically a Spanish conquistador sailed up the Amazon in search of the reputed cities of gold, sailing up the river he and his crew began to starve yet were surrounded by thriving communities of people, they were kept alive by these people who fed them. This conquistador returned to Spain with stories of an abundant civilization within the forests along the Amazon but he soon fell from favour in the Spanish court and his accounts became lost in history, deemed as exaggerated tales by later generations.

 

Explorers who followed in his wake found far fewer people and the colonising Europeans came to think of this land as barely inhabited save for the occasional small isolated tribe here and there. Mass deforestation in the latter part of the 20th Century exposed vast tracts of the forest floor and people flying over them began to notice strange geometric patterns on the ground, known as geoglyphs. These enormous geoglyphs had remarkable properties being both huge and hugely geometric, their existence pointed to very large human civilizations now long since vanished, and so it seems that early conquistador may well have been telling the truth, and perhaps he and his crew, or subsequent visitors brought disease which wiped out something like 90% of the population at the time and brought those developed civilizations to an abrupt end.

There was also a fair bit of comment on how these forest peoples were an important part of the ecosystem and helped to manage the forest in such as way that contributed to the development of it's famous complexity and biodiversity.

 

This was a part of it, there was a lot more besides; all very interesting stuff.

they didnt have chainsaws! always makes me laugh how people think woodland needs managing, as opposed to being something purely driven by mans want/need to exploit which needs managing. I've bought a wood, its needs managing - b******s! Tribal peoples can be part of an ecosystem - blokes with chainsaws exporting from that system are uninvited guests....... well thats my current opinion!

sorry, no i didnt see it! sounds interesting - what's a geoglyph and where can i get one? i better watch it eh?

Is it really worth leaving them all in the hope that some may be resistant and face the serious risk that 90% of uk ash trees (80 million in total) will end up with absolutely no value at all if you are not allowed to use them once infected?

 

I have a 21 acre woodland which is mostly beech planted 45 years ago with some ash and pine. The plan was to gradually remove the beech to promote the ash (which is the natural predominant tree for this site - limestone hillside north wales). I am now thinking about removing most of the young ash before they get infected so they have some value.

 

Surely the surviving resistant trees on the continent should be enough to propogate a resistant strain from for future re-stocking?

surely the resistant trees might come from the uk?!?! I dont think full resistance has had a chance to be tested.

And its not the same as the elms as they sucker like mad and the juvenile trees are immune to DED, and can even propagate before becoming infected.

On the other hand, taking the long view (after all the loss of ash for a few centuries is a blip in time in planetary terms) perhaps it has had its day and we shouldnt be so sentimental.

But back to the present and our lifetimes, or the next few, there will be no resistant trees if every one is cut down, so therefore i think we should all gratefully accept the work if the trees are causing a hazard but we should be seeking to help ash recover by giving it every chance by helping the trees trying to fight.

your last line is important - we dont want ash dieback hysteria

second that

yea i really hope the legislation doesnt encourage a pre-emptive felling culture. that would do the ash no favours at all.

There will probably be more work for all of us though i would have thought

Kind of, yes. But I'm not a sole trader / self employed, I only work on my own stuff or do the climbing and cutting for friends....

 

As I understand LOLER, employers providing equipment are responsible under PUWER for inspecting and recording the condition of equipment supplied to employees to ensure it is fit for purpose, and the self employed who use their own kit in the course of paid work need to get it inspected as well.

 

Oddballs like me who fall into the 'homeowner' category are not covered by industrial regulations such as PUWER, only basic law so far as I'm aware....

 

So on the one hand it saves me the cost of regular inspections, but on the other it means I have to spend double the time inspecting my gear that I would if it was properly LOLERed....

yea never really been sure but i get mine lolered despite being self-employed and noone else using my climbing kit. Like many things we do de rigeur, ive never seen the exact sentence that categorically states our obligations. If i fall out of a tree due to equipment failure and land on someone......

I cant say whether youre oddball or not, but your sartorial choices seem a little err, eccentric......!

yea same here! seems to do the job of two or three tools. i wonder if you can get a good result on large surfaces - eg a rustic plank dining table?

worcs is that because you are a sole trader and only use your own kit or something?

Great post Andy - i think we need to concentrate the treefolk community's mind on this and not removing mature ash trees wholesale - the larger the population retained, surely the greater the chance of resistance? we'll have to see what the coming spring holds but it looks like it is going to be a sad era in arboriculture.

there will be plenty of timber and logs from the dead and dying trees - there is no excuse for a panic or greedy plunder.

a fine bedtime story

right up there with the hungry caterpillar and the tiger that came to tea...

Give my friend Luke a call on 07772 274428 , he drives a valtra around Bristol usually full of wood in the trailer on a daily basis. He will surely be able to help.

cheers theocus i'll pass his number on

Rob, go on - what are your personal findings?! You must have tried a few different files in your time!

I think i would prefer a more aggressive file on a larger pitch chain

The sugi bar is doing fine by the way - not sure what i can say about it though!

Im in Bradley Stoke, Ill keep an eye out for some for him.

 

any ideal lengths / girths?

hi joe,

(i presume!) thanks. can you give me your number and i'll get Ed to call you tomorrow if thats convenient.

Many thanks

Mark

actually it doesent have to be that interesting , just a bit interesting.......

to give the shot character if you know what i mean, as the owl ( the star of the shot) flies past

Evening all,

A mate of mine, a former arb and now a freelance natural history filmmaker in bristol, is after a few trunks or branches (1 or 2ft diam) about 5-6ft long with interesting gnarly form/bark (eg hawthorn, yew, alder) to replicate woodland trees in a studio for two days. He can borrow/hire/keep them and he is prepared to pay something. He can collect in the bristol area.

They could have side branches but they must have a least one side that looks like it did when it was standing ie no scrapes, dings, chainsaw marks.

And whats more they will probably get on the telly

cant promise a mention in the credits!

If you can help him, then just leave your details in this thread and i'll pass them on to him

cheers

mark

or maybe 'montezuma' but its a lot less common

great job Rob and thankyou for your hard work. It was a really good opportunity to find out what file suits - it was apparent that some liked the fierceness of the save edge. It was crap on the .325 though. Probably good to have in the kit if you hit a nail, or two (like the other day!) with one of the bigger saws.

cut through 3/4 of the ivy stems and seem how it goes - i wouldnt cut it all off but then i give a t**s about the wildlife ivy supports

but hey we're only here for a blip in geological timeframes so heck do what you like!!

Me too couldnt thin k what Id ordered:confused1:

Yep same here!

I am starting to wonder if we should set off (yep probably in single file), roam the country in some sort of press gang to sit them down and make them sharpen their bloody saws!!!

I dont reckon Rob will get many more results in to be honest. Maybe he could PM the overall results to those that have returned theirs as a reward for their loyalty and damn good form!!!!

In return we promise not to publicly reveal ourselves