bolthole

This... Wiggle | Assos Chamois Cream | Chamois Cream Apply liberally in the morning. If you do chafe then apply Sudocreme or any nappy creme. Slather it on as soon as you stop for the day. Don't, whatever you do, mix the two up and put the chamois cream on chafed bits. I know this from excruciating experience. It says 'do not apply to intimate areas'! You really should make your own mind up about that...

Hi All, Anyone sub themselves and out as 'man and chipper'? I've got a CS100 which was bought for a job a couple of years ago - wondering if there's a market for it and what the pros and cons might be. Does anyone do it and make a decent enough income? Cheers!

A good guide to identifying Cedars is; Cedrus Atlantica (Atlas Cedar) has Ascending branches Cedrus Libani (Cedar of Lebannon) has Level branches Cedrus Deodar (Himalayan Cedar) has Descending branches. The others (Turkish/Cypriot) cedars are glaucous have blue/green foilage.

I had this with a new Husqvarna I bought from the states a few years ago, when the dollar was 2:1. I can't remember the exact details, but I think the chain and bar were right for each other but not for the sprocket. When you ran the saw the chain was jumping on the sprocket and the tips of the tangs were getting burred-out, making them too wide for the bar groove. It did exactly what you described - started fine but as soon as you got the chain brake off and tried to cut, the chain would jam. The chain was goosed, but the bar was basically okay and everything came good once we got the right sprocket for the chain and bar on! Saw got nicked off the first job mind, but that's another story!.....

There's an online petition going about to replace Clarkeson with Alan Partridge. Surely this is a stroke of absolute genius. Please sign!!! https://www.change.org/p/the-bbc-hire-alan-partridge-to-replace-jeremy-clarkson

Thanks! I don't blame the Doc's really - they see a lot of people with lifestyle induced conditions and they're bound to get a bit hacked off with it. The guy I saw wasn't exactly Mr Sympathy! The whole way our system of medicine has developed is in some ways to blame. We go to the Doc when we're ill and by and large everything's set up so that we go away with a pill is supposed to fix things. The system's continued like this so that we're live in a world where we expect an expert to fix us with some neatly package pharacological magic, and so now everyone goes to the Doc when they feel bad. A lot of Doctors know this isn't good enough but there's no time or resources to help people properly. Don't get me wrong, acute and trauma-related medicine is awesome, and lets face it, you don't really need a 'holistic' approach when you've come off your bike and shattered your pelvis, but the current system and our collective mindset as regards health has become something where people are largely allowed to co-opt responsibility for their wellbeing to someone else. We aren't in control of a lot of factors that degrade our health, like our genetics and to some extent the cards life has dealt us, but the bit of it we can help, we should take responsibility for. I'm probably going to keep going with the better diet, more exercise, less drinking thing and just get another endoscopy to keep an eye out for something more serious. The real problem for me has been the gluttony and drinking, a degree of inactivity and the stress of work. This might make some of you laugh out loud, but this is why I like tree work because even when I'm completely exhausted and ache all over, it's better than the hollow fatigue I used to get when I was stuck behind my desk for 8 - 11 hours a day, seven days a week a couple of years ago. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Reading between the lines, his surgical list was full. The hospital (in Crewe) was absolutely rammed the day I went. The consultant who did the endoscopy said there was possibly the beginnings of Barrets so she obviously thought I was worth referring. The surgical consultant's main pont seemed to be the lifestyle thing; I'm a big lad, but maybe about 3 stone overweight. He said lose weight, eat healthily, exercise more... cut out the booze, the coffee, the fatty food... I was well pee'd off after the consultation, as I actually wanted the surgery, but he was right.

Mate... the truth is, the fun's over. I've had one for a good while now - it's not good. Am on the PPI drugs. Had an endoscopy done too. Consulant knocked me back for surgery after we'd had the 'lifestyle' discussion. What works for me is; Stay off wheat (Bread, pasta, etc) and all those 'white' carbs, Coffee only in the morning, likewise tea, no alcohol, keep the fatty food to a minimum. Pizza is the worst thing for me... coffee apparently relaxes the muscle tone of the sphincter at your top of your stomach, according to the Mrs (she's a doctor). Portion control. Eat bigger in the morning and tail off so that dinner is early and light. Go large on veg and fruit throughout the day. Stay away from processed protein. Stay off the cake and biscuits. Likewise anything sugary. Pastry is also one of the worst triggers. Keep hydrated, but mix fruit juice with water 50/50 or less. Spicey food is bad too. I used to sleep with the bed propped up by about 6 inches at the head end - it helped. Sleep on your left side as the shape of your stomach means it's harder for it's content to spill up your asophagus this way. When I'm at home in UK and all my temptations are available, I get it bad and maybe once a week am woken by inhaling my own vomit. Nice. For most of the year I'm away (I contract for the military) and so my meals are regular, and I can mostly eat a really good salad with some high quality protein for lunch and dinner. I don't eat pudding, unless it's fruit. I can't eat late and there's no booze or crisps in the cupboard, or large amounts of readily available cheese to trough-down in front of the TV, like at home. Once a week I do pizza and ice-cream... Also, I'm in Afghan, so the two places I've worked in over the last few years (Camp Bastion and Kabul) have been at 3 - 6000'+ altitude. Not sure if this is relevent, but the severity of my condition is like night and day compairing being away to being at home. Take your pills at dinnertime - as others have said, the long term problem with this is Barrets asophagus, which leads to asophageal cancer. If you do your med's at dinner time, or a couple of hours before bed, you can be sure that you're not producing stomach acid at that worst time of day, when you're laying down for up to eight hours. Actually, that reminds me... better take mine now... To summarise, you can control the GERD (reflux) by eating really healthily and eating early. You can mostly manage the indigestion if you do the same, but not always. The surgery can put you out of action for a while depending on which way it's done. 6 - 10 weeks, especially for a job like Arb which is very physical. To me, it feels like my body is trying to tell me to stop taking the pee, which in my mid 40's, eating like I did in my 20s, I was. It's forced me to change my bad dietary habits. The minute I cram down a pie, or smash in some cake, I know there's trouble ahead... The good thing is, it's forcing me to eat healthily. And that's money in the bank! It's all about willpower - best of luck

Here's the thing; it's about taking responsibility. If I'm offered a job that's 35 miles away and I have to pay for my accommodation out of my wage, it's my responsibility. What you don't to is grudgingly accept the offer and then do half a job because the reality is somehow beginning to hit home. You crack on and do the job and maybe next time, the job will be on your doorstep and it'll all be gravy, but either way.... you do the job. The thing with managing the lad - you've got to nip it in the bud and tell them on the first day. Maybe at the end of the first day. If they don't perform up to scratch over the whole job then pay them what you agreed and don't use them again. If they grossly underperform then kick them off the job and pay them to date. Let them know that you won't be and why when you pay them. Don't tie yourself up in knots - it's up to them to learn. The young/old thing - yeh... a lot of young workers haven't gained the maturity or had enough experience of responsability in life to have learned that if you accept work, you do what the right thing and turn up on time and graft. I know some older types like this too and there are younger people who are absolute crackers and keen as mustard, so let's not draw the battle lines on age grounds. I do know what people mean though. Bloody mobile 'phones. To the OP - it's a shame you're in Lincs. I'd love to learn to lay and you wouldn't have any problems with me. I am an 'old' guy though!

That's not acceptable. The timber was stolen; it wasn't in the police's remit to turn this into a sale or determine the price. https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/complaints

Has anyone found that the Stihl stuff doesn't seem to work as well as Aspen? My leaf blower seems down on power as compaired to running it on Aspen... not tried the saws yet.

You budget's probably a bit low - they hold their value well.

CS100 all the way. Do it - it'll change your life.

Have a look at these Mark... Best external storage for iPhones and iPads - Features - Macworld UK

... and at the same time

Has anyone tried caravan movers on their big chipper?

The trouble with the whole plan is that it needs time. Causing dieback would mean doing something systemic, like root pruning, which would be hit-and-miss to say the least! Whatever you do with the stem you don't want, it will cause a drain on the trees energy economy as the tree tries to recover from the loss of canopy. If you reduce it gradually, dormant buds will activate and the tree will be, after each reduction, drawing on it's energy reserves to put some more leaves up; also the tree will put some effort into occluding the wound, which will be wasted effort if you are going to subsequently remove a bit more. You might far better off biting the bullet (with I assume the 20cm stem?) and just removing it. However, if you're then going to move the tree, you'll be grossly wounding the root system as well. Some folks subscribe to maintaining a balance between roots and shoots and what this (above) satisfies that idea as you'd lose both a proportion of the canopy and the root system... but you're also causing a lot of wounding up top and below ground, which the tree will have to cope with. How old is the tree as the static mass/dynamic mass is relevent? A younger tree will cope better. If it were me, I'd take off the problem stem now and give it a season or two of mulching and feeding (especially in the area of the proposed root ball) before you move it. Or just go ahead and move it as is, then tackle the problem stem. You might 'get lucky' and find that the move causes the 'problem stem' to die back!! What's the deal with the tree? It's obviously getting a lot of care? Could we see some pictures?

The deal with H&S is that it's your responsibility to set up 'safe' systems of work. So if you've given training to ensure he's competent, provided PPE, and risk assessed jobs then you've prety much done your bit. It's then your employee's responsibility to work safely and comply with all the measures you've put in place to minimise the various risks he faces as part of his job. If he either can't or won't play ball then you probably need to look at getting rid of him on competency/misconduct grounds. As far as liability is concerned, in the event of an accident/incident if you can demonstrate that you'd done your bit as an employer, you'll be in the clear, but really who wants to end up in court. He might be lucky and find a lawyer who can 'prove' that it's your fault. This is from the point of view of him bringing an injury case against you. The other concern is that as your employee, if he damages a client's property or a client, or a passer-by then you could be in a world of pain if he's acted wrongly. If you know he's not working safely then he's a danger to himself (and therefore potentially to others) and a liability to your business and you need to sort this situation out. If he's still on his 'probationary period' then it's straightforward and he's just not made the grade - sorry.... next! If he's not then you need to go through the whole process of terminating his employment on competency grounds. This normally involves formally identifying the problem with him and agreeing a plan for him to improve with agreed timescales. I the subsequently fails to improve then you have grounds to terminat his employment. Obviously this is the way to go as it complies with his legal rights and your legal responsibilites, but it also give the individual a fair shake of the stick... If he does something outright dangerous then you might have grounds to call it gross misconduct and dismiss him instantly. Have a look on the .gov website - there's a lot of stuff there about employment rights and the processes of termination which explain the process from the employees point of view. From this you can pretty easily work out what you've got to do. If scratching around on t'internet (.gov website) doesn't do it for you then get some legal advice. You house contents insurance probably covers you if it gets expensive.

I'd always thought that the idea of sub contracting was to be able to buy-in a service as and when you needed it; for example, in terms of domestic work for a one-man-band, you'd be looking to say blitz all your climbing/rigging down jobs in a couple of weeks a month by hiring in additional subbies - climber(S) and or groundie(S). The subbies provide their own kit and insurance and you pay them accordingly. It's clear from the outset that they themselves are a business and the rates they charge account for their own overheads, tax, NI and profit. As you are hiring them in, you'd spec the job and take on the responsibility for making sure that it was done safely, to spec and that the customer care side of things was up to scratch. For bigger set-ups it might get a bit more complicated, but it should be clear that subbing-in supplementary staff or hiring in someone to stump grind is occasional and clearly not an employment situation. This seems as simple as when you want your chipper serviced; you take it to the dealer and they sort it. They don't ask to borrow your tools and there's no question that you're paying for a service as opposed to employing them. By and large, I've found that HMRC just want you to pay some tax - if they feel that you're pushing things too far, they come after you. If you've got a decent accountant, they will know how this works.

A friend of mine works for Bank of America (in Chester!) - she says that they treat their subcontractors as 'bought-in services' as opposed to 'bought-in people'. They build in a 6 week sabbatical every year to be on the safe side. Sounds like the 'substituation' bit you mentioned - makes sense.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1521424731466112/?fref=nf Light blue touch paper and stand well back!....

Tough guy - the original and best!

My landlord is always nagging me to take down this multi-stemmed holly up the side of the house. Every time, I tell him we're in a conservation area and a planning application needs to go in. He always maintains that he's done this, but I know full well he hasn't. This has been going on for three or four years now, so even if he had done one before we moved in, it's long expired. People don't care - they think they can get away with murder. Always check yourself. If it were me, I'd front up to the tree officer. I'm sure he's dealt with this kind of scenario before...

Mahonia

But then £400/tonne is a premium price for arb waste...