doobin

£250 a month is fk all money for advertising that works, and I say that as someone who spends zero. Yell, however, are a total utter ripoff. The way it works is this: 1. They promise you the earth, over the phone. 2. If you believe them, you sign their contract. 3. This contract doesn't actually guarantee results. 4. However, it does tie you in for a long period. 5. You try to cancel, then come back here complaining when they tell you that as a business, the sale is business to business and therefore you have no consumer rights to cancel and have to wait for whatever period is specified in the contract you signed but didn't read properly. @Newtons- ignore the above at your peril. £250 per month would get you a lot of adverts in village magazines and post offices. You know, local, targeted advertising. Middle class and wealthy homeowners read a village magazine, not Sharon from the council estate who wants a price to remove a tiny apple tree in the middle of a dogshit maze. Sharon, however, has heard of Yell and Bark....

Micro digger next on the shopping list then?

Getting some more flail collecting done before bird nesting.

sorry mate, did you mean to post this in the recession thread?😆

Agree in principle, but I'd say its common courtesty for a job advert to state the area.

I'm not really Arb, but from how they have conducted themselves on here and with regards to certain aforementioned articles in their magazine, I'd have to be really desperate for work before I considered it. Same if anyone asks me for CHAS, Safecontractor etc.

I’m not worried about targets below, the shed is going. Just can’t believe anyone would want to anchor in at the top of those trees.

This guy I think was a bit of a hoarder and there may not have been much rational thought behind it at all.

Yeah they are down the road. But if you look at the schematic of a tracked lift, all the height restriction is along the top. Even if it just squeezes in (which it won’t) then as it tips over the ramp it’ll jam.

Only the back through no man’s land and a nature reserve. Would require cutting scrub to get mewp through. Can of worms but looking like only option. Id be happy enough stunt felling half of them through the shagged fence. But a lot of the others are leaning over the neighbours garden and hard up against the fence and shed. Previous owner had them all ring barked for some reason a few years back!! Made the job from a simple one into a head scratcher.

Be my guest 🤣 here’s the offending garage door/lintel

My motley crew all in the yard today.

Concrete and leading out to a concrete ramp. No way through at that height without taking the roof off.

Just googled, even a 13m one is still 1.95m! Taking the garage door frame out isn't an option as it's also the lintel and the bricks above it are cracked too...

Bugger!

Funny old job, a few dead standing oaks max 16" diameter so not tall. But only access through garage with doors 1.6m wide and 1.9m high.

For a new compact tractor I'd stick with Kubota or possibly Iseki. Deere if you're feeling flush, but I wasn't keen on paying £3k more than the Kubota like for like when the only difference I could see was that their marketing department spent a lot more money targeting City folk with big country houses. The best thing about the Kubota is the bi-speed turn, it makes such a difference to your working day. Kubota's pedigree is immaculate when it comes to compacts. It's a great machine with a mid mount and collector on too. I bought it with the intention of having 'one tractor to do it all', but then the alpine and a 38hp Iseki came along. All have their place, but it seems silly to have one brand new one now! If you're looking secondhand, Iseki are by far the best value.

Thanks. I sometimes wish I'd bought the alpine new and the Kubota secondhand, but it's done now. Almost took the alpine today as the ground is pretty steep by the treeline, but a good op who knows what he's doing with the independant brakes can keep it upright. Thought I'd best put some hours on the Kubota, and in the end it was actually the better tractor for the job. It's a fantastic tractor for large gardens in particular as it's so manouverable. In fieldwork the independant brakes and bi-speed turn means you just spin it around at the end of the row, whereas the alpine would be a two-shunt job at a minimum. Today I'd have loved a cab, but realistically they are a pain on garden jobs. Can't have it all. I'm going to look out for an alpine with cab.

Lovely chilled day yesterday at the local pub. Being brought back to life after three years. A fun easy job, decent day rate and a month of free beer when she reopens. Plenty of groundworks to do there also. Rescued a slow worm- warned him up before releasing into a sheltered spot.

Perfect flail collecting weather

Looks ideal.

Cut holly back to the stump and it will coppice. It’ll be fine I reckon.

No staff currently, just a hand now and then. I'm preferring to earn £4-500 a day sitting on a mini digger, compact tractor or loader. I might burn £30 worth of diesel in the machine and another £20 in the truck. No stress. Cheap machines, no 13t with tilty here, a Multione is my most expensive thing. Sometimes do the odd £1k quote that takes a day (often spread over two mornings and do something else in the afternoon) All local, no travelling more than ten miles for me. A diverse workload- 50% domestic and 50% farm/commercial/charity/nature reserve I actually found myself enjoying setting and pointing some granite setts the other day- used to hate that kind of work, but when it combines in to a job you make £1k profit on for a day's labour plus a micro digger for 15 minutes (what's that, £1 worth of diesel?!) then it starts to appeal. Especially when the job is five minutes down the road. You can run a load of concrete back to the yard, pick up some materials and take ten for a nice brew and a hot pie. Rather than sending a lad back, wondering why it takes them an hour for such a simple task and being stressed. What's the point in running round like a blue arsed fly keeping multiple jobs going and staff employed when they don't appreciate it and you make maybe £50-100 profit on their wages for the hassle? Especially when we are facing a major slowdown anyhow. I'm starting to realise that being multi skilled (and I mean properly multi skilled) is a blessing if you work on your own and rely upon a wide customer base, but a curse if you try to employ. I've spend years wondering why employees are so thick. It's actually me being thick, and not realising that they are very unlikely to be as good as me on just one task, let alone a dozen skilled trades in their own right. I'll never be short of work with my skillsets, and it's time I relaxed a bit and enjoyed life.

Why? He presumably manages to send the VAT every quarter. My accountant just does mine whenever they fancy, they have all the data from the VAT submissions.