iainarkle

This is a sweet chestnut that came down last year. Two old ladies who walk under it every day had just passed and down it came. The day was still and dry! Its close to 5' at dbh!!!

This is pretty much it! Seems a European trick is you can also achieve this by playing the angles. Put a smallish gob say 1/8 or 1/9th in at 135, start your back cut as normal until you get to about half way then lead the rest of the cut with the nose of the bar. The result is you are in control and the tree swings on the fat hinge. I have been playing with this for the last year on trees up to 14" or so and now am pretty confident with it. It did go horribly wrong the first, oh.....xx number of trees!!! Good luck!

Hi, you are absolutely right, it does depend on the woods. At the moment we are fortunately working on estates where there is a good balance between the good and the ugly! We have to take the hard stuff with the easy stuff and I do everything I can to balance it so its fair across the crew. As for rates, it varies across different contracts! Give me a shout and I'm more than happy to have a chat about the way we work and how the commercials work for the current contracts. cheers Iain

Hi sent you a PM. Get in touch. [Robert, thanks for posting the link. Got a couple of guys coming for a trial and things are going from strength to strength. Catch you soon.]

Hi All, Just refreshing this! After a monumentally successful week last week speaking with a host of woodland owners I'm still looking for cutters. I have a few guys coming for a trial and the crew is building but still need more...keen, hardworking and reliable. The aim is to get you cutting circa 10 tonnes a day. Is a bit less in sitka but a piece of cake in the larch! These are self-employed posts so could be a great 'filler' when you are quiet. Please get in touch. Thanks for those of you I have been speaking to and I'll see some of you over the coming weeks. Cheers Iain

Big J up at tree...and he's 6'8" and counting...

Hi all, a lot going on here. We all have our personal attitude to risk, whether related to equipment or not, so: When there is doubt, there is no doubt! Whether over a piece of kit or situation that the end result might be terminal consider it. The dumb ones die...its that simple. (this is by no means aimed at anyone here )

Scrub this! I understand it doesn't exist anymore since NPTC took control of the assessment etc.

Hi, thanks for the info Bushcutter. I should have been more clear. It's the other way around!! What tickets do 'we' in Britain recognise from overseas? I've been contacted by a few people - South Africans and a couple of Europeans regarding the work I have advertised. They all know the 'chat' and some have said "it's fine, my xyz ticket will cover me." I don't know if this is the case with regard to insurance which I'll check on Monday. If they are as good as they say I'll see it as soon as they walk into the woods on the trial day. Thanks again.

Good point but good practice...!

Hi all, does anyone know / have any experience of other countries equivalent to CS30 & 31? While we are at it also "FASTCo" trainee Record of Achievement? Thanks in advance.

Wow! Loads of great suggestions and info here. Before I started in tree stuff I was (and still dabble) in leadership and team development and worked and coached a lot of dyslexic teenagers and adults. I am also dyslexic and was lucky as I was 'certified' at a very young age and helped a lot through school. (not that i listened that much then!!) Bottom lines...dyslexia is hereditary. Either your mother or father has it. It doesn't go away but often means you are particularly creative, spatially aware and good with your hands, which is partly why there are quite a few people in this business who are dyslexic. That said you don't have to be dyslexic to find it tough concentrating on reading or remembering things. Earlier in the thread style of learning was mentioned. Very good suggestion and here's a link to a quick and easy way of finding out. LEARNING STYLES:Find out in 2 minutes It is not the be-all-and-end-all but one part of a very complex thing. Stephen, you particularly mention reading and memory. The reading is likely to be that you are focusing to much on the actual word, every single one, and how they 'work' with the ones around it rather than the whole context of the paragraph or entire passage. I do this a lot! Sends me to sleep very effectively and I wake up and start reading the same thing again thinking I'm sure I've read this somewhere before!! Of course I have but simply can't remember actually reading it. One trick I have found works for many people, including me, is to stop reading every word as so many of them are a waste with little meaning but 'join' everything up. Learn to skim read which take time as you have to completely trust yourself. Also give yourself a real reason for reading it. If its a policy document, book of info, etc use the table of content and the index to look up things that are relevant to what you are looking for. Often it is just the 3 or 4 pages you are interested in and the other 990 pages are irrelevant. Now, the challenge here is have confidence in what you are doing / reading. This takes time and practice. Take a book / document you know well but haven't read it for a while and skim read it. You'll find you recall a lot more of it than if you just sat and read the whole thing again. This is because your brain only needs the words with meaning to piece it together - whether you have read it before or not. Then start practicing with a magazines, newspapres or websites you read regularly. Instead of reading it word for word skim read it, scribble down, very briefly, what you understand it to say then go back and make yourself read the whole thing - word for word. Check if you have picked it up correctly. Sometimes you will and sometimes you wont. Just keep practicing until you are confident your eyes are picking up the important bits. So, memory! The above will help and as someone said see if there are tricks you can use to help remember things. This is quite tricky as we will remember the things we like or are important to us. The importance is ours not if we know it is important to someone else but not so important to us, we then forget it. Memory is seated in our sub-conscience so we don't have the control we would like over it!! (complicated and to long winded to explain why here - sorry.) Basically memory is about 'letting go' and stop trying to remember. We have all said to ourselves I MUST REMEMBER THIS and in the next breath forget it! We also say someones name 3+ times to try and remember it...then...you guessed it we forget it. However, we seem to remember how big the wart on their nose was, or how stunning they are and kick ourselves for not remembering their name. The trick is to stop trying so hard to remember. Someone already said if you believe or tell yourself something often enough you will believe it. True. You are conditioning yourself to that particular thing. You need to break the pattern you have created and re-frame it. Not easy I'm afraid but worth the effort. Things like you are already doing, find a system that works - your iphone. Reduce the things you have to remember to never forget the iphone and always put things straight into it no matter how lazy / cant be bothered / inconvenient and all of a sudden you only ever have to remember two things :-) For me I have a diary which everything goes into. If i forget it I am lost but I never beat myself up about it. Nothing is ever that urgent that cannot wait for another day or few hours until 'we' (my diary and I) are reunited. Well, I hope this helps and if anyone want to chat I am more than happy to so give me a shout / PM and we can set something up.

I'm looking for 4 cutters for immediate start. Working on first and second thinning in The Borders, East Central Scotland and Perthshire. These are self-employed positions for those with a minimum of CS30 & 31, you will be expected to provide all your own PPE and personal tools and equipment. I started somewhere so the bottom line is I am happy to take on guys with little or no experience of thinning or forestry work. If this is the case you must remember / have used the things you learnt on the CS30 & 31 course. It is hard work, perhaps the hardest you will have ever done, but if you are keen to learn, work in some of the most beautiful estates in the country and want an enormous feeling of satisfaction at the end of the day and get paid for it then it could be for you. The crew currently consists of 3 - 4 guys plus me! At the moment we have another 400 to 500 tonnes (some sitka, mainly larch) to come out at the site you would be starting at. Pay. It is piece-work at good rates. Someone with as little as a few months experience is cutting 8 - 10 tonnes per day. Everyone has a trial; usually a couple of days so we can all see how we get on. I will cover reasonable travel expenses (fuel for up to around 75 mile each way agreed ahead of time) and fuel and oil for your saw. The rest is up to you! Contact me at [email protected] with a CV or call me on 07872 021477 after 06:30 hrs and before 21:30 hrs. DO NOT PM ME, you are unlikely to get a response. Cheers Iain

Anyone come across these guys: Firewood for Sale, Kiln Dried Logs, Briquettes, Pellets | Real Firewood Company I saw them at a show last year in Perth. They operate out of Duns in the Borders (I understand) but I haven't ever seen any of the results form their kiln dry wood nor gone to have a blether with them yet. Certainly looked the part at the show...if you can afford the logs!

BigJ only eats so much so he can have loads of breaks :-) He got me to smell his saw the other day and couldn't smell a thing!!!

I use a 361 (15"bar) for hardwood thinning and BigJ uses a 260 (13"bar). I am looking at getting a 260 with 13" bar for this exact purpose. That said I got the 13" bar for the 361 today...and can certainly rate the 361 as a great saw. Only probs with it is it doesn't idle very well and never has which can be a little annoying when thinning and constantly re-starting. Other than that, a great saw.

Hi guys, well the last thing in my mind this morning was pictures...sorry. First stand - done. Was a complete nightmare, owner turned up etc etc. He was very happy though. Afternoon - magic!!! It was awesome, bottom line in this sort of stand get yourself a 'butt plate', there isn't a quicker way to get the sticks to the floor. I recon, like for like, it double even tripled production. Happy days. On to the next one tomorrow, taller trees (16m) and not quite as tight and armed with the plate. Thanks again for all the help. cheers Iain PS, could do with 2 - 4 more cutters for about 8+ wks work in sunny Scotland if anyone is interested PM me.

Thanks for all the comments / suggestions. Will let you know how it goes and hope the next stand is a little more straight forward! The horse would be great and I know someone who uses them although not convinced about speed. I think I need to convince a mate called 'Bash' to get off his tractor and come into the woods...he would just see it as one big competition!!! Extraction - Alstor - great little machine. Thanks again for the help. Iain

I'll be doing the marking tomorrow...let me think...line skip-a-few... fancy coming up for a shot?

Ah! generally 8" or so. Pretty wee.

4metres.

Been thinking about a small winch and will give it a go. I don't think that it will be any faster but certainly will save the guys backs. Would like to get some machinery into the wood but its too dense hence why thinking about a quad. Will let you know how the butt-plates go.

OK, silly questions...dbh? Will get some pic's tomorrow. As for cutting a rack, we can't really as it's single select. The woods have been left for years - surprise surprise - and trying to get into a bi-annual cycle so life will be easier next time around - I hope!!!

Hi All, just after a few ideas...first thinning of sitka, single select and its taking forever to get them to the floor. Trees are around 150 - 350 kg. Need to be getting 4+ trees on the deck, processed, an hour to make any cash. We are going to try using 'sleds' to flick the butt onto then pull back but I recon still going to be exhausting and struggle to get any volume down - consistently. Thought about a quad with a winch? Hand winch but eats time again...all ideas welcome. Cheers Iain

Hi, go further north. Dumfriesshire is very very wet...further north is just wet!