AHPP

Interesting turn of phrase. As though it's the natural position for the customer to set payment terms. I've heard people plenty of times saying things like, "We've been put on net 30." like they had no say in the matter and some benevolent corporate overlord has chosen which teat they may suckle. My back goes up abruptly if anyone tries to tell me when they're paying me.

Not even when you might have to disburse £2000 of crane hire etc?

Watched this video. The main thing that jumped out at me was the deposit red flags. As a labour only subcontractor (freelance climber) I take 50% or 100% up front, depending on whether client new, especially sketchy, short notice etc. As a principal contractor (owning the job, done for a consumer) I take 0% or 50%, depending on client vibes, expenses like machinery hire, job size etc. Bona fide subcontracting somewhere in the middle of the two approaches, tending towards 50%. I've worked for people who haven't paid, cancelled at last minute etc so from my perspective deposits are a way of weeding out (or at least partially protecting myself from) bad clients. I'm aware of how it can look desperate or whatever for a little round the corner job though. So what say we? Perspicacious precaution? The preserve of pikeys? Somewhere in the middle?

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You must be better at your job than I am. Or at least more likeable.

Three weeks later. Pad is stuck to his foot well enough to walk on it with no strips or bandage. Still keeping him off running, charging up banks etc but broadly speaking fixed. Have replaced it with a different injury. He was obviously annoyed with the bandage, chewed it off and kept chewing for something to do. Less concerning, just a bit annoying that he looks like a crackhead.

Jesus christ. There's your thread, Cliff. Sorry.

Having that.

It doesn't get you paid. God knows what prosecution you're opening yourself up to. You imperil innocent neighbours. It doesn't get you paid.

Tree facebook is currently full of freelance climbers wanting more work btw.

Where do you get figures on this sort of thing?

That's incredible. With a bit of approximation, you're saying five to ten thousand acres is all the land needed to keep seventy million people in rhubarb.

I'm a freelance climber with very little work so probably an example you can learn something from. This is how to have 26 days off a month. I started by doing any day I could get, regardless of how little it paid. Had a pad of money from a previous job and was living at home so rolled any profit back into kit. I did however have fairly hard rules from the beginning on what I wouldn't do. Hedge topping because it's miserable and reductions/topping because I didn't want to get into any fannyish arguments about too much/not enough off etc. So that narrowed the field quite a lot. Firms hiring freelancers just want to hear, "Yes, mate. No problem." I shut a lot of doors or had them shut on me by refusing to prune. As time went on, I became pickier still and started saying removals only. Couldn't even be arsed with deadwooding. I also started quite actively discriminating against employers whose ethics don't jive with mine. I don't do dolescum work and I don't help people who do. Council, state schools, quangos like the canals, the various trusts etc. Anything with a whiff of taxpayer and the answer's no. It started with not doing individual jobs and turned into just refusing to deal with people who did any public sector work, me involved or not. The thing that probably lost me the most work was when I decided climbers' wages were a piss take and I was going to be the change I wanted to see. I started increasing my rate fairly agressively, usually about double the rate of inflation plus whatever I fancied. I crawled to the top of normal dayrates and then came on cam and kept going. At time of writing, I price to walk away from any day with £380 after day-costs (mainly van fuel). That usually means a day rate starting at £420. The most I've charged is £620. I now only get either big stuff for proper firms or gypsies/landscapers that aren't capable of hiring anyone cheaper because the cheaper guys don't have the gear I do. Nothing in the middle doing normal sized work. That's all looked after by people happy do whatever for whoever for £150-250. I hasten to add I'm good, well equipped and extremely reliable. I'm not the guy with a climbing kit and 200 and a red bull for breakfast, probably slightly late to the yard. I'm the guy who's at site, before you, with everything. But there are only so many people who need that and will pay for it. So that's how to not fill your diary. Be picky and price yourself like you don't want to work (which I don't).

Those are impressive numbers until I realised you said that's what the UK grows, not what the UK eats. Go on. Depress me. How much imported vs UK grown?

God bless the internet and all who sail in her.

This is why people use a bowline on a bight. They just work. I've been wanting a midline knot that can take a heavy pull and still untie and where the tail flows nicely towards the anchor so it can capture progress and have enough strength through the knot to withstand a winch failure. It's nothing you can't do with a bowline and another rope but then you need another rope.

Alpines seize with any weight.

It could be that a sack barrow is all you need. They are barrow sacks after all.

Someone said highwayman's hitch. I used to have a double pulley set up on a 15m ish bit of 6/7mm that I used as a retrievable redirect for double rope. Very satisfying.

The farmer's knot/circus bowline that I've just learned to tie and will probably use for midline winch attachment is going to be a bugger to apply this rule to. What a horrible shape.

What kit have you already got? Would a machine do other jobs in your life? Skidsteer, articulating loader or tractor can move bags and do other things. Even a digger.

Stubby listening to Enya following a lifetime of ported chainsaws and motorcycle racing.

Gasket hitch/coil.