AHPP

I generally don't like brown and black people and think that they're more likely than an equivalent number of white English/Euro types to perform crimes like rape because they're closer to animals like that. And I'm still in favour of open borders and them possessing the same rights as any other human anywhere. The important bit is that I'm also in favour of there being no public property and no public money. So they can arrive here however they want, as long as whoever owns where they touch down is happy with it and people are happy to feed/trade with them wholly voluntarily. The reality that would quickly become apparent to the Brighton types is that nobody wants them and they're mainly coming here for the dole. The desirable ones would be welcomed because if a black man turns up at my door with a great business plan or claiming to be a really good gardener or something, I'm probably going to invite him in. Anyway. No public property or money and the problem solves itself. Anybody who wants a black man can have one. Anyone who doesn't want one doesn't have to have one or pay for anyone else's. Nobody needs to shoot at any boats. Peace will reign and we can go back to arguing about Stihl vs Husqvarna.

By the same logic if men didn't have dicks, they couldn't rape children. Should we cut everyone's dicks off? Obviously not because it's a bit unfair to anyone with a dick who isn't going to rape anyone.

Good points all. Back in my box.

Remember that quote I told you about for the urbanite incomer to the nice village? He walked me round his new garden, huffing and puffing and throwing his arms up in the air at the stupidity of whoever had planted these trees, just all over the place. That'd be the planet, sir. I hope he runs out of money before he astroturfs the whole thing. A shame I didn't get the job because it would have been a nice job but good I didn't get it because then, to the rest of the people in the nice village, I'd be the arsehole tree surgeon who did the trees for that arsehole Londoner.

When did ratchet straps come on the scene? I love it when people tell me they can secure a load with ropes better than with ratchet straps. Ratchet straps pull a tonne. Hang off that trucker’s hitch as much as you like. You don’t weigh 333 kilos plus the friction.

The bloke in Hartlepool comes across well (been to his workshop) and has a fair amount of stock throughput, suggesting competence. But he’s in Hartlepool. I’ve never found anything else good in Hartlepool. It’s a place of quite extreme indifference.

The petrol Hondas on the 125 and 160 are great. The bigger ones (makes escape me) less proven. A couple of clients with the petrol 280 have had hot starting problems, some vapour locky kind of thing I think. The Briggs EFI gets a pasting from one guy in particular on here but I have heard of others with the same problem. The Kubota diesel that goes in everything is well proven. Mick said the engine code. 1505?

Duh. Perhaps we should need ID for arbtalk. You need it for all the other websites.

Lifted from the insufferable morning people thread. What are the business pros and cons?

I wouldn't. I've always been underwhelmed with infeed and throughput. The vertical roller ones are particularly shit.

Probably in part by me. How are you getting on with the switching?

How long have you had the 300 and how do you like it?

I for some reason had it in my head that the 400 came on 325 as standard. I appear to be wrong. Good. .325 is annoying. Always grated that my 261 was on it. Glad to see you're living life on your terms.

.325 or 3/8?

The unloading was really no bother. The loading is what killed me. It probably wouldn't have fitted on a tipper without massive greedy boards, which a luton in effect has. Character building stuff.

I've heard the advice that you shouldn't be selling this job; you should be selling the ten after that. Which does sound good but is quite open ended.

You need to read the last 274 pages of this thread really.

Now watch as this thread goes in a different direction. Yeah, he could buy the tickets. Or he could buy a second hand GRCS, a new 500i with three bars and nine chains, two helmets with comms and some poles with a hook. For an extra £350, he can get a train ticket to Newcastle, a taxi to my house via Oddbins and I'll show him how to use it all. Bosh. Useful groundsman to have around. Do one day a fortnight for six firms. 150 days a year at £150/day. £22,500. Probably better than £25,000 PAYE even after running costs and you have Mondays and Fridays for the lord. You still have to pay to drive to a PAYE job. He'll need NPTC 207 (CS45) of course, like everybody who runs the ropes on the ground has. EDIT: Glossary since the bloke reading this isn't an arb, yet. GRCS - A really gucci rigging device. There are probably only a hundred in the country. They make you better than average on most jobs and a god on the right job. 500i - A really good, fairly big chainsaw. Most tree firms' big saws are shagged and have running problems and nobody can be bothered to sharpen the chains for the long bars. Turn up with one that works with big, sharp cutting gear and you're making their lives easier not having to fix theirs. Comms - Tree firms struggle to use them because their employed blokes forget to charge them. Turn up with yours and you're just that little bit slicker than anyone else. Poles - An underused piece of kit. Climbers use throwlines to get ropes into the top of a tree. Most people are shit with them and spend half an hour untangling them and getting angry before just getting a ladder instead. You can poke a rope over a high branch with your poles and save everyone a lot of embarrassment. Plus they're very handy the rest of the day.

Next day was red hot too. Went to see the eucalyptus collection at Marks Hall. Limped round like I'd had my coccyx removed. Fond memories.

Lutons. One of my first end-client jobs years ago. No recollection how I got it. Dense as darkness thirty-five foot tall conifer. Couldn't get a farmer to leave a trailer so hired a Luton and stacked the whole thing in the back. FULL. To the roof. Horrendously hot day. Spent half of it putting my head under the outside tap. Anyway. Got it done and got it home. It unloaded surprisingly easily and was smoke in the next ten minutes. Blew the van out and had it back at the hire place for 19:00. £350 from the client. £120 for the van. £30 fuel etc. £200 for me. I'd arrived.

That needs to travel in a luton van and come down on the tail lift. If you're not doing tree work with a luton then who the fyuck are you!

Not a clue. I suffer from a severe financial limp. I do tree work for the babes.

That is some strong guff. Are they really that good?

There's cake business and cake business btw. Does she advertise on the local facebook groups or have a contract with Heathrow? One of you is probably going to need a real job. Unless you're otherwise secure for shelter and nutrition. A lot of arb is unreliable and a lot of arbs are self employed and at the mercy of it. There is employment of course. Couldn't tell you a lot about that though. I'm fairly unemployable.

And there wasn't as much call for that in upland Cumbria as in south Oxfordshire. It's all coming together.