Spruce Pirate

Haven't heard anything about elections. Is it English local elections?

I would agree with that, it's just nice to know that there are exceptional circumstances rather than a blanket rule.

Spring is my favourite season too, for exactly the reason above - it seems to bring out my inner hippy. Bugs and beasties aren't really a serious problem here. Midges and flies can drive you trully insane if they're bad, but they're seldom much more than a nuisiance, albeit one that can send you home on occassion. Bees and wasps can be a problem, but most of the time you can spot them in advance. Ticks can be a problem too and they do spread Lymes disease so well worth looking out for and removing properly. Unless you're allergic to bees or wasps at least we don't have to worry about the immediate threat of death due to insects.

I would, but I know how much I'm worth, it would be worth the legal fees. Good to know 5 years isn't neccesarily the end for everything.

I hate phone lines! They always seem to get in the way of an otherwise perfectly simple job.

If I need legal advice, I'm going to PM you. I still think it's a little OTT for a small tree and some shrubs. Disclaimer: this opinion has no basis in law.

I know this is an arb forum, but its only a tree. Does anyone really buy a house on the basis of a (fairly un-impressive) tree in the front garden? Sorry, but I know it wouldn't be top of the list of my priorities when buying a house. As for criminal damage, I would have thought it would depend on how long the tennants had been in the property. Long term tennants may feel some sense of ownership and feel the right to work on "their" garden, regardless of whather it is legally theirs or not - it is after all their home. If, on the other hand, the restructuring of the garden was only carried out in the period after you told them that the lease wasn't being renewed in order that you could sell the property I would have thought you have a genuine case of malicious damage.

I've still got the old Troll harness that I first climbed in in, err, 1995. I'd still climb in it, it is in good nick, stored dry and away from light etc, it's never been LOLER'd, but I'd still trust it now. I have a much newer harness for climbing in now, and was always lead to believe that the 5 year (or less) rule applied to LOLER, but that doesn't necessarily mean that its unserviceable, just that you can't get a cert for it, and hence can't use it commercially. I could be wrong.

Totally agree. If I come back and find someone doing something, even if they're doing it wrong that's good - I'll show them how to do it right, even if it means undoing and fixing what they've already done. To find someone with their hands in their pockets waiting to be told what to do is really annoying (and clients hate it). Sweep up, tidy up, sort the spanners out into order of size, but do summint rather than nothing. Oh, yeah, and the boss should always but the breakfast / rolls / tea / whatever.

Not with that shrub bed in that state! I like the bird table though.

That problem is very easily fixed.

Harvester Operator said to me yesterday, "these showers are pretty fierce!", from the air-conned cab, with the radio on. "Aye", says I, zipping up the waterproof! :lol:

I'd second that.

I generally cut a lot of softwood, so the trousers get a good coating of rosin which waterproofs them quite well, I then add a flexothane type jacket to the top half and add a needle guard to the back of the helmet (stops the water dripping down your neck). When its wet and you've got the waterproofs on you tend to get wet from the inside out as you sweat that much more, so unless it's properly raining hard I often just put up with it. You can get expensive breathable waterproofs, but I'm not going to spend that money on something good to drag it through all the brambles and brash in the wood. Probably not much help that, but most folk I know are pretty much the same.

Domestic / residential I try to stay local, we're rural, so realistically that's about a 20 mile radius to get a decent number of potential customers. Commercially I'll price within a couple of hours travel, even slightly more on occassion, but you always have to bear in mind that the extra travel or digs will push the price up, so you have to be reasonalby confident of having a good chance of getting the job (ie have a good relationship with the client) to take the risk.

Don't think it covers wedges, but ropes, winches (hand & mechanical) are definitely included, not sure about jacks.

Doesn't have to be exactly the same, like I said, the basics of it are already there with the NPTC's. Out of noseyness, how does the US system work? How many different grades, do you have to put in a number of years before going from one grade to the next, is it assessment based, do you have to be reassessed.... etc?

Almost certainly not. That said, I think it will become more prevelant. I'd be pretty surprised if more of the bigger companies and organisations don't start insisting on it, along with insurance companies, the accrediting bodies, etc. I agree, it's difficult to find the time, alright very difficult, verging on the impossilbe, when you're flat out trying to make a pound or two, but it shouldn't be impossible, and if it's done right you do get something for it. I like the sound of the US idea of varying levels of certification, in effect we have that here with the NPTC units, one leads to another, these could also be expanded to include advanced or specialist (whatever the latest terminology is) techniques.

The fact is that we should, note the word should, it is only a recommendation, take refresher training every three years for part time users and five years for full time users. While this will in many cases be treated as just what it is, a recommendation, there are those who insist on it. For good or for bad, I have two clients who insist on it so I will have to do it, and ensure that all those on site have been refreshed (there may also be insurance repercussions). In fact, we have done refresher and it's not a totally bad thing. Anyway, the point is, it's being done and has to be done, so it's got to be paid for by someone, either employer or S/E person and absorbed into costings. Just another expensive fact of life I'm afraid. I agree, getting people with the skill set to teach may push the instructors knowledge and abilities too, but is this really a bad thing? I'm not an instructor, but if I was I'd want to be learning and pushing myself to more knowledge as well. It may be that a two tier instructor system is needed.

Maybe, just maybe, there is a good opportunity here in refresher training. Perhaps we could split the refresher courses so that those who haven't used a saw since they did the training, or use it very infrequently, go back over the basics. If, on the other hand, you are a professional saw user, by the time you need refreshed, you must, by definition, have a good bit of experience behind you. This would be the time for instructors to introduce more advanced techniques, rather than just running through the basics again. I think I might just have had a good idea there, I'll quit now, while I think I'm ahead, and wait for someone to shoot it down.

I like Heli-Loggers, they look as though they know what they're doing. The other show is too much drama for the benefit of TV if you ask me. I know a Canadian over here who wears a pair of caulks, they look the mutt's nuts, I'd definitely get a pair if you could over here. I'm not sure why you can't.

Is it finished? Or a work in progress?

Just to be different, I like yellow. Orange make you look like a rail worker.

This is true, but only if your subbies are non-VAT registered. If they start charging you VAT you'll notice a big difference. With reference to the original post, everyone has a UTR. Some companies may ask you for it regardless of your employed / self-employed status. If your S/E you'll be responsible for your own tax unless you're on a CIS scheme, I only know of one Arb outfit who has been on this, but there may be more. Going VAT registered will bump your price up for domestic clients, won't make much difference to VAT registered companies unless they're on the flat rate scheme. If you do go VAT registered I would think about getting on the flat rate scheme yourself, look into it and do some maths, but normally it should work out well for a sole trader. I do find VAT a killer for domestic work.

If you look on the HSE website they have a H&S Policy Statement you can more or less download / print off for free and fill in the blanks. Or, at least they used to before they went all self funding.