JimM

I reckon that once you have long experience, business nouse, good turnover and balance sheet, and a knowledge of your area then there is the ability to work as Mark and Stevie are. For those of us breaking in to the arb trade, my personal view, from all I've read on here and gleaned elsewhere, is that I must protect myself from customers that play fast and loose. 10 minutes on a method statement as part of a quote or estimate is worth it to prevent a refusal to pay because "the stump is still there!" I may be 45 and perhaps more worldly wise than the youngsters on here, but protecting my income is every bit as important. Even if the skills are raw and developing, a professional approach to each job will fill the customer with more faith in you and put you above the chancers and cowboys that they see on the TV. There may be more blank space on fag packets these days, but I aint using one.

100 plus saw fuel. If they have their own tanks of Red and road then worth asking for an allowance. Charge chains, spares to the estate? It's a nice way of living and working. You'll get calls at all sorts of hours though, so be prepared for that. It's your "all round worth" the estate will pay for though. Worth giving it a year and re-evaluate then. All the best.

Got back into treework today after months of office work down south. Glorious sunshine and several dead trees all went where they were supposed to. Happiness is a buzzin' Husky.

Surprised that some are struggling to buy from amazon.com. My two Fiskars came through no problem last week. Ordered using Mastercard. £80 for both including £13 pre-tax charge.

Cirencester definitely, Justin's depending on my 38/39 course dates. My wife would prefer if I avoided both and kept us in the black!

Now I just feel inadequate!

But a (literally) pain in the arse to get golf balls out of!

Where? Who's suffering from saturation and where are you? Anyone considered teaching or assessing as an alternative?

No we don't. I and a couple of others starting up north are under no illusion where we are going to sit financially. But then age is a factor. Will Morris's comment about the drop in numbers through the term goes along with what I was told up here. A lot of youngsters don't like the hard work and drop out, or turn up just enough to get their grants paid. So the numbers of places available each 1st term certainly won't equate to the numbers finishing. I've seen a couple of comments from members down south groaning about their area becoming saturated with arbs. Is this a factor the nearer to a college you are?

You're in a similar position to a couple of us up north, Dimebag. I offered myself up for 3 months work experience felling after 30/31. To see if I enjoyed it and also to see if I was physically up to it. Yes to both and I have spent the last year investing in ground operations related kit, vehicle, trailer, saws. All out of present wages. Climbing kit once I do the climbing, like you, paid from resettlement ELC. Financially it means that if it all goes Pete Tong I can sell all without worrying about the loan to pay off. It's a safer position to be in than the younger climbers on here who have to look to the banks, especially, as said above, if you're in a saturated area in terms of competition. There have been a couple of mentions of Irata on here just recently and I have tucked that away in my mind since Aberdeen isn't that far away. But! The work is great. Puts a smile on my face every day. The fellers and tree surgeons I've met are all great blokes and I cannot wait to get out the mob in a few months time. Top tips from me are work experience, loads of research and some careful financial planning and investment. Best of luck! Where-abouts are you anyway?

Veg oil in a 2.9 turbo diesel Sedona. Hmmm. Only if I get desperate I think. Grin. Looking forward to getting home tomorrow for some quality cutting time (and family time of course!)

Local garage here in Northwood is out of diesel, so is the Watford Tesco. Hoping there is enough in the tank to get me to get to Gatwick so I can get up home to see the family Bloody idiots. Mind you I did offer my services. I quite fancy the miltary getting me HGV etc trained

Hope the day goes smoothly for you.

Just bought my Fiskars from US Amazon. But you'll ruin it on that stump. There will still be stones swallowed up in it just waiting to blunt it. The mattock is a good idea. Or explosives :-)

Looks great. How heavy is it? Did you assemble on site?

Just ordered the Fiskars X27 and X7 (14" hatchet) from Amazon.com - mentioned on another thread. $122.23 (or £80) all in. £13 was taken as pre-payment in case of HMCE check, which I understand might be repaid. Not a bad deal compared to UK prices I thought.

A search for B&B's in each location should be straight-forward enough. Then get dialing. Should be some reasonable deals to be negotiated if you plan to stay a while.

Shown an iPhone app you might want to play with outside. "Photosynth" . Its a panoramic photo app. It stitches the images as you move the phone camera around. Tried it and its quite simple to use. Leaves the finished image in your photos directory, ready to download.

Like Hama, I've just caught this thread. We've a saying in the RAF.... There are old pilots, There are bold pilots, But there are no old, bold pilots. From many, many years of watching how teams work, one of the biggest threats to life and limb is peer pressure...what others may think. It's a really hard thing for the youngsters to deal with. Their only hope is that a sensible older head nearby sees what's in their mind and reels them in. The comment above, where the young lad was moved to another tree is a great example of that. The other term we have is "pressonitis". Where the bit is firmly between the teeth and tunnel vision stops up the ears. Sensible options are not listened to and the risk level of the situation has just jumped exponentially. (Usually the time when a sensible soldier shoots his officer in the back of the head ) I can see the similarities as I jump from one "risky" career to another. Withdraw, re-assess, and approach from a different angle, is one of the best bits of advice I've seen on the thread.

"The thing is with iphones is that they just work." iPhone 3GS, had it since it came out, but it suffers from locking up during phone calls (I reckon one of the software upgrades did it in). It then takes a few minutes to sort itself out before I can continue the call. I've tried all sorts of solutions, but none of them work. The bottom line is that I cannot trust it to make calls to/from customers. Once I get started properly later this year its a rugged cheapo for me. We all know on this forum what it is to have faith in our tools, and I now have no faith in this. Shame really, as I use many of its other features extensively.

I like the idea of a compact camera with some water and shock resistance, but its now down to persuading the missus to release the additional funds. (This is going to be harder than justifying a new saw)

Which Stihl model? I'm interested too!

I've not had any issues at all up in Moray, regardless of clear, orange or green. That goes for several companies, BP, Texaco, ESSO, and Tesco.(although I'm avoiding the Tesco unleaded for the saws now) Probably because of its more rural location the pump attendants (is that the right term these days?) are more aware of agricultural use etc.

Looking for a small pocket camera for before and after shots, help with pricing etc. The little Nikon Coolpix 3100 looks handy. I was wondering what cameras you're all using for day to day arb shots and whether they have proved to be robust enough? Whether they are any good for the lighting conditions we find ourselves in? Jim

Just read through all of your thread from start to finish. All the more pleasant to look at when sitting in an office with no windows. I take my hat off to you for all the volunteer work you've done so far. Please keep the pictures coming. Jim