Pedroski

I think Mick had just been testing the effectiveness of the knee protection. I'm sure he has some smart ones for work

If they officer is kind and goes the route of the fixed penalty system, then £60 up to (but not including) 10% overweight, £120 from 10% and up to (but not including) 15% overweight, £200 above 15%. However, for serious overloading (30%) you get a court summons and a proper big fine. You can also get taken to court "under construction and use" regulations if the extent of overloading is adversely affecting handling.

If anybody down here in the BN area is afraid of being overweight for a particular job, then PM me and I'll let you have my number. We use a large twin axle 4 way tipping trailer (yep, tips forward as well so stuff can be slid to the front), and might be able to help depending on time and notice, for a reasonable fee. It might work out quite well - you could chip straight into the trailer, or chuck brash into it or whatever, and we'll cart it off. We're licensed waste carriers so can carry other waste too if necessary.

I just laughed my socks off reading that! I know where they're coming from, but it's not exactly a very good way to say it. Trouble nowadays with the internet is that so many people expect free this and free that. ****** could perhaps have said "we are unable to offer free postage however items posted together will be done so at a reduced rate" or something. The person replying to your email was probably having a bad day.

It also helps that I'm ambidextrous and can happily do one side with right hand and one side with left hand. Same with a chainsaw chain.

I'm serious though - it's "shp shp shp" on each tooth, all down top side one edge, flip over and same on bottom side one edge, start hedgecutter, move blades, then same on other side. I suppose it's closer to 1 second per edge and that's plenty enough to get a good edge. Nice thing about using file is that you feel what you're doing and it's easy to avoid taking too much off. Grinder is too much hassle especially when on the job.

Try Direct Line. They link policies together so full NCD applies on both of OUR vehicles. This is for business use too. I think it's max of two though, so you could put two in one name and have NCD linked, and one in your business partners names, depending on which way it works best. I've also had a policy for a few years with Tradex when I was dealing vehicles. They were good value. They also do Fleet insurance, so might be worth trying them. See Fleet Insurance - Tradex Insurance

You've got to price the job properly to include waste disposal, otherwise you're not running a viable business if you can't afford the disposal fee. Instead of paying £40/load at a normal commercial tipping facility, you should be paying about £38/ton (min of half ton at £19) at a proper green waste composting facility. KPS down near me charge £15/half ton, another facility also near me charges £19/half ton. With a pick up, that should be about your maximum amount. On top of that, add your fuel and time, and that is what you need to include in your quotes. We often find this is the quicker, cheaper and easier way to dispose of brash than taking the chipper along to jobs, esp smaller ones. We just use the trailer, chuck everything in that, go to the composting facility, weigh in and tip it.

Aww bugger, don't worry about ones with snapped teeth - proper metal pile jobs they are. Can't believe anyone can dislike hedgetrimming though - I love it

Why are you cutting into the boot from the rear? I don't get what you're trying to show.

It's quick and easy with practice. Work mate and I have races. We're down to about 3 minutes for all teeth. I'll quite happily take your old blades off ya and pay for postage so hang on to them!

Piece of cake to sharpen them. Round file, start from inside edge and stroke outwards twisting file at same time. Just 3 or 4 strokes on each side of each tooth. Set the blade to the gap is as big as poss when you do one side, then set the blade to get big as poss gap on the other side - makes it easier. We use the same blades for years of heavy use, and the cut perfectly. Only thing we do find is that the blades need sharpening more often as time goes on as the hardened edge goes. But they're certainly not a disposable item.

Of course he is - a pick up with 6ft bed is perfect for woodchip, logs, ladders........

We use an Iveco tipper with roller shutter tool storage. Two blokes and gear we're left with about half a ton before hitting the limit which is no problem for small jobs and mowing rounds, garden maintenance etc. But we do have a 3 way tipping trailer that we use for chipping into on bigger jobs, as well as carrying materials and waste. Works well for us.

Alasdair, there's one on her way........

True

They only edited that comment in once they realised how shocking the fell went!

How about buying another Sorbus, of good size, and planting it further away from the woods?

Quick update - I got the cover letter all written and posted my CV off yesterday. I had made a mistake of trying to write along lines on paper behind the plain sheet I was writing on. I was spending so much time trying to do perfect straight lines and tidy writing that I just couldn't write with any flow. So I gave that up, restarted and just made sure the first line was straight. I then found all my other lines were pretty straight too! Once written, I gave the letter to my daughter to read through, and was pleased she could read it easily. Job done!

I think it's more to do with sucking up to China that it is to do with the environment anyway.

It SHOULD make some money, if the loan gets repaid. But if the loan isn't repaid, then we lose 16p in every pound.... so that's £30m. Funny though, init, how we think that planting trees will halt "global warming" when the energy use of the population of the planet is going up and up and up all the time.

Rupe, herein lies the problem - when people come here asking questions about starting out, nobody knows whether that person is choosing between arb and dole. To assume that they are choosing arb as it's one step away from dole is a bad mistake. Tom, it is the same in lots of other trades at the moment, including plumbing, electrical, landscaping, hairdressing, farming.... in fact just about everything. Kids who are the type that years ago would have left school and gone straight into work on building sites, in factories, etc have instead been forced into college to get qualifications in all the trades because there aren't enough jobs. And all this is doing is delaying by one or two years the influx of youngsters to the job market. Those who would have gone straight into farming or landscaping etc, are perhaps seeing an arb course at agri college as perhaps the best step to an outdoors job. I know for sure that if I was leaving school and going to college to get a qualification, and wanting to work outdoors, I would definitely go for an arb course rather than a plumbing course. It's not the fault of the kids, and it's not the fault of the colleges - after all, the colleges will provide the courses that people want. It's just life at the moment and I think all we can do is look forward to better times, plant more trees, etc

I think the computers for word processing really did help me. The way my brain works I used to get so frustrated writing stuff down as my handwriting ended up almost illegible to me when I was having to keep up with what I was thinking. I can type much faster than write and the whole thing just seems to flow so much better. Strangely, one of the things I love to go out and buy is a new pen! Wish I had artistic writing. Perhaps it's something I should work on more. Funny thing happened last year. We were at a quiz night at the school of one of my kids. My kid's teacher is a girl (well, lady) who I used to work with and speak to every day, she left to retrain as a teacher, I left to go to uni. Anyway, this teacher was running the quiz night, and giving the questions and marking etc. She took my sheet, and when she gave it back she had written a note on it saying "hand writing needs practice, must try harder!". Made us all right proper laugh Shame I didn't get called in to her office

Get off to a good start with a name you can go global with..... Turner's International Tree Surgery

But it's not just in tree work. It's in ALL industries for the simple fact that are more kids leaving school/college etc, than there are jobs available, and there are more old people staying in work. This is why newbies need to be mentored in the right way, and not just told it's not worth bothering. You could equally well tell someone it's just not worth bothering looking for any work at all, and then in the next breath you'll be moaning that too many kids are on the dole doing nothing.