Pedroski

Might be bit high. Guessing 15m but will check for sure tomorrow. Good idea though, but it's in town and I think a telehandler might startle the townies!

Yep, it'll be the black stuff you trip over if people don't bury it. Hose pipe will work, but it's a bit random, and is likely to gradually split where the holes are poked. Also, with whichever system you use, you have to remember to block the far end of the pipe (plug it or just fold it over a couple of times and cable tie it) otherwise the water just follows the path of least resistance and gushes straight out the end. The GOOD thing about the poly pipe is that it's stronger than hose, however the BAD thing is that it's also stiffer. The good thing about doing it properly though is that it's easy to rearrange things when more trees are planted. You have one main length of poly pipe feeding the system, then tee into that with very small diameter pipe to each tree, and add in more bits of small diameter pipe to other trees. It's all push fit stuff - bit like setting up a nice Hornby railway set with junctions and sidings etc. If you do it all with a normal hosepipe then you have to route that pipe in and out of everything, and dig it up and reroute if you want to change something. If you want an idea of prices for all the gear, feel free to drop me a PM and I'll call our supplier to see how cheap they can do it. Pedro

Can't help with contractor, but can't he just leave it? I mean, that chair is doing a damned fine job of propping it up.

Simon, I'm with you on this. My only concern is that the fella needs to make sure his emergency plan really is watertight, and that his mate who helps him really can work under pressure if necessary and get him down if he does get knocked out or injured as there's no telling how long it'll take emergency services to get there. Also, he needs to think about a few things.... like taking a first aid kit up the tree, just in case. Buxtons have good a good offer - buy one, get one free on first aid kits. I got the £11.50 ones that come with the Traumafix stuff. Dead good that. I've got one, and my daughter has one for Combined Cadet Force. If it were me, I'd be up there with a big Silky instead of a chainsaw, and would be nibbling away at it bit by bit.

Hi all. Not sure if anyone is working round these parts who might be able to assist with something in passing - and make some money at the same time! We have one awkward limb on tree that we need to get to, and it can't be climbed. Access is very good - all private road, and it's a reach virtually straight up. Had thought about climbing tree in neighbouring property to access it, but even then we can't get the height. The job is literally bringing the end of the limb back 3 metres or so and will take half hour max. Problem is that the hire firms we have called are wanting to hire a vehicle out for a day. If anyone might be able to help, or knows someone who possibly can, please PM me. Thanks kindly Pedro

Glass of red most nights, literally ONE glass. I can make one glass of red last longer than my Mrs with a bottle of white, so she's now banned from drinking

Pete, what you could do, rather than using the weepy irrigation pipe I mentioned to you before, is to use solid poly pipe with drip feeders where each whip is planted. The drips cost pennies, the poly pipe is inexpensive. When you add in more trees later then just tap in more drip feeders. About the only tools you need are a spade to make a slip for the pipe to push into, and a knife to cut the pipe at the points where you need to "T" in the drip feeders. Timer on a tap is only about £20, or they could just turn the irrigation on and off whenever they want to. I did this on a job near Billingshurst and it was a doddle and so have done it on several jobs since - it's good in that water is directed to exactly where it needs to be, where the weepy pipe is good if you want to irrigate a whole border. Pete

After my incident a few weeks ago with bloke going on holiday before paying me...... EVERYTHING is in writing including payment terms. I listened to the advice of Stephen Blair and am now growing bollocks.....

Or maybe pay an experienced bloke to come and help and guide you doing the job.

Get an experienced bloke in, add what you want to earn on top of what you need to pay him, and bill that. You'll make a few bob, you'll get to observe what goes on, you can ask questions and get advice, and learn from it.

We've never had a problem with the tannins. From research I have done, they are generally harmless to fish, but may slightly alter the pH of water which could possibly affect very sensitive species. That said, with an outside pond the biggest outside input that will alter pH is run off from the surrounding land and rain water. Tannins from oak in the water will be insignificant.

Hmmmm, all we do it charge for plants (factor in collection costs) and labour. Customer can see the invoice for the plants if they want, and we get them for a good wholesale price so they're happy. If it will takes half a day planting then we charge half a day labour, if it will take a whole day then we charge a whole day. When preparing the beds we usually rotavate (with the Stihl kombi attachment this is dead simple) in a good load of compost as well, and charge for that. We seem to get most of the ones we price for.

Sorry, here's another thought. Get them to sign something agreeing to pay in full once the other ash is felled, then fell the other ash and just log it up where it is and leave it. If you've not specifically agreed to stack logs somewhere, then logging it where it is won't take long. and log it into REALLY BIG logs. You've then done the work, they need to pay you, and they can then deal with moving REALLY HEAVY chunks of wood or face the wrath of the castle owners if they don't move it.

You can notify the council of the intended works if you so wish. It doesn't have to be the customer. After 6 weeks, if they haven't decided to TPO the tree, then you can go ahead. But I dunno if I'd bother for a customer like that. It might be worth writing to him to let him know that you are putting the matter in the hands of a solicitor unless an agreement is reached within 14 days or something. I'd also have a word with your friend to express your feelings! Suppose you could file a claim through small claims court. Is there anyone who can back you up with regard to what work you had agreed to?

Dunno how I missed that.... knackering day!

Dump all the wood outside their front door and explain that as they haven't paid you to get rid of it then it's theirs to keep.

We always use untreated oak. Works perfectly and lasts foralmostever. In clay it darkens quickly. Looks fantastic as it changes over time. We very rarely put it into concrete, prefering instead to just dig it and ram it in a good way, and then tie it all together using Timberlock type screws.

I was gonna scrap a big Mitsubishi 4x4 MPV back in October and reckoned of 450 for it. Stuck it on ebay for 850 with "make offer" selected, and someone bought it off me for £750. Might be worth a try. Out a chancing it price on, well above what you expect, but choose the "make offer" option. You'll get more than starting at a low price and hoping for the best.

Dunno what came over me! Glad you enjoyed. Re tyres, shame there's not an 18inch Hankook RF10 ATm..... I've got them on my Jeep and reckon they're best tyre ever.

Coffee before start, then 15 min break somewhere between 10.30 and 11.00, lunch 12.30ish, afternoon tea somewhere between 3.00 and 3.30. If customer come out with tea at, say 10.00 then we tend to skip the break before lunch. Same in afternoon... Works well. Had the odd day where we slog away forgetting the first break then all of a sudden it's 2pm, we're Hank Marvin and run out of time for lunch, and the afternoon turns into a blur of stroppiness!

If I remember correctly, we were told that the battery should last 4 or 5 years, but who knows. Pellenc claim 800 charge/discharge cycles for most of the batteries, 1200 for the most expensive one, and I know we got a day and a half of hedgecutter use on one charge, which is good. But looking at the quality of the connectors and everything else, I can't really see the equipment lasting long enough that you'd make use of that many charge cycles anyway. And an added complication is that the battery packs contain a computer that reads info about the load on the tool, battery state and all that sort of thing, which is then read by the Pellenc engineers at service time..... just seems unnecessarily complicated. That Stihl MSA 160BCQ will do 150 cuts through 4x4 on one charge - if you translate that to work on trees, that's one hell of a lot of cutting per charge, and then you've only got a half hour charge time or something anyway (the Oregon Powernow claims to do 250 cuts in 4x4). The Pellenc, while holding charge for a long time thanks to the massive back pack battery, needs charging overnight. So if you do get low on charge, unless you have another £1000 battery pack for back up then you're knackered. And yeah, Pellenc can go on about the environmental friendliness of the "80% recyclable" battery packs, but the Stihl packs are recyclable too - any Li-Ion pack is recyclable. What I think could be great though, would be a small top handle... battery version of Stihl MS201T. That would be brilliant in the trees. Instant on/off, low noise, no fumes in yer face....

Forgot to add, to the Pellenc chainsaw price from FR Jones of £795 + vat (£954), you need to add on the price of the backpack batteries - the cheapest being £660 + vat (£792) and the most expensive being £1486 + vat (£1783). So you're in £1700 min for an electric chainsaw. Whereas the Stihl MSA160BCQ you're in for £400 inc battery, charger and vat. You can buy 4 of them for the price of 1 Pellenc!

The Stihl MSA160BCQ is good, as is the Oregon one but that isn't available here yet. We tried the Pellenc stuff a few months back, and to be honest, while it's nice in a way having the battery pack on yer back, it soon becomes a pain in the arris when you want to manoeuvre in and out of stuff, climb etc. You have to switch off and disconnect, then reconnect and switch on.... it's a hassle. Also, the cable gets caught up in stuff. ALSO, one of the pieces of equipment we had on demo were the Pellenc hedgecutters. Again, a nice idea, and they're light to handle, but the balance point of the long one is completely wrong with far too much of the weight out at the end and nothing to counterbalance it. ALSO, the mechanism at the hedgecutter end for adjusting the angle is crap - it's a moulded nylon ratchet type mechanism with a hand screw to clamp it down. The Stihl and Husqvarna are both much much better. The final deal breaker for us with the Pellenc stuff is the cost. The rep was going on about savings in fuel over a year, but when you think about it, the real world difference is probably nothing. In fact, it would probably cost more to own and operate the Pellenc stuff. They wanted £4k for one battery pack and charger, a short hedgecutter and a long pole hedgecutter. They do a blower attachment which is feeble as feeble can be, yet costs getting on for £800. Think how much Stihl or Husky stuff you can get for that sort of money, and how much fuel you can buy, and it just becomes a joke. The price has got to come down, and the equipment has got to get better to match Stihl and Husky. Sure, there are some benefits, like you're seen to be green and you can operate in school grounds with kids in class. I'm looking into the possibility of getting green grants pay toward the equipment. The Stihl MSA160BCQ chainsaw is something like £400-£500 all in, and I think represents pretty good value. Sure, the run time on one charge isn't as good as the Pellenc, but with fast chargers and access to electric (genny, inverter or mains) I don't really think it's such a big deal.

Provided the benefits they were receiving properly represented the value of the work they are doing, then fine.... which means 40 hours of work per week should be rewarded with payment equivalent to 40 hours of minimum wage and the recipient should then be entitled to working tax credit and child tax credits to bring this up to the minimum living income. In other words, it becomes a low paid job.