Marula

I'd love a bandit, however they are Money with a capital m. I've just seen a morbak for a couple of grand, it needs repairs which I figured I could chuck 5 or 6 grand at it to get it up to spec but now seeing the feedback it seems it may be more trouble than it's worth.

May I ask roughly what you expect to be earning over there?

Do you think they worth getting then? Or just to much trouble if they need a major repair?

That was my concern, not enough of them used here.

Oh ok, the reason I asked is because I thought you were new to the game. Well, I went out there in a very very similar position to you. I'm presuming it's your wife's qualifications taking you over? Because arborists are no longer needed really in any form, especially if you're over thirty? Once you are there, there really is plenty of work going around, finding a good company is hit and miss from my experience. The hours I worked over there were over 65 at a minimum every week, week in and week out, the only difference is what kind of meat machine you'd be working for as the climbers are predominantly 21 year old brits who get paid what they consider good money, they work for a year or two and then bugger off so longevity is not on their minds, this sets a precedent so to speak on how British arborists are treated. This is obviously only my opinion but I was called old man in the gang as the second oldest person was 22, he was also the foreman. Big trees! You will be doing massive take downs regularly with the odd prune here and there, it's heavy timber and it's hot, did I mention the bastard things are massive! The good thing is they use heavy machinery for everything, why? because there's glorious space, huge bandits and Vermeer,s make for "easier" days. It's expensive, really expensive! I started on a thousand pounds a week ($2000 a week), I obviously worked my nuts off for this wage but I thought I'd landed in butter considering I was hired as a bog standard climber. I soon learnt that the food was really expensive, as in 2 or 3 quid for broccoli! Rent is very expensive if you want to live in a half decent house, internet and cars are also crazy expensive so that wage suddenly only scraped me through each week, luckily the beautiful outdoors is free. Salaries of 65k a year is really nothing out there, you need at least 75 to 100k a year to say you will be comfortable, I'm basing that on your age obviously as the 21 year old climbers out there live 9 in a van smoking weed for breakfast and dinner, so to them 2 grand a week is more than they'd ever earn in the uk as newby climbers. The quality of life is EXCELLENT! The people are friendly, it's beautiful and there's load to do. You can spend decades traveling that massive country and still have room to travel some more. If you're going over and not having to rely on your qualifications but your wife's instead then I think you'll have time to shop around for a decent company to work for whilst you get your self sorted. It's worth it, especially if you have kids.

Either no one wants to talk to me or no ones used one of these?

How long have you been in the industry? Ask away and I'll offer what I have.

Does anyone have any experience with one of these chippers? Any good? Expensive to fix here? Any info would help, thanks.

I dragged brash for bloody ages! I'd get sent up the odd backyard conifer but then I moved to a company where the foreman and the lead climber took me under their wing, they had 50 years climbing between them and the knowledge they passed on to me was invaluable. 25 years climbing experience can never be taught in a college. Mr Blair has it right, make climbing opportunities for yourself or find a company who will invest in your climbing time, but remember, there's climbers in these companies who worked their way up the tree by dragging brash just like you are now.

I'd love to get my hands on Davids fungi identification and photo collection! Hint hint........

As Huck says, paint creates the perfect environment. The air is filled with millions of fungal spores, as the cut is made the wound is infected immediately, the tree will respond by isolating the wound area with various forms of anti fungal compounds. When you paint the wound the tree cannot add new wood to the area to close the wound thereby preventing the fungi from getting air which it requires to spread. Make a clean cut and let the tree do its thing.

Big tree, job well done done[emoji1360]. Is that articulated yours?

My 461 has a 25" bar on it and it runs perfectly.

Looks like a great machine.

I'll be sending a few Kent based companies an email outlining the services we offer, please take a moment to read it and feel free to ring if you have any questions. My objective is to offer an affordable and reliable service that really works for arboricultural firms. Thanks in advance Ps. Abuse for spamming will be welcomed.

You should have broken that bark off to see what's under there. That looks like an old wound where a limb tore out a while ago. It's really hard to tell the size or scope of what's going on under there. It looks like codit wasn't able to contain whatever is going on under there hence the sunken bark. Break it open and get a feel for the depth of the decay, is it contained? Is it brown or white? What's the current TR ratio? If the customer wants to keep it but is worried the maybe a heavy reduction will do, bearing in mind if this is struggling along now a reduction will kill it. Just my thoughts based on the last photo.

I do, I compete in various challenge races so I need to. My training changes day to day on a cycle from heavy for strength to dynamic for flexibility, fitness and endurance. The average tree surgeon however is probably stronger than your average office rat who goes to gym three times a week. The fact we use our hands to grip and pickup stuff all day long will obviously create strong tendons with muscle which have dense fibres.

I was charging £150 a day in 2010, that's still the going rate, so clearly something's wrong. Let's also break down the "entitled" nonsense shall we. People don't live to work, they work to live, as an employed arborist you live a fairly frugal life in todays Britain. You are definitely not getting a mortgage without help, not unless you've been saving that 30% down payment since you were 5. A mortgage is 4 x your salary, well around me that doesn't even get you a can of fart spray let alone a two bedroom terraced house. Or there's the option of renting, well rent is around £650 to £900 depending on whether you require a house or a flat. If you are under 28 your car insurance will be around £400 to £650 depending on whether you drive a hatchback or a pickup. Fuel for the month is obviously dependent but can be in the hundreds if you traveling to and from work. Then there's your council tax, water, lecky and gas. Council tax alone is rarely under 90 quid a month nowadays. Food isn't cheap unless you eat total rubbish and finally there's your gear which can run into the thousands new, obviously once bought and with a bit of care it shouldn't cost more than a few hundred a year to maintain but still it's a few hundred added to the other few hundred you NEED just to exist. Now that all the essentials are out the way we can add tax, not an essential and in no way an option. My point is people say they can't find good staff or keep them once they've got them, well that's because you can't take care of a family on an arborists salary, it's good money while you're young but the moment the missus wants to settle down you either need to start your own gig or change careers.

That's a very reasonable work day in this industry, I don't think it's you, it seems loads of firms can't find people.

A quick question, I'm assuming this was done in the correct order starting with the topographical map etc, why with all that information available would an architect stick a building not only in the RPA but basically on the trees? There are ways of circumnavigating an RPA through different methods of foundation laying, but this plan shown here would require the trees to be removed. I think the Arb officer was being polite in saying he will definitely not sign off on this.

Don't worry mate, I had the same thing after I finished college. The key is finding a company that will let you do odd little climbs here and there until your experience is built up. You'll also find you've retained your climbing knowledge from college. Climb in your spare time on weekends, I'm sure there's someone experienced in your area who would do recreational climbs with you.

[emoji23] never were truer words said. They really do as little as possible for that nest.

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji1360]

That's pretty much all you can do mate, remember there's nothing alive on the inside so don't take to much off the sides.

Luckily what you think of me is irrelevant, completely and absolutely. I have found many a nests, however as far as biodiversity goes with regards to vulnerable species found in the red book conifer hedges are not promoted or seen as ideal over native hedgerow species. You're acting like conifers are your lost family members and I'm insulting them, they are dirty nasty things and they are the worst part of the job. I lived in Wales for a while and cut my teeth on them, I came to loath them, dragging them from the bottom of gardens through terraced houses, bloody nightmare.