Tim Stobart Tree Surgery

Hi all, I'm just quoting on this wee Willow, flicking through the book to confirm what type it is, it crossed my mind that it may be an Almond, although I've left the idea for a white willow (Salix alba). Just figured I'd check.

So, to come back round full circle, what do people think is a fair day rate for treework: Climber and groundsman waste left on site, climber, groundsman & chipper, obviously waste removal is more a volume cost and will cost different firms/localities more, so i'll not bother to ask of waste. I'm thinking that i charge too little at £300/day for the two of us. I'm just looking to buy a chipper (at the moment I just run through with a saw in a tractor trailer which the farmer charges me £90 a load to take away), but to add onto a job i had £50/day in mind. I do however live in a bit of a price bubble, on a Scottish lsland, and I know that the tree surgeon over here charges roughly the same. On occasions when a customer has said that one or the other of us is more or less expensive it's usually in estimating the time a job will take rather than our rates differing. Interested to know if you guys think I'm about right, too steep or too cheap!

As a form of heat, is there any mileage in the idea of an underfloor space to be filled up with wood chip in the autumn and emptied onto the garden in the spring? I always think that's a good if old idea, certainly for a shed/workshop.

I was sitting in a pub over looking a rocky foreshore a year or two back with a couple of lasses and gulls were dropping mussels to crack them open. One of the girls thought they were dropping rocks, asked what they were doing, when I explained (obviously not very well) she responded with 'wow, they must be really accurate at dropping those stones'. And you say birds are clever!!!!

I have always used honda's, but the mower I've got at the moment is a Hayter r53s. It's a good bit of kit, I can't really fault it, and half the price of a honda. R53S Recycling Mower Autodrive VS — The Hayter Range — Hayter

Again, an idea we discussed, definately a possibility!

May I suggest using words such as habitat creation and form a natural barrier to slope erosion when explaining to the customer that you intend to leave a huge pile of crap at the bottom of the slope! it's amazing how often it works

Hmmmm, more praise for this cafe over the water, and a broken piece of willow that I shall need to replace, the excuses for a trip to yonder mainland are stacking up. Unfortunately so are the customers that I've promised to get work done for on a tight schedule. I'm almost hoping for a rainy day!!!

Ok, I along with everyone else has come on with concern over the late and un-vigorous awakening of the ash. I have to say, it looks bad, and I'm very worried for one of my favorite trees, but,..............., I live over on an island, notably not one with a big buffer around it, but there's been no cases here yet, and no cases near-by. Having said this, the ash here are consistent with those that others are describing, hugely varied and not looking great as a whole. The point I'm trying to make is, hoping that the gales have not been as effective at spreading the spores as we all fear, if it's not here yet, then what we're all seeing could just be the quirks of Ash and an odd few seasons of weather. I hope so.

So, as I was saying, an old bit of climbing rope'd be better than my rigging rope. How much?!!? how do they get rope with a gold core to float!

Where would one find such a mythical line for sale?

My advice, having been in a similar boat at one point, is again the sole trader route. Find someone in a similar situation, or maybe someone who's just got their tickets and is looking for any experience, who's also willing to work as a self employed person. The key thing is to get someone you trust and enjoy working with, and you may try a few guys till you find the right one. Start advertising locally, target villages where you can get a good reputation by word of mouth and price each job for how long it will take you. Your insurance will be your biggest overhead (you'll need employers, even if you don't 'employ' the other guy, if he's on the site you control, then that's what you need), but you should make that back in 4 or 5 jobs, and Trust will arrange for it to be paid monthly. Other than that you'll need a car and trailer, 2 wee saws and a big bugger, PPE and climbing kit, which you already have (trailer aside) and you're good to go. Vista print do some very cheap deals for magnetic car/van signs and business cards. Add logs to your services. If someone phones up straight away and asks for them, just say you're out at the mo, otherwise in years time, you'll have a stack of logs and no advert for it without spending more on new signs/cards. When you advertise, make sure you put Tree Surgery or Arboriculture as your key thing, part of the company name or the like, and add gardening as something you also do. People are more likely to let a tree surgeon cut their grass than they are to let a gardener dismantle or prune a tree. I started out like that a couple of years ago having just moved up here for a new job for her indoor's, now I'm in the situation where I'm contemplating making my groundsman full time! ps, check out the wee chipper club thread. I had a CS100 demo'd t'other day, and they're immense bit's of kit that you can probably make back on weekend work if you get busy.

Now that sounds like fun. With the stretch issue in mind, I assume I'd be better to rig the line using an old climbing (Static) rope, rather than a lowering (dynamic) rope. Is that correct?

That's what I suggested to groundie, but he wasnae keen!

Let's hope the downs create a natural barrier to it. Has there been any restrictions placed on moving dead ash (I'm thinking firewood) as this may jepordise such naturally protected areas?

It was a bumble bee nest, in a shed used as a chicken coup which was full of sawdust. It had already been disturbed. I built a rough box, lifted the nest in, and left it with the lid off till midnight. I then put the lid on, covered the entrance hole, and carried them home. They're now at the foot of a hedge, I've left them bee since!

PM me your number, I'll let you know if/when I'mover on t'big ferry!

Brighton did dodge DED, so maybe it's a similar reason (the downs I believe, which side of them are you)? Tim (A Sussex boy a long way from home!)

I will do, I'm pretty busy over here at the moment, but I'll drop by next time I'm down that way.

I've got my own signs magnetically done. It means that If I'm parking up somewhere dodgy overnight, I can take the signs off and make it look like a camper van (having said that, it's got stars down the side!)

Hi Steve, aye, it's tempting, just aim at the groundie. The only fear is if one goes through him and over the road. I'll have to pop down and have a watch next time you're doing that, I'm only just up the water! Tim ps, I had a CS100 demo'd today, I'll be joining the wee chipper club as soon as I can find the money!

Hi all, I have a site I'm currently working where the distance from tree to road is about 30m but the fall in slope is about 15m. It's slippery as the proverbial and there's no way I'm shifting rings or cords of firewood out of the site. the road at the bottom is quite, but it's fairly blind from the slope, so the way I see it as best to extract the log wood from this site is to drop it on a skyline down to the roadside. This seems simple enough to me, but the problem i foresee is what to use to attach and run each piece down with, without having to recover the item for each log. it's either that or have twenty or so running strops. Any advice anyone has would be appreciated! Cheers.

So, on Friday, I took down an old Oak on it's last legs, 4 stems from two multi-stemmed Katsura, and half a Cypress. Stacked it all up neatly, with some stuff in there that me and my groundie (Paul) agreed 'if it takes that, it's the nuts', we also said if it does that in 2 hours i'll be impressed. Today, we had Alistair from Greenmech up with an 18hp CS100. We met at 9.15. spent a good half hour looking over the machine, how to access the drum, blades, belts etc. chipped some stuff which was lying since December, then the pile from Friday. I left Paul to it to watch how he was using it, how it should be done (Alistair), and what it was dealing with. The pile was finished and the machine back on the trailer by 10.30. Having read through this post I was expecting it to be good. I was not however expecting it to be half as good as it was. I was thoroughly impressed by what I have seen, the build quality, the ease to move it, everything about it. The only problem I have is affording it, (the money I had put to one side just bought a new boiler!) but it's not a case of if, it's a case of when! Thanks to Alistair for coming over and Ted from Hamilton Brothers for arranging the demo. A club application is on it's way!

Do you mean 0.650 m3 bags?

This is the second morning running with a similar thread. They're often late, but this is really getting on. The amount of people saying about them with dead leaves on, at this time of year, is pretty certainly the keys (last years seed pods), but the notable thing I'm picking up on is that it's the big mature trees that seem to be late/struggling, while the smaller saplings through natural regeneration are looking fine up here (we don't have it here yet). I think I'm going to put the big lense on the camera and take some crown shots to get a close up view of these late starters. Let's hope we're just in for a Splash! ps, the below link is useful: Chalara symptoms photoguide.pdf