Jackalope

Which by my maths is a 100% increase on regular busses. 🤷🙄

As well as the factors Doobin mentioned some product will also vary depending on location in the country. Even the way it was cut can affect value. Hand cut cord can get a wee a premium Vs rough a f harvester produced gear (if the end destination is someone's processor). Douglas could go out at £35/ tonne for biomass or £50-60(+) for saw logs. Tbh without more information you might as well ask how long a piece of string is.

No they wouldn't, that's exactly my point. There are castles on Donside which don't draw anything like he crowd.

I grew up on Deeside, next door to Deeside is Donside. One of the river valleys has a choice of cafés in every village, hotels galore, tourist attractions, bike hire shops and caravan parks. All of these providing employment and income for the local population. On the other river you're lucky to find one café in a village let alone have a choice. The few hotels are thread bare and struggling to survive. The upper reaches are sparsely populated by folk scraping a living from hill sheep crofts. The difference is Balmoral and the royal influence. The tourists that visit the Royal residence bring a huge amount of much needed money to a relatively remote local economy.

Do you require the operator too?

If you're willing to relocate, even for a few months I would personally recommend heading to join a chestnut crew in Sussex or Kent. You'll get an abundance of felling and processing practice on relatively small trees, the work is usually on Piece rate so contractors are more willing to take on inexperienced folk as you don't have to justify a day rate. It's a good stepping stone to get your saw handling up to commercial speed.

Oh I have the receipts, but keeping them ALL safe and knowing which ones are paper Vs in an email is where I'm less good at remembering. So cross referencing the bank statement just ensures I don't miss anything and thus lose out on a tax deductible expense. I'm not VAT registered, nor anywhere near the threshold but I take your point that if that is a short term likely scenario then start as you mean to go on.

This is exactly what I did. Make sure you pay card/ online for all business transactions and it keeps life very simple at accounting time; look up your bank statement, cross reference with the pile of receipts, job done. Neater and faster than having to separate transactions like £17.50 at The Foresters (beers) from £18 Forest&Gdn (2 Stroke). I even went as far as opening the 'work' account with a different bank so the debit cards are different colours!

I'm not sure why they bothered boring out the heart wood when using a bar that length on a tree that size. 🤔

My first thought was Why?! As in why London, not why does e OP want to climb & work. Bristol, from the little I've seen of it is a lovely city.

I'm so exciiiiiited!

Great job spotting that and thanks for letting us know 😂🏆

Well said. People forget very quickly that the alternative to the Conservatives in 2019 was either Jeremy Corbyn or for those of us unfortunate enough, Wee Nippy Nicola. (Hides under the table.)

Was it felled with a grenade?

2-3 tanks a week equates to about 200-300 over the last two years. Commercial cutters do 5-6 tanks a day in medium sized hardwood (more in softwood). So 300 tanks would take about 10-12 weeks to achieve. In terms of hours worked for a pro saw your is still relatively new. That said, it obviously wasn't a Friday afternoon saw!

That page says: "There must be a contract in place to see whether the engagement is classed as employment or self-employment. The tool assumes there is, or will be, a contract in place." What I haven't been able to establish is what constitutes a contract. Does it need to be in writing? I.e. Job>Time/date>Cost. Does a gentleman's agreement and a handshake constitute a contract? If one goes on to work under that original agreement for many months/years.

I agree with doobin. Sounds like someone needs to decide what the end goal is, then get an experienced forestry operator with the correct machinery in to achieve said goal.

If it's only 20yo then there shouldn't be much needing done yet, unless of course it has come up a mass of natural regen which is smothering the planted stock. From what I've gleaned the other woods are mature ash with dieback, some already laid over/hung up and you are, by your own admission, a novice to forestry. Ash is tricky enough to fell safely when it's healthy, add in the delight of deadwood dropping out of it and that's the recipe for an accident report. Be extremely careful going into that.

Yea don't bother passing too much comment on what's gone before. Let your saw work do the talking. If it wasn't a thinning operation, what was it? Tidying windblow? As Spuddog says, some measurements and photos would definitely be useful. Sounds an interesting project.

General rule of thumb for thinning is take 30%, obviously try to leave those trees with decent shape whilst removing the weedy/ squirrel damaged etc. If there's Ash in the plantation I'd be inclined to hit that hard as dieback will inevitably take its toll. You're aiming for even spacing of what's left, if rack thinning post '87 planting I will take every 5th row and thin the cants as necessary. You'll need to decide on a spec for timber, 3m or 8' are fairly standard firewood sizes so should be marketable. If it's only 20yo you might find the firewood lads aren't interested in processing gear that small. Selling it as biomass is a good backup. Oh, and I wouldn't bother "making brash piles" just leave it where it lands if at all possible. Good luck!

Of your short list and for the budget & work you describe my personal choice would be the 445. Putting a 15" on it is the correct decision imo.

It sounds a fair offer tbh, 6-7 years ago I'd have relocated for that. However, 26k divided by 260 working days (including paid holiday) means a day rate of £100 before tax. Average saw running costs are circa £25/day. On a day rate of £180* less £25, cutters still clear £150 before tax. Obviously on piece rate jobs there is scope to take much more £££ home. Ok there's no pension or NI contributions and the holidays are unpaid but guys with a mortgage to service will probably rather keep the roof over their heads now and worry about retiring when we're all 103. *The top cutters won't even get out of bed for less than £200.

Is that kind of 'harness time' actually healthy or useful in the long term? Do operatives who start with big firms that lack accountability and quality control suddenly find themselves being 'vocally re-educated' when they go to work for wee independent firms who value their reputation and customer satisfaction? I'm off on a tangent, sorry/not sorry.

My 25p worth is that Arb & Forestry attract people with a sense of adventure. Many, though not all, of the guys I've worked with have adventurous hobbies (rock climbing, Motocross, hill running, mountain biking, snow sports). I worked PAYE for almost 3 years and it was the least adventurous employment I've ever had. I felt I was stifled by the 'hoops' and even after taking work expenses, paid holiday, NI contributions into account I was still 20% worse off. There was little flexibility. For example, in Scotland the snow is very sporadic, if I look on a Sunday night and see that conditions at Glencoe are good, being self-employed allows me to postpone my Tuesday job and get a quiet midweek slide. As an employee I had to submit a leave request in advance and with no guarantee it would be approved. That is quite a niche example, my point is that the industry self selects people who thrive on the flexibility, adventure, and to an extent, the uncertainty of being self-employed. There is no risk-reward relationship whilst working PAYE; it could even be described as boring.