maybelateron

I had a Jo Beau M300 for some years as a backup machine and for restricted access jobs. It was excellent, even better when I added the rotating discharge spout. Used to chip into a wheelie bin then take that to the vehicle. Amazing what awkward stuff eg rhodies you could push through it with a home made blunger stick. I only sold it due to not using it enough + raising funds for a tracked chipper.

Needs painting/ needs a lick of paint = might be stolen/don't get caught before it looks different

Agreed, I use Tachyon and really happy with it.

One of my principles I try to get across to newcomers I work with is that accidents are more likely or worse when you are being greedy, and by this I mean trying fell or lower too much timber with one cut. If in doubt take it in smaller pieces. Another phrase I learnt from an older tree surgeon is : "There be old tree surgeons and there be bold tree surgeons, but there be no old bold tree surgeons". Agreed, I hope the the guy does OK.

Fair comment, as long as the customer knows the score I guess.

I always make sure a customer is fully aware that anything other than very light reduction on Silver Birch usually results on rot setting in fairly quickly in the pruning cuts. That way they can't complain after the usual scenario of "I want you to take more off than that". Purely a personal view but I hate reducing Birches, I prefer to leave them alone, raise them, or fell them. That's not intended as a criticism of your planned work at all, just a recognition of how challenging it is. I'd love to see some pics of the result. Have fun.

Yeah but no but yeah: I largely feel I can tell where to make each cut either from the mewp or climbing, but sometimes a good groundie will spot things you simply can't gauge from the tree.

I never use use kindling to light our stoves or boiler. One wax firelighter under well seasoned logs never fails, especially with the pointy edge of a triangular log sitting in the flame.

Agreed entirely. I contacted HMRC re this issue on 2016 and they told me I could apply to be exempt from this CIS deduction of tax at their discretion. I applied and they approved me to be exempt, or "gross contractor" status. When I have submitted an invoice to a construction firm or similar since then I do as HMRC told me: Tell the client/main contractor that they need to contact HMRC to verify your status with respect to the CIS scheme, give them your name (Oh really?!), NI number and UTR (unique taxpayer reference). If they don't do this they are potentially in trouble with HMRC. In reality I only pursued this to make my accounting easier with my computer software. At the end of it all HMRC will be having the tax, but it just made my electronic book keeping easier by having invoices paid in full. If it helps any one I can post a copy of the letter I had back from HMRC in response to my query.

I would love to be passing this motor stuck in mud or snow and offer to pull it out with the PTO winch on the front of my 1975 SWB Series 3 Land Rover.??

I've not purchased anything from Northern Arb, but do use Saturn Knives, no complaints there, although turnaround time has varied a lot. They find time to ring me every so often to promote their services - perhaps the time could be spent better on other things? On a different note, I use Gustharts for supplies and cannot fault their speed of delivery. I order on the net, and on the rare occasion I need to check something by phone they are helpful every time. They even put Stihl orange sweeties in most parcels. One time when crunching on one I broke the side of one of my teeth (that had previously been filled a lot). Ouch. Stihl use them for everything.

I agree with you entirely on that point, only an idiot would disagree. You can still choose to work dangerously or sensibly. Not sure why I am big boy?

Think you missed the point here. 1) I didn't have to go to hospital for anything (you used past tense "chose") 2) There is some degree of choice in that people can choose to work sensibly and safely, or take stupid risks. It also makes the point to newbies, or idiots (not saying newbies are idiots!)

The rule of 4 H's, something I tell any newbies working with us: You have 4 choices of destination at the end of the day's work: 1) Home 2) Hospital 3) Heaven 4) Hell It makes the point.

Winches can be wonderful at times......

I sometimes say we learn from our mistakes, make no mistakes and don't learn a thing.

Some years ago we we reducing a long wide conifer hedge using our mewp. I had looked along the far side of the hedge, ie the side that was not facing the customers premises, and all looked ok. There was a BT cable within the hedge, just to make the job nicer. What I could not see when I did my recce was two large wooden poles within the hedge with a large oil filled container between them. So imagine my horror as I was cutting stems to suddenly come face to face with a transformer within the hedge, presumably 32KV. There were no power lines in the air to it, both the feed and exit wires came up from the ground, who knows why. Scary or what?

It can only be a matter of time until I'm submitting RAMS for a commercial job and I get told that I need EFAW certificate. Just as well the lad who works for me and my two main subbies have it!

Spent all my weekends and school holiday working on the dairy farm over the road in the 70's, loved every minute of the hard work. First experience of chainsaw use was being shown how to stand on the tractor bonnet and cut back badly overgrown hawthorn hedge around the field. No PPE, no chain brake, no mobile phone, 1/4 mile from nearest house, farmer left me to crack on alone after showing me how. SORRY, DID YOU SAY HEALTH and SAFETY?! Lol Parents felt I should go to university, dad was a surgeon in NHS, older sister gone to medical school, I ended up doing the same. Coped OK with it, but always aware I took the more practical/pragmatic approach to things compared to many of my peers. Went into full time general practice for 14 years after a total of 9 years training. Late 2000/early 2001 had to take time out to sort out my head/depression. In the very lucky position of my wife being part time GP, so we could make changes and allow me to change to part time GP and set up my small business doing groundcare and tree work. Did part time GP for 12 years while also doing trees, at age 53 decided to quit the desk and go full time on trees etc. Regarding the medical job I feel I need to make it clear that I feel we were well paid for what we did and to my last day I still loved doing what I actually trained to do - dealing with patients, even the few difficult ones. It was the "constant change" of moving goalposts pointlessly that made me quit. It is the same for teachers, police, and many others. I realise that I was in the lucky position for 12 years of having a stable good income to live on while investing in kit etc. Even with this fortunate start in the trade it is difficult enough to invest in really decent kit. For three years we also had a grounds maintenance contract for a nearby up market housing estate, and this allowed me to invest further in kit. Having managed this I eventually packed in this contract, so we could focus more on trees. I am now 59, well past my prime, but still climbing and loving every minute of it.

I find that when the cabin fever starts kicking it is is time to get outside again. I can reverse the fever by going out in the yard (which I am lucky enough to have at home) and doing some logging or machinery maintenance. Short half day outside and then I can cope for a bit longer on the festive season. When we do start up again for reaI I have never know any of my workers say anything but "it's good to be back at work". I think this is just another indicator that many people working in the arb sector enjoy their work to the extent that they accept/tolerate the relatively low wages it pays. We all know that arb work is not generally reimbursed either for employees or business owners at the rate it should be, considering the skill and dangers involved, the sheer hard work, and for businesses the investment in kit. End of rant on behalf of all of us!

Forgot to say that my insurance gives £5M PL and £10M EL. It also gives a some legal fees cover in the event of claim having to be defended etc.

I have a guy who has set up recently on his own, and he subs for us a bit. He was told by his insurers that he would have to have EL as well as PL, in fact he says they declined to provide only PL. I guess although it will cost you more, you will have the comfort of knowing it is one less loop hole insurers can use to avoid paying up if a subbie working for you gets hurt. Regarding cost, I am with Trust Insurance, who specialise in arb insurance. Premiums are priced on the basis of turnover and what types of arb work you do. I am a very small firm, turnover varying between 80-120K per annum in recent years, and my combined cost for PL and EL has been around £950-1000 for several years.

Forgot to add that with the ZZ or the ART positioner (I guess same for various other mechanical devices) the problem of resin on the rope when working on Conifers etc is nothing like as bad as with rope hitches which refuse to run smoothly once they have sap/resin on them.

Definitely go the ZZ route. I used Blakes hitch for years and was slow to change to slack tender pulley. Then moved on to ZZ, would never go back now. I also love the ART positioner with swivel for my strop. Any kit like this can can help me keep climbing at 58 is a good thing!

I have a MS 160T and it is great for pruning/light dismantles. I have also briefly used a Stihl rear handle leccy saw for a few cuts on the ground. Impressed with that too. Opted for the bigger battery capacity in my 160T and a spare. Surprisingly good run time in fact. Take two fully charged batteries out to work and you wont need the charger for the climbing saw in the day. When lithium ion saws can match the 261 or 460 that will be a real game changer.