maybelateron

Very difficult to know where to begin. I will throw a few random comments in as they enter my head: 1) Appraisal system is useless aka "not fit for purpose". The majority of decent doctors spend too long worrying about and preparing for it, while the few bad apples are slick at selling themselves on paper. One year I had to tick a box to confirm that I am honest! WTF? 2) A major problem is ever moving goalposts - targets to meet being changed every few months, guidelines changing far too quickly. The culture of "constant change". 3) As a partner in general practice, ie the old fashioned way, rather than a salaried assistant, employed by other gp's, I have always been paid adequately for my work, and in some years very well indeed. I don't think pay is an issue. 4) Not enough time per patient appointment to sort things out properly. 5) Increasing amounts of work that were hospital based (secondary care) being moved over to GP (primary care), but without the funding following the extra workload. By this I do mean funding, no pay. For example, a practice can do a lot more if it has the funding to take on an extra nurse/nurse practitioner/practice based physio etc. 6) The reluctance of so many in society to be realistic in their expectations of what can be achieved, particularly with the frail elderly. 7) The lack of continuity of care. When I was a young new GP it was not uncommon to give your home number to the family of a terminally ill patient in the community during the last few weeks of the illness. That just doesn't happen now due to workload and burnout sadly. ? Chronic underfunding of the NHS. I use to think this was not the case, until my wife (also a GP) learnt that for years the UK had spent a smaller proportion of GDP on the NHS than most other European countries. 9) The need, perceived need, to practice defensive medicine - overinvestigation of many patients to rule out any possible litigation. Etcetera...

The employer will be reimbursed 80% of their wages if the lay them off (furlough, they call it) for three months. See following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses I have only read it once so far, but my understanding is that to be able to claim 80% reimbursement on wages, the employee has to be officially laid off for 3 months. This is different to being made redundant. I only have on worker on PAYE, and two subbies. I don't want to commit to laying him off for 3 months, just yet, so I will fund his wages for now, even though we are not working, and review the situation in a couple of weeks. My take on it is that if I lay him off right now, to claim the 80% reimbursement, he then cannot return to work within the three months even if all restrictions on movement etc are lifted.

No, I finished six and a half years ago (at the tender age of 53), so I have been out too long to be called back.

Yes, I do totally realise how lucky I am. Some people would acknowledge I worked very hard long hours etc to be in the position I am now in. I take my position/good luck etc seriously and will ensure my employees are well looked after in this dreadful mess we are in. It does not alter the fact that I can still offer a worthwhile viewpoint on the shitstorm we are now in, like the fact that two of my daughter's fiance's work colleagues (he is a junior hospital doctor) are now on a high dependency unit with covid19, and we all need to do all we can to limit the spread.

You have a very good point I cannot argue with. I chose to shut us down this afternoon, before the PM's address, as there are four of us in the team, each from different households.

Sorry, but that is not acceptable. I don't mean to sound arsey etc, but the point is you are mixing two people from different households and that it what needs to be avoided. Although I am now a full time tree surgeon, i was once a full time GP, sop hopefully I can contribute sensibly here.

Friday afternoon special: We crown raised a few Sycamores in the morning, dismantled a tall dead one using an anchor point in the tree next to it. Have lunch, onto the home straight, just a small Sycamore to put the rope onto and pull over with the tracked chipper. Stripped the Ivy off the trunk when climbing up to put the pull rope on, and guess what was under the Ivy. Had to use a hatchet to dig out one ring of barbed wire so we could get a gob and backcut in.

We were splitting some Oak rings yesterday that we felled last October. Look at what we found in the middle - very nice!

A while ago one of my 4ft chains for the 880 got overheated when it found some metal. It was a fairly new chain, so didn't want to chuck it away. As Rough Hewn suggests, I took it to out local Stihl agent who I have a good working relationship with. They touched it enough with the grinder to remove the hardened edge, but gently enough not to overheat it again. I then finished the sharpening with a file. If the chain had been more than half way through its life I might have binned it.

I haven't had much of it to process, but one load was from a 4-5ft diameter trunk and it was hard work to split with a Browns tractor mounted 10T splitter. Might have been easier now I have a Rock Machinery 22T. Good enough heat output in my boiler with it.

I sell freshly felled hardwood in pieces one man can easily move, or occasionally in rings, for £100 for a trailer holding 3.75 cu metres. That is half the price I charge for unseasoned logs (soon to be in 2 cu m loads or more, by law??). In reality I have only been prepared to deliver at least 2 cu metres minimum load for some time, purely form logistics/cost effectiveness for me. I have only a small number of log customers, but they are well trained.

Depends on how tight a turning circle you need on some jobs as well.

Yes, the diesel will have relatively more torque, but it tends to be in a narrower rev range than a petrol. However, if the engine stays in this range the revs will be less likely to drop.

Aaaaaargh! Mea culpa. I did that awful thing with the apostrophe that shouldn't be there. Spare me the birching your lordship.

I have one of these machines - the genuine item, not a Chinese copy. I bought it from Fresh Products, who sell the range. I gathered that the manufacturer had made a few lifting devices that were like a sack truck that could then be tilted back hydraulically. I was thinking of getting my local fabricator to make me a small grab device to run off the spool valve, and pivot down to pick up brash etc. I think that this would be ok for picking up brash, but any heavy timber would need someone pretty heavy standing on the foot rail at the back as a counterbalance. We use the machine for moving timber in large gardens, can use ally ramps to get up onto patio's that need crossing etc. Only reason I have not pursued the original plan is me recent purchase of Bobcat E10, with thumb. Planning to cannibalise my old stump grinder to mount on the boom, with its own engine. Will post this once completed.

Looks like the most sensible option in all respects. I upgraded to a Jensen A540 turntable 4 years ago and it was a game changer. A year later I managed to add a Forst TR6 to the kit, and that opened up more options - like taking the hopper off the gate through narrow gates in rear gardens when customer will keep the chip. If I could only have the one chipper it would be the TR6 or the GM quadrac. Having said that the Jensen is fantastic.

Agreed entirely. Going off at a slight tangent - if the job involves working for A, but pruning tree belonging to B, I always insist on meeting B if they have not given clear and specific written permission to the neighbour. On more than on occasion we have turned up at B's place to prune his/her tree for A next door, only to be told they have not agreed to so much coming off. On one occasion I was pretty convinced B had agreed to more to A's face, for an easy time, but then when A was at work for the day told us we could take less off. Grrrr. So I learnt the hard way.

Wicker basket. Easy to bring them into house in, looks OK by the stove, holds plenty. Bottom of basket lined with cardboard to catch the debris.

Turned 60 late last year. Still climbing regularly. Just had a few weeks off to recover from a hernia repair and it felt so good to get back up a tree last week!

Have any of you any awareness that anyone at all from HSE has undergone basic climbing training and then been allowed/encouraged to get up a tree and see first hand what it is all about?? Some years ago a couple near us both worked for HSE, one of them was in agriculture and forestry and went on a residential practical one week course in Scotland covering various topics including tree climbing. She was fit (physically capable of climbing etc), but NO NO NO, they weren't allowed to climb. WTF? Yet they want to tell us how to do it.?

That's interesting. I have often been surprised by how many of my customers want to pay with cash, even for jobs costing several hundred, and I had assumed this would probably be the case for most of us. I wonder if it perhaps varies from one part of the country to another.

I would suggest that if HMRC decide to audit the books thoroughly (which they can do at random) they will get suspicious if they feel there are not enough cash payments being banked. I sleep well at night regarding this. Not playing holier than thou here, just like to have no worries.?

My payment methods, in order of preference, are internet banking transfer, then cash, then cheque. I put the cash into our domestic cash and transfer the same amount from our domestic joint account into the business account. Then we use cash for most domestic shopping/car fuel etc. If the cash builds up faster than we spend it, I can always use the cash for business purchases then refund the money from the business account to the domestic one. My bank charges for these transfers are minimal, and I can't remember the last time I had to use a cashpoint.

Nothing worse? I reckon cat shit is pretty bad too

The saying used to be "those who can, do, those who can't, teach". I then thought it was more like "those who can do, those who can't, regulate others". Maybe the latest version is "those who can, do, those who can't, teach others to teach others". Separate whinge, but on a similar theme: As a former NHS GP I always wondered who was regulating the CQC (Care Quality Commission), but I never managed to find out.