Steven P

But in this case, the OP has been working on a farm for the last 10 years, reckon that gives him a step up from a 30 year old accountant of course. Be giving different advice if the background was different.

You see it all over, as we age we are fitter better than similar aged 20 years ago - might have been the rule then and that has carried over despite the evidence. Regardless, 'best years are gone' - but that never means throw onto the scrap heap, pointless - even if they are past, I'd be putting in a fair bet that most of us on here (and we are predominantly grumpy older men), we could still put in a fair shift when we need to.

A small battery one but realistically the brand is your preference (big brands anyway, not knock offs)

I'd be considering a longer one and a shorter one these days - start a smaller hole as support for the longer bits.

I'd take some just for the challenge now! (though likewise if it doesn't split it goes in the wood for the bugs)

Wages - as you put it in the first post, are only a small part, there is the work-life balance to consider too - an hour of free time to spend with the family is easily worth an hour on the pay check once all the bills are paid. We could all chase the ££, weekly commutes to job sites miles away - but that comes at a cost when you have family to consider. I've always reckoned that you can earn big ££ and have no life of your own, or earn nothing and have 24 hours a day to fill... and somewhere in the middle is where you want to be. Might be you are happy spending all day with a chainsaw and taking a wage home at the end of the day, no pressure to run a business, no pressure to earn bigger money. Might be that you are happy to earn similar sitting at a till in Tesco (other supermarkets are available) (that would drive me mad). At 33 you are not past it - working the last 10 years on a farm probably hasn't given you a beer gut and a sit on your backside attitude - plenty of life left and an attitude to graft if needed? Do you have (mentally at least) the time to work at getting tickets / other qualifications / build a second career alongside the farm work? (or do you need to get out now for your sanity?). Looking at what you say, degree, worked in farming, a love for the land? then environmental stuff might be the thing, maybe not mega ££ but if it pays enough the mental side will more than make up for the rest. Rather than asking for what tickets you need just now, maybe there are some guys down your way you could have a face to face chat with (like in real life, IRL!), maybe shout them a coffee - no strings attached - who know the local market, big firms and small outfits operating your way who might get you a start - and they can tell you what tickets they would be willing to fund and what they'd like to see (different areas, different employment pressures, firms are more or less likely to train up depends how many people are looking for work locally)

A weird comment from Trump over the weekend, word to the effect of "I didn't order Epstein to be killed". To be fair, neither did I but that isn't a thought that has ever crossed my mind to make a public denial about it. Thinking further about Trumps best pal, odd isn't it that the prison he died in only has a single CCTV camera that didn't quite point at Epsteins cell, no cameras pointing at the perimeter or gates that would show anyone coming or going, say an hour either side of his suicide - one for the MAGA conspiracy theorists there then, why arn't we being shown those video feeds as well (I'd be assuming any 'killer' wouldn't have been a prison staff member there of course). This story keeps going on and on, longer than the 24 hours press interest I thought it would do.

Bill, that has been my point all along, sexual offences are not excusive to a single race / religion / gender but the ones reported frequently on this thread are exclusively biased towards a single race, religion and gender.

With the length of the auger, you have to be a bit careful not to bend them (from experience)

So this was quite funny, to his face the European leaders know how to keep Trump happy, just nod, agree and let him play golf (or let his golf minions place golf balls down for him to hit). Ursula von der Leyen nodded along as Trump was announcing 'trade deal', 650 billion investment into the US, then she got home and said to the effect "he was making that up, there is no trade deal, it needs all of the EU to sign up to it before we can call it a trade deal" Starmer, as Trump demands windfarms be scrapped he nods along, Trump goes home, UK announces Berwick Bank windfarm. Yes, they have the measure of him, smile, nod, agree and then carry on as normal.

For all his city banking background, Farage is quite coy when it comes to how things will be afforded. I suspect it will be through ripping the heart out of the country. A single policy but no idea on anything else really.

That might be tricky - if homeowner has an accident at the saw mill place of work, it might count as industrial accident... HSE piles in asking for risk assessments, suitable PPE, supervision, training... many places if they realise don't want that responsibility. Same as collecting wood from a yard, might struggle to convince someone to use a saw there for oversized wood

Friday lunchtimes.... brilliant:

Takes me back. The last I found was a DVD Actually that might not be true - found a bag of VHS last year but no player to verify what it was

You can of course relax, there was a list on the news yesterday Microsoft have made a list of the professions that AI are going to wipe out, manual work (ie. tree stuff) is safe, customers service phone reps are screwed. Entry level graduate jobs have been wiped out - managers just use AI - but are not hiring anyone to to become experienced to do the stuff AI cannot. (onto topic, one of the very few things Trump (or his advisers at least) has done is try to encouraging chip manufacturers to return to the US - AI chips are the next big thing)

A while ago we had a guy with a macro that would screw up a drawing he was sending out - not every drawing of course, just the really really important ones - text and hatches converted to lines, random elevations (on 2d drawings) - but only by tiny amounts so it was still useable but drove the customers CAD guys mad (CAD guys all have 'special interests' type of people).

Democratically elected though wasn't he with the 2nd largest majority 3rd time he was elected, (I think he also claims to have achieved the largest majority 1st time around), so whatever it is he is doing must resonate with his electorate in London.

Gets home earlier, chance to do the paperwork mid week, not the weekend, send the invoices out a few days earlier to keep the bank manager happy maybe? (apart from the obvious of fitting a job into 1 day and not day and a half so you can go to the new job in the morning, catches up along the week, no Saturday morning jobs, no OT to pay)

Have you got a picture of the full tree? Shows it height, full size etc.

He says he was approached and about to be attacked - defending himself... but... skipping the country doesn't do him much credit. In the underground station - crawling with CCTV to clear his name. [Suspect that he has a hot line to a lawyer - his line of work sees him close to the legal limit very often - and has been interviewed by police enough to know the system, not be fazed by it, able to put a rational reason forward.. yet still runs away]

Exactly, I watched the video and the main point he made (to me) wasn't that there was starvation in Gaza but the point as made above, that 'we' should be do more than take the world news on the back of 1 image or report. Seen it all over where those trying to make political points only point the camera in the 'right' direction (camera - could as easily be the authors pen) while ignoring what is going on behind them. As far as Gaza, Israel is banning the press from recording images, what we see is of course biased but... if all was nice and rosy, nothing to be concerned by the way Israel is conducting its operations then the press would be welcomed in to report their spin on things.

There was a lad on here Lake District with transport a few weeks ago, he never said if he was happy being rescue climber though:

Last time I was talking to a tree surgeon about biomass, he was storing it in his yard till he got a wagon or a tractor trailer full (big trailer) before he sent it for biomass. If they are out of their usual area a return to the yard and back can cost more that what they get for it, or if they don't have a suitable yard to store that quantity - he wasn't sure a biomass place would accept half a transit load at a time... so back to it being a waste product - to some - unless they spend the hours making firewood... where as the bigger money is working on the trees themselves - so in some cases the finances make sense to use a local tip site.

With the tip sites you have to be aware that anyone based locally will have arrangements generally in place to dispose of their arisings - whether it is a yard, regular tip sites, or a commercial deal (preferential tip rates, selling on for biomass) - as described above. Where they come into their own often is to anyone working outside their usual area who need somewhere handy to tip. As an example, I've seen tree surgeons around here from 10+ miles away and for them to fill a tipper truck, return to their local area, tip and back to the job for another load costs (20 miles van use, 2 hours labour costs for driving, job takes 2 hours longer - could be into a 2nd day, any tip fees) and then having a local tip site becomes a viable option. You are then competing with all other local tip sites. Point I am making is that registering on the tip sites isn't going to bring you a driveway full of logs - people will be in contact as and when it is necessary for them. Great to have an introduction though, someone might be reading this Gloucestershire way and remember seeing your post, Also to note as above, people see logs as a resource, the home owner with the tree sees 2m3 of oak, then pops into B&Q and does some sums, the oak wood will pay for the tree surgery! (yeah....) and decide to keep the wood themselves to sell on for massive profits - you are more likely to be offered softwoods and gnarly bits... I'd guess I'll get 75%+ as softwoods and only a small portion is hardwoods. (note: making a fortune from your garden tree... take away your time to log it up / pay for the tree surgeon to do so, perhaps buy a chainsaw (+ safety gear) and axe if DIY (or log splitter hire), store in the garden for 1 year+, deal with facebook ads / gumtree, the value of your time eats away any profits pretty quick - often far more profitable to do a couple of hours overtime in your regular job.. so a lot of homeowners are keeping their hardwoods with that thought process)

A photo of the full tree would help, I am suspecting that the photo shows most of the tree has broken off this morning? Most fruit trees will regrow after a lot of heavy pruning - often lots of small branches that take a few years to get under control again, but as above, a few more photos of the overall tree would help