Mark Wileman

+1

God I miss Larium!

I think he's just ignorant to life. He only started commenting on this topic because he has such a chip on his shoulder never signing up, wouldnt be surprised if he didn't pass training if he had the same attitude. Vespian always condemns ex-forces guys every opportunity he gets on here, it's glaringly obvious that he has huge insecurities about it.

I can only talk from personal experience, and I'm lucky enough to not suffer mentally from anything that happened to me during service. I think the support the Armed forces give its leavers is very good, and not like anything you'd find in any other type of employment. I'm bombarded with emails from the resettlement officers, service charities etc... asking me to fill out surveys to see how I'm getting on, and I presume certain red flag answers will trigger further help if required. I've not only fully qualified myself in tree work through my resettlement phase but I've also just enrolled on a BSc Arboriculture which is being heavily subsidised, despite no longer being in the military. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the help is there, but only available if you let it help! I fully understand, and have many friends in positions where trying to receive that help is difficult due to their mental state, just as it is for someone with severe anxiety or post natal depression. What some rare people who've never served miss out on when ranting online about how we are all self-entitled pricks who made the choice to join up etc... is the whole lifestyle of the military, for x amount of years, no matter what job you did; you are at the whim of the command structure and can be sent all over the world at short notice, this puts a huge strain on any kind of personal/family life and forces you to immerse yourself more into the military and without sound like a cliche it literally becomes you family - when you leave that no longer exists. I like to think I stayed fairly resilient to the indoctrination during my time, but I still feel some effects of no longer being part of such a gang. Compare it your family and friends all leaving to live in another country and your left behind in a bedsit. So the term PTSD is often thrown about, but a more accurate term would be "various mental health issues arising from Service". It's a sad state of affairs that we are in at the moment, but it really is up to individual to -want- to get themselves back on their feet. I don't think I actually came to any point in this essay of a message, but I think I need to use more commas! Out!

+1 to drinksloe. I'd use a clearing saw to open up some rides across the whole site, that should give you enough access to fell some timber and actually have a look at what you are working with. Do you have any invasive species present, any laurel or rhododendron? The risk of clearing the whole understory is that if present, those species will take over the whole lot, and they are a nightmare to get rid of. If you made some rides, they'd be easy to manage with a tow behind flail on your ATV, eventually you'd just need to keep the grass down once the bramble and thorn is suitably 'bashed'. Not sure on the shape of your site, but you could create a network of them and create somewhere that your family and wildlife could both enjoy!

I get £100 a day with a local firm that is literally 5 minutes from my house, I use all their kit and they can fill any spare days I have, so I think its worth keeping with them at that rate. Anywhere else I charge £120, most people won't pay it though. One of the largest tree companies here in West Wales was paying a lead climber £8 an hour PAYE last year. I've been laughed at for quoting £130 a day to a company an hours drive away with sporadic work. Due to the above I'm focusing more on my own work now, probably cheaper to pay someone an extra £20 a day than generate extra local competition!

Thanks, that's really useful. I use sell2wales and etender wales, but it's mostly NRW and council contracts which only come up ever 24 months. Thanks for all the advice guys, time to have a look at the reality of trying this approach over domestic work.

The companies are too big to just phone up for a chat. You need to know what contracts are in the pipe line, my experience of Balfour for example, the tree work schedule was finalized and a price agreed a year before work started.

Yeah that was a bit tongue in cheek, civils/developments/highways stuff is my aim. I got onto the council framework this year, so its a start. I'm more curious on the ways to get on the radar of the Balfour, Amey, Bentley, Costain type companies, I assume they tender their work out to an existing list of contractors?

But I'm not talking tendering for the M1 vegetation management here, strimming a communal garden will do me for a start! ?

It depends on the size of the contract, smaller stuff yes, months at a time no!

I don't understand ?

Hi guys, I do a lot of work for large civil engineering companies with the various companies I sub into and I see a huge amount of work taking place elsewhere. I much prefer land clearance/take downs to pruning apple trees and hedge cutting so trying to manouvre myself into the right position. For the big dogs out there, how did you first get into commercial contracts? Thanks, Mark

I concur, large bar mounts lets you run a 24" comfortably too.

Letting stump regrowth grow without control will most likely cause the new stems to fail at some point. Unfortunately I don't think they are ever going to look like a typical Ash tree again. There is a sycamore woodland down the road from me and it was once a managed coppice, I've estimated that the last cut was 30-40 years ago and now 90% of the trees have one or more failed (fallen over) stems.

Anyone can be a member of the Arboricultural Association (granted you do get different levels of membership.) Being "Arb Approved" is a process that you can apply for and the AA will audit your book-keeping, H&S stuff, work practices etc... A lot of councils will only use Arb Approved contractors.

I had some standard stihl wedges, was using 3 at a time to get most of the trees we felled over. Recommend high lift wedges, unless you are a beast with the sledge!

So you literally are in shit ? I once had to seal the inside of a septic tank, whilst the house was occupied and using the facilities....

About 200 people have piped up saying your not in Arb and I'm just curious!

Roadside - back of truck. No access - top rung of step ladder, fearing for my life.

What do you do Eggs? I begrudge labourers I know that get paid £20-30 a day more than me for standing around smoking tabs on a building site. Equally I've been in some really shit work environments in the past and tree work so far has only been positive, we all know there are easier ways of making better money; but is it worth the stress? I wonder sometimes why there are so many older, late starting, guys in Arb - could it be the twilight profession when your sick of shit jobs?!

If you put half the information you put in this post in the original one it would paint a much more positive image for potential staff IMO. I also agree with everything you said, I assume everyone does, I just thought it was an odd tone for a job advert, but then again I'm way to positive most of the time! Good luck finding your miracle, unfortunately West Wales to Leicester is too much of a commute

I think the main issue with staff motivation and "I was much better when I was younger" talk is that, as business owners, I assume most of you have always wanted to do that bit extra to succeed/make more cash and generally love(d) the job. You can't expect an 18 year old on £50 a day (which really isn't a lot, even for an 18 year old, shit is expensive now) to work to your super human levels when they have no intention of starting up a business, some people just want to come and do a days work and go home - it's a wonder ANYONE does PAYE tree work, considering there are so many easier/more rewarding ways to make a lot more money. EDIT: The best companies I sub into are those that obviously price correctly or exclusively work high end domestic/commercial and can afford to 4-5 guys at the job, nothing worse than being the groundie on a 2 man site.

I'll be honest, your advert paints a very negative picture of your work environment. I'd be scared to stand still to tie my laces, in case you put me into one of your categories ?

I know I don't cost my hypothetical employer 200% of what he pays me