Sweating the little things. Penny saved is a penny earned.

Mick!

TreeHouser
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
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Location
South West France
I'm always quiet in august, partly through choice (the heat) partly cos the French are on holiday.
I've tried, amongst other things, to sort out little stuff that's been hanging about.
1; phone contract, I bit the bullet and went to the shop to sort out a new contract, I had been paying €25 a month too much for god knows how long.
2; sharpening blades on the chipper, I had been paying more than €22 per blade, today I went to a sharpening business I found, cost €4 per blade.
I know we're all busy and some might say that it's not worth it, but anyone else have any examples where they feel we settle for being ripped off and our hard earned money is being siphoned without us knowing or caring.
 
Phones. Always a better deal to be had. Move insurance around periodically as well. New agents will suck you in often at knockout rates, and they climb over time. Move the policies as needed to start back out at those knock out rates, provided you can sill get great coverage with A rated companies. Advertising, if you do so, beat up on your advertising agents. They always have room to do better based on how hungry they are. I found in my phone book days that if I was willing to wait it out and let them think I was going to go elsewhere, they'd either up my advertising for free or knock down my current prices.
 
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I squeeze my insurance agent every year out of principle, but I am happy with his service so I'll pay a little more for that.
 
Why, is everything really cheap there?

Hahaha no. More like getting ripped off and hard earned money siphoned from your pockets. :lol:

Im all about saving and finding better ways. Nothing in particular just try to be savy all around. Im also pretty good at handing out money. :|:
 
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It's all about making a little effort to cut costs.
Servicing your own chippers/grinders/trucks is something I've been doing for years.
I know it's silly but getting your tracking checked on your trucks from time to time, can save a set of tyres. Plus check your pressures, low pressure will suck fuel like you wouldn't believe.
 
For the last year or so I've been using our saw fuel as "stump poison". Its a lot cheaper and way more convenient than buying concentrated glyphosulphate. Only thing is I drove past a Euc stump today that we did and it had sprouted, I think from memory I was late in applying after the final cut. Any thoughts anyone?
 
The saw fuel I use is not much cheaper than Glyphosate.
Especially since the amount of Glyphosate you need to poison a stump is minuscule.
 
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S'right, just tell them another 10 bucks for the poison.
I believe what your doing is "pissing in your trousers to keep warm" (old Danish saying)
 
For the last year or so I've been using our saw fuel as "stump poison".... Any thoughts anyone?

We have been doing this for years with good results. You need to be honest with your clients as chainsaw fuel is not an herbicide and may not do the trick, but in my experience it mostly does. It must be applied asap after the last cut because the cells start closing within minutes. I also cut a groove with the saw tip at the cambial zone to ensure sufficient fluid uptake. It also is strongly systemic and does not seem to effect other nearby plants.
We avoid using Glyphosate when ever we can because it is the most massively overused and abused herbicide on the planet.
 
Yeah, but do the clients react any more favorably when you tell them you poured gas on it? :lol:

See, if I did that, they would just see my suspenders and general red-neck disposition, and just say, "Ahh, of course you did."

Mick: Hilarious Danish saying.
 
I don't pour gas on the stump but two-cycle chainsaw fuel. It is the oil and additives that are the most effective at shocking the system. Shock is the best explanation of why this works. Trees have a hard time with any sudden change, cold, hot, dry or wet. Cutting a tree off at ground level is quite a shock in itself, sucking up some chainsaw mix can sometimes add just enough to tip it over the edge.
Like herbicide, it helps if this is done during an active growth phase.
 
Dave, do you cut a groove in all around the circumference of the stump?

Yup. About 3/4" or more deep on a level, fresh cut stump. Generally a good indication if it will work, is the speed of up-take or in this case down-take. It should get sucked up in seconds.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarix_aphylla Not that it matters what kind, but I ran crews on a this tamarisk on STERIODS (60') species killing project at Lake Mead.

Somehow, someone thought it would be great to plant this "sterile" plant in the campgrounds at Lake Mead, and around the area. It makes a shade tree where others won't grow. And it will, as part of its reproductive strategy, break off and root in wet soil, like after a storm. So, from a few campgrounds to thousands of miles of shoreline, being a flooded canyon's high water line.

When Lake Mead flooded in the 80s, running 3-4' over the overflow spillway at the Hoover Dam, the Athels were drown, up to the high water mark. As the water dropped 80' at the surface, and presumably a long way down in the soil, the roots just kept going down. Crews wandered hundreds of miles of circuitous miles in this canyon reservoir, on a killing mission. We also did regular Tamarisk treatment.

The very important part, as aforementioned, is timing ASAP. Large tamarisk (10-15' tall) trunks were cut and sprayed immediately. Whips/ resprouts were more effective to spray the bottom 12" of thin-barked whips, rather than cut and spray. To reduce the risk of piece of Athel tamarisk from becoming boating hazards in the future, crews "frilled" (hacking downward on an angle) the base with a hatchet, to girdle it, and allow a lot of access for glyphosphate (I think)/ Garlon 3a) to soak in. This also provided habitat to remain, to a degree, and let creatures move along, as they could.

If you missed a bit of the circumference, that part of the tree supplied by that ribbon wouldn't die, somehow.
 
I've been recommending salting, then drilling and salting some more, on suggestion from JerryB that it works on redwood stumps, IIRC. I haven't hear yea or nay.
 
Jed.
Stig used it on here. Can't claim it.

I might have known...

Dave: I'm not trying to be an ass. The truth is that I actually have a quite vested interest in knowing whether the saw-gas will consistently work on large diameter Cottonwoods and such; but for a peculiar reason.

The work orders that I consistently get will very often, merely say, "treat stumps." The company I work for gives us free saw-gas but make it a huge pain in the neck to get any Roundup or Garlon.
 
I might make more of a survey of past stumps that are visible from the road if I happen to be in the area, I'm pretty sure the one in question had the shock treatment applied a bit too late. Pissing in your trousers to keep warm is not always a bad thing, can be ok in a wetsuit whilst surfing etc
 
What about LV6/2,4D? Cheaper than dicamba. Kind of funny, but glyphosate is a better grass killer than a tree killer. At least in farming, using glyphosate too much has caused resistant weeds to crop up.

No repeat treatments necessary.
 
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