How'd it go today?

That’s why ya wear leather boots outside!! Says right in the beginning of the Bible that we are supposed to kill them. Man do I despise snakes.

Had a good relaxing day. Put in almost two days yesterday though. Finished off a job and came in a half day early. Should be good since the boss has been whining about overtime cost lately. Since I’ve told him four days he’s thinking of putting my crew on that schedule. My guys are good with that.
 
Have you heard that one school of thought that the "serpent" was really an alien trying to impart knowledge to man but the other guy didn't want them to know what the "serpent" knew?

Whoa.
 
Should be good since the boss has been whining about overtime cost lately. Since I’ve told him four days he’s thinking of putting my crew on that schedule. My guys are good with that.

Are you doing 4 tens?
 
Closer to four 12’s but yes. I cut my hours so I could have some time away from the circus. Probably just a bandaid to my problems with them but we will see. I just wanted some time at home. He seems to be cutting hours all around now. My guys were supposed to be exempt from the hour cut but it’s not looking like it. All is good on my end though. I rather enjoy the time off.
 
Closer to four 12s but yes. I cut my hours so I could have some time away from the circus.
Wowser! We usually pull 4 x 8s as a crew, avoiding OT if possible, but we will work till dark if we're out at the edge of our 50 mi radius and don't want to come back out for a round 2 the next day. Most of our work is completed in 1 day, unless it's a really big job and we schedule it for multiple days. Fridays are a lighter duty day for maintenance, stump grinding, estimates, and perhaps some light fill-in work. We try to ease into the weekend, not go out with a bang or pull OT to end the week.
 
What time do you start? Do Frenchies rise and shine for work early? How many hours per day?

I'm cutting back to 8 hours per day +/-, with the summer camp schedule and such.

New guy starting net week, could be a ringer, and not have his head in his ass, like the guy who used to load $130M airplanes in the military, but almost put 2 quarts of oil in my chip truck without being asked to do so. Needed 1/2 a quart, maybe. Unable to differentiate between "please, check the oil" and "please, do what you want to do". He didn't want to be supervised, just ask him.
A college student, 28 y.o., disenchanted with counting plants as a field biology intern this summer, means he's staying around instead of heading back to New Jersey for his normal summer landscaping supervisor job. Has a Red Card for Wildland Firefighting (chainsaw trained, not learned from some guy who hasn't cut himself), supervisor for Habitat for Humanity building houses with volunteers (like 150 houses), has a driver's license and a car to get to work. Has driven trucks, trailers (even backing them), manual transmissions, clean as a whistle driving record.

Wants to learn to climb. The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, has a lot of canopy research stuff. Nalini Nadkarni used to run it. More than the typical thing to say at an interview of "I have always wanted to learn to do tree work".
Smart and can use words, more than asking from out of sight, "Do you want this, there?"


He'll have another year of school, so will be focused there after, come fall, but maybe stay on, a little.

He tells me that most jobs available are $12/ hour or minimum wage (about the same). Asked for $15 to start. Told him $17 to start, hoping to pay him $20-25/ hour, if he can do what he says.
He shouldn't melt in the Olympia summer heat...watch out, it'll reach the 90's for 4 days, maybe a week.
 
In answer to Sean.

We start at eight.

How many hours? As few as possible, if we’re finished at one we’re finished for the day.

It’s usually not worth starting another job, clients are unprepared etc.

I have two contrasting personality traits that define my working life.

Laziness and greed.
 
Oh, Mick my friend...I so get your last two sentences. Me, too. :)

Fortunately for me, retirement has allowed the lazy part to mostly ignore the greedy part...and that is pretty much fun, I'll tell you. I hope all my friends here get to enjoy the same, eventually.
 
I'm nearly booked out over a month. I have stumps, TD's, milling and the motor shop with pool and spa pumps.... And the GF's fuel line on her car leaks today......
 
I'm not overbooked. The first trimester was full, but I have plenty of free time now. The busy months were pretty well set 10 years ago when I began, but it turns to be erratic from one year to an other. Strange.

First job as a sub for a new to me landscaper. Old customer and nice property, 3 days of an easy job with a take down (my biggest thuya wreck so far, 24 " near the stump), crown rising (two even bigger thuyas), a heavy pruning of a maple and some smaller stuff.
The thuya is widely used as hedge plant here, so it's mind blowing to see them full grown, no near as big as yours though.
Not so easy for the two other guys, who have to drag the brushes all the way through the sloppy property and load them up in a farm trailer. 3 loads, they were exhausted.

The bad part is 2 days of rain (not really unusual), and to drive from east to west of Paris. The traffic jams were crazy, worser than usual with the rain. 16h35 of driving my van in 3 days ! It's silly.
 
Nalini Nadkarni used to run it.

Fascinating woman. I remember reading that she took a life-threatening fall a while ago. She survived and has come out the other side with some incredible insight:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/152582090" width="640" height="329" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I'm nearly booked out over a month. I have stumps, TD's, milling and the motor shop with pool and spa pumps.... And the GF's fuel line on her car leaks today......

For all the crap it seems you have to put up with from this so-called partner...I'd point her to the nearest decent auto service shop and tell her to have at it. And the bill does not rebound to you, either!

I am probably crossing some line here, my friend...but imo you deserve better than you are getting, on that front.
 
Rollin' in Town

Rollin, rollin today... lotsa miles all around town. Dumped at our lot, then back out to finish our fine pruning job. I did the river birch, linden, and a locust all from ground with the Marvin pole pruner (we have the carbon fiber model). After craning my head up all morning, my head & shoulders sure are sore! Other half of the crew pruned 4 Bradfords and climbed and took one major limb off the locust to get it off the house roof. A lot of fine snipping for crown raising, just so the lawn mower rider will have an easier time of it! Ah well, whatever pays the bills.

Then on to another pruning, this time on a smaller declining locust. It had a lot of dead tips, so we took it down to whatever was green. No before & after pic, but it looks like a viable tree now! Neighbor across the street had a crispy dead 20' maple and we got the go ahead on that. Took it down in 3 pieces, chucked it over the fence to its waiting destiny, our chipper's throat!

Then another storm cleanup job, dealing with a silver maple limb that had smashed the neighbor's fence. Pretty quick chunk up, toss it over a fence, chip & roll.

Then onto our final storm cleanup job -- a failing maple dropped a leader on the fence. The homeowner was so impressed with our service today that he is having us back out tomorrow to take down the rest of the tree (nice neighborhood, nice back yard). So that should be a couple hours of fun rigging tomorrow morning. Only drawback is the tight, tight access, squeezing by an AC unit, through a narrow gate with all the brush and logs. The next door neighbor also has a white oak with a large broken limb, still attached, hanging down upright to the ground. So we'll work for them tomorrow, too. And a sycamore cleanup around the corner, and a brush cleanup job 2 blocks away... Get the picture?

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