How busy are you this year compared to other years?

[SeanKroll]

We're staying busy enough without advertising.

Small crew and machines.

Had an out of town contract-climber in recently for 3 days. Might ask him to come down again for a couple. Might just hold onto the work.

Fruit trees and dormant season pruning starts in a month, bringing annual visits with other associated work.

An HOA (mainly) greenbelt management contract has some more work.




I started sweating the low requests going into Thanksgiving a bit, but stopped.

 

[Mick!]

Quite busy at the moment, I would say about the same as last year.
Probably enough to take us into the new year, so comfortable enough.

 

[SkwerI]

Worst year in ages for me and the other tree guys I subcontract to. Nobody has much work. I may need to start selling off tools and equipment and/or borrowing against credit cards to eat through the winter. Only December 1 and my reserves are gone. It started dying out for me in July/August and never recovered. My main employer who was using me 3+ days per week in the Spring hasn't been able to use me in 6 weeks.

 

[stig]

Never in my life been so busy.
The last 3-4 months I've passed work for over 60 grand on to other companies that sub for me once in a while.
Had I been younger, I would have bought another truck and hired a crew, but I can't really be bothered.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Phones are pretty dead. Livened up a bit with some of our regulars month or so ago. But.... Budgets are tighter. Have booking down sizing jobs.
Not effecting me horrible yet, but money is tight and I am lucky to be working 2-3 days a week.
Now that Katy was off her treatments, I was going to go to 4 days solid and it aint happening.
I, like Brian, might be selling off some less used "things". No Christmas this year.

 

[Mellow]

Very slow here for the last month or two. I recently gave my key employee an $8.00 per hour raise to make up for the fewer hours we've been working.

 

[cory]

We are keeping busy at about an average pace. Estimate requests are rather quiet which is more of less normal for this time of year.

For first time ever we are taking February off...winter treework/frozen ground can be nice but I'm elderly and figured I'd try a month off in winter. My two guys seemed to be completely fine with it too so dats good.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

We have some businesses here in town that take either Jan or Feb off. I often felt we should too. But burn season is kind of short lived at different elevations. And I can just stay warm by the fire as needed

 

[Treeaddict]

Very slow here for the last month or two. I recently gave my key employee an $8.00 per hour raise to make up for the fewer hours we've been working.

Good way to take care of him (maybe her) so he’s there when it picks up again.

 

[davidwyby]

Sorry to hear the stories of slow. I’ve sweated that many years at the shop. Covid has been good for us. People can’t get new stuff so we fix or make stuff. It’s slowed down a little for the holidays but we can afford it now and need time to fix some of our own junk.

Tree wise, I always have more work than I can do being as I just do it part time. Might start doing it for real…

 

[SeanKroll]

Sorry to hear the stories of slow. I’ve sweated that many years at the shop. Covid has been good for us. People can’t get new stuff so we fix or make stuff. It’s slowed down a little for the holidays but we can afford it now and need time to fix some of our own junk.

Tree wise, I always have more work than I can do being as I just do it part time. Might start doing it for real…

can you put a kboom with grapple on your big truck?

 

[BlackSmith]

Like Dave said. Repair work is way up, new construction is down except for .gov projects. I like taking their money. The smart money is waiting out the Build Back Broke bullshit.

 

[flushcut]

This year has been up and down, fewer jobs but bigger job so that makes up for the lows, but the work flow is spotty not even.

 

[lxskllr]

Surveying's been slow. Dunno if it's the economy or the boss getting old. I think it might be a bit of both.

 

[davidwyby]

can you put a kboom with grapple on your big truck?

Possibly, but that would goof it up for the shop. We need the 20’ bed. I’m not sure I’d get that much use out of it. I can load logs etc on my trailers with my gin poles.

I’d have to think what I could use the most, but I think it would be a mini skid or Ex or something like that.

 

[SeanKroll]

Which gin poles?

 

[davidwyby]

Which gin poles?

 

[davidwyby]

Need to make another pair 3x longer.

I think if I was to get real serious about the tree work I’d have to start trimming and a chipper and dump would be the thing to get.

 

[friedrich]

winter season is the busy season in germany as the bird-protecting-laws allow us to only fall trees or reduce trees between october till end of february.. there are alot of exceptions…

 

[davidwyby]

I have an extra deuce bed and telescopic cylinder. Thinking about making it into a dump skid I can plop onto one of my trucks or trailers when needed.

 

[SeanKroll]

Have you considered a rotating davit- style boom with a winch/ Honda- powered capstan mounted at the front edge of the bed?

What kind of weight do you need to lift?

 

[treebilly]

Work seems busy enough for this time of year. Calls have slowed down but they always do. Boss is a nervous wreck per usual. None of the contracts are awarded till the beginning of January and he always worries. We have enough contract work (ends 2028 ) to keep the company afloat if everything hits the fan, just have to make it smaller.

 

[davidwyby]

Have you considered a rotating davit- style boom with a winch/ Honda- powered capstan mounted at the front edge of the bed?

What kind of weight do you need to lift?

Sometimes a LOT... Australian skyscrapers in the SoCal desert. - https://www.masterblasterhome.com/threads/australian-skyscrapers-in-the-socal-desert.27459/page-3#post-1126088


One was maybe 3' in dia x16'. I winched it up lengthwise and had 4-5 pulleys in play with a 12k winch. I think parbuckling would be better, I'm going to try it.

 

[Maximalist]

It seems to have been the most stressful year of my life. Due to an oversupply of orders, some had to be postponed to January-February 2024.

 

[cory]

That's basically a good thing, no?

Don't work too hard would be my advice, it'll all get done.