How'd it go today?

Craned out four, 80-100' ponderosas today. No cleanup, backyard looked like a jungle when we finished :evil: Not as bad as other areas, but in the 90's today, sitting in the ac now... Biggest pick was 10k butt log with a 50ton grove, good fun!
 
Killed a pile of dumb small trees today. Accidentally launched a squirrel out of a tree and into an above ground pool that he couldn't get out of. We saved him in the end though.
 
Climbed and pruned three pitch pines(for the life of me I don't know why), then to the job I attempted twice last week. I told the 'scraper to have the car (49 MG) moved if they wanted the chips next to the garage. He moved it to, believe it or not, under the trees to be removed. Finally today I get there and don't ya know the slimy POS HO calls me a FN idiot for running over his FN plants. I attempted to diffuse the situation and was cursed at again. Now he can find somebody else and pay my fee for his arrogance. I do not take lightly of be cursed at, nobody should. Tomorrow is another day.
 
Climbed and pruned three pitch pines(for the life of me I don't know why), then to the job I attempted twice last week. I told the 'scraper to have the car (49 MG) moved if they wanted the chips next to the garage. He moved it to, believe it or not, under the trees to be removed. Finally today I get there and don't ya know the slimy POS HO calls me a FN idiot for running over his FN plants. I attempted to diffuse the situation and was cursed at again. Now he can find somebody else and pay my fee for his arrogance. I do not take lightly of be cursed at, nobody should. Tomorrow is another day.
I regularly fire clients like that. Might be why my phone isn't ringing as much any more? :what:

Oh well, at this point and in this heat I'd rather stay home than work for idiots. My tolerance level goes way down as the temps go up.
 
Got into a yellow-jacket nest today. Not bad ... only one sting. Working a small fallen oak, across a lane. Left the saw in the tree and took off on a run.
Came back at dusk & got the saw ... no prob.
All's well that ends well. :)
 
Ditto! The Cape is Full of second and third homeowners that think pissing down your back and telling you that your on fire is ok. I am over it. I have not been climbing for twenty some yrs and running a respectable company for the same or more to have some jack off curse at me. Heat sucks people suck sometimes and I am over that BS. What's worse is I came home pissed to hear my wife's uncle passed today and felt even worse. Not to mention the feelings on her side. Tomorrow is another day.
 
I'd hate to lose a saw to bees. Glad that worked out. I nearly lost my Boxer last fall to ground bees. Every time I started it , after the initial shut down above the nest, they would come out like crazy. Only took two days to finally creep back at night to get it.
 
I fire customers all the time also. Good business goes both ways. I don't curse them out, nor do I insult them. Therefore, I don't tolerate the same. I used to act like a wild Indian when they mistreated me. I won't go into details online. I matured over time, calmed down as I got a little farther along in business. Now I just tell them "toodles" as we pull off the property. Last fall we had a HORRIBLE showdown with the neighbor of the homeowner we were working for. This person was sick in the head and got waaaaaay crazy on us. She went so far as to bring a pitbull out on a leash to sick him on us. I held up my climbing saw and told her I'd cut the dogs head clean off if he attacked me. It was just a horrible situation. It was embarrassing to even be apart of.
 
I was bitched at by "Big Daddy" of Cajun Pawn Stars around '2000, while working on his trees at his mansion. Frig that fat, pompous fool.
 
We walked off a job once and warned the HO the neighbor needed to be removed before anyone could work there as he was a loose cannon. We would not be back. He had threatened our kids and animals saying he would find our home and such, taking pictures of license plates and people. HO tried to down play the dude. I said no way. \
He got hauled off one day but thenm released after pulling out a shot gun on the HO and her guests. The people we knew no longer own the property, they sold it and moved on as they would not have him legally dealt with.
Truth be told, there are some people and situations that just can't be fixed or tolerated. Leave and move on. Put it behind you and usually a perfectly fine client fills the spot or one further down the line. All you did was open the door for someone worthy of your work
 
I know them well, I've bought nearly two grand worth of guitars from them. They have an amazing selection, it's a great store.

The owner's just a douchebag.
 
We haven't been cussed out in awhile I don't think, but Dad can tell some stories of interesting clients I'm sure.

Good day today, besides the fact we found out the radiator on the chipper is shot and can't be rebuilt, so needs replacing. We used the dump trailer to haul all the brush from todays removal to the farm's burn pile. Man, I love that thing, it saved our asses big time today.Turned what would have been a stay at home day into a decent profitable one.
 
Soooo, I am an Idiot! I get a call this morning from a guy with a tree thru his roof and into the attic. I am coming off a 48hr shift at the fire dept., but Me being me I say sure Ill come by and check it out. I get over to the house and find a Hackberry on the roof with one limb( about 8" around) stuck into the attic. The feeder lines for the neighbors house are stretched to the max due to some limbs, and it is 90 degrees and about 95% humidity at 7:45 in the AM. So what do I do --- I say sure Ill run to the shop grab my stuff and be back in a bit. I get home and the wife tells me Im nuts(why is she always right)?? I get my gear and run back over to the house trying to beat the rain that is heading our way. When I get there the roofer is standing there and says "how long till I can get up there and fix the roof" . So I tell him about 2 hrs. I get on the roof and go to cutting, and all is well- for about 45 min. I get this bad feeling in my gut, not the kind of feeling that says hey something is wrong. The kind of feeling that says you fought 3 fires and ran 12 EMS calls in the last 48 hrs, and had about 32oz of water in that time. I was doubled over and felt like I was going to poop,die,and vomit all at the same time. Then just for good measure my head starts pounding, and my calves cramp up. I finally get to a normal standing position and guess what, Now Im so dizzy Im scared Im going to walk off the side of the roof. After about 10 more min homeostasis set back in and I make it to the ground only to find I left the water can in the shop! I get a cup out of my truck and find a water hose and ran the homeowners bill up to a commercial rate for the month. After drinking and sitting for a while I feel super, I got this! 10 min later round 2! I did this for the next 45 min and was able to get all the brush off the roof and rig and stand the tree back up so the roofer could do his thing. While he was working I loaded my stuff and went to a diner down the road and sat in the AC and drank like a parched camel. I made some phone calls and finally got one of my guys to answer and he said he would be there asap. At 3:45 pm he got there. It took 30 min to finish once he made it, and I came home and drank, and drank, and drank, ate a couple of bites at dinner and Im going to bed. As a back ground to this, I have lived in Texas for 36 yrs. I have had heat exhaustion 2 times, and a heat stroke 1 time. I know better! Be careful guys, the heat will get you every time. Take breaks, drink, sit in the shade. I know that time is money, but the bill for my "little 12 hr stay in the ER for my heat stroke" just shy of 6,000.00. It sure does cut into the profits. I hope yall have a great day, climb one for me,--Ill be at the fire house.
 
Damn man, sorry to hear that. Feel better bro.

Bad day today. Everything started out ok. The three trees I had to climb went smoothly and all done by 10:30 or so. I'm putting my gear up at the last tree and hear bro yelling for help, come to find he flipped the mini(no biggie there, it'd be the first time we've flipped it but its something I kinda expected to happen one day). Then I look closer and see flames!:O Somehow when I flipped it caught fire, idk if it was an electrical short or what. Bro said something about the fuel line getting snagged as it went over, maybe the spilling fuel hit the exhaust or something. Anyway we run to the truck and get the fire extinguisher, but by the time I'm back with it the fire is really going and started melting the fuel tank. I put out most of it but the fuel is still on fire so it goes back up in flames after I put most of it out. Finally got a water hose to it and was able to contain it too the fuel tank area until the fire department got there and put it out. Machine is pretty much a total loss I think, grapple is untouched tho. We thought it was covered under insurance, but there was some mix up. They said its all good, it'll still be covered, but idk how much we'll get for it, at least the $3500 I payed for it, looking to get $7-8k tho.

On top of that we had to deal with a weird annoying ass customer today. She was on everyones last nerve, saying we have to work the whole time were there because we're so expensive, but then she has us do the smallest, stupidest things. All in all not a good day, looking forward to a new day tomorrow.
 
Damn Adrian, that sounds like enough excitement for one day. If the job was bid for a set price, what was the lady getting all worked up about?
 
Damn Adrian, that sounds like enough excitement for one day. If the job was bid for a set price, what was the lady getting all worked up about?

This. And if you're working by the hour then you need to raise your rates to reduce these types of customers. There isn't enough money available to make me tolerate some old bitty riding herd over me telling me what to do and how to do it.
 
Bummer, Adrian ... all 'round rough day. Back before I retired, we use to have PIA charge for customers like that. Wish you better luck tomorrow. :)
 
Not much today ,tired I guess .

Now I have a cheapie Poulan pole saw ,nothing much to brag about but it's the only stick saw I own .Just a bitty little 2 cubic inch deal with an 8 inch bar,weedwacker with a saw head more or less .

It did okay but here of late it's had it's moments .The SOB's built it with what they thought was a tamper proof carb .Little did they know whom they were dealing with .With the help of a hacksaw and a die grinder and 15 minutes of my time that pot licker runs now by George .--or at least as well as is possible all things considered .
 
Damn Adrian, now I don't feel so bad. So the morning went ok, had a big audience everyone was amazed at what we did, then the neighbor got kind of pissy because some sawdust was left on his roof (we had blown his whole roof off and it was much cleaner than when we started, I told him so). So that was taken care of then the bucket won't start. I'm all like WTF? So I crawl underneath and somehow or other the battery lead to the starter has broken right at the connector, I hold it while my man cranks and away we go. Go do another little job and then it's time to escape the heat and be done with the day so we're heading home. All of a sudden I notice there is no second truck(ghetto 1ton/dump trailer) following me. I get turned around and backtrack and there it is on the side of the road. The coil spring on the front passenger broke. Luckily my man noticed it right away and stopped immediately otherwise the tire woulda been toast. I pried and pulled a bit and then finally got the mini unloaded and girthed a sling to the broken spring and ripped it right out. I was able to limp the truck home just running on the bump stop. All and all, obviously, it coulda been alot worse. Trying to motivate myself right now to fix the starter wiring. It is HoTTTT out!
 
Wow guys, sorry to hear. I feel like I started the week off on a bad note. Let's hope the rest goes as planned or better.
 
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