How'd it go today?

Haley slipped on some water on the kitchen floor and hit her head hard on the linoleum. When I got home from work yesterday she was curled up in a ball on the couch moaning and falling asleep. We had to keep her awake. We took her to the Hospital and when she got there she sicked up all over her mom. They put a neck brace on her, put an IV in her arm and gave her a cat scan. Everything turned out to be fine but it was a good scare. She did get her first concussion out of the deal so she'll have to abstain from tackle football for a week or two. We had to wake her up every hour or so last night to see if she was OK. The poor thing is still sleeping now. Mom flew to New Orleans for work this a.m. and so it is just going to be Haley and I today.

My guy Preston is out running the business again with Avery/ Happy Tree filling in for me. They have an easy job to do so it should go well.
 
After Haley barfed all over herself and mom the hospital folks gave them both scrubs to wear. Haley likes hers and they may work into her Halloween costume.
 
Mom freaked out. I tried to stay cheerful for the kids sake. I told my wife that if I was sick and in the hospital that I wanted Haley to be the one sit by my bedside as she would worry me. The doctor asked her to leave the room at one point so as not frighten Haley.
 
meetings, a site visit, pick up the young guy and the tarps full of waste her procured today in my absence and then home. scheduling the next week of work and estimating.
 
Big Monterey Pine removal, The tree was wider than a 42" bar maybe 50 " DBH.

Spent the RAIN day in the Bucket truck dumping wood after another climber brushed it out.

It's great being on a crew of 6 climbers. Always a rest if you want one.

After I dropped the stick I counted the rings, Maybe 60 yrs old, Crazy Weed Tree.
 
They grow super fast.

Some call them Frankenstein pine cause they grow so fast and become monsters.

But the idea of a Weed Tree might just be the Tree of Heaven.
 
I hung out with Haley for most of the day. You can't tell that she had a concussion yesterday. The kid fell, hit her head, was in hysterics, went to the hospital, puked repeatedly, got a cat scan and was released. Today she is all smiles and play as if nothing happened minus her wanting to dress up in her scrubs and play doctor. Kids are resilient. Today's bid sucked and what I thought my guys could do in four or five hours was done in 9 hours with me jumping in to help for an hour and a half while my mother in law watched Haley.

A buddy from grammar school - junior high - high school - college stopped by this evening. He is in town on business and dropped in to say hi to Haley and I. We had a good chat.
 
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I made sick money today. $260 in 4 hours. Pruned an Ash tree (don't ask), a Linden & a Bradford Pear.
It helped make up for Mon., Tues. >>> NADA !!! Michigan's economy is wack-yack-ack.
Too bad all those free hours were spent worrying over bills / kids / work ?!?
 
Ha! I was thinking of one with springs attached to it so she just bounces right back up. I think Acme makes a model like that.
 
TC3, thats what you should be making hourly!

Just hope for full days at full rate, thats the trick..

ask a plumber, mechanic, electrician or accountant what they bill out at hourly, you are a qualified professional in your field, dont settle for entry level wages.
 
Darin, I remember the ONE experience I had with my eldest & a concussion.
He was asking for Coke in between vomits. I practically had to hog tie him for the recommended 48 hr. 'window'. Ugh.
You got it... Kids are resillient!
Paulie, you're a dear. Come to Michigan >>> Will Work For Food.
 
Yeah, OM every kid has to have a few of those episodes. My son hurt his knee at a baseball tournament when he was about 9 years old. I took him to the ER and sat in the waiting room for 4 hours and it felt better, so I packed him back in the car (by now it's about 11:00) when I got him home he ran up the stairs. Never saw the doctor.
We finished working in the mountains today. I'll miss that place although it is quite a drive from my house.
 
Too busy for pics (too bad, they woulda been good), but we removed a 3 trunked big leaf maple today.....a long drag around the house and down a couple rockery levels, so I had 4 groundies. We had a good rigging point that allowed swinging most everything into a good drop zone. Some long limbs required GRCS tensioning to reduce the swing and drop. And I lowered some of the leaning wood with the GRCS. Hill wasn't real steep, though the house was below, so was able to drop the bottom 10-15 feet of each lead (we left 10 foot high snags) Only 6-8 yards of chips. Wish we'd gotten pics or vids...some of those limbs swung a good 60 feet, before swinging back and stabilizing, so they could be brought all the way down. It was a little too trick to try to swing them straight to the ground....woulda been cool if they coulda done that...only worked a couple times...like on the 7 incher when they told me they'd just hold the rope, no P-Wrap....wrong, it was too heavy and one guy held on and went in and up 10 feet or so...as the limb was coming down almost on him.....I knew I shoulda told them to take a wrap...but anyhow, all was good, no one hurt.

I had it brushed out in 4 hours, then only needed 2 helpers to rig and drop the wood, which took a couple hours. I should have bid it a tad higher, at $2500 or so, but had no problem at $2k.....STP bid $7000!!!! and added $3k to haul the wood, which we bucked and left to be given away....sometimes even good companies that normally are rather fairly priced blow their bids.

The tree did look intimidating, being on a hill above the house...and had two leads already cut, so at ground level, it was easily 7 feet across.

Last year, for this customer, I'd looked at an intimidating black cottonwood, that had had failures onto his house as well as the neighbor's. It had no real top, and a long lead going out way above the primaries. THe pwr co wouldn't trim it as it wasn't within 10 feet.....I never got back to him with an exact bid. He had a semi bozo outfit do the job, and it took them ages to finish it...maybe a month...guess they came back several times...but no one was hurt,nor was any property or wires damaged. They did leave the snag at 60 feet, which is way too high...and it jus tnow sprouted a bit. So he wished he'd presssured me for the job...and wanted me to have first crack at the maple...so I gave him a good deal....
 
crazy phone day again after helping the guys for a half a day. theey said the chip truck wasnt running right so home i come for a test drive. seems to be missing on one cylinder, no compression on #4, pull valve cover and rocker arm isnt centered on valve! take it off pull out bent lifter, beat it straight and put it all back. still dead cylinder:cry: looks like im pulling the head sat:(
 
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