How'd it go today?

Been there, friend...I totally get the creeping old vs. bold sensations :). I did stuff when I was in my late 30's-early 40's that still can give me scary dreams.
 
We took a lot of heavy snow damage in our trees here Burnam. You really want to watch what you climb up into. Start a little lower and move up a little slower. You been there.
 
FireFighterZero said:
About 8000 hours or so. Late 90's tractor.


The other one I did turned out a bit better I thought.


I was better with the torch on that one. Not pleased with my torch work today. I am sicker than hell though!
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Torching any stick weld, especially a pad weld like that is tough. Any trapped slag will stop a cut dead in its tracks, and basically will gouge it all to hell. An old trick to check how a guy is doing welding is to make them use a torch and cut their weld out, wiggling around to make sure it's cut in its entirety. Quicker and less equipment involved way to test it, but not able to show the results later, so it's not used except for education and practice. Any trapped slag will make it horrible, so you know right now if you trapped stuff. Hope you feel better man.
 
So after things slowed down a bit with the 'stay at home'...back at work now, property 5 mins from my house.
The kind of work I love, overgrown neglected mature trees on an old property, reclaiming them, pruning, removing the deadwood, clearing undergrowth. Chipping. Working alone.
Something has irritated my eyes though, maybe just all the dust from chipping...looks like I have two black eyes and been smoking a doobie...
 
I knocked apart a cottonweed, just taking the top out so it could be flopped at a buddies house no clean up. Then the neighbor comes over and has a spruce with advanced needle cast like a 60'er with all but the top four feet still green so blew that apart no clean up. It was a nice easy day no rigging just dump it in, turf be damned, and that is what they wanted. It felt good making a mess for once!
 
I agree, that's pleasant, but I don't like the look of it, as it can give a bad advertising.
I prefer a clean work zone, with the limbs pieced off and stacked, the wood bucked and at least piled if not well stacked. That takes time, but it's much more apealling, even if it's just for my own satisfaction. And I hate walking/working in a mess : you have to deal with trip hasards everywhere and the brain has to process a vast amount of unneeded data while you need to stay focussed at the task.
Keep it clean and simple, that's dangerous enough.
 
We took down (and left), two water oaks yesterday.....one medium-large...the other was HUGE. Owner commented once I was done that he "may have" bitten off more than he could chew..... Left there and took down a small water oak (drive-by job...also left). Then went and flopped a very dead pine. Busy eight hours....
 
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Marc-Antoine said:
I agree, that's pleasant, but I don't like the look of it, as it can give a bad advertising.
I prefer a clean work zone, with the limbs pieced off and stacked, the wood bucked and at least piled if not well stacked. That takes time, but it's much more apealling, even if it's just for my own satisfaction. And I hate walking/working in a mess : you have to deal with trip hasards everywhere and the brain has to process a vast amount of unneeded data while you need to stay focussed at the task.
Keep it clean and simple, that's dangerous enough.
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My buddies dad is a retired treeman who hung up the spurs a while back and his mess was 50% cleaned up before we left the property and they were splitting wood while we worked the neighbors tree. And the spruce was all cleaned up aside from the trunk wood. My buddy has three sons and the neighbor has two that are high school age so the mess was going away quick. Plus there was a potential for future employees. We got there at 9:15 and left at 11:30. Normally I don't get to cut and run so it was fun.
 
lxskllr said:
Seems like everyone is getting drop and leave jobs. Is that normal?
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For years, my work was roughly 50/50 clean up/cut-n-leave. Now, I'd say 70/30. As suburbia sprawls, there is less "country", and less and less folk are able to pile and burn. Not just that, more and more folk just want to write the check and have it done.
 
75 / 25. My highest profit per hour is done with cut and leave, because i don't own all the iron yet.
 
I was pulled off estimating today. Went out to get a crew started on an easy job. Nothing major. We were making great time when I got a call to meet with another employee for an uprooting oak over the power lines. That job went real smooth. That employee is a fairly new hire that is working out very well. Hard worker that just needs a bit of polishing. I let him call the shots and do the removal. It was nice to just drag brush and not have to baby sit. The property owner across the lane was pleased as well with the work (he wasn’t the one paying the bill either) and tipped us a 15 pack of Keystone Light. He even wrapped it up in newspaper to hide it in the bed of the bucket truck. Got back to the shop and there was a twelve pack of Fathead with my name on it. Apparently the job I was at in the morning tipped a twelve pack to everyone on the crew. I’m just thinking about the movie Airplane. “Picked a hell of a day to quit....” I passed it on to the guys but am now wondering if they’ll be worth a shit tomorrow morning.
 
Ok. We are transmission line trimming. We have gone 3 or 4 long spans. We are working a section that is in yards. I went back to the old cuts. I think I left better cuts since there was more to work with. 75' clearance is what we were told. The old cuts are 6 feet off. All the land owners are happy with us. If we cut to the absolute 75' we would destroy the tree and cause the homeowner a bill to have the rest of the tree removed....I might have to find another job. I dont want to do that to anyone. what to do?:? I dont want to be some tool to do that, or just dont care?
 
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