Clever. I need to mull that over a bit. I've thought about adding a line/weight to my saddle, but I always end up with "I get the ball back how??". That gets the ball back, and it can probably be extended for other tricks. Thanks for that Kyle.
This is a similar situation I've been in with a former sub. The guy would start work at 9:30/10 go to lunch around 11:30 and drink 4 or 5 triple vodka cranberries go back to the job leave the guys and go back to the bar at 2:00.When it works it’s great!
Reminds me of a job back in the late 1980s: I was told I grossly ‘underbid’ a tight landing zone removal of an approx 55ft tall black locust by a fellow I had bid against. He’d bid it for a full day and I put it down as a half day at most. He happened to pass by the morning of the day we were removing the tree (small town); said he had stopped to complain about my ‘terribly low rates ruining it for everyone’. I offered to show him how I was going to remove the tree but he knew better and just laughed as he walked away. (This was the same guy who took the street side half of the crown off of a very broad, large declining oak, leaving the half over the 3-story tall colonial style brick dormitory at the university and left himself no lowering point out over the sidewalk. That was when he called me asking ‘how the hell was he supposed to get the other half down without damaging the slate roof’. Taught him the highline/zip line on that day).
What he didn’t consider was the 85 ft black oak towering over the locust in question. I spent a little time installing spider legs and then suspended the tree with a 3/4” lowering line passed through five crotches in the oak and cleanly worked it down without any negative blocking. We were able after the first cut to back the small 5’ x 8’ dump trailer under it by taking the mirrors off the truck (yep, that tight), and loaded all the trunk right into it. Three hours later we were cleaned up and purposely drove by his job site and honked and waved (I know, I’ll burn a bit in hell for such...)
Sad fact is he didn’t learn; got too deep into the alcohol. A few years later he stopped by a job I was contract climbing on at 11am, already reeking of liquor. He started foul-mouthing me in front of the customer about taking all his work When he slowed down I calmly pointed to the white and green trucks and the name of the Maryland company I was climbing for that day.
This is a similar situation I've been in with a former sub. The guy would start work at 9:30/10 go to lunch around 11:30 and drink 4 or 5 triple vodka cranberries go back to the job leave the guys and go back to the bar at 2:00.
He blew me off on a job then lied to me about it so I told him to frig off. Now his main crew member is begging me for a job. He starts in a week.
The ex-sub has talent but the bottle has him BAD. Oh well.