My property had an offset where it crossed the road. The one side had been surveyed prior. I looked at the dimensions on the deed and it did not match up with the newly surveyed side. The surveyor told me my dimensions meant nothing. He then tried to set me up by asking where I thought another corner was. I told him if he looked he could find 2 pins 40 feet apart, so I had no idea where the corner was. I did, but that blew his strategy all to hell. He adjusted the mark, not because he was wrong he said.
That's crazy. I'm used to homeowners telling where they think their lines are, and 99/100, they're wrong. Depending on where you are, you always listen more or less closely. They can be helpful on big parcels, Usually all but useless on platted subdivisions. The guy changing his layout on fly by your word, and trying to scam you(!) into thinking he's right sounds like malfeasance.
Surveying has it's moments. You get to see a lot of cool things people don't usually get to see. From the city to deep country. My favorite thing is finding stuff. Road trinkets, treasure boxes, glass dumps, abandoned houses... I found a collapsed log house once I bet was from the 18th century. It was so far in the woods, I have no idea what the access was. We were just heading crosscountry, and there it was. Looked too dangerous to go inside, but I'd have loved to have checked it out. Move too much though, and the rest could come down on top of you.
Our company(not me personally) helped map the US capitol building after 9/11. They didn't have any plans for the building, and wanted to be able to replace it if something happened(terrorism). We set targets on the building, and someone else came in with a laser scanner to map every mm of it.
There's also lots of line cutting. One of the worst ones I was on was a quarry. Thousands of feet swinging a machete through rosa multiflora up and down extremely steep slopes. I don't do much machete work anymore. I have big machine that likes to eat brush, so I take that if there's gonna be a lot of clearing to do.
Anyway, it's not a bad job as far as work goes. Almost makes up for the low pay. Get to see something different every day.
