How'd it go today?

[sotc]

I did a small-medium oak removal for a neighbor today (lil hottie real estate agent, 30ish, Puerto Rican, 5' nuthin, 110 lbs of T & A). .

wow id be worried about the 55 lbs. of a!

 

[che]

I watched tv all day....on the couch.

Yesterday I had a sick calf go and get himself stuck in the COLD mud, downhill with his legs uphill.....put him in a short feeder and pulled him, inch by inch, up into the barn lot and into the barn. After getting him dried off, covered up and under a heat lamp, he died anyway. Much nicer way to go, though....cozied up in a blanket with a loving human stroking his cheek....rather than stuck upside down in the muck.

Unfortunately, I can't do that kind of thing anymore and am paying for it dearly today.

 

[pete mctree]

Sad about the calf.

Enjoy your day as much as is possible hopefully tomorrow will be better.

 

[Al Smith]

Well,your are going to have get a calf picker-upper on a skid loader,it appears.

Mama's don't let your babys grow up to be cowboys[girls],don't letem pick geetars and drive them old trucks----------

 

[Old Monkey]

I would make a joke about mud cow disease showing up in rural Kentucky, but I will overcome my baser instincts at this sensitive juncture and abstain from such low humor. So was there anything good on TV Che?

 

[che]

"Well,your are going to have get a calf picker-upper on a skid loader,it appears."

I don't think I could've gotten a skid loader to where this baby was. Tight quarters, all deep mud and a short, but sharp incline. I did think of finding a chain and attaching to the tractor....but my mind isn't as old as my body, I guess....just figured I'd DO IT. (you know that feeling, I bet, Al)

Thanks Pete, today IS better. Pain's still there, but intensity is down....I can move around a bit....better be able to, I've got to feed tomorrow!! Think I'll ask the boys to make sure the salt is out (50 pound blocks) and the feed troughs are in place.....no lifting and I'll be fine. Climbing up and down on the tractor actually loosens me up so that's fine.

No Darin. Nothing good on TV. I never realized how many times these GREAT shows on Discovery and History channel are repeated. Still, they are good the first time you see them.

 

[No_Bivy]

new rotors and pads on my one ton..............ye haw

 

[cybergeek23851]

Sitting here touching up the finish on my Smith & Wesson,to be followed by a thorough cleaning, and also watching the race

 

[Paul B]

taught a 1.5 hour pruning seminar yesterday, same pruning seminar today at another garden center, then I led a 2.5 hour walk around the arboretum for about 15 people, my voice is shot for the day. I need some tea or somethin.

 

[pete mctree]

Sounds fun Paul. What kind of content and level do you teach?


Oh and must be lovely and quiet around the house too

 

[Paul B]

Pete, its pretty basic, I do a schpiel on safety and awareness, then a bit on what tool for what size branches, then a bit on targeting the cut, then a bit on timing of pruning, then a bit on tool maintenance (no pwoer tools), then a bit on what to look for in a contractor then take questions (as well as through the talk). I have a set of handouts I give the folks, then I let them know that since I assume they can read, I dont just read the handouts to them. if you want a copy of the basic handout let me know your email and I can send it your way.

edit: as for level of teaching, I will answer any question I can in as much detail as I can, I never assume its all basic folks in the crowd.

 

[pete mctree]

Providing people with a good foundation is deffo commendable Paul.

 

[vharrison]

"Well,your are going to have get a calf picker-upper on a skid loader,it appears."

I don't think I could've gotten a skid loader to where this baby was. Tight quarters, all deep mud and a short, but sharp incline. I did think of finding a chain and attaching to the tractor....but my mind isn't as old as my body, I guess....just figured I'd DO IT. (you know that feeling, I bet, Al)

Thanks Pete, today IS better. Pain's still there, but intensity is down....I can move around a bit....better be able to, I've got to feed tomorrow!! Think I'll ask the boys to make sure the salt is out (50 pound blocks) and the feed troughs are in place.....no lifting and I'll be fine. Climbing up and down on the tractor actually loosens me up so that's fine.

No Darin. Nothing good on TV. I never realized how many times these GREAT shows on Discovery and History channel are repeated. Still, they are good the first time you see them.

Che, just read the news. Hope you are feeling better and sorry about the calf. Tough time of year for you. But, a wonderful time as well! Post some pictures of the sweet ones, when you get a chance.

 

[Old Monkey]

Darin, WTF is wrong with you? Being cordial is one thing, but helping the "new competitior" in town getting his (or what should have been your) work done?

Am I right in thinking you are self employed? No other job?

Think of the big picture.

I have been thinking about this post all week. WTF is wrong with me? I think I just like to keep every possible money making option open. I think it is the fear of not making ends meet. Right now I am booked into April but I still want to grab every dollar waved in my direction. I will change but it will take time and the refilling of my savings account.

 

[stehansen]

I have been thinking about this post all week. WTF is wrong with me? I think I just like to keep every possible money making option open. I think it is the fear of not making ends meet. Right now I am booked into April but I still want to grab every dollar waved in my direction. I will change but it will take time and the refilling of my savings account.

The only reason we can network is for the most part we aren't competing with each other because we are too far away.

 

[che]

Che, just read the news. Hope you are feeling better and sorry about the calf. Tough time of year for you. But, a wonderful time as well! Post some pictures of the sweet ones, when you get a chance.

Thanks Gigi, this was the one I told you about last week. You win some, you lose some. I'll try to get some pics this week.....they are SO cute at this stage!!

 

[sotc]

The only reason we can network is for the most part we aren't competing with each other because we are too far away.

not true for me steve, i network with a few local outfits here all the time. we throw referals back and forth alot and occasionaly help each other out. i think theres good guys, bad guys and loners (who could be good or bad)in every town and if the good guys network it can be very beneficial

 

[stehansen]

Actually I guess I'm contradicting myself but I have a couple of guys that I talk to but we haven't ever done anything together except plot against the hacks with no license ect. I have had a couple of pickup truck guys try to use me for my insurance and my truck.

I did actually do a couple of chipping jobs for these guys where they have the stuff all cut when I show up and they fed my chipper and I hauled the chips to a local dairy that they had arranged for. That doesn't sound too bad but the trees were all topped and had been spiked. So I didn't want my truck with the big sign on the box to be seen around there. They had rented a chipper but the blades were so dull that it wouldn't feed anything in. They didn't know what was wrong with the chipper but in order to finish the job they called me. I had run into them at the dump a couple of weeks earlier and had given them my card. Then they had another job that they were working on getting but the people wanted proof of insurance and they offered me 15% of the job for providing insurance. Well as much as I was tempted to make money for doing nothing I didn't think it would be prudent to provide insurance for something that I didn't have control over, and I didn't want to go supervise them because then I wouldn't be getting my stuff done. Plus I would be back to the thing about hanging around their job sites and the possibility of being associated with their work.

So I told them of my dilema and they were pretty shocked when I told them that topping was no longer an acceptable practice. I overheard them talking in spanish as I was leaving and they agreed that I was a gavacho tree hugger that was making the jobs more complicated than they needed to be, just so I could charge too much money (and I guess this would be overcutting them). So that has been the extent of my networking locally. Not as entertaining as AA Steve, but hey, give me time.

 

[sotc]

keep plotting!
isnt it funny how they come here and call us foreigners?

 

[Jonseredbred]

The only reason we can network is for the most part we aren't competing with each other because we are too far away.

Exactly, If any of you guys worked within 50 miles of me, our conversations would be minimal. that being said, I do have friends in the business that I sometimes compete with, and we help each other out in extreme situations.

But the new guy in town who forgot his climbing gear? HACK, let him die.

Your a smart guy OM, you will make it.

 

[vharrison]

Or the new guy in town that wants to buy your used stuff? No, not happening! Not even going to call you back, what the heck are you thinking!

 

[Old Monkey]

I ran an ad for help in the paper Sunday and today I had a try out for Tanager Tree Service's coveted ground guy position. Dan, my current and soon to be ex ground guy is going away to fight fires in Alaska on a Hot Shot Crew. He and I climbed trees today while four would-be-employees cleaned up after us. All the guys did reasonably well except for the self professed drug free fellow with rotting teeth who brought his own anvil loppers to cut down my truck with.

The job has been won by a fellow from Tennessee, who has a degree in zoology and has moved to Boise to get residency so that he might get in State tuition when he goes back to school as a business major. He was the first guy who called me in response to the ad. He did well, he is very clean cut and polite. I gave him a primer on the safe ways to start a saw and then asked him to repeat it to the next guy who showed up, as I was already in a tree. He was able to relate what he had just been shown. It sounds like a simple thing but it means a lot to me.

 

[Paul B]

Dang Darin, and here I was throwing branches at my young fella of the day to try to keep him awake! Spring break brings out all the lonely folk...

 

[sotc]

good luck darin!

 

[Frans]

Darin,
Are you insured for having tryouts? Seems like it coulda been a madhouse on the ground that day