How'd it go today?

I can confirm that painting expanded metal sucks. I also discovered after blowing my nose that wearing a mask might not have been a terrible idea.

One down, one to go.
 
Started our yearly visit to a 120 acre estate. He has family and events there every year. We have to get all the grass down in the common areas around the lake and home, buildings and such. Prep for parking. It takes about 3 days. Bit muggy with the humidity already high and temps high on the lake front. :P
I had mentioned visiting before to burn his yearly piles. I had seen a masticator on a a track hoe clearing the brush on the driveway. Felt kinda put out as he had asked about it before and never followed though on it with us. 1/2 mile of driveway with beautiful canyon oaks, black oaks and ponderosa all along it. Just needed the brush thinned and the Beetle dead pondos dropped/removed.
Well today I got to meet the clean up crew and see the results. After he saw how it was coming out, he stopped the contractor and set up guys to rake all the mess and take it to his burn pile. Unfortunately he hired bubba and friend and I almost cried when I saw the trimming jobs. Nicks all over the leaders and trunks from the saw, flush cuts, etc. Chunks out of trunks from the excavator :( Stumps almost a foot high in places. Saddening. I wish I had been asked to just hand clear it, limb and chip it. I know he knew I was booked pretty solid till fall, so he just got it done as he is spontaneous like that. Gets a burr in his saddle and does what he does. At least I have the satisfaction of where we have been on the property it looks great and that we always have work there after 5 years no matter who he tries out :) Keeps us closer to the house and commons he does ;)
 
If your prices were a bit higher, you might not have been so overbooked and been able to accommodate him. I'm guessing he paid that trackhoe crew a lot more than your normal rate.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that customers won't hire us if we charge a dime more, but that's not always the case.
;)
 
Should cost him about double with all the clean up. Track hoe sounded pretty reasonable (probably needed the work). He was only charging $150.00 hr and some up here go for 250.00. On a bid they will go for about $1200.00 per acre which is actually not much above my rates with chipping or about at them depending on terrain. Mostly Brian, is that his wife has been holding him back on this project for a while. She is now an invalid and has much less say so. So he wanted it done NOW ASAP before all his functions he has on the property. That and all the fire scare from the last couple wild land fires (one just up the road from him last year). His driveway was not in compliance and he has never been hassled, but did know he had issues enough to the point he had a back exit put in. His wife never let anyone take brush or trees as she loved the woods. Now he can do as he pleases. I could not have cleared the land as fast as equipment regardless of schedule.
 
Did some bids, checked my trail camera and found lots of activity including elk in my buck hunting area! Split some firewood, hauled my scrap iron off and some rock in, hung some plants for my wife and started running the drip system for it. Great day all in all
 
Ranger, with a nice training tree like that, take that day to be the student and not the teacher. It will be a great tree for you to grow as a climber in without the pressure of making good time on a job. In my super early stages of climbing, relaxed situations seemed to offer lessons that I really hung on to.
 
Cleaned up my saws from the last job. More pitch coming out of the trees now, so a bit longer to clean. Saw our crane operator on TV. There's a famous national park not so far away up in the mountains. A big rock was dislodged above the road and rolled down and killed someone. He was up there with a crew doing some preventative in the area, so it doesn't happen again. His crane looks smaller on the tube than when next to you. He looked bored, lifting trees is surely more fun.
 
Worked with my bro today.

We were at this property with some kick arse trees. Big old Katsura's, a cut leaf Beech I've never seen before, nice lindens, amongst other things. He took my card. ;)

Dude was loaded, just bought another monster house down the street, a castle in England which he is from, some rare right side drive porshe, 1930's motorcycle he just got shipped over, was driving around all day moving rocks in an old Land Rover Defender- diesel. It felt like a scene from Arbtalk forums.

Real nice rich people for a change. Was even outside getting his hands dirty building a stone wall.
 
Slayed a few trees at one job, had lunch, then slayed a pine. Going back in the AM to finish up the little bit of pine left.

Few pics going in the work pics thread.
 
Got a chance to climb one of our Pin Oaks today. Dad brought over Rocky, the climber in training, and we showed him a lot of basics. He's still getting used to the feeling of being in the tree suspended by a rope, but overall I think he'll turn out ok.

Just finished a big homework assigiment. Unfortunately, my weekend won't be as fun as usual since I have a 1500-2000 word paper to write. Shouldn't be hard, but it can be time consuming, which sucks since I have a great 3 day weekend ahead of me!
 
Did a small removal this am, a cobra cable inspection this am and we have been getting alot of calls on modesto ash anthracnose so we did our first treatment on that. Usually they don't get that bad but they are dropping leaves by the bucket full this week
 
Lordy, I haven't installed a standard, old school cable set up in nearly 20 years here. But, prior to that, I'd cabled at least 20 jobs, a few quite epic.

But never since, much less actually using the more expensive Cobra system. That just wouldn't fly with the rednecks 'round here -ahhhh. :drink:
 
When I was at Davey, we installed a lot of cable in order to appease nervous homeowners. But only on strong, healthy trees. Any trees with defects large enough to need a cable usually got removed instead. Too much liability installing cables on a tree that might actually fail, I guess.
 
7 bids...all sold. collected 3.5 in outstanding invoices!!.....bout to make a bunch of new chains....oh yeah, bees swarmed but returned to the hive...do what?
 
Finished the estate one day ahead of schedule. I figured 2.5 day with the small crew, but the DR kicked butt as did the crew and we freed up a day on our already tight schedule. He had even enlarged the job on us :) He also booked two days in September to finish some of what the masticator started :D Oh and a pondo take down and some dead willow removal :D So I spent most of my hard earned money on some parts and repairs to gear up for more..... :P
 
thats the truth, I got all told probably $200k in equipement and spent close to $40k on the Wraptor in the last year, work 7 days a week and the boots are falling off my feet and all my clothes are in tatters.........:|:

Summit aint addin up.........
 
I have that problem as well!!

Yesterday hurt me, bad! Not sure whats up. Drove the hour and half down. Swam in poison ivy, cut it all down and sprayed it. Cut up a good trailer load of 2x12 timbers to fit on the trailer. About five hours of work, then the drive home. We had truck problems all the way home. The right front brake kept locking up. We figured out it was the hose collapsing and holding the caliper closed, '95 GMC. But it sucked getting home!
I am still wiped out. I can't breathe, have no energy, cough for fifteen minuets and can't sleep. This is getting old fast!:(
 
UPS man showed up today with some new boots... TG. My toes were trying to get out.. LOL
Also some new lunch boxes to battle the heat with. A new battery for the DR and and new 150' hank of rope for my little trip in June :D Yup guys we just keep on spending it. Buy, fix, repair, replace... It's a necessary cycle I tells ya:|:
 
I just worked in the yard today, and my bro came over for a cook-out dinner. :D

Work is slooooooooooow. I only have one job this week.
 
I deadwooded a half a dozen cottonwoods this morning. Took my pick up in for a new back window to replace the one I broke pitching scrap iron into the back of the PU. Did a bid and came home and spent a hour on the phone with sbc tech support.
 
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