How'd it go today?

I found it rather odd today as I particpated in the election process that my place of polling had been moved ,with no prior notification .Evidently according to one of the women on "the view " the same happened to her .Oh I found it allright .

Now I kind of wonder that even in this podunk red neck farmer little portion in the country if that nonsense in Florida has found it's way to the cornfield .Something's fishy here .
 
Knocked down a bunk of dying alders and root rot firs. No damages. Finished the day with breaking off an all to rotten alder to mess with, and learning to prime a diesel after a ranger ran the chipper dry. All in all, a fine, dry day.
 
3 lil Firs slayed and a few estimates done today. I tried to line up a stumpgrinder to rent for Thursday, but the guy I rent it from tried to tell me that I damaged his trailer the last time I rented it and should pay for the damages. The kicker: it was 2 months ago that I rented it last and I sure don't remember doing any damage to the trailer! I'm not the guy who breaks something and tries to hide it and I've come out of pocket a few times in the past due to honesty. But, 2 months? If I had gotten a phone call within 2 day, different story. Since that machine and trailer are used by others, how can anyone be sure it was me who did it? Especially considering that I don't remember doing the damage. I told him that I won't be dealing with him any more...
 
Try to find a guy to sub the work to, rather than rent it, if you can trust them, and be doing technical work instead...my two cents...stumping is soooo boring and low tech. Maybe my threshold for boredom is low. Let him do the work, and get a cut.

Dry until our drive home, then dry once home-- sweet.
 
I was saying if you can do technical work instead. Money is money. Better than mowing lawns while building a tree customer base. Ask me how I know. No more of either for me. Having a stable 40 hour a week arborist salary helps me to be picky for the last year and a half, with that opportunity coming just as my customer base was hitting critical mass, I think.

What will be great is in a few years you will be hearing from your initial customers again, as they need another job or two done.
 
Maybe you can rent a better machine than I could rent, or get a better price. You've got more technical skills. I only recently found someone here that doesn't do treework, only stumps and tractor work, so as not to be potentially introducing a competitor to my customer. I wish I had spent the time that I did stumping talking to the neighbors instead, but couldn't find a sub stumper. When someone can have an employee stumping, there is more money to be made, I think. Rental machines were always a pain for me. We have rocky soil, too, so that factors in greatly, too. When I started my business, I didn't have many skills, so I chased any work I could, but were I a better climber at that time, I'd have been able to chase tree jobs more, I think.
 
I agree with Sean. I never made big technical money when I was filling my hours doing boring, labor intensive, low paying work. Once I swore off doing the low dollar work, I suddenly had more time to focus on profitable work. And another bonus was that more people quit thinking of me as the low dollar guy who would do anything. Now people call me when they need high dollar technical work and won't consider calling me for low tech, low dollar work.

If you want to be the low dollar, low tech guy then you will build a reputation as a low dollar, low tech guy. The price of that is being passed over when the high dollar work comes along.
 
I just telll people to call me "The Dendro Destructor, the Ornamental Artiste, the Close Quarters Killer and the Tight LZ Hitta" When they call me they know what they need.
 
Ha, stumps. I did nine today for a do it yourself bloke, paid ok though.

I don't get calls for them much these days, lots of guys around with grinders now but when I bought my first one in '91 there were only a few and we got top dollars for a while.

It paid for itself in six months. If I bought a new one now it would be lucky to pay for itself in five years.
 
Well I suppose stump grinding depends on the market .They do pretty good with it in these parts .I'd venture a guess they are turning 100 an hour .Nothing to sneeze at for sure .
 
Love those angled backcuts, lulz!

I slayed a giant water oak, tag teaming with another climber. On thhorizontalal limbs, he hooked em up and I made the cut. They only wanted it stripped to a snag, so it was an easy TD! Sweet!
 
Made it up to Baltimore for TCIA today. Fun times so far, eating at Brick oven pizza at the moment, been looking forward to this place for a long time haha! I'm a big time pizza lover!
 
I didn't work today because my priorities are piss poor. I did however lay around in my recliner and take 2 short naps by the woodstove until about 2 pm. At that time I went out archery hunting for deer. Here I am now, refusing to return phone calls.

Storm work did this to me. I went ape for the last week and a half, did more then I should have, made a good pile of money and paid a lot of stuff off, and left myself feeling a little burned out. Plus I was up late last night at a casino with some folks. I played 10 dollars and refused to spend another nickel. Earning money is enough of a gamble in this business. I don't like to just start handing it over to the indians just to say I did.
 
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