How'd it go today?

It can't.
That is what I mean by bureacracy!!
In 1988 my wife and I tried to start a business in California. After spending 10 months fighting the system, in order to get a permit ( which we had been promised by the American embassy in Denmark!!!!) We gave up and went home.
Getting a foreigner in for a short time job, in what is considered by those in charge, a non skill line of work, in this country. Just forget it.

Also our contract with the State forest service is set up ( and wisely IMO, even if it hits me in the butt, now!) in a way so as to keep cheap eastern European labor out of the state forests.

We have to provide a FULL record of the logging experience of every person who works for us.
Last time we won the contract, someone had cheated and got caught, so they were afraid of being sued.
So all bidders were required to submit full records of all the lumber, we'd cut.

I was used to just writing that I'd had the contract for the last 8 years, so I supposed that pretty much proved I was up to the job.

Nope, I was asked to submit full records.
So I totalled up all the frigging trees I have killed, in all the frigging countries that I have done it.

Made for a pile of wood, that even surprised myself:lol:

If Greenpeace ever hears about it, They'll chain themselves to me, night and day.:lol:
 
Nope.
Letting Poland, Romania, Hungary and those other "will work for damned near free" countries into the EU is what started the problem IMO.

Once logging companies started running, "work for free, don't know shit about safe and sure logging practises" Poles, Lithuanians etc. here, the State forest service REALLY cranked down on the " Don't bring in any cheap foreigners" rules.

I'd have a hell of a time explaining to them, that our neighbours from our former pillaging and raping areas in GB don't exactly qualify as " Cheap foreign labour"!!!

Frigging bureaucracy.

Actually Richard came up with an idea that ( according to him, He is South African,so I'm doubtfull) would work.

Hire you in as a consultant, to teach us how to log. Then instead of paying you for the amount of logs logged, we'd pay you a fixed amount ( decided after we'd seen how many logs you could put on the ground) for teaching us how to do our job.

Might even work.

But this sure reminds me of when my wife and I spent 10 months in California, trying to get a permit to start a company ( Which we had been promised by the US embassy in Denmark, before selling our home and setting out!) and finally had to just quit and go home.
 
I could impersonate Richard for a bit. It would be nice to loot and pillage Denmark, return the favour sort of thing.
 
Hire you in as a consultant, to teach us how to log. Then instead of paying you for the amount of logs logged, we'd pay you a fixed amount ( decided after we'd seen how many logs you could put on the ground) for teaching us how to do our job.

Might even work.

.
You should enter politics thinking like that :lol:
 
If you can do " the Gimp" you can for sure impersonate him well!

And if it wasn't for all the frigging bureaucracy, it would be fun as hell to have a bunch of treehousers over to rape and pillow our woods.

If we win the State contract again, I'll do some serious looking into how to make it possible.

When I offered Adrian a chance to come over, I'd figured that our reputation as teachers of Apprentices combined with his age would have made the State foresters look the other way, even if they had known there was something not quite right about him being here.

I mean, who'd want to screw up a great learning opportunity for a youngster in your own line of work.

At least that was what I was counting on.
 
Since only for a few weeks, if anyone asks, can't you say that the foreigner is a friend helping you out for no pay? If that person asks further, tell him you are going to that person's country to help him at a later point....some kind of work exchange deal. Wire him some dough later or something. I mean it is obviously fishy, but where is the proof that it is? Unless there are insurance matters, paying someone is the problem, right? The state doesn't allow free help?
 
I trimmed a SUPER KNARLEY live oak, luckily from a bucket. Climbing it woulda been a real beeyotch! TONS of dead that shoulda been removed many trims ago, but I guess whoever did them before was in too big of a hurry.

I made it right. :drink:
 
It's been an up and down kind of day here. I started the morning with finding that a family friend lost his fight with MS the other day. I came back to the room, and took care of some paperwork after reading the paper(USA Today). I got bored around mid-day, so I went out for a 2.25mi walk through the snow, and enjoyed the scenery here in the Cedar Rapids area and sent out a few greeting cards. I uploaded some more shots from the past few days to facebook, and worked on some other projects here this evening, and now, I am finishing off my cup of herbal bedtime tea, and am off to bed.
 
Tom found a little Snapper 19 LE snowblower in someones trash last year .Of course he had no idea how to make it run so I get the thing .Nothing to it .

The thing has a plug in 120 volt starting system .Set it up rich until it limbered up the carb innards then leaned it out and ran it like a scalded ape .What a hoot that thing is .Imagine that a snowblower with a little 3 HP chainsaw engine powering it .Not the most powerfull but it certainly beats a snow shovel .
 
That's cool Al...:)

I pruned mistletoe out of two spread out like oaks toay and then raised a blue oak... I am whooped...
Got the numbers off the trees I have to bid on, on the way home. Cooked some potato, leek with ham soup... Katy made biscuits. I am warm, stuffed and close to falling asleep.... LOL
 
I buried Rob in it... Each leader was just far away enough yet close enough to set my climb line and never hit the ground until I was done with each stand. Two stands, two ascents. Probably 6 leaders each. I made a mess...
 
That or ... "please miss my widdle twee......."
Or my house, leave some screen between me and the neighbors... Oh... The cat grass... Don't hit the cat grass... Oh, and my lillacs.... Wait... There is a fence back there and on't hit the grand kid's fort..........

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Oops.. :lol:
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Yesterday was a dead pine over some other Euc and over an apt building....

Today was standing talking to the traffic guy and holding the chipper bar every other hour....pretty relaxed.
Tomorrow I think we're clearing out a lot, cutting down some small eucs.

and Bird season is starting up so don't forget to nest survey before you wreck.

:beerchug: dang Stephen, some pines there.
 
How can California be commie with so many Mexican's down there? I seriously doubt that the red flag will ever be waving over Olvera Street.
 
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