Climbing with los muchachos

[Mapleman]

About ten years ago while I was visiting my folks in San Diego, I started working up in North County. I was the only anglo climber, and I think there were just two other anglos among the 12 or 15 workers there. A young kid named Christian was the lead climber. He'd only been climbing for a few years, but he had the instincts of a veteran.

At that time, all of los muchachos were illegal to one extent or another. My boss, an ex-Marine, said he'd hire more anglos if they would just show up for work on time and lay off the drugs. When we would hire a new ground guy from south of the border, we would have to tell him to stop for lunch. These guys worked their butts off.

Most of los muchachos were cowboys from the Vera Cruz area and related in some way or another. They had pooled their money and bought a ranch there, and were in the process of stocking it with cows--the real American Dream. They were also buying houses in the San Marcos area of San Diego. They would all move in together and pool their money to buy the house for the guy who'd been there the longest. Then it was the next guy's turn. Seemed like a pretty good arrangement to me.

I've worked on a lot of crews over the years, but the only guys I ever worked with who could work as hard--day in and day out--as los muchachos were the Samoans and Filippinos in Hawaii.

 

[ropensaddle]

About ten years ago while I was visiting my folks in San Diego, I started working up in North County. I was the only anglo climber, and I think there were just two other anglos among the 12 or 15 workers there. A young kid named Christian was the lead climber. He'd only been climbing for a few years, but he had the instincts of a veteran.

At that time, all of los muchachos were illegal to one extent or another. My boss, an ex-Marine, said he'd hire more anglos if they would just show up for work on time and lay off the drugs. When we would hire a new ground guy from south of the border, we would have to tell him to stop for lunch. These guys worked their butts off.

Most of los muchachos were cowboys from the Vera Cruz area and related in some way or another. They had pooled their money and bought a ranch there, and were in the process of stocking it with cows--the real American Dream. They were also buying houses in the San Marcos area of San Diego. They would all move in together and pool their money to buy the house for the guy who'd been there the longest. Then it was the next guy's turn. Seemed like a pretty good arrangement to me.

I've worked on a lot of crews over the years, but the only guys I ever worked with who could work as hard--day in and day out--as los muchachos were the Samoans and Filippinos in Hawaii.

Ya know I say bs their are not any superman everyone gets tired what really is happening is they work cheaper pay no taxes create murderous gangs and are turning this great country to ****. All for the greed of a treasonous many that use them to profit illegally and hurt the legitimate law abiding business in the area. I for one am sick of it and people can reason all they want to but the truth is they are traitors for using them imo.

 

[tree md]

I have to tell one of my ground guys to stop for lunch. He's a big big black guy and a vet. Been to Iraq twice and Afghanistan once. Works twice as hard as any muchacho I ever worked with. He's also a single dad. I wouldn't trade him for 2 illegals or anyone else. Sounds like you've hooked up with some pretty bad apples as far as American workers.

 

[tomtrees58]

thats good to here tree m d tom trees

 

[gr8scott72]

Sounds like you've hooked up with some pretty bad apples as far as American workers.

No, I say his boss just didn't really try and used that as an excuse like rope said.

Illegal is illegal and it IS ruining our country.

 

[Mapleman]

What's really illegal is how we trumped up a war with Mexico, like we did in Iraq, to steal their land in the 1840s.

What's ruining this country is the big boys who are sending our jobs overseas and are flooding foreign markets with cheap products so the locals can't compete and feed their families. So what do they do? They go where the work is. If I had a family to feed, I'd go where the work is.

And I'm not putting down anglos, nor am I saying mexicanos are better tree men. I'm just relating my experiences.

 

[gr8scott72]

What's really illegal is how we trumped up a war with Mexico, like we did in Iraq, to steal their land in the 1840s.

What's ruining this country is the big boys who are sending our jobs overseas and are flooding foreign markets with cheap products so the locals can't compete and feed their families. So what do they do? They go where the work is. If I had a family to feed, I'd go where the work is.

And I'm not putting down anglos, nor am I saying mexicanos are better tree men. I'm just relating my experiences.

Who the better treeman is, is irrelevant. They are here illegally and are cutting corners to make that money that LEGAL businesses can't cut (no taxes, no insurance, no workman's comp, etc.) and most of the money they make leaves the states too which further hurts us.

 

[Mapleman]

Scott,

All the mexicanos I worked with were on the books. They paid taxes, comp, and social security. Some of them just didn't have valid green cards. Mike, the boss, paid into the system just as if they were legals.

I understand what you're saying about being under bid becuase of the reduced cost of hiring "illegals." But that wasn't the case where I worked in northern San Diego Co.

It's the same when you shop at Walmart. They get Chinese prison labor to produce stuff so cheap that the mom and pop stores can't compete with them and have to fold. Do you shop at Walmart?

 

[ropensaddle]

Scott,

All the mexicanos I worked with were on the books. They paid taxes, comp, and social security. Some of them just didn't have valid green cards. Mike, the boss, paid into the system just as if they were legals.

I understand what you're saying about being under bid becuase of the reduced cost of hiring "illegals." But that wasn't the case where I worked in northern San Diego Co.

It's the same when you shop at Walmart. They get Chinese prison labor to produce stuff so cheap that the mom and pop stores can't compete with them and have to fold. Do you shop at Walmart?

Excuse me I call bs again, I here that same line from all the traitors, so what ss# do they file my bet is; yeah he takes it out of their pay alright and pockets it. I however agree with the oversea traitors hurt as well but at least we don't have to live with their murderous gangs in our streets poco. I don't care how you try and paint it it is wrong on so many levels it ain't funny. I say we fine anyone using illegal labor a million per illegal they will leave and then small business can become healthy again.

 

[Rickytree]

I live in Canada right between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and asked a lady in the summer how things were with her farm. She is a local fruit farmer and stated how the immigrants that she is using are now trying to start unions in Canada. I was in shock. And on top of it they are getting paid the minimum wage here. When I was young and worked on a farm they never paid me minimum wage. and it wasn't a good job like picking fruit were you could eat some and be in the shade sometimes. This was crawling on your hands and knees for miles spacing lettuce, or hoeing out in the middle of a black field. times are crazy!

 

[Mapleman]

Clint Eastwood wrote:

Excuse me I call bs again, I here that same line from all the traitors, so what ss# do they file my bet is; yeah he takes it out of their pay alright and pockets it. I however agree with the oversea traitors hurt as well but at least we don't have to live with their murderous gangs in our streets poco. I don't care how you try and paint it it is wrong on so many levels it ain't funny. I say we fine anyone using illegal labor a million per illegal they will leave and then small business can become healthy again.



That's just how the big boys who run things want it. Get us to fighting among ourselves because that's the only way they can beat us. It's been the same way for a while now. We're in the majority, and they (the fat cats and their lackeys) are in the minority. The only way they can beat us is by divide and conquer, so they make the economic situation so bad we have to compete with each other for jobs and $$$. They've been running this scheme since Christ was a cowboy.

They go into a country like Guatemala and completely destroy the economy by forcing the government to take out a big loan from the World Bank to build a dam somewhere that will only make Brown and Kellogg, Bechtel, and guys like #### Cheney rich. It doesn't benefit anyone in Guatemala except their own rich fat cats who sell the peasants electricity at triple the cost. Meanwhile the dam floods out land the peasants grew food on to feed their families and where their homes were. So where do they go? To the slums of Guatemala City where there's no work? Some do, and become beggars, prostitutes, and drug users. Others come north looking for work.

It's the fat cats here in the US who are the traitors. They've sold us down the river for a bigger profit margin and wiped their asses with the Constitutuion. But they make us think it's all about immigration to distract us from the real issue which is how they're making the planet into their own personal fiefdom.

Divide and conquer, bro...that's what they're doing to all us workers no matter our nationality.

 

[gr8scott72]

Clint Eastwood wrote:

Excuse me I call bs again, I here that same line from all the traitors, so what ss# do they file my bet is; yeah he takes it out of their pay alright and pockets it. I however agree with the oversea traitors hurt as well but at least we don't have to live with their murderous gangs in our streets poco. I don't care how you try and paint it it is wrong on so many levels it ain't funny. I say we fine anyone using illegal labor a million per illegal they will leave and then small business can become healthy again.



That's just how the big boys who run things want it. Get us to fighting among ourselves because that's the only way they can beat us. It's been the same way for a while now. We're in the majority, and they (the fat cats and their lackeys) are in the minority. The only way they can beat us is by divide and conquer, so they make the economic situation so bad we have to compete with each other for jobs and $$$. They've been running this scheme since Christ was a cowboy.

They go into a country like Guatemala and completely destroy the economy by forcing the government to take out a big loan from the World Bank to build a dam somewhere that will only make Brown and Kellogg, Bechtel, and guys like #### Cheney rich. It doesn't benefit anyone in Guatemala except their own rich fat cats who sell the peasants electricity at triple the cost. Meanwhile the dam floods out land the peasants grew food on to feed their families and where their homes were. So where do they go? To the slums of Guatemala City where there's no work? Some do, and become beggars, prostitutes, and drug users. Others come north looking for work.

It's the fat cats here in the US who are the traitors. They've sold us down the river for a bigger profit margin and wiped their asses with the Constitutuion. But they make us think it's all about immigration to distract us from the real issue which is how they're making the planet into their own personal fiefdom.

Divide and conquer, bro...that's what they're doing to all us workers no matter our nationality.

Do you constantly look up in the sky for the black helicopters? :monkey:

 

[Mapleman]

No, but I do for chem trails...seen any lately?

FEMA has got a coffin for you, bro, sitting somewhere in a warehouse.

 

[bighugetrees]

Mapleman, I liked your other post about the taco stand climber who is the greatest ever, good story. This one is just opinion.

When we were logging we would work a straight 6 hour day then go home. Lunch was about 10-15 minutes then back to work. Still even doing residential work, I rarely take a lunch break. Feel it slows me down, get cold and want to take a nap. My help takes lunch and that is great. I do not ask them to go without.

All people are different. Some take lunch and some don't. I'm not an illegal. Born in Tacoma, Washington.

I've always worked outside landscaping or tree service.

We could all make more money by getting your help at the local Home Depot parking lot, but I feel they would be cutting into my work. They do fill a need for workers that do what most kids won't, but if the economy stays like this for long, you will see more American born workers dragging brush.

This is my opinion and just that. I love this site for it's wealth of information and do not want to start anything negative.

Back to Taco Man climber story please.

 

[Mapleman]

big and huge,

How are things in seattle? I've never climbed there, but heard it'sa treeman's paradise as far as getting work. I knew some climbers--one a Brit--who started tree businesses there back in the 80s.

I didn't mean to get off on a tangent about what's legal and what's not. I totally agree that guys who are always picking up illegals down at home depot are undercutting everyone else who is trying to do it by the book. But I lived in Central America for almost a year, and worked as an ambulance driver at a physical therapy clinic in the mountains of Guatemala for a while, so it's a bit of a personal subject for me.

Anyway, I'll be posting a few more episodes about Guido, the Taco House, and climbing big trees in northern Cal later in the day...

Hang on to your topknot!

 

[mckeetree]

big and huge,

How are things in seattle? I've never climbed there, but heard it'sa treeman's paradise as far as getting work. I knew some climbers--one a Brit--who started tree businesses there back in the 80s.

I didn't mean to get off on a tangent about what's legal and what's not. I totally agree that guys who are always picking up illegals down at home depot are undercutting everyone else who is trying to do it by the book. But I lived in Central America for almost a year, and worked as an ambulance driver at a physical therapy clinic in the mountains of Guatemala for a while, so it's a bit of a personal subject for me.

Anyway, I'll be posting a few more episodes about Guido, the Taco House, and climbing big trees in northern Cal later in the day...

Hang on to your topknot!

Do what??? Aw come on man.

 

[Mapleman]

"Do what??? Aw come on man."

Where we going?

 

[bighugetrees]

I fully understand how working at a physical therapy clinic in the mountains of Guatemala would change your views on Home Depot help. Just joking. I do not see the connection.

Seattle is the worst for work. Always rain, not a lot of work and all small trees. Well, that's what I tell people. Truth? Born here and will die here. I love it.

Hope life is good and take it easy.

Big and Huge.

 

[Mapleman]

"I fully understand how working at a physical therapy clinic in the mountains of Guatemala would change your views on Home Depot help. Just joking. I do not see the connection."

Seattle is the worst for work. Always rain, not a lot of work and all small trees. Well, that's what I tell people. Truth? Born here and will die here. I love it.

Hope life is good and take it easy.

Big and Huge.


The connection is I learned while I traveled in Guatemala that the poverty and unemployment there was directly related to NAFTA. US agribusiness can import as much corn as they like with no tariffs thereby undercutting small corn farmers who can't compete. So where do they go for work? It's not the whole picture, but is a big part of it. I saw this as I traveled around to coffee fincas where kids as young as four pick coffee beans for a dollar a day. There's no health care, and that's why my buddies and I were there--to bring kids to the clinic.

 

[ropensaddle]

"I fully understand how working at a physical therapy clinic in the mountains of Guatemala would change your views on Home Depot help. Just joking. I do not see the connection."

Seattle is the worst for work. Always rain, not a lot of work and all small trees. Well, that's what I tell people. Truth? Born here and will die here. I love it.

Hope life is good and take it easy.

Big and Huge.


The connection is I learned while I traveled in Guatemala that the poverty and unemployment there was directly related to NAFTA. US agribusiness can import as much corn as they like with no tariffs thereby undercutting small corn farmers who can't compete. So where do they go for work? It's not the whole picture, but is a big part of it. I saw this as I traveled around to coffee fincas where kids as young as four pick coffee beans for a dollar a day. There's no health care, and that's why my buddies and I were there--to bring kids to the clinic.

Well then I say take all the illegals with you and go back sorry if I seem bitter toward the trespassing thief's of American business, you know; the ones that have to pay for their free care while not being able to afford our own.