I truly enjoy my job. Ilove nothing better then working on a live oak and turning it into a work of art. I strain and stretch that extra little bit to make that good cut - no dog ears if I can help it. I fix bad cuts by previous climbers. I get that little bit of extra dead out. From that moment on, every time I drive by that tree, I'll look at it and see how it's doing. I've trees that I've worked on like that from the '70s, some 2 and 3 times. Waycool.
I also enjoy td, especially the huge ones that nobody else has the nuts for, or desire. The bigger, the better. 40 ton cranes, no cranes, it's all good. Just gimme sharp saws n strong ropes, and get ready to chip.
I usually don't have a say in the job I'm contracted to do, I'm just the hired gun. Sometimes I can talk the customer onto doing what should be done, as opposed to what they thought should be done - cool. More times than not, I do what the TS co. asks me to do which, in turn, is what the customer hired them for.
Yesterday I took down 5 large, beautiful cypress trees for no other reason other than the customer didn't like them. Pretty phucken stupid in my book. I suppose I could have called the customer out and attempted to explain to them the error of their ways, they might have agreed, and everybody would have gone home. The groundies might have liked that, and some of the sanctimonious purists here would applaud that; However, I don't think I would be working as an Independant Climber very long employing that tactic.
Do I lose sleep over other people's lunacies? No. If I don't work, I don't pay my bills. I do the best I can, whenever I can, and thats good enough for me.
Ok2climb, if you can afford to walk off a job because of high tree moral standards, more power to ya.
But if your like most people, ya gotta eats.
