Serious underbid - arghh

[Reed]

Sittin' here with sore everything, still have 7 out of fifteen oaks left, wondering if anyone messed-up like I did with this job.

Maybe it's perfect-tree syndrome..PTS. Dunno, they just wanted the deadwood out, what did I do? Perfect trees, lots of dead, but pruning them like a competition. Perfection. Front yard tree done, look at it, wow. Next one, "just the dead", same thing..perfect. Next, next, next. All of 'em.

I can't stop, can't just leave a few perfect prunes, the ones next to it will look crappy. Do them too. keep going. More than a week now, few more days to go. Neighbor's overhang, not one of the fifteen, but....gotta get that one too. Ten truckloads and counting.

They're not little, either.

My son's getting twice the money I am. Bid on the dead and some overhang, do the whole thing. "We've got some names here of people wanting you next" they tell me. Oh man, you didn't tell 'em for how much, did you? "Of course" they say. Christ.

Once up there, how can one stop with just the objective - you're up there....might as well.... Help me please. Make me stop.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Sounds like the start of another 12 Step Program.

Hi, my name's Tom. I'm addicted to the removal of all deadwood.

You're on your way to breaking out of the control of this malady.

One twig at a time and pretty soon you'll be able to not even look at deadwood in trees.

Tom

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Nitpickers anonomous. I bug my biddes about that all the time, "the bid was for 1 inch dead and larger, your taking too much time!" But then it is their work, I'm just the help. Mo Munee fo me.

 

[Reed]

I agree, I hear you all, I know.

But...

I can't stop now, every one of them looks so good - my son's in the truck honking the horn 'cause he's hot, wet, tired and hungry, wants to get the hell outta there. I'm standing in the middle under, looking at this canopy of..almost finished beauties...just three more. Tomorrow. Finish tomorrow. Just three more.

Got a housefull of visitors coming, animals needing the vet, bills to pay, calls to make, work to reschedule, doctor appointments, food store, post office....I'm almost done, three more.

Maybe it's the heat?

 

[TREETX]

Those live oaks in any climate hold their dead wood. Especially in a dry one. If the trees have never been trimmed before and are huge, that could be almost a day a tree and mountains of dead wood and mounds of ball moss.

Wish I could come out there and play in some of those live oaks but I am busy picking a bunch here in Austin. High end pruning job, scortched earth on deadwooding - high price isn't so high 3 days into it.......job looks great though.

OW - still using that clear sealer for those wounds??

 

[Reed]

Sealer? Ah, yeah. Not only clear, but odorless and doesn't mess-up the ropes.

These are Post and Blackjacks, the dead beats right off or the Silky melts thru them, the larger limbs though....

One thing I've noticed years ago and reminded of again today - on a dry day, dead's easy 'cause I can "clean break" most of it with the hook or my fist - when it's damp and steamy, they just bend, sometimes pulling the pole out of your grip and slingshotting it across the neighbor's front law, fifty feet below and a hundred feet away. "HEADS UP, pole saw projectile!!" Could be wicked.

Backyard has two Sear's tin can tool sheds, the long and wide ones (why do people buy those?) also five-wire, HUNDRED foot clothes lines, undoable, three German Shepards worth of twice-daily excrement, a Virgin Mary (maybe it's Jesus, can't tell 'cause it's a limestone statue and acid rain's melted the face) grotto with countless cement religious nicky naks and glass-embedded walkways, and an 50x50 herb garden with delicate little weird fauna that reeks akin to above German Shepards and wilts if you look at it wrong.

It's a climbing nightmare, well not really a nightmare 'cause being in their trees is a whole lot better than being on their ground, but it's cut and catch or cut and lower EVERYTHING except the twin/triple leaf suckers.

Oh, the German Shepards have mange.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by TREETX
Those live oaks in any climate hold their dead wood. Especially in a dry one. If the trees have never been trimmed before and are huge, that could be almost a day a tree and mountains of dead wood and mounds of ball moss.

Sounds like bur oak up here. I've spent over 10 man hours per tree many of times just nitpicking dead in big ones, tag team no less. That's some winter fun!

 

[mquinn]

Once up there, how can one stop with just the objective - you're up there....might as well.... Help me please. Make me stop.

i do the same thing when i prune, which i don't do too often. also when i cut my hair, which i don't do too often either.

i do, however, get on the computer sometimes and can't get off. and sometimes there's a little voice that i hear saying, "michele! put down the mouse and back away from the computer."

some times that works, but not if i've gotten to the point of no return where my eyeballs roll back in my head like a shark in a feeding frenzy. that's when you've got to be careful.

so...never work alone, have alan monitor your eyeball activity, and you should be okay.

seriously, dear reed, you're okay. fine. the best. your heart is right. i know it doesn't pay good wages to have it there, but there's more meaning to life than good wages.

the sweetest thing i think anyone ever said to me was an old gentleman when i was ready to cash in my chips. he said, "the world isn't so bad, shelly. YOU're in it."

the old guy's passed on, and i try to make it so he won't have reason to want to come back here and take back those words. i don't do such a good job all the time. but you, my friend - when i start toward that dark place, i remember you. you should know that. i think of you as the reason the world is redeemable.

bless you.

and thank you for being.

 

[Tree Machine]

Working beyond' level-good'

I empathize with that quest for excellence. The tree wins, the customer wins, and you take it on the chin. But that level of quality has driven your business and built your reputation. You usually you do quite well, I'm sure, with an obsessive-compulsive perfectionistic sense of pride, but this time it got ya.

You know the rules: There's ALWAYS more dead up there than what you're seeing from down here, and the bigger the tree, the more likely we are to underestimate the time. But it multiplies when trees are adjacent to each other because each complements the other and you strive for the consistency (if the first one was perfect, then they're ALL gonna be perfect.

You're doin the right thing; you're just not getting enough money for the world-class work you're providing. -TM-