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this is a hard life
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Slvrmple72
Addicted to ArboristSite
Thats an easy one: Cuz of all the guys offering winter rates for treework. Starting to feel it more in my hands now as I get older. Geez, glad I don't do the drinking and treework, makes for one looong day!
jomoco
Tree Freak
You guys sound somewhat ungrateful that your best friend, a storm, has weeded out the dangerously weak trees with a potential to hurt you, or one of your employees.
Kinda weak guys, you should be thanking the storm gods, and tightening your discipline&methods to make the most of storms safely.
I like storms myself, like a fat content old buzzard eaten it up.
jomoco
Kinda weak guys, you should be thanking the storm gods, and tightening your discipline&methods to make the most of storms safely.
I like storms myself, like a fat content old buzzard eaten it up.
jomoco
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
You guys sound somewhat ungrateful that your best friend, a storm, has weeded out the dangerously weak trees with a potential to hurt you, or one of your employees.
Kinda weak guys, you should be thanking the storm gods, and tightening your discipline&methods to make the most of storms safely.
I like storms myself, like a fat content old buzzard eaten it up.
jomoco
I like em too and also like to be able to challenge myself under extreme conditions. You don't get that chance in a 9 to fiver riding the old reclining desk chair.
Just musing about 40 years of, again, here we go again, time to dig deep. You are an old timer (fool) like myself and you must be able to relate to that.
You get up a hundred feet more or less and it is dark, freezing, everyone huddled inside, the wind is howling, plenty of opportunity for accidents and injury and you just play your cards right and live to get off the porch and run with the big dogs another day.
Bet you are busy Jon, cant believe how these storms as little as they are, cause so much damage. Crazy week!,
Jeff
Jeff
ozarktreeman
ArboristSite Operative
Blues despair and agony on thee lol. I don't feel so bad now that I know your struggling too. Not that I am happy you are mind you, it's just that I am barely avoiding bankruptcy and though it seems eminent. I cling to faith in my abilities and my higher power to help me sort out my debts but may need to just call it
Hang in there Oh brother where art thou!
Workin on some some stuff and hopin that i can throw some to ya!
But yea some times this time of the year ya wonder is it worth it.
And how many winters have you ask yourselves that.
probably more than I have.And still were in it come spring.
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
Your prolly right, I sure don't see a chance of me landing a rocket scientist job lol. I have some work just not gobs of it I suppose I will make do but the bills are not paid. I prolly need to talk with a lawyer to save what I can, restructure but really hate not being able to pay everyone. That is what stinks, then get behind and no catching up
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
Your prolly right, I sure don't see a chance of me landing a rocket scientist job lol. I have some work just not gobs of it I suppose I will make do but the bills are not paid. I prolly need to talk with a lawyer to save what I can, restructure but really hate not being able to pay everyone. That is what stinks, then get behind and no catching up
Can you tap any regulars with a little nudge for discounted services. Works for me in the winter. Just leaf thru you clientele and consider stuff they need done that hasn't been done yet or drop a bid or two. It is not like knocking on doors and business types can appreciate the technique from their own experiences.
Think of "Black Sheep" with Farley and Spade.
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
Can you tap any regulars with a little nudge for discounted services. Works for me in the winter. Just leaf thru you clientele and consider stuff they need done that hasn't been done yet or drop a bid or two. It is not like knocking on doors and business types can appreciate the technique from their own experiences.
Think of "Black Sheep" with Farley and Spade.
You know I prob. shouldn't kid about such a touchy subject but I know your personality and think it is probably ok.
This is a real strange economic climate. I always buy some stuff in the fall to ditch taxes a little. Had a good year and came a breath away from signing the dotted line on a commercial property with couple of big bays for a little under $200K. Didn't seem prudent as Bush used to say so I lowered my sights to upgrading my truck crane. Then I backed off that even tho I was approved for the loan. Now I am thinking I may have to liquidate some of my stuff by the end of the winter....which I have some stuff I can do without.
Hell of a lot better than 20 years ago back in my drinking days that had the IRS about to take my business and house and all my equipment. I considered shooting the agent as I knew exactly where he walked every day at lunch downtown where I picked up my wife. He looked so happy and carefree without a worry in the world and what he was doing to me was pure hell. Long story not worth the time.
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
Lol and I thought I was sick lmfao. Hell; I may as well laugh, hurts too much to cry. We do it to ourselves; should of known the economy was going bust. Hindsight 20 20, if I keep the farm and some of my toys I will be ok. I wish now I would have just climbed everything, I was rollin in dough back then but way too tired to spend it. Come to think of it, that ain't bad either lol
Sunrise Guy
Addicted to ArboristSite
Blues despair and agony on thee lol. I don't feel so bad now that I know your struggling too. Not that I am happy you are mind you, it's just that I am barely avoiding bankruptcy and though it seems eminent. I cling to faith in my abilities and my higher power to help me sort out my debts but may need to just call it
Knowing that you, a guy I have come to know, on here, as a serious working professional who knows his stuff, are facing bankruptcy, really puts things in perspective for me. I am just about ready to call it quits in the tree biz. I am now working jobs for 1/3rd what I used to, and that's only because I'd rather stay busy on a physical level than sit at home on my butt. Even then, the jobs are getting very few and far between. The money is not getting me over. The new phone books are out and I've seen that there are so many new tree guys advertising in it. The pie is getting sliced way too thin, just as it came to be in my last profession, the tattoo biz. With a tattoo shop on every other corner, almost literally, my great income went down to a laughable trickle-in of chump change, after shop expenses. Now this is happening in the tree biz.
Somehow I will find yet another profession to start up in. I'm not sure what it will be, but I've shed professions like a snake sheds its skin over my life and I'll do it again, God willing. It is very frustrating that overpopulation seems to doom any business you get into, ultimately. If the business is fairly easy to start up, like tattooing and a tree work operation, then you can bet that others will get wind of it and in no time at all it will simply not be worth it to hang in there. I have been doing trees for a good while, but when I had the shop, I didn't have to rely on them for my main income. Now that I do, I am fairly certain that I may have to cut my losses and move on. It's frustrating as hell. Salt goes into my wounds when I see folks of dubious legal residency taking jobs for less than I can even understand how they can do so.
Yeah, these are frustrating times. I laugh out loud each time a talking head on the tube blusters and blows about our "economic recovery." I think they think that if you say it long enough, over and over, maybe it will actually come to pass. If it's here, I do not know a single brother or sister in our profession who is feeling its effects. Again, very frustrating times.
ropensaddle
Feel Lucky
Hey, I have got it, we are composing a top selling country song. Hurry someone call Willie were gonna be rich
On a lighter note: got to go grind some stumps, whilst the grounds froze. Not sure I am going bankrupt yet but it does appear grim. It started because I did not like climbing everything then wanted a grapple truck to get brush up faster. It was working in the old economy but hell, I guess we will likely all be in the poor house when this term is over. Oh well there is always disability lol.
On a lighter note: got to go grind some stumps, whilst the grounds froze. Not sure I am going bankrupt yet but it does appear grim. It started because I did not like climbing everything then wanted a grapple truck to get brush up faster. It was working in the old economy but hell, I guess we will likely all be in the poor house when this term is over. Oh well there is always disability lol.treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
Maybe what it takes Sunrise, is doing a little of a number of things. Tatooing is a very artistic endeavor, tree work is (when done properly) a very high skill and knowledge needing job. You said you were doing ok when you were just doing tree work part time with the tatoo ing. That may be the way to go and add some more. I think of someone that cares enough to have a lab and you must have been good with the ink too.
I have tried to diversify with the firewood and the big investment in the Timberwolf stuff. Sales are way down this year due to the glut last year with a hurricane. Also oil prices dropped. I went into planting trees and even added a hydraulic pincher to the dingo and cutting holes with the stumper. The town decides to solicit nurseries to compete to offer wholesale prices on planted trees for next to nothing.
Maybe next is chimney cleaning with the bucket, reconditioning other's equipment, sale of fireplace accessories (tree gear sales is glutted), offering to get trees down and pruning for all the landscape companies in the area and they do the rest. Hell, I don't know much beyond tree work (nothing really). My next ploy is blanketing an entire town with mail solicitations offering discounted work (it doesn't always have to be much if they aren't getting bids or the job is real nasty....just get the contact).
I have tried to diversify with the firewood and the big investment in the Timberwolf stuff. Sales are way down this year due to the glut last year with a hurricane. Also oil prices dropped. I went into planting trees and even added a hydraulic pincher to the dingo and cutting holes with the stumper. The town decides to solicit nurseries to compete to offer wholesale prices on planted trees for next to nothing.
Maybe next is chimney cleaning with the bucket, reconditioning other's equipment, sale of fireplace accessories (tree gear sales is glutted), offering to get trees down and pruning for all the landscape companies in the area and they do the rest. Hell, I don't know much beyond tree work (nothing really). My next ploy is blanketing an entire town with mail solicitations offering discounted work (it doesn't always have to be much if they aren't getting bids or the job is real nasty....just get the contact).
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
Hey, I have got it, we are composing a top selling country song. Hurry someone call Willie were gonna be rich
and impeachment:chainsawguy:
treeslayer
Addicted to ArboristSite
Want to see where all the stimulus $$ went? go to Northern VA, outside Wash. DC and look at all the road improvements, EVERY interstate ramp is being rebuilt, multiple big cranes, and lots of new heavy equipment everywhere, on every site. I counted a dozen brand new Cat 14 motor graders alone.
and maybe 20 constuction guys working............ who got the $$? people already rich, business owners:chainsawguy:
and maybe 20 constuction guys working............ who got the $$? people already rich, business owners:chainsawguy:
Lol and I thought I was sick lmfao. Hell; I may as well laugh, hurts too much to cry. We do it to ourselves; should of known the economy was going bust. Hindsight 20 20, if I keep the farm and some of my toys I will be ok. I wish now I would have just climbed everything, I was rollin in dough back then but way too tired to spend it. Come to think of it, that ain't bad either lol
I wish you the best of luck rope.
We've talked about this before, but I'll say it again: I cant wait till I'm done with the payment thing. Just plain sick of being under it all the time. Its not that I regret the purchases I've made, I just want to get back to more simple times. Less than two years on the chipper and about two years and nine months left on the bucket. I want to say I'll probably just buy something else...but this year and some of the so called competition have really made me wonder about this biz (getting sick of competing with the likes of "affordable tree" and "the tree assassin").
Blakesmaster
Addicted to ArboristSite
That's why I'm glad we're just building as we go without the bank. Yeah, our one ton and little stumper may make us look like your everyday hacks but if they sit for a month or two the only thing that hurts is my personal finances, not the business. I've been repairing and cleaning apartments for my landlord for the past few days to cover rent, my freezer's full of venison and there's rice and beans in the pantry, so while I may not have money to expand my empire or even go out and have a little fun, I"m not gonna starve or go bankrupt. And I don't mind the taste of Evan Williams either, lol.
treeslayer
Addicted to ArboristSite
got drunk, and swerved to hit a deer, way to go my man!
redneck treeclimber all the way bro!
Blakesmaster
Addicted to ArboristSite
got drunk, and swerved to hit a deer, way to go my man!
redneck treeclimber all the way bro!
Cute man, but no, I learned my lesson with that #### a few years ago. Still dealing with bull#### from that .10 blow. I don't hunt but a lot of friends do and they always toss me way too much meat every season. I got 2 lbs. of elk burger left from last year's harvest and then I'm into the fresh stuff. Hells yes! As far as the Evan, #### that stuff's only 15 bucks a bottle and a few nips a night will set me straight. lol Get ta work ya lazy bum!
