this is a hard life

[tree MDS]

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.

That works for a while and can be nice, but after a decade or so its sorta like do or fade away. I didnt want to be a tired old climber with nothing to show for the years equipment wise. It will be nice when its over though, looks like I pay 19200 (lets just call it 20 grand) a year for equipment. Sure will be nice to get that extra income back someday. Maybe I'll have a good year next year and try and just pay all that stuff off once and for all.

Who's Evan Williams??

 

[Blakesmaster]

That works for a while and can be nice, but after a decade or so its sorta like do or fade away. I didnt want to be a tired old climber with nothing to show for the years equipment wise. It will be nice when its over though, looks like I pay 19200 (lets just call it 20 grand) a year for equipment. Sure will be nice to get that extra income back someday. Maybe I'll have a good year next year and try and just pay all that stuff off once and for all.

Who's Evan Williams??

Ah, just a good ol' Kantuckee boy I met a while back. As far as equipment, I do plan on taking a small loan out next year for a nice dingo. I'm hoping to pick up a used bucket on the cheap with cash after spring breaks loose and there's some dough in the bank, then I might borrow for the dingo. Hopefully at that point I won't be needing to whore myself out to other local company's and can focus on my gig full time. That's the plan anyway.

 

[tree MDS]

Smart!



I've been debt free since 1997.

How many years have you been in business though?

 

[Sunrise Guy]

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).

As I write this, my tattooing rig is on Craigslist for a $1000. It's a ten cents on the dollar "give away." I just did what I wanted to do in the skin game and I'm played out on it. I am saving a few machines, needles and ink if the spirit hits me, in the future, but I doubt that it will. Yeah, tree work, when done well, is an artistic endeavor, too. Folks always tell me, "You're not only an arborist, but an artist!" after they see how great their trees look. Trouble is, these days, when Jose quotes them $100 for a hack job that I've quoted $650 on to do it right, artistic sensibilities just fly away with the wind. And so it goes----

 

[ropensaddle]

I got in the tree biz in 1987 and never a loan! If I couldn't pay cash I didn't buy. It's been a lifelong philosophy. I've never had a vehicle loan...my only loans have been on real estate purchases. I also grow as much of my own food as I can even though the return per hour for the labor is low.....there is a lot more to it than return on labor!

I not knocking those who get loans, to each their own.....it's just that interest paid is money lost, IMO. The philosophy of borrowing money to make money on that money has bitten many in the ass and it's very evident in the current state of the economy. I spent a few hours with a real estate commercial broker yesterday looking over a defunct greenhouse operation and gleaned quite a bit of inside info about happenings in the Atlanta area. I don't feel real sorry for most of the overextended examples I was told about. I do feel for my tree brothers though. I feel we are taking a big hit in this industry.....and in more ways than one.


Money by Pink Floyd:

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay
And your O.K.

Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands
And make a stash

New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

Money get back
I'm all right Jack
Keep your hands off my stack

Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that
Do goody good bull####

I'm in the hi-fidelity
First class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet

(Sax and guitar solos)

Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly
But don't take a slice of my pie

Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil
Today

But if you ask for a rise
It's no surprise that they're
Giving none away
Away
Away
Away
Away...

I was doing it that way too, I worked 40 at a regular job 13 years and was climbing 30 more hours every weekend. I was flat rolling in the dough but my 85 f350 went down in winter. I did not want to roll on the ground in freezing temps to repair it. So started the downward spiral and truth is Ford motor company put a huge hurt on my finances. Not just buying a new truck but they sell you a 50.000 vehicle that ain't worth spit. It stranded me out of state costing me thousands for the second time in five thousand miles. Friggin robbery imo warranty won't cover the expenses, including rental, even though it was a warranted repair. Anyway, I have learned and as soon as; I either turn around or go on welfare it won't happen again. I had spotless credit, I probably could go on for hours explaining but it is moot, I tried which if I had not I would be wondering what owning a business was like. I may hit the lotto who knows probably a better gamble than a legit business with the invasion our leaders allow.

 

[Behemoth Jim]

Hope it picks up for you's guys. We've been doing ok so far. We're still losing work because of not getting around to it quick enough. But sooner or later we'll be in the same place as you-- and maybe about then you all will have a little something. I just happen to live in one of those areas with fast-growing, viral trees and there's a lot of room for a lot of companies around here. Now-- don't everybody move here at once, or you'll just bring your poverty with you! Lol. But that's what happened with the building contractors-- our state held out for a year or so after the building boom went bust a while ago-- we had housing contractors moving in here from Michigan, Florida, and other places trying to get in on it-- and it all fell apart, leaving old steadies and new imports alike standing out in the rain. Well, I guess we need a good ice storm or something!

 

[treevet]

That is true. But ice storms are such a delicate mixture of moisture and appropriate temp at just the right time.

It is raining, temps are dropping, does it turn to snow, does it stop precipitating
just before accumulation is at critical mass to cause breakage.

I have been in so many and watched so many almost happen that I can watch the situation and when they are claiming here comes an ice storm, I can say it is gonna be close ....but not this time. In a town like mine they can be as exciting as a hurricane of which we have had both recently. It literally rains leaders and drizzles limbs.....they are amazing to watch...and listen to.

 

[ozarktreeman]

That is true. But ice storms are such a delicate mixture of moisture and appropriate temp at just the right time.

It is raining, temps are dropping, does it turn to snow, does it stop precipitating
just before accumulation is at critical mass to cause breakage.

I have been in so many and watched so many almost happen that I can watch the situation and when they are claiming here comes an ice storm, I can say it is gonna be close ....but not this time. In a town like mine they can be as exciting as a hurricane of which we have had both recently. It literally rains leaders and drizzles limbs.....they are amazing to watch...and listen to.

Sat though one in my home town last jan,your right something to behold.started and prayed for a little more and after a while prayed for it to STOP!
No power and the middle of the night you don't know where it's comin from but you hear it and know it;s big on the way down,crash.
It's a little different than pulling into a town after the fact,sitting through one a little amazing and frightful at the same time,when there is nothing surrounding you but tree,s.:jawdrop:

 

[treevet]

The last one we had found business types trying to get to work in the am while they were still falling a hundred feet at times into a driveway covered in debris.

Had to clear the drive or someone else would service your client. Hard to listen while a ms200 is screaming. Sheeaht raining down all around you. Kinda like swimming in a river with alligators.

One customer calls me and a huge leader fell on her house and went thru the roof. I get there and it is still attached 40 feet up and laying high all over the roof. Well the 2 feet of snow starts melting and guess where it is going.....just pouring into the living room.

We got it off nervously with a subbed crane and me climbing off the hook and sometimes in the canopy with spikes on ....no guilt either.

 

[jomoco]

We got it off nervously with a subbed crane and me climbing off the hook and sometimes in the canopy with spikes on ....no guilt either.

So you finally admit that when the going gets tough, you slap those gaffs on like Clearance does in his high production mode!

Al shigo is not gonna like this new side of you Treevet old buddy!

jomoco:greenchainsaw:

 

[treevet]

So you finally admit that when the going gets tough, you slap those gaffs on like Clearance does in his high production mode!

Al shigo is not gonna like this new side of you Treevet old buddy!

jomoco:greenchainsaw:

with 3 inches of ice encapsulating the entire tree the options were few. do you even know who al shigo is?

 

[Mike Cantolina]

I got in the tree biz in 1987 and never a loan! If I couldn't pay cash I didn't buy. It's been a lifelong philosophy. I've never had a vehicle loan...my only loans have been on real estate purchases. I also grow as much of my own food as I can even though the return per hour for the labor is low.....there is a lot more to it than return on labor!

I not knocking those who get loans, to each their own.....it's just that interest paid is money lost, IMO. The philosophy of borrowing money to make money on that money has bitten many in the ass and it's very evident in the current state of the economy. I spent a few hours with a real estate commercial broker yesterday looking over a defunct greenhouse operation and gleaned quite a bit of inside info about happenings in the Atlanta area. I don't feel real sorry for most of the overextended examples I was told about. I do feel for my tree brothers though. I feel we are taking a big hit in this industry.....and in more ways than one.


Money by Pink Floyd:

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay
And your O.K.

Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands
And make a stash

New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

Money get back
I'm all right Jack
Keep your hands off my stack

Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that
Do goody good bull####

I'm in the hi-fidelity
First class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet

(Sax and guitar solos)

Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly
But don't take a slice of my pie

Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil
Today

But if you ask for a rise
It's no surprise that they're
Giving none away
Away
Away
Away
Away...

Great post Treeco!

 

[treemandan]

Come on, don't start with that. A good tree guy knows when to put on his spikes and knows when to leave them off.

 

[TreeClimber57]

Come on, don't start with that. A good tree guy knows when to put on his spikes and knows when to leave them off.

Agreed!!

 

[ropensaddle]

Come on, don't start with that. A good tree guy knows when to put on his spikes and knows when to leave them off.

Lol don't walk with them

 

[treevet]

Probably don't want to bang the old lady with em on either.:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[jefflovstrom]

Funny Massive de-rails.opcorn:
Jeff

 

[treemandan]

Lol don't walk with them

I like to do The Can Can in them.

 

[treevet]

video pls.

 

[fishercat]

major storms seem to go around wherever i live,

i have a fascination with them but they just seem to avoid me.i'm kind of glad though.i hate to see folks get hurt or suffer in anyway.not worth any amount of money to me.

what really saddens me is the vultures.when i do go to storm damage jobs,i charge just like i would under normal circumstances.i don't believe in gouging people after they have already been through hell.it's just plain wrong in my book.