Tree Care = Strapping-down phones post-January 1st

[M.D. Vaden]

Never seen it happen with Lawn Care in the Pacific NW, nor on the east coast...

The phone starts ringing off the hook after January 1st.

It's a thing that seems to go hand-in-hand with commercial tree care.

The holiday bells are often replaced with the January phone bells.

Get those phones strapped down so they don't ring-of-the-hook.

Seems to happen like clock-work every year. Sort of just "cruise-along" through December, then it happens, like the needle moving strongly on a graph registering an earth tremor.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I think it is late feb. around here. People have started paying off the Christmas season and are looking out into the yard for spring....

 

[Canyonbc]

Its been a slower winter...i am would be ok with things picking up.

 

[Xtra]

Here in NJ it's usually slow from the 2nd week of December until the end of Feb.
Come March people start going out into their yards and we get our first big bump from people wanting to have pools installed.

This past year was bad for me and other companies in this part of NJ. The county I work was one of the fastest growing counties in the US for 2 - 3 years. Now with the housing market dead, everyone is trying to pay the mortgage on their over-priced homes (4,500 houses listed and only 35 sold last month) so, they're not interested in lawn or tree care. In fact a lot of landscapers got into the tree business last year because of lack of lawn work . . . my county's Yellow Book list 79 tree companies!!???

We'll see what this coming year brings.
(and hopefully some snow for plowing)

 

[John464]

late feb is when we go into full gear again with residential. from now till feb what keeps us busy is commercial accounts and processing timber. less than half of our work during this time period comes from homeowners

 

[Fireaxman]

Never seen it happen with Lawn Care in the Pacific NW, nor on the east coast...

The phone starts ringing off the hook after January 1st. ...

I'm surprised yours hasn't already vibrated off the desk and on to the floor from the recent storm. I understand Rockaway had winds exceeding 125 mph. Do you pick up any work from the West side of the Coastal Range? Some of the Portland folks with high-dollar beach front vacation houses ought to make pretty good clients.

 

[l2edneck]

Be dead till the end of march here....

hope i survive this one,this year totally sucked.....

 

[Canyonbc]

Be dead till the end of march here....

hope i survive this one,this year totally sucked.....

I feel ya there...i am part time but was it def. a slower year for me. I have made ends meet and a little more but not where i like to be.

We will all get through it...the roller coaster ride of running a business in a capitalistic economy.

JMO

 

[squad143]

Don't except the phone to start to ring until April (at least I hope), There is already 3' of snow on the ground (I hate cutting/climbing in snow). Other than removing the Christmas lights on the commercial properties in January, it is my "downtime". Time to relax, prep the equipment and snowmobile with the family.

Hope you all (or is it all yall) have a prosperous season next year.

 

[John464]

Believe it or not we booked 5 new residential jobs today. The news everytime you watch is showing trees on houses and tree crews at work. This is making my customers call now. I am very suprised.

Without the news and high winds drumming up calls residential work would be very quiet the week before Xmas.

 

[l2edneck]

Managed somehow today to make fuel money...

few prospects and thursday booked prayin i can hustle enuff and land this week...

Got a few for after the first from Trollin the books...

but cash is definitly limited...

on a good note got my camera back today,so i can resume posting and selling items

 

[M.D. Vaden]

I'm surprised yours hasn't already vibrated off the desk and on to the floor from the recent storm. I understand Rockaway had winds exceeding 125 mph. Do you pick up any work from the West side of the Coastal Range? Some of the Portland folks with high-dollar beach front vacation houses ought to make pretty good clients.

I'm in southern Oregon, where the wind was much less powerful, and a lot less rain. We barely felt it, and we are just about a 4 hour drive away.

Sounds like the north Oregon companies snagged some work. Called one today for something else. But they said it was not a huge as one might expect.

But that's Portland. The area closer to the coast gets near double the wind, and I'm sure those folks are still hard at it.

Can you imagine what the 1962 storm was like in Oregon. Just read an article in Wikipedia on it "Columbus Day Storm" - the winds at the coast were recorded at 145 miles per hour, and estimated 179 mph gusts.

Portland got 116 mph gusts in that one, compared to like maybe 75 mph in anything since then.

 

[Fireaxman]

... Can you imagine what the 1962 storm was like in Oregon. Just read an article in Wikipedia on it "Columbus Day Storm" - the winds at the coast were recorded at 145 miles per hour, and estimated 179 mph gusts.

Portland got 116 mph gusts in that one, compared to like maybe 75 mph in anything since then.

Katrina sharpened my imagination pretty well, but gusts to 179? Lord, please dont let me see that! We only had 135 mph gusts here on the North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain during Katrina, but I stepped outside a few times during the worst of it. Not a "Wind" sound at all, but a steady roar like a freight train for 8 hours. Spooky. Amazing anything survived it. We are still cleaning up after 2 years.