whadja do today?

[treebilly]

Tao, move your tree up in that nook closet to the building and then put a deck on the forth side. But the deck is on the uphill side. Also the primary lines are on the high side. With crane access on the bottom side. It'll be fun that's for sure. I might have to brush it out prior to the crane if we can't find one big enough to reach safely.
I despise those tin can park jobs. I ussually get heckled by someone who's had a few aluminum cans to many

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

Personally, I like the challenge of testing my self by negotionating around ceramic yard art targets. We asked the nice young lady to try and remove stuff from under the tree. Unfortunately a few of her angles and gnomes are glued to the wall so the wind wont blow them away. She put plastic buckets over them to help protect them. Bless her heart.

 

[mike515]

Crane it!!!!! I have one more 100 ft cottonwood to get out of a trailer park tomorrow. So far I have gotten 7 out. I speed lined most every thing, which is fun, But.... after about number 4 or 5 I was wishin I had a crane.

Man, I hate trailer parks. Most of the big trees in the trailer parks in our area have already been removed but a few years ago there was a huge cottonwood. These guys low-balled it and then asked if I was interested in climbing it for them. Yeah...I don't think so. I told them that whatever basement price they charged was probably not enough to pay me just to put it down for them...much less turn a profit. Live and learn. They must have figured something out because they got it down. No word on damage though. Those guys are very dangerous and damage property regularly. I don't have any idea how they stay in business. It amazes me that pros have to compete with these guys but it's nothing new, I guess.

 

[treebilly]

Personally, I like the challenge of testing my self by negotionating around ceramic yard art targets. We asked the nice young lady to try and remove stuff from under the tree. Unfortunately a few of her angles and gnomes are glued to the wall so the wind wont blow them away. She put plastic buckets over them to help protect them. Bless her heart.View attachment 399205

Gotta love it. As my boss says " trees like this are almost fun!" Then he jumps in his shiny new truck and leaves

 

[mike515]

Gotta love it. As my boss says " trees like this are almost fun!" Then he jumps in his shiny new truck and leaves

Hahaha!!

At the place I started out at, the boss would show up and be nervous about everything...practically pacing the job site. We would just be like "Why don't you just go get some coffee or a bite to eat and come back later? It will all be over by then." We would rather not even have him there. Just leave and let us do what we do.

 

[treebilly]

Yep. That's why he leaves. He gets nervous when things get more complicated then a pull rope or the occasional butt hitch. That and when he would question me I'd drop down and offer him my gear

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

This is a big trailer park job taking down 10 trees total. Originally I saw the local hacks working on one of these trees about 3 months ago. About two weeks ago I got called in because these other clowns got fired. Busted property and fuel leaks, like major fuel leak. They were all "fun" trees and I am sad to say we did have a ceramic zebra casualty on the wall yesterday. Other than that easy peasy.

 

[mike515]

What gets me is the fly-by-night guys who come to town and have no idea what they're doing and then think you might be interested in helping them out for $200. We had some of those guys doing a pretty easy multi-lead removal over a house a while back. We actually kept tabs on them in an unmarked pick-up truck....just for our own amusement. They dropped everything in the yard that could just be dropped easily but left the huge lead over the roof....and nothing else. Then they needed a climber who could handle the sole lead over the roof. Nice. Too bad about your luck! Better think that through better next time. Why the hell would you even try it that way?!?! Seriously.

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

Never under estimate intrinsic human stupidity.

 

[treebilly]

Had one of those happen to me. Job I bid on and lost by half and then at the last minute that guy got his bid slashed by another hack. I was doing some pruning next door and they were doing the removal with some little 35' tow behind lift. Guy comes walking over and asked for a price to finish the removal for him. They had gotten all but one lead and of course it went over an appartment building, doing quite a bit of damage to the rest of the property also. I told him the original quote and he flipped out saying that was 4 times what he had on the whole job. I said yes but I'm the one who can do it and that's my price. Funny thing is it's still there

 

[mike515]

Had one of those happen to me. Job I bid on and lost by half and then at the last minute that guy got his bid slashed by another hack. I was doing some pruning next door and they were doing the removal with some little 35' tow behind lift. Guy comes walking over and asked for a price to finish the removal for him. They had gotten all but one lead and of course it went over an appartment building, doing quite a bit of damage to the rest of the property also. I told him the original quote and he flipped out saying that was 4 times what he had on the whole job. I said yes but I'm the one who can do it and that's my price. Funny thing is it's still there

I love this. It makes me smile to think that we don't have to do **** for them at all. In all honesty, I have some guys who are straight forward with me. They know they are out of their league and call me to see what I think before they even bid the job. I can at least respect that. I know that my career, at this point, may be limited and I'm happy to help the next generation learn. But even at my age, I'm still at the top of my game. Don't under-estimate me or disrespect me. I'm still a tough son of a ***** who can do anything. Try me.

 

[mike515]

And that's mostly just bravado.

 

[capetrees]

I'm usually just the opposite. I know my limitations and have passed on a number of trees and limb removals that are out of my league regardless of what equipment I have. I'd rather pass and retain some pride and image with customers and people that see me working as opposed to just making money.

 

[mckeetree]

Had one of those happen to me. Job I bid on and lost by half and then at the last minute that guy got his bid slashed by another hack. I was doing some pruning next door and they were doing the removal with some little 35' tow behind lift. Guy comes walking over and asked for a price to finish the removal for him. They had gotten all but one lead and of course it went over an appartment building, doing quite a bit of damage to the rest of the property also. I told him the original quote and he flipped out saying that was 4 times what he had on the whole job. I said yes but I'm the one who can do it and that's my price. Funny thing is it's still there

I call those hack wars and it's interesting to see the final result sometimes. We have had that happen many times...some idiot gives an unbelievably low quote and then here comes some moron and bids even lower and sometimes there is even a clown that takes it lower. I witnessed that just last month on a quote I gave to the next door neighbor of a long time customer of ours. I bid the removal $3,100 but some jackass I had never heard of had quoted the job $1,200. Then believe it or not that dude gets put out of the picture when the HO gets a bid from a Mexican landscape outfit from Athens, Texas for $750. It didn't end well. They did about $10,000 in damage before abandoning ship. Tree is still standing there about 20% done.

 

[lone wolf]

I call those hack wars and it's interesting to see the final result sometimes. We have had that happen many times...some idiot gives an unbelievably low quote and then here comes some moron and bids even lower and sometimes there is even a clown that takes it lower. I witnessed that just last month on a quote I gave to the next door neighbor of a long time customer of ours. I bid the removal $3,100 but some jackass I had never heard of had quoted the job $1,200. Then believe it or not that dude gets put out of the picture when the HO gets a bid from a Mexican landscape outfit from Athens, Texas for $750. It didn't end well. They did about $10,000 in damage before abandoning ship. Tree is still standing there about 20% done.

 

[treebilly]

Ya get what you pay for. Respectable companies are ussually in the ballpark. Not that I wish for any damage to be done by a lowballer but it does maker smile a bit when they do

 

[TaoTreeClimber]

The last of the big cottonwoods came flying out of the trailer park today!!!!!!!!!! Wish I had video of that coming out. Oh well here is a pic of the last piece of the last tree of the project.

 

[mike515]

Nothing to do with trees but....it technically is what I did today. My other job.

Edit....I'm the guy on the far right.

 

[old CB]

Quick story.....a few years ago we were on a job site and everyone was working hard....I happened to be talking to the customer about something and I asked one of the guys to hand me something. He brought me whatever it was that I asked for and (without thinking about it) I said "Thank you, sir". The customer said "I thought you were the boss?" I said "I am the boss". I could tell that he was surprised and impressed but it wasn't a big deal to me at all. That's how I expect us to act every day. We're supposed to be professionals. Attitude matters.

Addressing people as “Sir,” Mike has a good practice. It improves the flavor of social interaction—at no cost. It’s a good touch.

Back in the 1970s when I was selling firewood, I delivered a load one day to Pat Longway who burned wood to heat his tire shop in a defunct filling station at a country four-corners. He was the best to deal with, patching tires at working-man’s prices and fixing you up with a used tire when you needed one.

Before unloading, I walked in and said, “Good morning, sir.”

Pat took the cigar out of his mouth and said, “Ain’t no sir around here—we fired his ass.”

 

[no tree to big]

Got a call today in the middle of a blizzard are u available today to cut branch that is blocking my driveway? No I'm not cause it will take me 4 hrs to get there 4 hrs back and I'm not sure u will like my minimum charge of 2 thousand dollars for coming out on a Sunday in a blizzard