Motivation

Wow Reg those sound like viable ideas that would involve less slave labor. The vibe in your last drone/big Doug fir vid reflected a nose for recreational adventure.

Gerry, great sentiment in your post- "none of it was planned, but it all worked out. The moral of the story, I guess, "We never know for sure what lies ahead in life, but with a little work and perseverance, we can always help steer it towards a good direction." I fully believe that is true. If you always do your best (even though at certain times your best may be pretty weak lol), things always seem to work out.
 
Good discussion! I also go through periods of being fed up with tree work, dont really know anything else so i keep heading back to the trough to keep things moving along. Just going through the motions.
Doing tree work can be very isolating. For awhile i got motivation from tree seminars, going to conferences and recreational tree climbs. And of course participating in the internet forums.
I had a new worker tell me the other day (as he was not letting the rope run and almost Knocked the bucket operator out of the bucket with the stem as it bounced back and forth) that he has been doing tree work for 15 years so what did i know? I get tired of this shit, proving myself over and over.
Lately i have another hobby unrelated to tree work- building up an old landrover into a mini r.v

For me, keeping my life full with various activities unrelated to tree work helps alot.
I read once that people in isolated survival situations will die not because of starvation or cold or heat, but because of depression so the key to survival is to keep busy and engauged.
Heading out to the coast today we are in triple digit weather so am heading out to pick up a check for tree work from the absentee owners who live on the coast. Just to get a change of scenery and break the monotomy
 
happened to me at same age. Sold the biz and went back to school. Very challenging but also super interesting. Trying to lock in the coveted CRNA position. Good pay, awesome schedule. All the things you mentioned were burning me out. 165 days to go for on BSN. little more time for CRNA.

I would say check out other gigs around you. There are lots of careers that don't hammer the body while filling your wallet. Plenty of time to make a change. For me, the biggest thing I wanted was to be able to leave my job behind when Im done. Running a tree biz is stressful. Working for someone else is pretty much a dead end.

Having guaranteed employment despite market or weather woes in nice to. Getting benefits with sick and VAcay time is awesome as well. Hoping for full time gig at the VA soon.....

keep your head up. your 45 years young.
 
Reg,

Specifically are there things that boil your blood, or get under your skin?

We all deal with some amounts of the same things from customers. Probably people have strategies.


If you have to feel like you have to prove yourself, maybe you could take another approach. I don't know. You're a man of skill and experience, but not a blowhard. Maybe tooting your own horn will be better than subtlety.



If you go in and look a big tree, and start off with, "Ok. No problem," then do your figuring, it can be a different customer perception than if you go in do all your figuring before saying a word.

If someone asks how a job will be done, rather than a lengthy explanation about, maybe it goes maybe something a bit more of "professionally, predictably, and safely."

or

"Well, this looks like a big tree, but it a medium tree, run of the mill work. We will bring in $75k in equipment, lots of insurances that we don't use, 50 years of collective professional experience. Bang it out. Move onto the next tree. Its not like its 250' tall.

I feel like a short order cook sometimes...remove a couple 150' trees in a tight space, homesite clearing job, hazard evaluation for the council (whatever it is called locally), strucutural pruning of some young trees, prune some trees that some early structural pruning would have set up for a longer life and less maintanance, ham and cheese on rye, cheeseburger, 2 over-easy with hash browns...kinda blurs together when its no big deal work."



Tell the homeowner the time for the bid, beginning to end, as you have lots more to do in your day.

"We are scheduling, XX days out. Busy all the time. I can get in in for a site visit to for a bid from 8-830 Tuesday morning, or Friday 5-530. Can one of those two work for you?"



When people ask if I have a slow season, I say 'hopefully from Christmas until the second week on January I get some time for a week of dedicated maintenance, and week of vacation. If you do what you say, at a reasonable price, all things considered, safely and predictably, there are always people calling. I mostly don't/ can't answer my phone, or I wouldn't get work done. All my repeat customers will email me or leave a VM. If someone doesn't care enough to leave a VM, they clearly wanted someone to do the work, not clearly wanting us to do the work. It helps us both out."



How far do you travel for jobs? How is traffic? Are you prequalifying by phone before arranging site visits?

I'd rather weed out a mismatch, rushed job, tire-kicker, low-bid wins customer from wherever I'm sitting.

When people call me and I'm at my computer, I ask for their address and use sattellite imagery.

I will ask people to send a couple pictures and details in my outgoing VM message. If they can't be bothered to take a couple pictures from their smartphone and write some details/ goals/ etc, especially with the other decision makers in mind (spouse/ partner/ person with the wallet), I tend not to bother with them. Weeds them out for me, telling me they aren't interested in me, just someone.

When you do the good work you do, there are usually neighbors that want bids. This can be hard, when you have to get across town for a bid at the end of the day, versus walking next door.

To me, booking way out is a pain in the neck. I'd rather leave my secured equipment in the neighbor's yard/ driveway and be able to add on a job the next day. Easier money.



Do people up there expect a date and time? City people are different to deal with for sure.

I try not to give people a specific day, where they will want to be home and whatnot, which so often slows things down. I have plenty of customers who trust me to work without them home. If people make big deal about being home, I'll usually accommodate, but there is nothing that says I have to do the work on a specific date and time on my contracts. Things come up. Might have a sore knuckle or shoulder and want a day of lighter work. When things are scheduled too tightly, I feel pinched/ pressured/ and don't care for it.
 
Re-reading through the thread there are lots of interesting thoughts and perspectives. We are all different and have varied goals and needs.

For a lot of people satisfaction or happiness in a situation is as simple as changing one element of the circumstances, for another it takes a total shift.

Reg it sounds like you would get more of what you want out of your days by making some specific shifts for the short term and then also plan a long term strategy for change all together.

Try some "tests". If I recall your original post well enough, you wanted some time "off work", "off business". I had a partner in a gun shop for years that had a rule of no talking about the shop or work when we were hunting, shooting, or away from work.

You can pick some realistic time off goals and try it out - test it to see if it gives you more of what you want. The mind is very trainable. One time when I was young I decided I wanted to quit cussing. I noticed I would go from cussing like a drunken sailor around my friends to zero cussing around adults. So I started making the change, then I noticed my thoughts used cussing terms, so I worked on that a bit. Not long after that I let a high lift jack handle smash my thumb between it and the jack. After going through all the antics of being caught off guard like that I was surprised to later realize that I didn't either say - or think- any cuss words.

After you make the change of having some off time then it's do I like this or not? (The "test" part.) Then, what else can I change for the better? Lots of suggestions have been offered here. From what you have said, I'm thinking you like things simple, I would bet a test of firing a client or few that are least appreciative of your work and skill would be next, and or, prequalifying one or a few as not the best fit for you and telling them over the phone why they would enjoy going to Joe Blow better.
 
Then thinking of long term a person has to decide what they most want. I think it's best to start with the fewest filters to know what would most motivate you. "If I could have anything in a long term live/work situation, what would I most want?"

Interestingly, the first thing that comes to mind for me with regard to some of your earlier description is a big tracked of land and situation for outdoor recreation etc with you as the 'Game Keeper', 'Land Manager', 'Estate Keeper', or what have you. Isn't there a long tradition of that across the pond?

And to fit another facet of your needs it would include zero of your own finances.
 
Ropes course/ people zipline up in the trees of Vancouver? That would be pretty cool...
 
If you decide to completely change direction, and judging by this thread and other recent posts, there’s a deal of soul searching going on atm. You will need the full support of your other half.
 
Interestingly, The Tree House has a long tradition of people making successful transitions and changes for the better. Butch and Gerry. Even Burnham and just a straight transition into retirement. Look at his posts and how much he relishes his new choices. (I come across plenty of people retired and with $ that are not happy or happier for it.)

Justin made a huge shift and is further refining his change. Bonner made a big change very deliberately. No_Bivy....the list probably goes on to many more I'm not thinking of and others I don't know.
 
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Reg,

Specifically are there things that boil your blood, or get under your skin?

I think all of it, at the minute. But it wont last forever. Thanks

An extended break altogether would be nice. But thats not likely. It doesnt matter.
 
You do possess top level skills in tough trade which counts for something , amazing how much work around me goes to Hacks. Business end of Treework can be a definite drag , I have told certain customers on sales calls how much I hate sales calls.
 
Most people can't afford top craftsmen who can charge what they want/ deserve. Most people don't hire custom carpenters for fancy curved stairways, as an example.
 
Sean are/have you ever been a teacher at some point ? Just curious here. All of your comments, threads, etc seem carefully thought out and always great info/encouragement etc etc. Reminds me of one of my favorite teachers growing up. Never wanted to miss a thing he had to say because it was always something valuable that could be used and benefited from growing up .
 
Not all of those were by choice.

gMscglN.gif


Who cares?
 
:lol:

I'm a chatty type so many know my trials and tribulations and the changes I've made. I've never put forth any of my nonsense with the expectation that others should follow my lead. Just reporting on myself, what I've done, and how it's working out for me. As Dave mentioned earlier in this thread, we are all individuals.
 
Ya, Denver, sorta.

I worked in experiential education with teens, then conservation corps for a couple years, so I had to teach a lot of things, like a bunch of soft college kids to fell/ buck hazard trees all summer, build/ maintain technical trails (wilderness non-motorized hiker/ horse riders, front country hiker/biker/ horse, mountain bike, motorcycle), and other restoration work, without killing themselves while 'killing it'. Been training people in residential tree work for 11 years.

Here's the thing that might apply to the thread. My new employee and I are on the same wave-length and have been grooving really well.

Most employees are fair are best, , terrible at worst, and frequently, I'd be more than happy to replace them with machines. Machines haven't done things that have endangered me, again and again, like various employees over the years.

For you, Reg, to enjoy being around someone who is an asset as an employee is hard to find, but makes the day easier. Like any good match, there are generally many mismatches, first.

I think I heard a suggested thing about delegating...if they can do it 80% as well as you (and that's well enough to achieve the basic purpose), delegate.
Working below your pay-grade is a quick way to decrease your earnings. If I'm washing my truck, rather than pruning a tree, I'm wasting money-making opportunity, so I'll make less money at the end of the month. I hire someone on flexible basis to clean my house and pull my weeds. I haven't washed a truck in a long time.

My ex used to complain about cleaning the house, like she was obligated to doing it, as a salt of the earth midwesterner, or something or other. Had to do her own landscaping. I told her she busted her ass all the way through graduate school and has been working professionally ever since. She is giving a college kid an opportunity (easy money, really) to make some cash in a low pressure situation, in a beautiful place.

I did a cat rescue one day for an hour and a half, for $200 cash. I came home and handed $120 to my landscape helper for 8 hours. We went out for dinner. She kinda stopped complaining about me wanting to work in my skill set over pulling weeds that flared up tendonitis.
 
Good deal Sean. 👍.

I second the comment on finding someone that you enjoy working with. Maybe I?m just an a-hole and don?t like people.
 
Denver, that can probably be said about most of us. I've always preferred working for myself, by myself and have done that for years. My turning point was finding a young man to work with me last year that was just as big of a dick as I was. We are both fairly intolerant of most people but we hit it off and I changed my business model in order to hire him full time. After 30 years cutting trees I'm having an amazing growth spurt in my business and I'm enjoying it more than ever.
 
Something I found out pretty fast the bigger better paying tree jobs are at least a two man job. Sure one could get it done but the customer probably doesn?t want you moving in for a few weeks just to do a big tree. Even harder for a part timer like me.

If I could talk the wife in to it I?d still love to do the whole RV deal and move around for a year or two. Find some small residential tree cos that have some work lined up and are needing some help.

Kinda wanna go on a find myself adventure I guess. Being tied down and in the same routine is depressing. Especially when you don?t enjoy being around those you work with.
 
DAmn!

Well like Gerry said, keep plugging away, the right things will happen in time.
 
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