"so....hows bizness"

Good luck with that Paul, maybe I could bid on some of your guys work if you get it.;)


Deva, good luck to you as well with your big bid.
 
Good luck Paul...

I am considering doing my thing on weekends only, or only here and there. Working for someone sounds better and better every day, just have to see what I'm worth to somebody then that'll help me choose what I want to do.

I'm kinda just tired of the cut throat BS right now this year in this business...maybe I can work for someone and get a steady income, then I'd love to find a house in this market.
 
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  • #628
Good Luck Paul!

My little side bid is up to 89.5K

Late August I'll find out.

The job itself is looking/feeling easier and easier the more I/we look/think about it.

I need a excuse to come out west......let me know8)
 
Logging is still totally dead around here.
The sawmills are lying low, holding their breath and hoping for better times.
I passed by the local hardwood mill's deck yesterday and where all the lovely beech logs, that I usually spend my summers logging for them, should be, there was only 2 old teak logs getting sun checks. ( they used to be big Africa importers).
There is no sign that it's gonna pick up soon, either.
We still survive, but only because we are willing to do ANY kind of work.
Just spend 1½ month in waders, clearing vegetation out of waterways.
One guy goes in front, cutting the plants with either a scythe or a Stihl hedgetrimmer ( yes, they work under water, if you use the right kind of lubricant!) the other guy goes behind forking it out of the water.
Hard, backbreaking work. I don't mind that, but since Poland, Lithuania and a shitload of other easten European countries joined ( read: were allowed to join) the EU, they have taken over a lot of those jobs, which demand no skills beyond the willingness to work your ass off.
As a result prices have gone WAY down. So what used to be a shitty job, but payed a decent wage, is now a shitty job, where you have to work like a mule, or starve.
Treework is scarce. Danes have never been into paying for keeping their trees in trim. All the fancy pruning jobs that you guys do, we almost never get.
It is 95% removals, and right now, a tree that shades the porch, can wait until the economy picks up.
Still, I've got 2 removals for next week. So all is not lost.
One is a 6" dbh 250 year old beech. Pictures will follow.

Sorry about the rant, but after 1½ month in waders in a heatwave ( Hot for Denmark, anyhow) I needed to let off some steam. :)
 
Man, I just keep doing that "/' mistake.
You'd think I'd learn to tell the difference eventually:|:

You guys must think I work with bonsai trees only!
 
Things might be looking up here. My old boss called this morning and said he done with doing tree work on the side from his nursery job. In April he fell onto the chipper at the nursery and pulled something in his shoulder, he's been milking it all summer so far. He just had surgery, all kinds of bolts and things in there now. He's now selling his BB 250 and Amerquip lift. He's got a good couple weeks of work I am going out to estimate with him tomorrow morning.

I was also contacted last week for some climbing...ironically he knows my old boss very well, and offered me pay I'd be stupid to turn down. Pretty much just a half day climber gig here and there, as he's retired.
 
Things are picking up here on jolly ol' Long Island.......4 days this week, did 4 last week and I just got home with $2500 in my pocket!! Still have $1300 owed too.
 
That's cool. I like the new avatar.

Things are slowing down here but that is typical for August.
 
Good deal, Robert.

Hey Brendon, tell me some more about that BB250. A good friend of mine locally has a Vermeer 1250 that he's ready to replace. It has a gremlin in the motor that has plagued him for about 2 years and he's over it. He doesn't want to go too big since he's only pulling it with an F450, but he wants something relatively young and trouble free.
 
Good deal, Robert.

Hey Brendon, tell me some more about that BB250. A good friend of mine locally has a Vermeer 1250 that he's ready to replace. It has a gremlin in the motor that has plagued him for about 2 years and he's over it. He doesn't want to go too big since he's only pulling it with an F450, but he wants something relatively young and trouble free.

Let me know about that 1250
 
Andrew, it has a problem shutting off unexpectedly and the idiots at Vermeer can't seem to fix it. It's a '94 (I think) 1230 and Dave would like to get $6k out of it. He's spent that much on it in the last 6 years because Vermeer does all the work on it including oil changes and knives.
 
Business is good here. Just finished a 1 day turned 6 day job. We were paid hourly, but it was sucky work. Going to be great getting back to trees and climbing this upcoming week!!
 
Super slow, thinking of a winter gig already.....a days worth of door hangers might not even produce one call lately :(
 
Things are slowing here a bit but I pretty much have a full schedule. Going to start processing a bit a wood for a few clients and do some extracting for more. Fills in days we might get canceled on. We have had a few reschedules that left holes in a couple days here and there. Booked to Oct. thus far. But it is awful quiet on the phone. Typical for this time of year though unless we get a fire.
 
Unless i sale some jobs we will be out by next tuesady .
For sure that is slow for us, this time last year i was running doing 20 bids a day.
Its back to school and that usually dents buisness.
 
It's been pretty slow here. I got a rash of calls right after the GTG and I think I made a mistake. Since I had a bunch of calls I went right back to pricing things like when I was busy before. I didn't get hardly any of the jobs. I got 4 calls today which is pretty good. I got a call from my church today, they have a liquid amber tree that dropped a limb last week and I went and cleaned it up for nuttin, today I get a call that they want to remove it and grind the stump and they are getting a bid from me and one from Grover which is the largest local tree company. I went by to check it out and it had dropped another limb.
 
Churches are usually cheap customers in my experience. Just had to go down to the cop shop and pick up no parking signs for a job we are doing wed and thur.
They were pretty good about handing them over didn't charge me this time.
I think because the trees are really the cities but the homeowner is paying.

Nasty stupid Bradford pears. I will be trying to make a silk purse outta a sows ear.
pay is usual, should clear a grand by 2 PM but thur I gotta remove some nasty plum for 400 and haul the wood over to the customer's house. Real steep twisty driveway lined with precious stone walls that crumble when you look at them wrong. Oh, and scrape paint off the truck. They are so proud of their stupid rock walls but they never thought about the reality of such a steep twisty driveway and going up and down it every day. They scraped their cars also on it. Steller planning.

Nother day, nother dollar
 
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