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Hehehe, they might be hungry literally. The company I worked for bid on some ash tree removals throughout Aurora. The city got bids of around 24k; next was around 36k, third was 70k and we came in around 90k. The 24k bid came from seemingly a legit company though, ISA cert arb and all that jazz. Must have been a hard winter...and they are located about an hour away.

WOW that's all over the place price wise my guess low bidder inexperienced with large scale estimates I think I would smile real big not winning that gig :)
 
The bigger jobs that I have been bidding lately are going for cheap. Regular clients either want to wait until May, or are out of state for a while still so that makes me want to wait.
 
The bigger jobs that I have been bidding lately are going for cheap. Regular clients either want to wait until May, or are out of state for a while still so that makes me want to wait.

I would so love a big gig but only if it makes profit, nothing worse than being served up a can of humble pie on a month or better project.
 
I would so love a big gig but only if it makes profit, nothing worse than being served up a can of humble pie on a month or better project.

It only took me eating humble pie once to learn my lesson. Anymore I'd rather cut 700$ trees all day instead of 7k the longer I do this I've done enough monsters to prove to myself what I can handle. A lot of time you make less money on larger scale jobs due to the discount guys give in quantity. We take care of a few contracts and tree for tree there not as profitable.good money and we need then or company growth wouldn't be so good. But anymore I don't have anything to prove.
 
I think management companies are the single most Important client you can have , I have 4 and 3 very large landscapers who only handle large work , they don't wanna pay big money ...... But they pay and on time . I would rather go power prune white pine off a tennis court for a day for 1400.00 then go wrestle with some monster oak for 2000.00 .. That #### got old a long time ago for me
 
Ya it must be going around everywhere. It's in the top 3 for bad for sure in my lifetime. They gave me these really big ones called augmentin they are working I have to take them for 14 days.

I just need one more reliable guy that I don't get worried sending him out by himself and I can take sick days.

Excuse me for my possible ignorance, but it sounds like y'all have the flu, and not something antibiotics should be prescribed for. AB's act quick, within hours actually. If you are still sick after 14 days, and just now starting to feel better, it's your own immune system defeating the bug, not those meds.
 
Seems like getting the big jobs can be great in that if you get month long projects all the time you can devote a crew to those, get a second truck and chipper, and devote another crew to all the residential projects.

Biggest job I have ever gotten was about 11,000 and took a week. Would love to get more of those.


Today we had a couple nightmares!

Shortly after leaving my yard, one of my guys backed the chipper into something which ended up bending the wheel well and popping the tire. In the meantime I run over there to help get the tire jacked up and out so the crew minus one can go to the job in my dually. Once they leave we realize they have the jack so they have to get off the freeway and come back. They finally get back and drop off the jack and leave. Then my foreman and I take off the tire and I shoot off to the tire shop, who replaces it quick. In the meantime I have my foreman changing the knives. While he;s doing this one of the knives falls off and gets stuck behind the bed knife. So when I arrive we take off the anvil to get the fallen knife out and while doing that I decide to reverse the anvil to get a better edge and end up breaking the little bolt you use to adjust it! Thankfully this is not vital, just annoying (it's not one of the bolts that cinch it down but the little guy on the opposite side you use to move the anvil when adjusting it.).

So while doing this and finally getting the chipper back in action we realize that the crew in the dually took off with the dump truck keys! They are already long gone so I call AAA to make me a new key. So finally after that's done my foreman is able to take off and go to the job by 9:45. I ended up having to postpone my morning estimates... I think my employees are conspiring to kill me! I guess when it rains it pours!
 
Seems like getting the big jobs can be great in that if you get month long projects all the time you can devote a crew to those, get a second truck and chipper, and devote another crew to all the residential projects.

Biggest job I have ever gotten was about 11,000 and took a week. Would love to get more of those.


Today we had a couple nightmares!

Shortly after leaving my yard, one of my guys backed the chipper into something which ended up bending the wheel well and popping the tire. In the meantime I run over there to help get the tire jacked up and out so the crew minus one can go to the job in my dually. Once they leave we realize they have the jack so they have to get off the freeway and come back. They finally get back and drop off the jack and leave. Then my foreman and I take off the tire and I shoot off to the tire shop, who replaces it quick. In the meantime I have my foreman changing the knives. While he;s doing this one of the knives falls off and gets stuck behind the bed knife. So when I arrive we take off the anvil to get the fallen knife out and while doing that I decide to reverse the anvil to get a better edge and end up breaking the little bolt you use to adjust it! Thankfully this is not vital, just annoying (it's not one of the bolts that cinch it down but the little guy on the opposite side you use to move the anvil when adjusting it.).

So while doing this and finally getting the chipper back in action we realize that the crew in the dually took off with the dump truck keys! They are already long gone so I call AAA to make me a new key. So finally after that's done my foreman is able to take off and go to the job by 9:45. I ended up having to postpone my morning estimates... I think my employees are conspiring to kill me! I guess when it rains it pours!

That's funny stuff if your not involved in it :hmm3grin2orange:
 
Excuse me for my possible ignorance, but it sounds like y'all have the flu, and not something antibiotics should be prescribed for. AB's act quick, within hours actually. If you are still sick after 14 days, and just now starting to feel better, it's your own immune system defeating the bug, not those meds.

I wouldnt doubt it. I dont know enough about it i usually have to take there word for it. i havent taken antibiotics in probably two years up till now. Before i had kids i never got sick now they bring me all kinds of good stuff.
 
I wouldnt doubt it. I dont know enough about it i usually have to take there word for it. i havent taken antibiotics in probably two years up till now. Before i had kids i never got sick now they bring me all kinds of good stuff.

Yeah, too many docs prescribe them when they arent needed. And they shouldn't because your body builds up antibodies from use, and makes them less effective when actually needed.
 
Yup. Ive got four local towns and three campgrounds that are hourly. Steady work good pay. Great for the off season.

I'd say municipal work makes up about 40% of my work load. I enjoy it, its not great $ all hourly but you know they're always gonna pay and its always easy trimming or tit removals. All the towns are very flexiable too so if I gotta take off for a few days to catch up on other work there cool with it. It's nice work to fill in the gaps.
 
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I woke up this morning trying to think how I am going to pay for this thing so I drove around looking for more crap to buy for it. Came back with a 20 dollar set of seat covers and a 43 dollar hook for the winch from Grainger then called some clients and said," AHS NEEDS MONEY!" So far, so good. They said they were happy to hear from me.:msp_confused:
 
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I woke up this morning trying to think how I am going to pay for this thing so I drove around looking for more crap to buy for it. Came back with a 20 dollar set of seat covers and a 43 dollar hook for the winch from Grainger then called some clients and said," AHS NEEDS MONEY!" So far, so good. They said they were happy to hear from me.:msp_confused:

Nice man ...
 
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I woke up this morning trying to think how I am going to pay for this thing so I drove around looking for more crap to buy for it. Came back with a 20 dollar set of seat covers and a 43 dollar hook for the winch from Grainger then called some clients and said," AHS NEEDS MONEY!" So far, so good. They said they were happy to hear from me.:msp_confused:

Did it come with the winch? Got a big enough hook there? I am gonna miss the grey goose. Lol.
 
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I woke up this morning trying to think how I am going to pay for this thing so I drove around looking for more crap to buy for it. Came back with a 20 dollar set of seat covers and a 43 dollar hook for the winch from Grainger then called some clients and said," AHS NEEDS MONEY!" So far, so good. They said they were happy to hear from me.:msp_confused:

That sure is a funny lookin yota...
 
Did it come with the winch? Got a big enough hook there? I am gonna miss the grey goose. Lol.

They come stock with a 12k Warn. The controller and hook were missing, the dealer got me the controller upon my request and I thought I had a hook laying around but it was to small. With the Grey Goose I wasn't worried about scratches, in fact I looked forward to accumulating more but with this thing now I dunno.

My ancient plow frame looks like it will fit with minor adjustments so I am pretty happy about that. And I cut down an old ladder so I could use it to climb into the bed.


Speaking of ladders: Last year this guy called me to chip brush he had out by the curb. Nothing major and he called me back several times at 85 bucks a pop. He called again today so I swung by to eyeball the pile in my rounds and got a look at some of his handywork. He had cleared a good bit and obviously was using a ladder to peel down big limbs from his trees and by " peel down" I mean just that. He put two huge long peels right down the trunk of a walnut, peels measured in yards and quite a few of those. If that wasn't bad enough I am wondering how he managed to cut these limbs without killing himself. I was thinking I would say something to the guy but I guess i will just go get my 85 bucks and let nature take its course. The trees look BAD, NC wouldn't even do such a crappy job.

Other than that I have a few nice one man jobs on the books and have been lining up more lawns. I didn't just say that did I? Well I guess i did.

I have a couple "de-mulching" jobs too. I figure I will do the easy stuff and leave the treework to the homeowners. Sound good?
 
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And a fare-thee-well to the Grey Goose. It had slogged it out with the best of them without to much complaining. Never left me stranded on the cold dark roads and always towed its load. When I tried to get the hitch out of the receiver it wouldn't come so I smacked it with a sledghammer to no avail only to leave a sprinkling of rust chips in the drive the whole way down its frame and then it was off to the wholesale lot with it. Fare thee well old Goose. I did manage to get the melted yellow crayon off the dashboard and drive it to the dealership before it puked up anymore antifreeze. Some months ago I had bought a thermostat for it and one day I was going to put it in so I popped the hood and stood looking in there for about 10 minutes, then I closed the hood and returned the thermostat to the parts house.
 
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