Taking the plunge

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It's got it's downside Bob. The last contract job I did, let me tell ya. The limo was late, I had to drive myself. Then when I get there, fiji water in the cooler, when I had specifically said Evian. I mean it's tough enough to teach a groundie to put a girth hitch on a round bottle, but a square one? It was a disaster. I even had to carry all my gear to the tree, gas up my own saw, it was murder.

Well, I can see right now that I've spent 50 years in the wrong industry. We don't get a limo, we get a five year old six pack Chevy with holes in the floorboards, an AM radio permanently stuck on the local farm news station, windows that don't roll all the way up, moldy upholstery, and an all pervading odor of snoose, sweat, diesel, sox on their fourth day of wear, grease, saw mix, and the combined breath, farts, and belches of six guys who consider prepackaged breakfast burritos as one of the basic food groups. That's one of the reasons we've never fixed the windows.

As for water...a much used plastic Pepsi bottle dipped in whatever creek looks to be clean enough to lessen the chances of Giardia...as in "hell, we drank out of that creek all last season and hardly anybody got sick enough to miss work"...

As for groundies...we don't have that exact job description but we do have landing rats. Their job is to buck the logs that are too big for the processor, cut the limbs off, brand the logs, help the truckers tie down, fuel the equipment, keep the landing saws sharp and ready and generally do whatever else comes up. They should like to run. They usually have more tattoos than teeth.
I've always suspected that there's a hiring criteria for landing rats...when they apply they're given an IQ test and if their IQ is within ten points of the current outside air temperature they get hired. Hiring is almost always done in the winter.
 
Well, I can see right now that I've spent 50 years in the wrong industry. We don't get a limo, we get a five year old six pack Chevy with holes in the floorboards, an AM radio permanently stuck on the local farm news station, windows that don't roll all the way up, moldy upholstery, and an all pervading odor of snoose, sweat, diesel, sox on their fourth day of wear, grease, saw mix, and the combined breath, farts, and belches of six guys who consider prepackaged breakfast burritos as one of the basic food groups. That's one of the reasons we've never fixed the windows.

As for water...a much used plastic Pepsi bottle dipped in whatever creek looks to be clean enough to lessen the chances of Giardia...as in "hell, we drank out of that creek all last season and hardly anybody got sick enough to miss work"...

As for groundies...we don't have that exact job description but we do have landing rats. Their job is to buck the logs that are too big for the processor, cut the limbs off, brand the logs, help the truckers tie down, fuel the equipment, keep the landing saws sharp and ready and generally do whatever else comes up. They should like to run. They usually have more tattoos than teeth.
I've always suspected that there's a hiring criteria for landing rats...when they apply they're given an IQ test and if their IQ is within ten points of the current outside air temperature they get hired. Hiring is almost always done in the winter.

Yeah, but at least ya can get a decent haircut. Try walking in and tellin em you're an arborist.:hmm3grin2orange:

Ray Stevens - The Haircut Song - YouTube
 
All I will say to the OP is if you think a little CT choss pile crag is comparable to tree work guess again! I have done lots of that "Yosemite type bigwall stuff" and trees are kinda like that but 5-7 days a week all year. I'm 28 and my body is already pretty ####ed up. Sounds like you might be doing more spraying than 100' removals every day though, so I guess cancer will kill ya quicker than tendinitis or not knowing how to deal with kickback from a 066 while sittin in spurs.
 
Hey, good luck!

I mostly just lurk over here once in awhile and on logging, but I appreciate just wanting to do something YOU want to do over what you are doing now. I'm in the same boat, but at near 62 now..options are limited. But..seeing as how I am at the bottom of the barrel as per a career (I am a farmhand and make well under minimum rage...)..any job would be an economic improvement, plus most likely more fun.

I'd love to have anything at all to do with a job that involved trees/wood/thinking. I cut here where and when I have to, but that's it. I have done free climbing, some technical climbing, some high ironwork, but no arb work.

I can't afford any gear whatsoever though, even a basic climbing rig, from what I have seen, what a guy would really need, is like fi ve to ten grand worth of stuff. Then trucks and so on..ain't happening. Thought about logging, even more gear I can't afford. Even commercial firewood can't afford all the gear.

You have an "in" to a job, backup income with bennies from the wife, ability to afford this schooling and a transition time period as you learn and get better..so good luck and better skill, man! I think you can make it work for you!
 
All the fancy toys that the pro arborists like to talk about are not really necessary. I could take $200, buy a used climbing saddle and some cheap rope, a $23 hand saw from Home Depot, and I could easily beat minimum wage just knocking doors. Chances are good that I could find a decent old chainsaw for $50 that would really improve my cutting time.

Climbing without all the toys wouldn't be fun, but it can be done with nothing but three strand rope and a bunch of knots. You do tree work with the information in your head and the strength in your arms. The equipment just makes it faster and easier.

Fill your head with useful information, then start asking more money for your services. It sounds to me like you might be underpricing yourself already.
 
No Workman's comp?, no disability insurance,? no liability insurance premiums?...just a cheap saddle and handsaw, and a $50 chainsaw and you are good to go. Well alrighty then. Have at it.
 
It would be hack city all the way, baby.

I'd be knockin' doors, cutting down branches and piling them by the curb for the customer. I might get lucky and find some hungry lawn service with a 16' long trailer and an old pickup truck that needed to be put to work, and I'd be on a roll.

Shucks! I could probably afford some insurance too...in a couple of years.

My point of course, is that it doesn't take a lot of money for equipment to go into the business. It does take knowledge and ability, which can be used to make money. Without the knowledge to do the work, all the equipment you could wish for is pretty useless.
 
Takes money to make money, and if you are working at heights over client's homes and property you better have both a decent skillset and decent rigging or you are gonna wreck something or somebody. or both.
Sorry, but the el cheapo route ain't gonna get anybody very far in this biz. Be better off becoming a window washer with a pro grade squeegee, bucket, Sunlight dish soap, and a case of microfibre cloths.
 
I can't argue with that idea. I knew a guy that was paying for college just that way.

I could also beat minimum wage pretty quick with a used mower, too. A $20 pair of hedge trimmers would make some income, too. There are lots of ways to make money on a shoestring, although mowing grass doesn't work too well in the winter time.

I was just attempting to point out that it doesn't take a fortune to do a little tree trimming. Sometimes, primitive is ok. Not very often, but sometimes.
 
I was just attempting to point out that it doesn't take a fortune to do a little tree trimming. Sometimes, primitive is ok. Not very often, but sometimes.

Having once been a primitive (for a number of years) in my tender newbie years, I really wouldn't encourage anyone else to become one. It is the wrong kinda career for trying to cob together garage sale specials and eBay junk to save some coin.
 
tl;dr a bunch of guys who get physically ill at the thought of working inside and likely haven't worn a tie since the Reagan administration try to talk another guy out of quitting his inside job.
 
That would be a hugely erroneous conclusion.

Do you really think we are a bunch of guys that don't work inside? Most of us must do both: run the business and do the work, too. Meet the customers, make the sales, do the technical stuff, and make sure the grunt work gets done, too. Finish the day by finishing the paperwork.
 
That would be a hugely erroneous conclusion.

Do you really think we are a bunch of guys that don't work inside? Most of us must do both: run the business and do the work, too. Meet the customers, make the sales, do the technical stuff, and make sure the grunt work gets done, too. Finish the day by finishing the paperwork.

Yeah, well, I'll let you tell Jeffers he's an office type.

OP, good luck. The PHC route is the most lucrative and your Bio degree will be helpful in getting a Pesticide Supervisor license. A friendly word of advice; you can have the best climbers and equipment in the world and go broke with out a good salesman.
 
Yeah, well, I'll let you tell Jeffers he's an office type.

OP, good luck. The PHC route is the most lucrative and your Bio degree will be helpful in getting a Pesticide Supervisor license. A friendly word of advice; you can have the best climbers and equipment in the world and go broke with out a good salesman.

I am not the office type at all!
Jeff
 
Good luck on your new venture!

Every job has aspects that suck, that's what makes it work. A slight bit of advice is to find a niche and fill it. Getting licensed so you can do the jobs that not everybody else can do is a good way to go. The key to being successful is working smarter, not harder than the other guy.

As far as teachers have a cushy easy job, my wife's done a fair bit of subsistute teaching over the years and even in good school districts it's a challenging job. We've also volunteered to grade homework for some of our kids teachers to give them a break and have found ourselves up to 11pm grading assignments.
 
I think I would be a awesome shop teacher. "You go get a trash bag, You give me your pot lighter and you go get the acetylene............ going to show you how to make some noise" "It will be on the test"
Haha. My foreman taught me that one day. Right out back of the shop. I was trully impressed
 
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