Today....

Reach said:
That’s interesting. In PA, Work. Comp. is required if you have any employees, but most companies call their workers contractors and just do without, even the larger companies. One that especially annoys me has been around for quite some time, is fairly large, and carries workers comp for the secretary in the office just so they can say they have it. Operating legally is expensive, I understand that, but if we would all do it, the industry prices would reflect it and people would deal with it. Plus, they would know when they hire a company that they were actually operating legally, not just claiming to. Kudos to you for doing things the right way, even if it’s not legally required. I hope that it works for you and you are able to still make some money.
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Yeah it definitely doesnt make it easy having the overhead of comp vs most of the others that don't. Certainly not a level playing field. Theres basically no enforcement here of even having general liability. We have a bunch of folks stacking brush on the curb.

On thing that really helps us is all the commercial work that only a select few can bid on. The other thing is we have been focused on effeciency for a long time. We have pretty much whatever we need equipment wise so no doing stuff manually. I don't get to climb a lot unless its doing crane take downs because the climbing jobs get gobbled up by the hacks bidding low because they can do it without bucket truck. We have several of our own cranes, two mini skids, a mini ex, two bucket trucks, a grapple truck, f550 dump, international 4700, bandit 990xp, and various trailers, etc for gear.
 
Fivepoints said:
Yeah it definitely doesnt make it easy having the overhead of comp vs most of the others that don't. Certainly not a level playing field. Theres basically no enforcement here of even having general liability. We have a bunch of folks stacking brush on the curb.

On thing that really helps us is all the commercial work that only a select few can bid on. The other thing is we have been focused on effeciency for a long time. We have pretty much whatever we need equipment wise so no doing stuff manually. I don't get to climb a lot unless its doing crane take downs because the climbing jobs get gobbled up by the hacks bidding low because they can do it without bucket truck. We have several of our own cranes, two mini skids, a mini ex, two bucket trucks, a grapple truck, f550 dump, international 4700, bandit 990xp, and various trailers, etc for gear.
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Must be doing something right then!
 
I can't I'm imagine working without general liability it's not even that expensive. I think most of the licensing here in ca is bull, should be easy to get a license to do most work but you should be required to have liability at least at the time of license renewal. Here you can be uninsured and unlicensed and do pretty much anything as long as the price isn't over 500 but if you go over that by a little and have insurance to cover your client if something goes wrong it's illegal, pretty stupid. I also don't understand dropping big money on equipment but not ppe we just have a couple personal trucks and my chipper plus the regular stuff but everyone has saw pants and good hard hats and of course ear and eye protection.
 
I went with a group of other tree guys so no strange looks from them. There was another guy on a wrench and some on a taz. It was 3 separate drops for a total of almost ~400 ft
Dan Cobb said:
Did you get some strange looks? Seems like most are frogging and using micro racks these days. I still like a rope walker and use a standard rack.

How deep was the drop(s)?
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Dropped below freezing and we got a dusting of snow overnight which I didn't expect. Woke up and decided to cancel work since I don't drive on potentially icy roads if I don't need to.

Edit: can't wait to have my shop built so I can have employees do indoor maintenance work on days like this... (if they want to drive their personal vehicles that is)
 
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After my back problems I'm way behind on firewood to stay warm this winter, but the shed is finally about full now thanks to the help of friends and family.

Today I returned to the dead cedars that repeatedly clogged my new 12XP so badly around a month ago. Shooting straight it had no problems with the dead, dry, dusty stuff (made 24 yards of chips today....) but I still miss the ability of my BC1000XL to shoot 90-degrees with no problems since I'd have rather just shot the chips into the woods and left em there.

Tomorrow I'm climbing a tree for the first time in about a month and a half since the back problems started, a large grand fir snag to spur up and take down in in firewood sections. Hope I feel good after that's done.

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So the tree today went well, no back issues climbing again but I purposefully picked something straight up and down, with no lifting or twisting.

I was told this grand fir had it's top break out, but found an old cut at the top. Not sure if it was topped, or it broke and someone went up and made a clean cut after the fact. Either way, an amusing little attempt on the trees part to seal up the wound before it died. That rot column went down about 10 feet, and it had grown two 15' new tops before dying maybe a year or so ago.

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