Moved to Florida looking to be a climber for a central Florida based tree company, but all was not as expected.
I arrived down here January 15th of 2015 and corresponding with a particular gentleman running a tree company, unnamed, for about a year before I made the leap, got down here, met up with him to find out some horror stories about his last crew and Foreman that he let go.
Suffice it to say I was to be the new Foreman, and I said to myself it's probably time anyway. A few days later we met at his shop where and I waited patiently for him to arrive. 45 minutes later he was there with the keys and upon opening the bay door I laid my eyes on what was to be the beginning of a tree company, a single running lawnmower on a truck and trailer sitting next to a broken down lawn mower and a bench with a few pulled apart chainsaws.
It was at this point that I learned not only was I not to simply be a climber, but being a foreman for this company was out of the question as well as the fucking company didn't exist in the first place. Two weeks I'm busting my ass to clean up the shop, reassemble tools, fix trucks and trailers, I'm finally able to set out with a single truck and trailer and my climbing gear.
Having been in the industry for quite some time up until this point I knew better than to hammer myself right out the gate, especially with the promise of a crew. So about 100 miles southwest we had our first good size tree removal. We get there and who should show up but a couple of landscapers as my ground crew.
And once again , at this point I pretty well knew what to expect, and taking my time eased my way up into the first tree, a 40 inch Laurel oak hovering over a house. Suffice to say the tree came down that day, nobody got hurt and nothing got broken. And having worked the crew that day I knew very well what to expect the following day.
75 inch Laurel Oak was no laughing matter, and the untrained lawn maintenance crew running the chainsaws and skid steer down below would have been a laughing matter if I wasn't so damn depressed about the entirety of the situation. And who was it that should zero turn right in the dead center of my climbing line? Of course that was the owner of the company himself being the experienced businessman in the field for 15, no wait 17, oh that's right 20 years.
The most pivotal point for me at this juncture was when I finally came around to blowing the top out of this monster, which knowing better I was sure to brace for impact as my rope man decided 5 wraps should suffice. But the worst part was finally when he lowered it to the ground.
The entire top came flying to the ground after removing three of the wraps and landed on the porta wrap, making a mess of the whole situation. And as per usual why make a cut a safe distance from the bull rope holding a two and a half thousand pound chunk of tree over your head when you can get real close and let the kickback from the chainsaw take care of the whole problem for you?
At this point I have endeavored to build my own crew of my own men trained in the art of tree care my way. but of course not before acquiring a chipper and very literally gentleman building my own chip truck, rather unnamed-businessman-of-20-years-in-the-field's chip truck, which with the welder that I bought was not the most complicated undertaking of the last year of my life, but I did feel kind of bad converting the F 350 King Cab dualy with independent climate control, heated leather seats, and carpeted flooring.
so one groundman later, an old friend of mine who I enlisted for help from my younger days in Florida and I set off with my brand new tree crew. Of course now having double the crew, my new responsibility was to double the revenue at half cost tree work for quality service. The last year has turned out to be a lot of touch and go with brand new greenhorns trying to learn the trade my way while simultaneously being unable to climb and still making the numbers at half cost. Now I'm no rookie in the field, but damn.
As it turns out 13 to 14 hour days as a single climber running a tree company will cause physical fatigue. But far be it for me to let something as silly as being run down and overworked overcome my determination to make something work under the promise of being a part of building my very own tree company.
So after confronting the boss many times in the field and at the shop about the ridiculous hours put on my body I finally bring in what would turn out to be the best climber I've ever trained, the 40 inch oak tree he removed in a 1/8 acre sized drop zone over a house on two sides and a fence on the other two being a testament to the level of care he puts in his work, to the heart that fuels his desires to succeed, and the trust and faith that man put in me, his foreman.
From that point on he and I shuffled through a couple of different climbers coming in who already had experience which had become a detrimental necessity as my arms were very literally tearing off of the bones holding them in place and my lower back slipping from trying to wrangle the cattle on the ground while simultaneously keeping his drop zone clear and running his ropes.
The climbers coming in ranged from 2 years of experience to 6 years of experience and did not last long at all under the absurd payload delivered to us every day - and what kind of insane tree man would stick around for that abuse?
So now I sit on my back porch with prospects of working for an already established tree company on account of me being let go because I refuse to have any more conversations or hang around on the job for any more than 8 hours at that point.
From the very beginning I tried to get this man to alter his bids so that we were not pounded with an absurd amount of work in a day. At this point my doctor doesn't want me back in the field until the swelling in my back has gone away and my arms fully attached to my body.
Have no doubt gentleman, that I was lied to, mislead, and manipulated into working what I had understood to be par for the course in the Florida tree market until I set out to do my own research in the field, run a few bids myself, and finally quit having the conversations with the son of a bitch who would otherwise have used his words to coax me into getting the jobs done no matter what.
I should have never partnered up with someone that does not know the tree industry, who simply is not a tree guy, and the breath of fresh air I got from talking to a man who would like to hire me who has run a tree business for almost 30 years in the area is one of the most relieving oxygenated breaths I have ever taken in my life.
Beware the underbid.
I arrived down here January 15th of 2015 and corresponding with a particular gentleman running a tree company, unnamed, for about a year before I made the leap, got down here, met up with him to find out some horror stories about his last crew and Foreman that he let go.
Suffice it to say I was to be the new Foreman, and I said to myself it's probably time anyway. A few days later we met at his shop where and I waited patiently for him to arrive. 45 minutes later he was there with the keys and upon opening the bay door I laid my eyes on what was to be the beginning of a tree company, a single running lawnmower on a truck and trailer sitting next to a broken down lawn mower and a bench with a few pulled apart chainsaws.
It was at this point that I learned not only was I not to simply be a climber, but being a foreman for this company was out of the question as well as the fucking company didn't exist in the first place. Two weeks I'm busting my ass to clean up the shop, reassemble tools, fix trucks and trailers, I'm finally able to set out with a single truck and trailer and my climbing gear.
Having been in the industry for quite some time up until this point I knew better than to hammer myself right out the gate, especially with the promise of a crew. So about 100 miles southwest we had our first good size tree removal. We get there and who should show up but a couple of landscapers as my ground crew.
And once again , at this point I pretty well knew what to expect, and taking my time eased my way up into the first tree, a 40 inch Laurel oak hovering over a house. Suffice to say the tree came down that day, nobody got hurt and nothing got broken. And having worked the crew that day I knew very well what to expect the following day.
75 inch Laurel Oak was no laughing matter, and the untrained lawn maintenance crew running the chainsaws and skid steer down below would have been a laughing matter if I wasn't so damn depressed about the entirety of the situation. And who was it that should zero turn right in the dead center of my climbing line? Of course that was the owner of the company himself being the experienced businessman in the field for 15, no wait 17, oh that's right 20 years.
The most pivotal point for me at this juncture was when I finally came around to blowing the top out of this monster, which knowing better I was sure to brace for impact as my rope man decided 5 wraps should suffice. But the worst part was finally when he lowered it to the ground.
The entire top came flying to the ground after removing three of the wraps and landed on the porta wrap, making a mess of the whole situation. And as per usual why make a cut a safe distance from the bull rope holding a two and a half thousand pound chunk of tree over your head when you can get real close and let the kickback from the chainsaw take care of the whole problem for you?
At this point I have endeavored to build my own crew of my own men trained in the art of tree care my way. but of course not before acquiring a chipper and very literally gentleman building my own chip truck, rather unnamed-businessman-of-20-years-in-the-field's chip truck, which with the welder that I bought was not the most complicated undertaking of the last year of my life, but I did feel kind of bad converting the F 350 King Cab dualy with independent climate control, heated leather seats, and carpeted flooring.
so one groundman later, an old friend of mine who I enlisted for help from my younger days in Florida and I set off with my brand new tree crew. Of course now having double the crew, my new responsibility was to double the revenue at half cost tree work for quality service. The last year has turned out to be a lot of touch and go with brand new greenhorns trying to learn the trade my way while simultaneously being unable to climb and still making the numbers at half cost. Now I'm no rookie in the field, but damn.
As it turns out 13 to 14 hour days as a single climber running a tree company will cause physical fatigue. But far be it for me to let something as silly as being run down and overworked overcome my determination to make something work under the promise of being a part of building my very own tree company.
So after confronting the boss many times in the field and at the shop about the ridiculous hours put on my body I finally bring in what would turn out to be the best climber I've ever trained, the 40 inch oak tree he removed in a 1/8 acre sized drop zone over a house on two sides and a fence on the other two being a testament to the level of care he puts in his work, to the heart that fuels his desires to succeed, and the trust and faith that man put in me, his foreman.
From that point on he and I shuffled through a couple of different climbers coming in who already had experience which had become a detrimental necessity as my arms were very literally tearing off of the bones holding them in place and my lower back slipping from trying to wrangle the cattle on the ground while simultaneously keeping his drop zone clear and running his ropes.
The climbers coming in ranged from 2 years of experience to 6 years of experience and did not last long at all under the absurd payload delivered to us every day - and what kind of insane tree man would stick around for that abuse?
So now I sit on my back porch with prospects of working for an already established tree company on account of me being let go because I refuse to have any more conversations or hang around on the job for any more than 8 hours at that point.
From the very beginning I tried to get this man to alter his bids so that we were not pounded with an absurd amount of work in a day. At this point my doctor doesn't want me back in the field until the swelling in my back has gone away and my arms fully attached to my body.
Have no doubt gentleman, that I was lied to, mislead, and manipulated into working what I had understood to be par for the course in the Florida tree market until I set out to do my own research in the field, run a few bids myself, and finally quit having the conversations with the son of a bitch who would otherwise have used his words to coax me into getting the jobs done no matter what.
I should have never partnered up with someone that does not know the tree industry, who simply is not a tree guy, and the breath of fresh air I got from talking to a man who would like to hire me who has run a tree business for almost 30 years in the area is one of the most relieving oxygenated breaths I have ever taken in my life.
Beware the underbid.
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