What's your new-ish job like?
When I first started working with this guy, he had me climbing almost every day, doing things I always wanted to do but wasn't given permission to do, like chunking down logs using the 20% trick to land them flat every time, and using span rigging/double whip tackles. The boss trusts me to do good work when he's not around. There was one guy on the crew with experience when I showed up, but he ended up getting an unbelievable offer from his previous employer to go back, and the rest of the crew got fired as I've mentioned. Since the crew shrank to just me and a groundsmen that I had been training on my side gigs, he has been way less stressed out, and generally really chill.
I haven't climbed much in two months because we have been working on the last of the fire cleanup work from the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, but I am looking forward to some epic climbs in a couple of weeks with the guy I have worked with for many years down in Chico. The current primary employer lets me schedule days with Petersen, my first and longest standing gig, who only brings me in for major pruning climbs and tricky removals involving lots of rigging. I had a much harder time with the last guy getting those days scheduled, and he even made me cancel at the last minute one time, so this is a very welcome change.
We're all on comms, which I have never had before, and not shouting, plus being able to communicate so effectively is amazing. The atmosphere is usually light and we're cracking jokes all day long while we work, while still performing to very high standards. To be clear about the guys that got fired, they were putting saws into the dirt for months on end, and generally being rough on all the equipment. I have worked with a guy that was pretty rough with his own equipment, and have never seen so nuch shit get broken so regularly, and all of that stopped happening when they left, so I see his frustration in a different light now than when we were in the thick of it.
Overall, I'm pretty stoked about it, though I still have dreams of coming up there to work with you for a few weeks when I can afford to step away from all that demands my attention down here. I really wanna get a feel for the area up there, as we are struggling to make friends around here. I have a few here, but they are few and far apart. Our only hope for now is that if we build a great space for the community we would like to have, that the right people will come and find us here.
