Serendipity or misery

[skyhuck]

I was thinking the other day about how jobs often go much better or way worse than you had expected.

 

Like the hedge thats twice as wide as you realised and the cowboy who did it last stuffed all the cuttings in the middle:thumbdown:

 

But there are the ones like a huge Pop that you need to ring up to get out and then grind the stump and you discover its hollow as a drum!!!!

 

So come on what are your tails of Joy and sorrow

[Goaty]

I was born. Im going to die!

[skyhuck]

I was born. Im going to die!

 

Which ones which

[Rich2484]

misery.

 

helping take a connie hedge out today, was going well until the winch broke and then i got stung by something trying to eat me on my hand.

 

serendipity.

 

managed to get a hilux back on the road after a brake pipe burst, used my tool to make new ends and some pipe i had for the land rover. easy 20 min fix in total, better than 3 days of waiting for parts.

[Pat Ferrett]

12 very large cherry stumps to out with only enough room to get the small grinder in.

The spec was to grind the bowl and surface roots and leave all waste for the gardener to tidy, knowing what cherries are like I allowed 2 days.

On site at 9 the first day and was sweating buckets just setting up, all the time being watched by the owners au pair who sat at the edge of their swimming pool splashing her feet in the water.

The first stump was a pig and took 2 hours, the younge girl just sat watching no offer of a drink

However the second stump was rotten and the grinder went straight through the bowl into a browm mush very much like a dry cake, out with the fencers spade and it just broke apart as did the remaing stumps and I was off site by 1 with a cheque for 2 days money.

Happy days

[testcricket01]

Worst was years ago when i was subby climbing turned up to dismantle 2 conifers guy had put a day on it. No way they were monsters all had to be lowered and only 2 of us onsite took 3 days! Dont know what he was thinking.

 

As for good couple years back turned up to dismantle a big multi stem conifer again same guy subby climbing for was going to be day and half rigging it all out i desided to ratchet strap the stems together and get the landy winch on it and felled it in one between the house and other trees early finish

[Mark Bolam]

Best serendipitous story I've heard was a mate sent to grind 4 2' dia stumps, closely spaced.

Turned out there was one stump and 3 rings that had been left. Kerrrchhhiing!

 

My worst is the same as James, 3 day conny the boss had a day on.

 

I've had a few. Avoid them now by spending loads of time pricing (hopefully) and being more realistic.

[Ty Korrigan]

Misery,

This year, I've under priced 3 conifer jobs by 50%.

Lucky I have an understanding team.

Conjoined stems as thin as a childs arm, nails, wire and mad old biddies wanting them cut off just above head height to use as last minute fence posts when I could have cut the whole thing down in one instead of 6.

 

Serendipity,

Well,

Friday, I put in a day on a garden of stumps with several pine ones well over 1m.

The HB20 struck rot and we was done by midday off to the neighbour where sowed a lawn with the new tractor and stone burier.

The client, a retired engineer, had picked up all the large surface stones and really cleaned the site as well as putting down a decent skim of good top soil!

We walked away after 4 hours with a days take of 1520euros!

 

Pay's for those conifers...

Oh, happy days!

Ty

[Robert_S]

Serendipity

 

getting lots of tea and biscuits

 

Misery

 

no tea and biscuits

 

Seriously though

 

Serendipity

felling tees for the construction of the dance studios in edinburgh years ago, priced to drag everything through a tiny path, when we arrived they had a massive crane set up, craned the chipper in we left the chips, they lifted a couple of skips in and we filled them with timber. 3 day job finished in one

 

misery

felled a sitka at a garden with a long set of timber steps, much bigger than i thought, the chipper blew up, it started to snow making the steps so slippy to walk up, i just remember the timber being so heavy and a massive pile of rings that seem to last for ever.

 

but on a positive note that was years ago, so nothing lasts forever and as they say if you are going through hell.... keep going

 

good thread dave.

[PeteB]

Years ago, priced to clear scrap trees and scrub from under 3 spans 11kv for a quarry. All to be winch out with winch truck and put in a heap a field away for quarry to burn. Put £9k on the job as no vehicles were allowed under the ohl. Lads got winch truck stuck and bust it's fuel tank on a stump as it slipped down a bank. Got back after a weekend with another tank to find job done by the earth moving firm who did it for fun! Still sent my invoice in mind!!!