[slipshod]

This has been my busiest summer yet. It seems everybody wants work done, between stump grinding, concrete prep, the saw mill, digging footers, drainage jobs, scrapping, topsoil, mulch, and stone hauling, tree removals and so many other things, I have put a few bucks to the bottom line.
Some of my own projects have taken a back seat for the moment, but I am focused on my goal of a new homestead in the hills by 2008. All this work will make it happen. Here is a photo of a Dig-Out for a garage I did for a customer this week. The stone is now spread I used 42 yards of crushed concrete to get the site to grade. The topsoil had to be removed, two stumps ground out and removed, plus the whole area was thick with tree roots from a large willow and several maples that boarder the area. The customer wanted the base in this fall so he can put up his building in the spring. After all the concrete and building delivery supply trucks are done driving on it we are going to replace his old driveway also.

 

[MowHoward2210]

You obviously use the FEL a lot, slipshod. How well has it all held up? You have a backhoe too, right?

 

[Greg]

Slip, is that your stump grinder on the back of the JD? Sounds like you will be having a tough time winding down your business come "fishing" time...ROF. Are your sons going to be taking over this business in the future?

Look forward to more pics on this project, as well as the drive.

Uncle Greg

 

[slipshod]

My Equipment works hard, I have 2000 hours on this machine and could not be more pleased with it. The 460 loader with the four way bucket is nicely matched to the tractor and does my tear-Out work in tight spaces as well as anything I could use. Over the winter I am going to replace two of the three cutter edges as they get beat up from biting onto large pieces of concrete. Some of the things I lift amaze me, and it seems that every job I do results in two more. I call it the "Me Too" effect. If I deliver topsoil in a subdivision there will surely be two or three neighbors that want some too. The stump grinder is usefull in a way I never figured, for cutting the perimeter of my Dig-Outs. Any roots are chopped off and come out of the ground much, much easier. I am spoiled, as I shop for a replacement machine I know that a four way bucket is a must. I shop for a long time before I buy, try lots of machines, rent a few here and there, that is why I ended up with a stump grinder on my three point. If I wanted to I could just do stumps full time, did 15 this week alone, sold 10 loads of topsoil to fix the holes and picked up a driveway job, just from grinding. Today I did a prep job for garage addition, got paid to load and haul away 4 truck loads of beautiful topsoil that the homeowner said was not of any use to them and did a regrade on a stone driveway with my pulverizer.
I have to work my "real job" the next two days then off for four more, all booked solid.

 

[glenn27]

Hi "slipper"-seems like you are a roller-I like your work ethic!! I've got a home project coming up next couple of weekends myself. Going to do a 18x 24' paved stone patio extending out from back of my house. Will start excavating down a few inches for the base material Sat. Pallets of blocks have been here for several months (got a little deal on them), but they will never get set in place by looking at them. RIGHT? Guess i better stock the outside fridge w/ some cold beverages to knock down the "road dust". Will do soma,e pics as I go along if anyone interested.
Tks- :trink21:

 

[slipshod]

Glenn,
That job seems like it happened ages ago and it has only been maybe three weeks. Since that time I have been busier then a one-armed paper hanger. Bow season for deer started saturday and I have not been out yet. Even some of my own projects have been flagging while I do work for folks. One thing I did manage to finish was to hang about 1000 feet of Red cedar clap board on one end of my house that I had tore apart. The price on the stuff has gone sky high, $1.04 a linier foot, so I measure twice and try to cut once. Getting that siding up sure made the wife happy and it made the house look great. I still have work on the books to be finished anything from a regrade on a lady's front yard where we poured new sidewalks and a driveway to hauling twenty pallets of flat rocks I harvested off my hillside farm to a wholesaler I deal with.
Yesterday I burned every drop of daylight to be had. Besides getting finished with my siding, I spread 44 ton of limestone for a customer's new driveway, and dug out a crawl space inside a footer so the guy has room to do plumbing and such. I wanted to take the grade down inside that footer when I dug it but the guy said it did not need it, so he paid me twice. I also had three tandum loads of soil spotted and dumped for a job I will do next week if the weather holds or next spring if it does not.
Today I am drilling post holes for a picnic shelter at a social club near me and the rest of the day will be spent servicing my equipment. With any luck I will get out with my bow for an evening hunt. The leaves are still all on the trees so it is real tough to see. We have not had a frost yet to loosen them up.

 

[Keweenaw4310]

Slip,
Sounds like in your neck of the woods jobs are somewhat plentiful. Where I live there isn't much money being spent on building and landscaping so making a go of it for a small contractor is very difficult. Around here, money is tight, good jobs are scarce.

I've always thought that putting my little 4310 to use earning money would be a great way to recover part of what I spent on it. So far I've only been working on the barter system. I clear snow for a guy that gives us free hoof trimming in return. I worked on a yard and crushed gravel driveway for a guy who is doing the sheetrock mudding and taping in my new addition for my house.

 

[slipshod]

4310
I have been at the site prep business for quite a few years and it seems the work finds me, instead of the other way around. If a guy does good work for a fair price the path to your door will show some wear. The biggest complaint I get all the time is that it takes me a while to get there. My standard answer is if you can get someone else in the mean time you will not hurt my feelings. Most jobs are there when I get to them. The one thing that amazes me is how helpless a lot of folks are when it comes to doing things themselves.

 

[glenn27]

Slipper- seems like the whole world is in a great big hurry-to go nowhere, and do nuthin!! "Hurry up-drop whatever you are doing, and wait on me. Whatever happened to a li'l patience? Seems like the way of the world-my daughter even said one time "I should have been born a hundred years ago, around civil war time." don't know why-maybe I have little patience as I get older w/ all the b.s. out here in the world. o.k.-time to go,tks. for letting me v e n t !!!
:trink40:

 

[rwairforce]

Glenn,
I've also heard that a bunch. My mother used to say, "you'll be 65 by the time you're 18." Didn't understand what the heck she was talking about but I was only11 or 12 I would guess. She was correct, as our mothers usually are.
My wife still gets after me about vacations and such. I wouldn't care if I ever went on a vacation. Vacation to me is being in the garage doing whateve I want. Who said solitude was a bad thing? Homebody I guess you would call me. Being one of ten kids (I'm number 7) I guess you just don't need as much as others and it seems to carry over to adult life. Some questions just can't be answered, just live your life and try to let others live theirs. :congrats:
I'm not a very patient person but I think most of that is because I don't have much time to do the things that I want to do. Maybe when I retire, if that ever happens, I'll be a little more patient. I just find my job gets in the way of many things I would like to do! :fing20: