how much do you stress?

newguy18

Just a poll to see how much you stress on a normal day.

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Therrin

What a great topic...

My stress level seems to be an inverse square of my financial status.
Even with being a climber and goin to college and all that fun stuff, the only thing I really freak out about is payin bills sometimes.

Eric Frei

Bills ... weather ... and getting paid from the customer is like a huge relief.

On big jobs racing a pending storm or simply wanting to get it done before dark etc.

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ronnyb

Not much about money. My wife does all the billing so I let her stress out about it. This year has been really good financially for us, but we don't only do tree work. I could see how the economy was looking, and a couple of years ago we deversified into landscaping. That's all we do from April to October. The tree work piles up and thats what we do for the rest of the year. We also contract out for snow removal. In the Milwaukee area, the prices for tree work has become cut throat. Look to broaden your horizons.

Jeff Darby

Hey,
I seem to stress out a bit with humungus tree work, And critical rigging at times, You know if it doesn't go to plan,..Well there goes a grand, and at an instant you go from being a Professional to a Bozo..hasn't happened yet and I intend to keep it that way.As I have been quoted saying, " It's not Down Till It's Down".....Then it's instant relief.

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TREE-SURFER

How right you are JayD. There is always that anticipation of it all going tits up.
All of the above comments I think are an all over view of how much stress we all go through.

All of that and to cap it all off, TREE TOPPERS
New photos being posted in the "Isle of Man tree surgery club" thread.

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Isle of Man Tree Surgeon| All Aspects of Tree Work

What experts say about TOPPING

kimtree

only stress when i cock up the price on a job,and when the groundie wants to argue the toss over some trivial little point

newguy18

I have a bad habit of stressing about silly things like will that knot hold it held before but what about this time?Just little things like that.

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old schooler

Therrin

I've felt that at times. I think if you follow that thinking too much it can make you a bit crazy though.

Eric Frei

Yeah stop it you guys.

Nothing worse than spying that anchor point especially when going out far .... hmmm, just how strong is that wood.

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newguy18

Yeah I've never had a knot fail in a critical situation[except on my climb line once but it seized up tight instead of letting me fall].good times.

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old schooler

shaggs

Hey all,
I guess we all stress about money, weather, big jobs, tight margins etc.
But a bit of stress certainly keeps the blood pumping and the job exciting
Then again there's alot of people who can't do what we do and thats when I build my bridge!!!

quercus

when it's not exciting anymore and everything about the treework becomes common then stop what you're doing and look for something else.
Fear for mistakes and accidents keeps me sharp so that's where I wanna be... on the edge...
I don't worry about financial things...

What gives me stress?
-Subcontractors who don't keep their promises...
-Groundies who argue a lot about techniques being used...
-Groundies who don't seem to have their own opinion and behave lake a plant on the jobsite...
-People who don't respect my gear and machinery...
-Clients who look at me when I'm working and then look at their watch and then keep repeating that...
-Treebutchers and people who say they're an expert and don't know the difference between an oak and a beech...
-Clients who don't pay us...
-Clients that call off the agreement 5 minutes before the work is about to start...


that about covers it....

TrevMcRev

Good list, i hear ya on that one

Eric Frei

Those dont pay MOFO's are the worst SOB's

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treevet

Everything could be going great, but if you haven t gotten paid in the expected time you just think about it all the time. Once I gave a low winter rate (it seems it is often w the low rated jobs) at a huge country club in my city. Asked super for 2 week check. Thirty days and nothing, new bill, 60 days, bill and phone calls, 90 days and more promises. One hundred days and I entered the front door or the mansion of the club house. Got directions and went up the huge spiral staircase to the office where I was promised a check soon. I said you don't understand. If you don't write me a check now you and me are going down on the carpet, so if you want to sneak in the other room and call the cops they may get here before too much blood is spilled. I got a check and the next day I didn t have a second thought about it anymore. I could tell a bunch of these stories and I am sure all you could too.

Therrin

Holy crap, I didn't realize that people do that.

They'd better be carefull out here!!!

newguy18

thats why I'm gonna start keeping a hockey mask in my truck.

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old schooler

treevet

Here s hoping it never happens to you two guys but if it does it will surely get your attention (when you are eating, waking up , trying to sleep, etc. etc). I can see the (imaginary)gun Therrin s got but what s up with the hockey mask, newguy? May want to use that technique sometime.

newguy18

You never saw the firday the 13th movies?

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old schooler

Therrin

Heh, this is Los Angeles County. Specifically the Lancaster / Palmdale area. There's a higher crime rate here by population than places like Detroit, MI.

There's not much imaginary about it... I truly *hope* that I'm the only person posting here who wears a sidearm in a drop-leg holster while doing the Forestry jobs. I'll have to take pictures, lol.

Chainsaw in both hands and a H&K USP .40 on my leg. It's kinda sad really but there's alot of druggies , criminals, and crazy people who use these forests for different reasons. I don't mind people who "don't like guns", but I rarely leave home without one in this area.

I used to encourage gun-haters to put signs in their yards advertising their homes as "gun-free" but none of them would take me up on it. Funny, that is... Apparently they were afraid that then they'd be robbed!

That really has nothing to do with dealing with an h.o. but the mental picture is amusing

newguy18

I spent the better part of my teens in akron ohio about 2 blocks from summit lake.It taught how to fight and how to "disarm" people.Fellow had a nice gun too.Key word had.

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old schooler

Therrin

Doesn't do ya much good if they shoot ya before ya get close enough to take it from them
Alot of the crews around here operate with armed joeboys. I haven't met many who'd let a stranger stand close enough to touch them. Pretty regularly at night you can hear the sound of gunshots. Alot of it never gets called in or reported on.
There's alot of MS13, Pacoima, and 18th Street guys comin up here from downtown LA who're closer to hitmen than gangbangers.

As for the people doing stuff in the forests, its mostly pot farms and meth labs now, which are getting more proliferous up here. Those tweakers will shoot just about anyone for no reason at all.

Sounds like a stress-free and safe place to live eh ??

newguy18

It obviously hasn't happened to me but in all honesty It doesn't much matter to me.Basically if your gonna shoot shoot or your gonna lose your gun.

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old schooler

Therrin

Heh, I wasn't sure if that was a joke or not.

If I'm not armed, and someone points a gun at me and decides not to shoot me, I'm not gonna go and piss them off for it. Sounds like young dumb gangbanger types your talkin about in Akron. I did contract work in los angeles as an armed bodyguard before I moved to Chicago, and then out in Chicago as well, and have CCW for about 32 states.

Ask some of the former cops on here if they'd try to take a gun away from someone who's pointing one at them, *if* they were unarmed at the time.

I almost feel the onset of the Thread Police comin on...

newguy18

I wasn't joking.Yeah mostly gangbangers a little punks trying to prove something.

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MTS247

Stress

Climbing a leaning piece of s__t, and getting that "fealing" that says "dont go any higher" then you convince yourself that the 3 branchess you just cut off weigh about as much as you do! so its safe now

Mmm that attachment point should be ok if i dont put to much weight on it!

Branch walking when a twig your line was resting on breaks and gives you some unwanted slack! for that split second you are convinced "this is it, im going down"

Garry Brockley

MTS thats not stress it's adrenaline the best feeling in the world, you get butterflies and rapid breathing thats what keeps me going. even the change your pants stuff isn't true stress, as the leaning tree your going to dismantle starts to crack and slowly gathers pace towards the ground and you have to get down asap or ride it down, that was me in 2000 only got half way down and had to ride it when it hit the ground i lay there waiting for the pain none came then i laughed like a mad man for ten minutes after thats real adrenaline. its the keeping a roof over the families head and food on the table that is stress. we all really climb for the rush in one form or other.

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OutofMytree

Wifey was groundie... guess how many arguments I won..

treevet

Never had the wife do the ground, but there is always that running chipper sitting over there, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh