Longscape - Cargo Jettison

We have had a rough couple weeks at Longscape in terms of us breaking things. The victim list so far includes:

• Sprinkler head - failure of it to recede back to the ground, resulted in its head being chopped off by the mower
• Two Shovels - snapped at the connection of the shovel head to the handle while removing some azaleas
• Mailbox - Queen would be proud of Giselle's large backside. The safety radius required while mowing is often underestimated. This mailbox suffered a weld-breaking blow off its post as it was knocked to the ground.
• Satellite Cable - coax cable always loses when it goes up against an auger. An attempted splice repair was unsuccessful so the satellite repair man had to be called out. 

The culmination and hopefully the last of all the mishaps happened first thing one morning. We were pulling out of the neighborhood ready to get the day started when I heard a noise outside the truck. I looked in the mirror and noticed one of our orange jack stands rolling across the pavement. We have the jack stands on the trailer to put underneath the back end when we take heavy things, namely Giselle, on and off the trailer. Since it weighs so much this alleviates some of the pressure put on the rear end, hopefully prolonging the life of the trailer. They are rated to hold 3500lbs a piece. I have had them on the trailer for nearly two years and never had any trouble with them. I'm still not sure how it came off. The Billy Goat must have knocked it off in the turn, but I tried to reenact the even when we got home and was unsuccessful.

I told Matt the jack stand has come off and to pull over. I wasn't too worried about it because it was bright orange and thought people could avoid it. I got out of the truck and ran along the side of the road back to the jettison spot. As I was running I noticed cars were not avoiding it as readily as I thought they would. Before I could reach it a Ford Escape ran right into it. There was a terrible noise and I immediately knew there was some damage to the car. The jack came apart into two pieces. I got the first in a break in traffic. Before I could get the second piece it got hit several more times. After gathering up the pieces I looked back towards the truck and noticed the Ford Escape parked in the center lane with the front right tire sitting on the rim. Debating if we should just leave or fess up to the cause of the damage, I knew we had to take responsibility. We always live under the fear of a lawsuit, but I couldn't just leave with this lady stranded.

I walked up to the car amidst all the traffic and saw the woman driver and her daughter in the car. I asked if she was okay and she said yes as she proceeded to tell me what happened to her week old tire not realizing I was with the party responsible. I told her yes I know, I saw the whole thing and it was my "thing" in the road that she hit. Like anyone during rush hour she needed to be somewhere. She was never mad at us but a slight panic set in since her day was being disrupted. I asked if we could change her tire for her. Her spare is located under the back end of her car, but you need the wrench and jack which were in the back cargo area. She then informed me she was moving a bunch of stuff so her car was packed full, blocking the tools. Understandably unsure about letting some random guys who just broke her car try to fix it, she insisted to just call a tow truck. Knowing this would cost lots more money and not save any time, I convinced her we could get it changed. I asked her to give us 5 minutes. This was a bold statement, but it worked. We got to work. We had to unload some stuff to access the tools. Remember, we are still in the center lane in rush hour traffic. We got the spare tire lowered, but we had trouble getting the car jacked up. It was a scissor jack and the arm to turn the lifting screw was not long enough to reach outside the underneath of the car so you couldn't get any torque to turn it. A trip back to the truck's toolbox to get the vise grips took care of the problem. We proceeded to get the tire changed with no more further trouble. It ended up being about a 20 minute process.  Still not too bad given the circumstances. I got the checkbook and settled up with her for buying a new tire. Tough check to write since I knew I would not really make any money the rest of the day. She was very appreciative of us helping and we all went on our way.

Our two jack stands portraying a before and after.

It could have been much worse so it ended up being a good reminder to always check and make sure your equipment is secure before you travel. It was also nice to see that we as humans can still settle a problem on our own without the government, insurance agents, or lawyers. Accidents do happen and since we were honest about our responsibility she did not try to take advantage of us.

Summer Crew

Just shy of two months without posting. Its not from lack of topics, just a lack of setting aside time. I sure hope to get back in a groove soon.

Summer, aka "the growing season" is winding down for us. After a blistering hot and dry end of June and beginning of July, lately we've been getting plenty of rain. August has also been unseasonably cool, which has been awesome.

Things have been going very well at Longscape. Since Matt has joined the team upon his graduation, it has really made things smoother. Aside from not getting bored being by myself all day, having a partner has also allowed me to relinquish some responsibilities to him. I'm also not nearly as tired at the end of each day. We also had Sam help us some days this summer. He helped me last summer too, so it was nice to have someone who already knew how to handle things.  

I'm looking forward to fall and winter to get a little break, cooler temperatures, and a slight change of pace allowing us to get some other projects done.

New Attire

Its been a little while. Hopefully I can get back to posting a little more regularly.

Driving around Birmingham, it is not hard to spot a lawn care crew. I sometimes wonder how any of us have enough business to survive. Since the competition is so stiff, I try to look for ways to set us apart. One of those ways is looking nice. Dressing to impress is not a revolutionary idea, but most crews look borderline hobo. It is a dirty job, but you don't have to dress like you never shower or wash your clothes.

So I make it a point to always look as nice as possible but still practical. That usually consists of collared shirt and khaki shorts. I've been slowly demoting my 'good' shirts to 'work' shirts. However the material of most of those is not the most comfortable for working outside. I took a survey of my shirts and found a cotton/polyester blend felt great and handled sweating the best. I like two buttons, the third button always seems to be unsure of its role on the the shirt. I also decided it was time to get some official Longscape shirts with our logo on them. I contacted Laura Beth about embroidering them and she said she could take care of it. Matt and I ordered an array of colors to see what we would like best with our logo.

Laura Beth was able to drop them off the other night on her way through Birmingham. She did a great job and I'm super pumped about them. They feel great and I pretty much like every color. Maroon and Forest Green are my faves, with yellow being my least favorite. We may even expand our brand into caps and jackets next.

Rebecca will be embarrassed at the quality of these photos.

Sod Party - Time Lapse

One of my favorite non-maintenance landscape jobs, is putting in sod. I love transforming a space and I love turf, so combining the two makes my day. I schedule this job to coordinate when Matt would be home for Easter. The shady backyard needed to be replaced with Zoysiagrass and came out to about 6 pallets. It also needed some topsoil, so we brought in 10 cubic yards. The backyard had limited access so that meant everything had to be carried by wheelbarrow into place. Since it was also on a pretty steep slope we had to staple a good portion of the sod so it would stay in place. We had a two hour rain delay on Thursday and also made things pretty muddy. Dad came out for a couple hours that afternoon to help out. The rest of the project took all Friday and an hour on Saturday to finish up. It all went really well and glad we got to be a part of it.

Mr. No Shoulders

Mr. No Shoulders with no head.

I set up the camera to do a time lapse of the project. Since its Rebecca's gear I had to be extra careful with it and so I put a ziplock bag over the camera and lens to protect it from dust and rain. That's why its a little hazy and has trouble focusing in some. The third guy in some of the pictures is the homeowner who was working on his back patio. The camera battery died in the afternoon on the first day so that is the reason for the big jump in progress.

Super Mom

Spring/Summer has come quickly and with it lots of new business, which is fantastic. The only problem is I can only do so much by myself. Matt is set to join the business when he graduates, but that is still a month away. My first earthly priority has shown no interest in helping me again since her last Longscape outing. So I moved on to the other female in my life, my Mom. Never afraid of any task she stepped up to provide some much needed assistance. Without it, I simply could not have gotten the projects done. Thanks so much for help.

Pine straw has been on the docket a lot lately and so that is what I needed help with. She has now helped on three such jobs covering 1.5 days, one of which was the same that Rebecca helped with last year. On the first day we put out 95 bales between two yards. Today we added another 30 to our resume.

Lot of straw.

Client decided they wanted some shrubs removed before we put down straw.

Finished product.

What a trooper.

Who wouldn't want to help with this project?

And yes it is as steep as it looks.

All tuckered out.

Winter Work

The lack of regular maintenance work on the winter opens me up for some other projects. This one has been on the docket for a while, waiting for the go ahead from the homeowner. We got the word just before Christmas to go ahead. Matt was still in town, so that was a huge help having an extra hand.

This family lost a bunch of trees in the tornadoes last April. He went from a pretty wooded lot, to primarily turf. He wanted to get some new trees going to add some shade to his yard and house, mainly to reduce the power bill. In order to reach that goal more quickly, he wanted bigger specimens of the trees than you typically get from nurseries. So I called my friend Jesse at Hunter Trees to get some bigger trees. I had to find out how big I could go and still handle them without any heavy equipment. He told me the ones I were looking at had about 300lbs root balls. Trees are also like diamonds in the sense that the bigger you get the trees get exponentially more expensive. So double in tree size means, more than double in cost most of the time.

Matt took on the laborious task of digging most of the holes while I picked up the plants. He made good use of our new augers which helped with the task. The yard was flat and the hole locations close to the trailer, which made for fairly easy install once the holes were dug. It ended up being a fun project and took just over a day to complete.

The trees on the trailer.

A finished hole, ready for a tree.

One ginkgo in the front yard to eventually provide shade for most of the house.

One 'Degroots Spire' Arborvitae to accent the corner of the house.

Three 'Steeplechase' Arborvitaes to create a screen between driveways.

Three crepe myrtles to shade the sidewalk and the house.

Two Burfordi hollies to fill in between existing hollies. These were not that large of a specimen.

Front Yard Make-Over

I got a call a while back from a couple who wanted some landscaping done in their front yard. When I went to look at the property, I soon realized it was a little beyond my expertise. She wanted to change all the plants in her front yard and the design would be a little more elaborate than I was comfortable doing. I can do basic foundation shrubs, but getting certain groupings I haven't had much experience. So I contacted my buddy Drew, who lives in Birmingham and graduated from MSU in Landscape Architecture. So we partnered on the job and he did the design.

It took about 3 full days to do the install. The biggest part of the project was cutting and removing a huge crepe myrtle. We spent a good portion of the first day trying to dig up the stump. Realizing we were making no progress, we decided to rent a stump grinder the next day and grind it down instead of digging up. Thinking the rain was going to hold off until the afternoon, we got the grinder for 4 hours and headed to the property. Unfortunately the rain was early and we had to work in the rain. While being pretty miserable, it did complement my attitude toward this stump. Working in a mudhole for 2.5 hours, I got it ground down to an acceptable levels. My aging waterproof jacket is no longer waterproof, so every part of my body was soaking wet by the end of the day.

The next days went much smoother. We got the plants in, beds mulched, and finished a small portion of the rock wall. It was a fun project and a nice change of pace from my usual schedule.

Before Pictures:

 

The Stump before I started grinding.

After Pictures:

Drew's Design

Role Reversal

I have been helping Rebecca since her very first wedding back in December of 2007 and haven't missed one since. I love helping her and being a part of all her photo endeavors. Rebecca keeps me around because we're married and I'm a cheap worker. She occasionally threatens to fire me, but I manage to survive.

We have talked several time about her coming to help me one day to see what my days are like. However she is usually super busy and it hasn't worked out. Well today she had plenty she could be working on, but did not have to be anywhere and I could use the help. So for her initiation to Longscape she helped me spread 75 bales of pine straw. Today was the first real hot and humid day which does not go well with pine straw. She was a trooper and a tremendous help. I thanked her several times throughout the day, because it would have taken me all day by myself.

We went out to eat afterwards and she got a milkshake. Then we got home we both took a two hour nap. I don't think I'll be able to retain her as an employee like she does me.