Rain rain go away come back another day!!

[majoe7]

As I sit here today it is rainning again. Four days now with no stopping anytime soon. I took two days for a mini vacation and some relaxation. Today I went to most of my accounts and asked if they needed anything. I told them that I will start back up on Monday and get everything looking great again. The only good thing that came out of this is that now I have many side jobs to do. Gutter cleaning, tree removal, mulch and clean ups. I worked on my equipment, changed some oil and organized things. Also I did some paperwork and filing. Having this many days off in a year round business seems like a lot to me, but at least I accomplished a lot of to do items. I take a nice vacation every year, but when it's time to work it's time to work. What are some of things you all do when you have this much down time? Stout(Steve) you need some vacation days? I have some for you. I need to work. John

[Steve W]

Lawn care business tips

I waited this morn until the mist stopped and got stuff ready to do a yard 2 houses down from me.The sun and wind came out just long enough to dry the grass blades, I started cutting the front yard and all of a sudden my old dixion stopped turning left, it broke a drive tension rod. So I went to the house to get the snapper,.....the front tire was flat and had a hole in the tube. I asked my better half to take the tire and get it fixed. So I headed back with my yazoo 22'' walk behind and started mowing,When all of a sudden the rain started back and was harder this time. The folks have guest coming and I had to finish. SO I GOT SOAKING WET. Well she got back with the tire right when i got thru with the front yard so I put the tire on and pulled my dixon back home with the snapper. Then I cut the back yard, trimmed and then took my Tanaka TBL-7800R Blower (which is one bad azz blower) and cleaned up the driveway,walkway and any clumps of grass in the yard. Believe or not this job looked real good even having to do it in the rain. I made my customer happy because they wanted their yard looking top notch for the guest. Forcast for SOWEGA shows no less than 60% rain thru next thursday So I know how you feel Down in Fl.

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[swstout]

Rain forcasted here for 9 of the next 10 days. Home show here next weekend. This will give me time to get ready for the show, update my website, and I might even be able to get a haircut!

At least the rain is good for the grass.

Steve

[majoe7]

Last night I had my day planned for Saturday, an early day of mowing, knowing the rain was coming. Well I was getting my truck and trailer ready and decided to give the Weather Channel a look to see how much time I had before Mother Nature started to clean up the area again. It looked like I had about 2 hours of work. I went inside and grabbed a cooler and was off.
Not so fast John, A nice burst of sunshine came out and I was smiling. Maybe more than a couple of hours of mowing, I thought great, I can catch up with some lawns. I take a peek at the Weather Channel again and saw the rain off the ocean heading our way. The weather man said early afternoon rain is in the forecast, 60 %. I’m out to the truck and getting ready to pull away then a couple of sprinkles and then boom, a downpour. So today is another day off.
I have a full time job already with weekends off to keep me busy (lawn care isn't my main job) so this is like a real vacation. I mean, people don't realize that Lawn Care is a real and full time job. It is physical and demanding, we work from sun up to sun down and some times longer. We have paperwork to do, equipments to maintain, contacts to meets and jobs to schedule. I have a friend of mine tell me that lawn care was an easy job, because you are outside riding a mower all day. I asked him to join me just for one day and I would play him $30.00 an hour. The only catch was that he had to work a full day 10 - 12 hours that day and do all the work that I do. Basically be a temp worker. He said no problem. The day came and he shows up, works with me on a nice cool, sunny day 85*, 17 jobs on schedule. He took many brakes, worked all day and at the end of it said. “Man this is a real job". I went to pay him and he says keep the money, you're my good friend and I respect you more now than ever. We went out to a nice dinner; enjoyed some beers and I slipped him $100 to take his wife out. He said that he couldn't do what I do in a day and understands now. Maybe now with all the rain I might ask him to help me out and get caught up. I wonder what he will say.
Man with all this rain, I have time on my side. Musicman, how are you guys on the west coast handling this?
See ya, off to do some "honey do's". For those who are too young to know what that means its means that your wife has things around the house that she thinks need my attention or fixing. LOL

Wet and soaked in "The SUNSHINE State"
John

[musician/lawnman]

I am working my (and my employee's) azz off. We did get rained out tues & thursday. Tues I spent doing maintenence, Thursday I spent going around a collecting materials for a nice landscape job/retaining wall project I had scheduled for yesterday & today (I will post the before & after pics in a little bit). I managed to get it done today which is cool but I am still behind schedule with some lawns. I don't let that happen often as once I am rained out 1 day for the week, after that we are working in the rain. I can't let it get too far behind. But when it's lightening out we just can't do much, not worth the risk. I wan't my clients lawns to look good, but I am not willing to die to achieve it! The lawns are growing like crazy! My lawn looks like hell right now cause it is the last one on the priority list. when I get all my clients caught up then I can dedicate time to mine.