Finally got the backhoe
- Thread starter grandad
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wroughtn_harv
Super Member
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Young guys work like they are being paid for piece work and old guys work like it's hourly.)</font>
I've just about decided that in our youth we're more concentrated on getting there. But as we mature we learn that the journey is where it's at.
One of the things that drive me up a wall is when the end is in sight and all of a sudden cutting corners is okay. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
That irritates me beyond measure. All the preparation and attention to detail goes out the door because we've got to get it done.
Last week I fired my homeowner over just that. He was as good as help as I've ever had when it came to just getting stuff done. But when it came to the detail work that makes the difference between the good and the best he just didn't get it. It took a snot slinging knock down good old fashioned cuss'em up to get it straightened out.
The difference between me and the others doing what I do is the time and experience involved. It takes extra time to do it right.
I figure folks hire me for my expertise. I'm sorta like an attorney. I'm going to tell you the truth. And I've got standards. If their want someone who's going to be their echo then they've hired the wrong person.
They can't have my product without having the attention to detail that makes it different.
I'd rather have them complaining about how contankerous and how I'm so hard headed. Than to know they're complaining about my work being sorry. That ain't going to happen as long as I can show up for work. Here' in Texas they say "that dog won't hunt, probably can't tree either."
I've just about decided that in our youth we're more concentrated on getting there. But as we mature we learn that the journey is where it's at.
One of the things that drive me up a wall is when the end is in sight and all of a sudden cutting corners is okay. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
That irritates me beyond measure. All the preparation and attention to detail goes out the door because we've got to get it done.
Last week I fired my homeowner over just that. He was as good as help as I've ever had when it came to just getting stuff done. But when it came to the detail work that makes the difference between the good and the best he just didn't get it. It took a snot slinging knock down good old fashioned cuss'em up to get it straightened out.
The difference between me and the others doing what I do is the time and experience involved. It takes extra time to do it right.
I figure folks hire me for my expertise. I'm sorta like an attorney. I'm going to tell you the truth. And I've got standards. If their want someone who's going to be their echo then they've hired the wrong person.
They can't have my product without having the attention to detail that makes it different.
I'd rather have them complaining about how contankerous and how I'm so hard headed. Than to know they're complaining about my work being sorry. That ain't going to happen as long as I can show up for work. Here' in Texas they say "that dog won't hunt, probably can't tree either."
I too have been around people that cut corners and drives me up the wall! I worked at a nursery, we'd do backhoe work and one of the guys whenever he did work on site, with me, he'd always be slopping as all get out. Never levels out the ground when he's done, leaves it all messy and ugly (god forbid u do that, cuz it's soooooo hard to do with a backhoe! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif) and so on. I got so tired of working on projects with him. Then he'd yak at me for going back and "wasting time" for cleaning up his **** mess.....oh well, I'm done with them thank god.
Blake
WA
Blake
WA
I believe there was a time - before our generation, certainly - when you had a fair chance of finding people who took pride in their work, no matter what the job. Maybe it had to do with there being a higher percentage of craftsmen and skilled tradesmen during the 19th and early 20th century.
One of the by-products of our white-collar, mass-market society is that so few appreciate the value of painstaking, careful workmanship. Today I think you have your best chance of finding individuals who care about that in what's left of rural and small-town America. And even there, it's hit-or-miss.
Personally, I'll take a spit-in-your eye old cuss (no offense!) who knows what he's doing any day over some slick weasel who's only looking for the most money with the least effort.
One of the by-products of our white-collar, mass-market society is that so few appreciate the value of painstaking, careful workmanship. Today I think you have your best chance of finding individuals who care about that in what's left of rural and small-town America. And even there, it's hit-or-miss.
Personally, I'll take a spit-in-your eye old cuss (no offense!) who knows what he's doing any day over some slick weasel who's only looking for the most money with the least effort.
wroughtn_harv
Super Member
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I believe there was a time - before our generation, certainly - when you had a fair chance of finding people who took pride in their work, no matter what the job. Maybe it had to do with there being a higher percentage of craftsmen and skilled tradesmen during the 19th and early 20th century. )</font>
I guess I've been pretty lucky. I've known quite a few people who put themselves into their work.
In the late seventies I was a contract telephone cable splicing trouble shooter in the San Fernando Valley. The one place you can look like a hero one minute and a total fool the next is locating buried cable trouble. Since I was the only contractor on a crew of eighteen I got that job.
At first they had telco linemen digging up my trouble since I was kept busy just locating and repairing. Them boys would dig a splice pit that resembled a paint filter. Right size at the top but at three feet deep I couldn't stand on flat ground much less work. Plus they cried like adolescent girls after having their hair pulled by a cute boy.
So I got a contract labor crew that dug'em and buried'em for me. The foreman was named Raul. Union laborer for about fifteen years at the time, illegal, and owned three homes in the valley.
He was amazing. He wouldn't allow me to enter a pit until it was perfect. The cable would be exposed, the sides would be straight up and down. Tailings would be on a tarp on the sidewalk even if the pit was ten feet over on some lawn.
If I grabbed a shovel to help he'd have a snot slinging fit. Not a union thing, I belonged to the CWA too. But because his job was to prepare the pit. I was the repairman.
Diahcondra (sp) clover will die if you cuss it. It's a premium lawn but gawd it is finicky to the point of driving you crazy. We had pits in diachondra (sp) lawns and three weeks later you couldn't locate them. He was that good.
He was and is the ultimate example of pride in workmanship in my book. He might have only been a ditchdigger but by gawd he did it right, each and every time.
Sometimes fatigue or disgust will slap me upside the head to get me to do something I shouldn't on a job. Raul's image will cross my mind and I'll cowboy up because that's what he'd do in my place.
Thirty years ago most fathers worked in a job where they had standards of quality that were tangible. They could see them, touch them, know them. This enabled them to recognise quality in other trades too.
It isn't like that anymore.
I don't see the lack in pride in workmanship as a statement about a generation. I see it as the natural progression of poor management.
It wasn't the spit in your eye perfectionists that got promoted. It was the go along to get aheads. The ones who didn't let quality get in the way of putting out more than anyone else. The old look busy is more advantageous than actually working crowd.
They continued with what got them there and promoted those who thought like themselves. Quality and personal pride became catchwords to be used like a mop cleaning up a mess on the floor.
You can look at modern management top to bottom and you'll see layer after layer of go along to get aheads.
Therein lies the problem. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I guess I've been pretty lucky. I've known quite a few people who put themselves into their work.
In the late seventies I was a contract telephone cable splicing trouble shooter in the San Fernando Valley. The one place you can look like a hero one minute and a total fool the next is locating buried cable trouble. Since I was the only contractor on a crew of eighteen I got that job.
At first they had telco linemen digging up my trouble since I was kept busy just locating and repairing. Them boys would dig a splice pit that resembled a paint filter. Right size at the top but at three feet deep I couldn't stand on flat ground much less work. Plus they cried like adolescent girls after having their hair pulled by a cute boy.
So I got a contract labor crew that dug'em and buried'em for me. The foreman was named Raul. Union laborer for about fifteen years at the time, illegal, and owned three homes in the valley.
He was amazing. He wouldn't allow me to enter a pit until it was perfect. The cable would be exposed, the sides would be straight up and down. Tailings would be on a tarp on the sidewalk even if the pit was ten feet over on some lawn.
If I grabbed a shovel to help he'd have a snot slinging fit. Not a union thing, I belonged to the CWA too. But because his job was to prepare the pit. I was the repairman.
Diahcondra (sp) clover will die if you cuss it. It's a premium lawn but gawd it is finicky to the point of driving you crazy. We had pits in diachondra (sp) lawns and three weeks later you couldn't locate them. He was that good.
He was and is the ultimate example of pride in workmanship in my book. He might have only been a ditchdigger but by gawd he did it right, each and every time.
Sometimes fatigue or disgust will slap me upside the head to get me to do something I shouldn't on a job. Raul's image will cross my mind and I'll cowboy up because that's what he'd do in my place.
Thirty years ago most fathers worked in a job where they had standards of quality that were tangible. They could see them, touch them, know them. This enabled them to recognise quality in other trades too.
It isn't like that anymore.
I don't see the lack in pride in workmanship as a statement about a generation. I see it as the natural progression of poor management.
It wasn't the spit in your eye perfectionists that got promoted. It was the go along to get aheads. The ones who didn't let quality get in the way of putting out more than anyone else. The old look busy is more advantageous than actually working crowd.
They continued with what got them there and promoted those who thought like themselves. Quality and personal pride became catchwords to be used like a mop cleaning up a mess on the floor.
You can look at modern management top to bottom and you'll see layer after layer of go along to get aheads.
Therein lies the problem. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
MarkV
Super Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
- Messages
- 5,636
- Location
- Cedartown, Ga and N. Ga mountains
- Tractor
- 1998 Kubota B21, 2005 Kubota L39
Grandad,
That sure is a great set up and should keep you plenty busy for a while. I also bet you will be surprised how soon you will be able to "part hair" with it.
In your photo I can see that you have some rolling hills on your land. My tractor has always lived on steep terrain and your photo reminded me of a couple of things that became second nature after awhile. I'll bet you have noticed already that the backhoe changes the center of gravity and dynamics of your tractor with all that new weight of the hoe up so high. It makes it real important to keep your loader loads real low on the hills. You can also shift the backhoe as a counter weight up hill in those bad places. I've been known to use the stabilizers as training wheels when the pucker factor gets a bit too much. Also watch it if you find yourself digging and dumping dirt on the downhill side of the dig. You will be shifting a lot of weight where you don't want the tractor to go.
Don't mean to preach and would rather not admit how I learned a few of those things. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Just offering a few ideas to think about as you learn the ins and outs of a new piece of equipment. We can never be too safe.
MarkV
That sure is a great set up and should keep you plenty busy for a while. I also bet you will be surprised how soon you will be able to "part hair" with it.
In your photo I can see that you have some rolling hills on your land. My tractor has always lived on steep terrain and your photo reminded me of a couple of things that became second nature after awhile. I'll bet you have noticed already that the backhoe changes the center of gravity and dynamics of your tractor with all that new weight of the hoe up so high. It makes it real important to keep your loader loads real low on the hills. You can also shift the backhoe as a counter weight up hill in those bad places. I've been known to use the stabilizers as training wheels when the pucker factor gets a bit too much. Also watch it if you find yourself digging and dumping dirt on the downhill side of the dig. You will be shifting a lot of weight where you don't want the tractor to go.
Don't mean to preach and would rather not admit how I learned a few of those things. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Just offering a few ideas to think about as you learn the ins and outs of a new piece of equipment. We can never be too safe.
MarkV
Appreciate the thoughts about safety and center-of-gravity. So far, I've moved across some mild gullies and humps with no sense of instability, and it also doesn't show any signs of breaking traction on the trail due to offloading weight from one of the tires.
But, with a bucket of crusher run up front, there is something close to 10,000 lbs of equipment going down the trail and you absolutely don't want to do anything to get it squirrely! You can bet the first time down that switchback was at a crawl, and each time after that is always nice and gentle.
Fortunately, my land has mostly an upper level and a lower level with that one trail going in between, so we are nearly always operating over known terrain. I'm hoping we never have to go into a situation where the stabs or the boom are all that's keeping us from going over!
Thanks again for the timely comments!
But, with a bucket of crusher run up front, there is something close to 10,000 lbs of equipment going down the trail and you absolutely don't want to do anything to get it squirrely! You can bet the first time down that switchback was at a crawl, and each time after that is always nice and gentle.
Fortunately, my land has mostly an upper level and a lower level with that one trail going in between, so we are nearly always operating over known terrain. I'm hoping we never have to go into a situation where the stabs or the boom are all that's keeping us from going over!
Thanks again for the timely comments!
<font color="blue">I don't see the lack in pride in workmanship as a statement about a generation. I see it as the natural progression of poor management.
</font>
There's no doubt about the contribution of poor management to this. I live the experience every day and try not to add to the problem myself. But you are exactly right. Working hard, playing by the rules and taking pride in one's work are not what gains promotions in too many places.
If those values are lacking in today's generations, it's because they are the product of a society that no longer appreciates such values enough.
Now if only everyone else would just listen to you and me, we'd have all their problems solved! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
</font>
There's no doubt about the contribution of poor management to this. I live the experience every day and try not to add to the problem myself. But you are exactly right. Working hard, playing by the rules and taking pride in one's work are not what gains promotions in too many places.
If those values are lacking in today's generations, it's because they are the product of a society that no longer appreciates such values enough.
Now if only everyone else would just listen to you and me, we'd have all their problems solved! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif