33 years at this and still I make rookie mistakes. But I am learning to recognize and to try to correct them quicker.
Late last winter / early this spring I had to survey some section corners in the narrow two land county road before spending the rest of the day off road with the ATV. Well, in the morning I was looking for a safe place to put only 2 of my tires off of the pavement so I could safely park my 2WD truck and locate the corner. I drive 2 wheel drive these days (I say that because I like to brag that I get stuck a lot less often than I did in the past with 4WD trucks). One rule though has been to keep at least 2 tires on the pavement. Well long story short, the new rule is 4 tires on pavement and I wouldn't say no to 4WD on next year's truck purchase.
I made a little mess in this fellers nice front yard. ROOKIE MISTAKE ALERT ----> I quickly packed up and left the site of destruction. I thought maybe it would be long forgotten by the end of the day when I planned to return and actually get the corner located. I immediately drove to a car wash and cleaned up the evidence from my pretty red truck over my "lunch break".
So I located the rest of the perimeter corners and returned later in the day to shoot the corner which as it turns out was a couple ~ few hundred feet further down the road with a full lane shoulder for safe parking. So I shot my corner, was packing up my gear, I looked up and noticed this giant of a grizzly bear of a retired age feller getting his mail from the mailbox at the scene of the crime.
Rather than turn tail and run (rookie correction here); I did tuck my tail and walked directly up to this man and confessed all my sins.
We had a lovely conversation, and may have in fact developed a long term relationship.
Guess who just called for some survey work?
Ooooooh, yeah! Pulled a boner like that years ago. The adjoiner had a nice entry drive a few feet from one side of the in-town survey we were doing. What I didn't know until it was too late was that there was nothing but dirt and grass (no rock of any kind) in that drive. Pulled off the paved city street just enough to let normal traffic pass by. All four wheels sank about eight inches in no time. When the adjoiner arrived home and saw what I had done, he was not a happy camper and made that extremely clear. Then I pointed out that to minimize any further damage I needed him to tow me back out into the little used paved street. He did that but his list of negative comments about my ancestry expanded considerably during the time it took to be successful. He further insisted that I back down the street a ways instead of driving forward past the front of his property because he didn't want all the mud that was going to fall off to do so where he had to look at it.
I'm betting he knew it was you, and probably watched you the first time. By "gettin' the mail" he was giving you a chance to find out what you're made of...and you apparently passed the test! 😉
Wish I had your charm and grace Brad. I got chewed out by an old lady for walking on her freshly planted grass the other day. The lady had hammered a coffee can down over her property corner and it took us ten minutes of struggling to get the dumb thing off to get a shot on it. All the while she's cussing me up one side and down the other. 'I know where my corner is you imbeciles! I put a can over it! Your messing up my freshly planted grass, what is wrong with you!?!?!?!'
Guess I won't be getting any calls for work from that one. Part of me wanted to take the survey rig and spin brodies on that freshly planted lawn, but of course I didn't and wished her a pleasant day. :woot:
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
A few years back after doing a lot survey, the owner called the office and complained about the way we covered up the corner we dug up....this is Florida...grass does not grow that well in most yards....boss told us to go out and fix....stopped on the way and dug up a plug of sand spurs and calmly planted them in her yard over the corner....never heard back from her....
Did he make you fill in the tire ruts ?
R.J. Schneider, post: 326416, member: 409 wrote: Did he make you fill in the tire ruts ?
Nope. He is an earthwork contractor and he said he had the equipment and would take care of it.