After completing 50 years of surveying in the field I thought I might be able to jot down some advice to those that haven't been on this path as long as I have.?ÿ There's no way I can give any advice to younger people about the technical end of things as you all already have me beat.?ÿ I still don't even text as the screen on my 15 year flip-phone is too small.?ÿ Here's what I can say:
After 50 years I'm pretty sure I'm the only surveyor in these parts whose boots hit the ground every morning knowing intimately what it was like to use a chain and transit. If I measure 2643.56' between monuments and the record shows 2643.71' I don't set another point. Things that close rarely even get a shrug from me.
Take care of your equipment. It costs a lot of money so make it last. Remember, I started surveying using an 80 year old K&E. Let's all hope somebody can say that about something made by Trimble someday.
Put the same time and attention into every job no matter the value of the property or your fees. It's the pissant little nothing jobs you didn't make any money on that will bite you in the butt.?ÿ The smaller the fees on a job usually means there are more problems bound to rear their ugly head. And remember, you will never lose a penny on a job you didn't get.
Good help is hard to find. Remember the days you were an hourly hand. Stick with a good employee and they will become an asset. Remember, you're going to always feel like you pay them too much, but they're always going to think they don't get paid enough. Laugh about the 'harmony' over a beer.
When you finish a day in the field make sure the memories are of good things like wonderful weather, an old barn that needed exploring, a 100 year old hickory tree or the way the fog stuck low in the bottom that morning. If you only dwell on the heat, insects, mud or any other aggravation it will eat you alive.
Pay your taxes. If you think they're too much now, wait and see what the bill is when they finally catch you after a few years. And they will ALWAYS catch you.
Be humble with your clients and try to give them the confidence that you are going to deliver them the quality of work required in a timely fashion. If you lose a client's confidence you will probably never be able to get it back.
Dogs aren't really all that mean. They've got a job to do just like you. Nothing defines the word "diplomacy" better than a stand off will a big mean dog.
Snakes are more afraid of you than you are of them. Hornets are not.
With all software and computing ability we have nowadays you can still figure things out with a pencil. The law of sines, the law of cosines and the Pythagorean theorem will not ever change.?ÿ ?ÿDon't feel bad about not understanding how a computer or a data collector works. Leonardo DaVinci would understand and marvel at an automobile if he saw one...and he would probably think a computer was witchcraft.
Vienna sausages with cheese crackers is still a good lunch. Stay away from McDonalds or you will get fat.
And drive careful.?ÿ I can name a dozen surveyors that didn't and they're not around anymore.
Thanks Uncle Paden.?ÿ Very much.
Thanks for the advice, old timer.?ÿ Us youngun's need all the guidance we can get that is based on the real world.
Thanks for the advice. I would love to have had, or have the ability to work with a Surveyor like yourself. Unfortunately, I have never had the chance to work at a true "Surveying" firm.?ÿ
You know I was the world's worst at heeding advice from my my elders when I was still a tadpole. My mother use to tell people I had band-aids on every finger as a child from people telling me not to 'touch the stove' because it was hot. I guess she knew my spirit.
But just because I didn't necessarily heed advice doesn't mean that I didn't remember it. A lot of what I was told back then has surfaced over the years at specific moments. And I would imagine there are a number of younger surveyors that might read my post and just think it's another old man's blather.
But hopefully they will remember it.
That very well sums up the journey I have followed after tailing my first chain thru the woods in the summer of 1968.
The real test of my training was on June 1st, 1974 when handed my first crew and one of my most memorable mentors, Ralph Daniels, handed me a folder and said to get r done or don't come back.
He put his trust in me and I did my best to never let him down because he appreciated anyone that would put in a hard days work by sharing his knowledge and being brutally honest about the facts and put himself out there and left some great work for others to follow from his keen source of records to multiple references he made to recover the locations of his work.
Back in those days our first objective in the morning was to shapen our blades because that alone made the rest of the day better.
Now, the last thing that I think of is to cut brush as my thoughts are to avoid being in a thicket as much as possible. It is a good thing that from my training I know the best way?ÿ thru one is jumping in and getting r done or having a willing client that will understand that if they want a good marked line asap they will allow me to bring in an operator with a brush blade and snap, it will all be done in a day rather than by sometime next week.
It has been many months since I have taken the time to put a keen edge on my machete and hatchet because they get very little use and still they are in my tool box along with plumb bob and right angle prism and 25ft tape on the back of my ATV ready for use if needed.
Carry on............
Great post ya ol fart, as they say in the hood, "dawg yo da man". Perfectly appropo. ?????ÿ
so I don't want to threa hijack but I'm just curious how often a client is willing to pay for you to bring in a piece of machinery with either a bush hog or mulching head on a skid steer to help cut some paths for you through the brush & undergrowth? And, as a follow up to that, how do you write up a proposal on say a boundary survey for something like that? Do you give two prices with the options of with & without the help of a machine cutting line? I'd imagine the proposal without using a machine to cut through heavy undergrowth might very well still be close to the price of cutting line with the machine (provided that time-wise it was a big enough boundary survey & enough heavy undergrowth to chop through). again sorry to hijack but the part about cutting like piqued my curiosity
Advice to younger surveyors:
Survey flagging can tie up wounds, putting off going home, or to the hospital. Sometimes permanently!
Most dogs are your friend.
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Atv's are wonderful. Except when they are not.
GPS is wonderful. Unless it has dead batteries.
Women are wonderful. Except when they are not.
Cows are not trying to eat you. But, a bull can push you. Harder than a client, or a woman.
If the outhouse has not been used in a while. It may contain: spiders, snakes, and scorpions.
That easy road, showing up on Google earth, may have ruts, made by a log skidder. When you drive your 4 wheel drive, down a road, made by a log skidder, you need to become familiar with the term: "high center". And, figure out how to get home. Without the truck.
Wine, women, and song, can lead to life time commitments. And, problems you may never be able to plan ahead far enough, to avoid.
When the person walking ahead of you pulls back a green twig, and it pops you on the cheek, on a cold day, it can provoke you to say things you could never be made to say, any other way.
Data collectors are not a substitute for common sense, and a pencil.
Goats will eat things, and jump on vehicles, that you never anticipated.
And, they stink. If they play "king of the mountain" on your vehicle, chances are that they will break your windshield wipers, and urinate into the heater intake, near the bottom of the windshield.
Shoes are great. Unless wet. Or, torn in half.
Good field hands, are rare. And, when you get one, usually the woman in their life out ranks you, by about a factor of 2, even if you are paying them more than you make!
Snakes are more scared of you, than you are usually aware of.
A strip of oil, behind you vehicle, after driving down a rough road, portends trouble.
There are things you can do with a plumb bob, that most people have never thought of.?ÿ
Happy New Year. I think Payden Cash's stories are some of the best.
Nate
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Sage advice for anyone. There are surveyors my age that haven't yet come to those conclusions.?ÿ
Don't forget the hand level. There is so much that can be done and checked.
When the client intends upon following me with a dozer or other machinery, I insist that they allow me to guide them and put the line in the correct place because I don't want to cut thru the thicket anyway. I have clients waiting.
The reluctant clients understand that it will cost them more for me to cut the boundary line by hand than it does to hire a dozer with a brush blade to clear the line in front of me.
I can lead a dozer thru the forest several miles in day and that is well worth the cost of me plus dozer to any client.
On the plus side, afterwards, there is a driveable path around their property.
understood; thank you sir for that clarification! I figured that it'd be faster/cheaper with the machine so long as the # of linear feet surveyed per hour are up there compared to cutting line by hand.
our survey dept has used this method several times before on projects that are a couple hundred acres of woods but I'm always curious how others are doing when using this method. I know some clients get really finicky about not damaging any valuable timber (which I can understand). I've seen others trying to mulch their way through the woods with great success but as you said you have to stay lined up properly or you'll be all over the place
From a younger surveyor, thank you.
