It's the end of the month(November). Finished my billing. Gathered all the bank statements and the month's expense receipts for the bookkeeper. Looks like I made some money...After all this bean counting dribble I've got a couple of small surveys to cad-up.
What I really remember about this fall is what a wonderful time I've had completing an eight mile cross-country boundary/right-of-way/topo for a utility company. The topo work I could take it or leave it.
The boundary work refreshed me, though. Reset a few PLSS corners, found some originals, dug a lot of holes. The weather was warm in the NE part of Oklahoma when we kicked off, but fall set in and the leaves turned. The cool, crisp north wind mixed with November sunshine rejuvinated my old bag of bones.
This evening I remembered why I've stuck with surveying all these years. The bad weather days will always be there but it's always worth it to endure a few bad ones just to be outdoors and enjoy the good ones. I realize I still love the outdoors after all this time.
I worked for an engineer when I first started in 1968. Did utility right of way work after that. Did a ten year stint for a roadway construction company, blue-topped for the rest of my life it seemed like. Worked for the Transportation Dept. and found out I'm NOT cut out to be a goverment employee. Just been myself for the last 15 years.
Remembering all the surveying I've done, I've realized it's the "hunt" that I still love. The looking, digging, measuring and head scratching is my passion. I guess I'll never give it up.
Such a small part of the business, but it occupies a really big part of my heart.
OK...kleenex break...ramble off.
Everybody go dig up a pin tommorrow and enjoy it!
That's what all boundary surveyors say. The bs gets more and more every day but those jobs that refresh you seem to make it all worthwhile.
Big boundary will always be my favorite, even though it doesn't pay the best.
New oil and gas fields are the best. The pay is great and you get ALL the old boundaries you can stand with minimal topo stuff involved.
"Remembering all the surveying I've done, I've realized it's the "hunt" that I still love. The looking, digging, measuring and head scratching is my passion. I guess I'll never give it up. "
Amen brother Cash, know that you are not alone, this part of the job makes me feel like a fresh faced kid again. been doing it since I was 18 and that was 25 yrs ago, I still love the hunt!
Don't put the kleenex away...instead...pass it this way. Yup! With all the BS we put up with....the better outweighs the bad. Gotta a brand new gun I would love to put to use.
Maybe soon I will....thanks for sharing!
The key to working for the goobermint is hopefully someone else I like will go into management so I don't have to.
I'm pretty fortunate right now having a field job in which I do everything.
I am working on two forest boundaries, one I don't know when we'll get back there because the wet season has set in, hopefully we'll get a good week in before spring. The other one is near Jackson, CA and involves some very interesting head scratching which wasn't expected. Among other things BLM will be investigating a 1970 dependent resurvey; I don't know how that will come out but however it comes out is fine with me. We just want to make sure we get it right and BLM wants to investigate and possibly will do some corrections to their Surveys.
Another smaller project I handed down to my employee so I will be working for him on that one.
The knee cap breaker monuments I've been finding lately don't require a shovel because they stick up 18" plus and are made out of concrete 😉
I think I will go out and dig tomorrow. I just got a boundary job for a reasonable fee that will involve retracing some surveys from the 50's through the 70's and their relationships to the subject property. We're supposed to have a one-day break in the weather for this initial recon mission and then the head-scratching can begin.
As an employer with a field crew and draftsman on staff, I don't mind topo at all because I don't have to do it. That is some boring sh..
FUNNY YOU SAY THAT--I TOO MISS THE MORNINGS SAY ZERO OR BELOW IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, THAT CRISP BITE IN THE AIR, DONNING SOME SNOWSHOES, TRANSIT ON THE SHOULDER, MACHETTE IN HAND, A STEEL TAPE IN MY BELT AND A FIELDBOOK IN MY BACK POCKET AND A HALF MILE HIKE AT 7AM TO START--IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THAT--
OF COURSE NO GLOVES TILL AFTER 1 JAN ONLY WIMPS WEAR GLOVES BEFORE THAT--TDD
An old surveyor's rambling...STEVE
IF YOU THINK TOPO IS BORING --YOUR NOT GOOD AT IT--TOPO IS MAPPING--MAPPING IS AN ARTFORM--ALMOST A LOST ART--GET OUT A PLANE TABLE AND DO IT THE OLD WAY YOU WILL COME TO APPRECIATE THE NEW EQUIPMENT COUPLING THAT WITH SKILL IN MAPPING AND CONTOURING THE ARTFORM TAKES SHAPE AND I DON'T MEAN SPIKES GENERATED FROM CADD CONTOUR RUNNING, I MEAN A USEFUL INTERPRETATION OF THE GROUND AND CONDITIONS-
GET OUT THERE PUT YOUR HEART INTO IT YOU'LL DEVELOPE A NEW APPRECIATION AND ENJOY EVERY DAY--ITS NOT ABOUT THE MONEY NOR THE GLORY--TDD
An old surveyor's rambling...STEVE
Ted - I did it for years and I enjoyed it when I could take the shots, then come in with the degree wheel and plot the notes and interpolate the contours. It was almost like being there. Then data collectors and CAD came along and we realized how much easier it could be and couldn't go back to the old way. Not as much fun though. To tell you the truth, I've got too much on my mind nowadays to focus on a topo. My guys do at least as good a job as I could although they do have trouble remembering the dang description keys, but shoot, I'm not drafting it either so that's between them and the draftsman.
My grandmother used to ask the same questions over and over all day in her later years. One of them was: What's the greatest thing in the world? Correct answer: The chance to work. My dad's answer: The chance to have somebody else do your work for you. She didn't like that answer, but I do.
An old surveyor's rambling...STEVE
Amen TDD...did a few topo's. Stadia....alidade....a few with an old Gurley a eagle level set up beside it. Plotted on Mylar then graduated to graph paper. Had a chance to visit a fella's office this past weekend and he had a Lenker Rod leaning against the book shelf....I laughed.
Does anyone remember the ole 360° protractor? That and and the 3 or 5 mm pencil....heaven forbid we mention the scale. Bird crap on the PT and the Johnson head refusing to be adjusted on the legs.
Yeah...I will tell you one thing for certain...we've come along way from that and that crappy f2 collector.
Anyone remember the old tablets that you had to calibrate in order to tape your PT sheet to and start digitizing?
Went to a firm I worked at for 20 years.....they disposed of all my hardsheets and all of the PT sheets to make room. I can understand that for room but it does lose in more ways than one.
An old surveyor's rambling...THANKS PADEN
Understood loud and clear by another of same era!
During my career I have fortunately always enjoyed the privilege of being able to hang ten on the technology wave. The implementation off new procedures made you appreciate your rigorous training.
RADU
An old surveyor's rambling...THANKS PADEN
You know Richard, I often wonder if I would have stayed with surveying if electronics hadn't come along. The profession was truly 'rigid' when I started. I can remember wrapping angles with a thirty second K&E til my eyeballs fell out...
I also remember the first time I used an HP3800 distance meter. We had spent a week precise chaining around a section and still had some bad closures. The owner brought a new HP out and within a few hours we were suddenly in the future....I've never looked back...although I still make everybody on the crews carry a plumb bob.
It has been a grand ride!
An old surveyor's rambling...THANKS PADEN
PADEN AND MAPIT--YOU GUYS ARE REFRESHING---I STILL USE THE OLD METHODS TO CHECK DATA--STILL LOVE MY LENKER ROD--I CAN GO OUT FIND THE PROBLEM AND BE BACK IN THE OFFICE BEFORE THE AVERAGE DUDE EVEN SETS UP THE TS OR DATA COLLECTOR--ITS TRUE OUR HISTORY IS VERY MUCH ACCELERATED FROM TECHNOLOGY- BUT I'LL SAY WE ARE NOT BETTER FOR IT- THE ART OF MAPPING, THE ABILITY TO COMPILE DATA, THE ABILITY TO KNOW WHAT IS GOOD DATA, ALL ARE LOST OR WASTED FROM THE OVER RELIANCE ON TECHNOLOGY-- TO ME I SEE NO BIG DEAL WITH USING 4 -2" PIECES OF TAPE ON A FLAT DIGITIZER BOARD, PICKING AND ENTERING TWO COORDINATES OR THREE AND YOUR OFF TO THE RACES--THE WHOLE PROCESS TOOK A COUPLE OF MINUTES TOPS--TODAY THE CREWS STILL GO OUT AND WASTE A WHOLE DAY GATHERING BOGUS DATA AND NOT REALIZING A BAD INPUT OR SIGNAL IS THE CAUSE--THEN EMPLOYERS WONDER WHY THEY ARE NOT MAKING MONEY--TO OTHERS THAT DO NOT GET OUT TAKE THE TIME TO GO OUT--THE ATTITUDE THAT OTHERS ARE DOING WORK FOR YOU MAKES YOU LOOK SILLY WHEN THEY SCREW UP AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS GRIPE AND SCRATCH YOUR HEAD---TDD
More Rambling
I keep a pretty tight rein on the people I have collecting and processing my data. The older I get, the dumber everybody else seems. The simplest instructions get scrambled to an embarrassing degree if I don't personally supervise most of the steps. Maybe I would be better off doing it all myself but there's so much tedious grunt work that I just don't enjoy anymore.
More Rambling
"The older I get, the dumber everybody else seems."
Amen to that.
An old surveyor's rambling...STEVE
> IF YOU THINK TOPO IS BORING --YOUR NOT GOOD AT IT--TOPO IS MAPPING--MAPPING IS AN ARTFORM--ALMOST A LOST ART--GET OUT A PLANE TABLE AND DO IT THE OLD WAY YOU WILL COME TO APPRECIATE THE NEW EQUIPMENT COUPLING THAT WITH SKILL IN MAPPING AND CONTOURING THE ARTFORM TAKES SHAPE AND I DON'T MEAN SPIKES GENERATED FROM CADD CONTOUR RUNNING, I MEAN A USEFUL INTERPRETATION OF THE GROUND AND CONDITIONS-
>
> GET OUT THERE PUT YOUR HEART INTO IT YOU'LL DEVELOPE A NEW APPRECIATION AND ENJOY EVERY DAY--ITS NOT ABOUT THE MONEY NOR THE GLORY--TDD
Wow.....a good survey post from Ted and without the usual bloviations (well besides the all-caps like everything you say is so important) or bs political ramblings. I'm going to mark this day in my calendar.
good post there Ted.
360 protractor....
You mean like this one?
360 protractor....
Yep...I still have mine with a old set of highway curves, triangles etc....including the timely template (man did I ever lose my share of those).
AcuArc
How about one of these
