I know I shouldn't toss out such a great opportunity for Cow bashing, but, maybe I deserve it.
Worked on a job on Friday in an attempt to get it done before the monsoon arrived, so we took a few short cuts. Simple job once we had determined our limitations on what had to be on the tract being severed from a quarter section. All we had to so was set the four corners of a rectangle and place one extra marker along each side near the hilltop to assist in future fence construction. We were near the center of the tract when we finally were able to determine the acceptable dimensions. So we set a marker on the south sideline, then went to the southeast corner, the northeast corner, set a marker along the north line and finally set the northwest corner. Then we dashed off to job two for the morning.
We made great progress on the second job until the monsoon hit and we were DONE for the day. As we later stopped for lunch we were talking about the first job. Then it hit me. We never set the southwest corner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In over 30 years of running my own company I cannot recall another case of driving away from a job without having set all of the corners simply because we (that's the mouse in your pocket form of we) forgot to do so.
I can't say I've done exactly that but I HAVE left sites forgetting to complete other things. Almost always it was because I was already thinking about what I needed to do next and not concentrating on what I'm doing now.
Andy
Personally, I won't bash any cows, at least today. I will leave it up to the spouse of the Cow to reprimand him for whatever wrongs she sees.
I have been known to forget to complete jobs when too many distractions abound and I hear enough about that. 😉
I have been trying to find time the last 2wks to return and set a monument that was not set on a job about an hour away.
It did not get set because the client was riding with me and his phone rang and we had to pick up and leave then and there.
Clients usually do not make dependable helpers.
At least he understands he is paying for my return.
Back in the days of pre-dominantly non-robotic total station surveying, especially rural areas, I left a couple of backsights on jobs. Thankfully relatively local ones.
Steve
Sorry, I read the topic and thought it was a contest.
gschrock, post: 425038, member: 556 wrote: Bummer you missed that last corner, but not to fear; there is an app for that. You could download the UberUniCorner app; it uses your location to find a survey-share practitioner who is driving nearby and can perform that "how-much-for-just-one-corner" surveys for $100 that potential clients keep asking us about. Example; I can see three nearby, and one named "Rory" who has a 3 star rating and can be there in ten minutes and will also bring you a latte (your can track his progress on the little map in the app on your smart-phone). Plus with UberUniCorner you can add a tip at the click of a button.
As Paul Simon said in one of his songs "we live in an age of miracle and wonder"...
😀
[MEDIA=youtube]h1ki3AbK8tM[/MEDIA]
I believe the relevant Texas expression would be "if you ain't been throwed, you never rode".
Probably the story to top that one would be the tale of a 1980s surveyor who managed to mark a corner exactly 500 ft. out of position because he had read the LED display of the EDM as "18XX.XX ft." when it really was "13XX.XX ft.". It was a radial stakeout and the rodman had given a shot on a wire fence in the hope that it might be near the line along which the corner to be marked fell. Cascading errors meant that a capped rebar ended up on the ground about 13 ft. South of the fence, within a few seconds of the theoretical stake-out bearing and exactly 500 ft. short. Probably would have been better had they not even set that one.
[USER=50]@Holy Cow[/USER]
Can't say I've ever done that. I usually just forget hammers, shovels, metal detectors, and occasionally a rodman.
FL/GA PLS., post: 425117, member: 379 wrote: [USER=50]@Holy Cow[/USER]
...just forget hammers, shovels, metal detectors, and occasionally a rodman.
That reminds me! Dang it, I'll be back.
Last week I left the shovel on the side of the road. The next day I picked it up and then left the prism pole standing at my last shot which was a pipeline marker next to a fence. Picked it up the next day when I was sitting in the truck wondering if I had left it in the office and looked up to see it across the street waiting for me. Saturday my rodman left the bow saw sitting in the yard of a house and I picked it up when I went back on Sunday to finish the project. I'll admit my field procedure is rusty but I'm creating a checklist and the last box will be to recover and store all equipment in its proper place in the truck.
Andy Nold, post: 425156, member: 7 wrote: Last week I left the shovel on the side of the road. The next day I picked it up and then left the prism pole standing at my last shot which was a pipeline marker next to a fence. Picked it up the next day when I was sitting in the truck wondering if I had left it in the office and looked up to see it across the street waiting for me. Saturday my rodman left the bow saw sitting in the yard of a house and I picked it up when I went back on Sunday to finish the project. I'll admit my field procedure is rusty but I'm creating a checklist and the last box will be to recover and store all equipment in its proper place in the truck.
When we used a chain exclusively it was always advantageous to keep it out of traffic after it had been undone. The dry side of the side ditch was always a good place. I don't remember how many times I had to drive back to where we had been because the hired help forget to retrieve it.
And then there was time I had tied the thong of the chain to the backdoor handle of a van. A good jaunt through dried filed grass would clean all the mud off of them and give them a nice polish. I got distracted for a few minutes then took off down the road with the chain still dragging behind.
It survived.
FL/GA PLS., post: 425117, member: 379 wrote: [USER=50]@Holy Cow[/USER]
Can't say I've ever done that. I usually just forget hammers, shovels, metal detectors, and occasionally a rodman.
Tried to leave a rodman at a job once many years . Boss told me that I couldn't because of some liability issue.
Next option was restraining him with duct tape. But that was a liability issue too. So I had to drive him back to the office.
He eventually returned and repented.
Wasn't much of a problem after that except for minor insubordination.
Robert Hill, post: 425160, member: 378 wrote: Tried to leave a rodman at a job once many years . Boss told me that I couldn't because of some liability issue.
Next option was restraining him with duct tape. But that was a liability issue too. So I had to drive him back to the office.
He eventually returned and repented.
Wasn't much of a problem after that except for minor insubordination.
I had a kid get pissed one day and just up and quit out on a job site, even after I asked him to think it over. He walked off after some choice words and headed for the blacktop. When he realized we were 10 miles east of nowhere he turned and walked back to the truck. He had no idea where we were at and no idea how to get home.
I wasn't that mad at him and he was pretty good help. If I remember he was having friction with some of the other guys on the crew. I told him I wasn't going to drive him back and if he wanted he could sit in the truck the rest of the day...or he could finish the day working and we'd call his termination time that evening.
After he sat in the hot truck for about an hour he came back and started helping the other guys drive some hubs. When we got back in that evening I asked him if he was still quitting. He decided to stay. I think he was with us another 3 or 4 years.
[USER=11959]@Squirltech[/USER]
You know a fellow named Melvin. You also know his wife. His wife has a cousin, Rick. Old fellow with long hair (he's about 8 months older than me but has 20 times more hair on his head). We went back and set that final corner today.
I remember leaving some signs along side the road here in Austin. Lucky for me, I drove along that project heading home for the evening and picked them
Holy Cow, post: 425210, member: 50 wrote: [USER=11959]@Squirltech[/USER]
You know a fellow named Melvin. You also know his wife. His wife has a cousin, Rick. Old fellow with long hair (he's about 8 months older than me but has 20 times more hair on his head). We went back and set that final corner today.
Good 'ol Rick. I'm sure Rick appreciated you completing the work.
At least you didn't have a field crew set a corner within 1' of a corner they found. *shakes his head*
It wasn't me but I was the instrument man on the crew that left a 200 foot chrome clad highway chain between the rails of a busy train track. The next day it was still there thankfully.
Andy
Robert Hill, post: 425160, member: 378 wrote: Tried to leave a rodman at a job once many years . Boss told me that I couldn't because of some liability issue.
Next option was restraining him with duct tape. But that was a liability issue too. So I had to drive him back to the office.
He eventually returned and repented.
Wasn't much of a problem after that except for minor insubordination.
Ran mine through the nettles with his shorts on, then staked him out in knee-deep cow crap. Gotta use your imagination.
One morning the boss came over and gave me strict orders for one helper to come home covered in mud or other stuff or we would both be without a job.
I drove out to Pruitt Lake and pulled in and parked where I knew where to find some hubs.
Set up on one and had the other hand to give me a backsite and I turned an angle to a duck box on pole out in the middle of a flag pond.
Gave the lead end of the tape to the victim and said I need a measurement to the center of that pole with the duck box on it.
He came back that day covered in mud, muck and algae breast high.
Dude never came back and the boss was delighted cause he was some kind of inlaw and he could not fire him.
As a rookie chairman I quickly learned how much things like chains and mag locators cost. Nothing worse than having 3 chains in the truck. It'd take a week to notice one missing. Another week to figure out where it was. But not setting the last corner would generally get the "uh ... the chairman thought he heard a gunshot ... so we ..."
