PET PEEVE

> I don't know why it is that I always get a "hand" (that's an employee for you city fellers) that thinks because they have a machete in their hand they should be chopping on something with it.
> FOR GOODNESS SAKE, IF IT DON'T NEED TO BE CUT, LEAVE IT ALONE!

If they have idle time while you are doing calc's or whatever, they should be sharpening it... or folding redheads for traverse nails or something constructive... not just putzing around... I ALWAYS had an issue with that.

That is absolutely one of my biggest pet peeves!!

My first "real" surveying job the owner ALWAYS had something for us to do. I must have tied ribbon to thousands of 60d nails over the years. We also always pre-painted our lath and hubs, sometimes 4 or 5 bundles at a time.

If you got time to lean; you got time to clean.
:snarky:

Had a kid on a crew once who "practiced" blazing trees while minding the backsight. We were no where near the boundary when I caught him doing that. He got an a..chewing for that. A few days later our LS with out with us and saw the handy work and asked what f... that was all about. We told him he already got the chewin out but that slow down the big dog none.
He never did that again. ya'think. 🙂

edit: that's a peeve a wouldn't call a pet 🙂

Give the guy a secateur along with the machete in his trimming / cutting kit. Explain that surveyors need to leave as small as possible a trace in most situations; landowners appreciate. The secateur is a good reminder to these helpers that enjoy whacking with a machete.

:beer:

if you have time to lean, you have time to clean

I will remember that one, catchy.

The first part of my lesson on cutting brush is "come here and look there at the next place we are going. Pick out what green or brush that is in the way of seeing there and try to only cut what is in the way"

On average it takes about 6 weeks after that before the 1st lesson is fully understood.

😉

:good:

> The first part of my lesson on cutting brush is "come here and look there at the next place we are going. Pick out what green or brush that is in the way of seeing there and try to only cut what is in the way"
>
> On average it takes about 6 weeks after that before the 1st lesson is fully understood.

Yup, kind of like the old phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Another thing that will teach them is when they chop their first new pair of boots, jeans, gloves or get some stitches because they slipped off the log during backswing, or worse yet is a dull machete and the branch just snaps back and somehow always at your eye.

Out here in cactus land, machete's are kind of useless. I use rose cutter lopper thingy's, and always with gloves on. Much safer, faster, easier, and less destructive. There is always some kind of work-a-round, but the arms still take a hit.

I kind of like above - you got time to lean, you got time to clean

This issue reminds me of a court case back in 1976 or so (I think it was IMEC v. Stevenson) where the surveyors were being cavalier about their "brushing" of line. It makes for a good read if you can find the case.

We took the machetes away from the crews.

Rope
Hand clips
Loppers
Sawsall

In that order.

We paint some of our witness stakes white. These are set at monuments only. My pet peeve si when someone ties flagging onto the stake and leaves it when the job is done. It defeats the whole purpose of Presentation.

Late fall 2006, while walking the boundary of an irregular shaped parcel adjacent 2 high dollar subdivisions, my rodman decided he was going to cut any and all saplings in his path. This was a wooded area with minimal undergrowth so the pace was quick and unobstructed. After the second swing, I asked him why he was cutting and his reply was that he was bored. Since he was a hunter, I asked him how he would feel if he was in a stand, scouting out his hunting area and someone came along making enough noise to wake the dead. I then pointed to the hunter in the stand about 20' from the line we were walking, about 20' in the pines. Needless to say, Mr. Rodman was thankful he wasn't alone and the scout was unarmed.

[sarcasm]How do you want it, registered ? It's the machete or the spray paint can, your choice.[/sarcasm]

😛

Crotch high punji sticks. Always seem to have to go through this with the young guys swinging their machete waste high at sharp downward angle leaving a sharp pointed crotch high stob that somebody could easily impale themselves on. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I got that lecture myself once upon a time.

Many years ago in nowhere AK, miles from any road and traversing through the woods. I was at the gun, everything calced, everything as clean as it needed to be while still in the field, no need to preflag nails, machete sharp enough to shave with. Just waiting on the other guy to get to the next ridge and figure where to set the next trav point.

There was this 18" birch that might have been on line, maybe a little bit, if the guy setting the next point decided that heading down the next ridge a 100 or so feet off the inversed direction to the corner we were after better served for our traverse. That machete edge I had spent so much time perfecting needed testing, so...

PET PEEVE.....Spray paint

Spray paint vandalism to decorate /highlight survey marks is my pet peeve.

'Tis visual pollution.

RADU

PET PEEVE.....Spray paint

> Spray paint vandalism to decorate /highlight survey marks is my pet peeve.
>
> 'Tis visual pollution.
>
> RADU

YES I agree, now that I am older. I confess my guilt though when first starting my career in my teenage years. I have become pretty grouchy lately when this happens now.

> There was this 18" birch

I've reached an age at which I'm pretty sure my elbows would give out long before an 18" birch fell to a machete, no matter how sharp.