Day 82....I still hate rocks......threw a track, broke teeth.......need to charge a lot more. I was adding a $350 premium to the quote if I walked any rocks bigger than 2". It's not enough that I charge the regular crew day ($3200) for getting .75 to 1 acre per day, the abuse of the machine or the body(constant bumping travel), it's the mental stress of listening/feeling for the tell tale signs of the machine walking right out of it's tracks at the slightest turn. I've had three rock jobs now. I"m thinking of adding $800 to the quote (per crew day) to anything with the visible basalt (the worst) or granite (2nd worst) that is abundant in certain areas of the local area. Even if they lay flat with the ground, if feels like railroad tracks in the cab, plus you cant get low with the head or sparks (best case) or chunks of carbide go flying. What does everybody think? Too much? or not enough? Chris

Question, what are you guys doing about Facebook ad comments? I’ve had two comments left. One was telling me to stop mulching I’m ruining the land. The other one was a competitor that absolutely cussed me up and down for forestry mulching. Have you guys ran into this before and can you turn comments off on your Facebook ads? It’s not a boosted post. It’s an actual ad we run through ad manager.

Got tired of throwing chains around. I had chains and these Peerless binders. It took 20 minutes to get tied down and 10 minutes to get unhooked. I picked up these "easy ratchet" binders and it now takes less than 5 minutes to tie down and 2 minutes to unhook. Easy to swap hooks or add chain for extra length (with a double clevise). So for one transport I went from one hour ( roughly) to fifteen minutes with less exertion, which really helps at the end of the day.

Beyond considering which equipment dealer has the largest presence and best service, (more physical shops the better) check if they have mobile mech/techs they can send to you in the field. I bought CAT (4 CAT locations within 1.5 hours of home base, a fifth is 2.5 hours, and a major distribution warehouse full of parts in town), I've had a couple hydraulic issues that were handled same day in the field. Just had another (hydraulic leak somewhere in the tub) and called my tech directly and he's coming at 0600 tomorrow. I lucked out and of them lives 10 minutes from home base. Mulching is hard on machines and down time slaughters productivity. Lost an hour today, worst case is losing tomorrow. Best case is its another O-ring blew out and I'll be up and back working by 0800. I was considering ASV (only on shop within 6 hour drive) and Deere (Two construction shops, 1 and 3 hours away), but the repair network at CAT made it an easy choice.

Met with a contractor today that does fire mitigation by hand (no machine). He wants to collaborate with us since he does not want to buy equipment. Trying to figure out a fair way to work together? He is also a general contractor. I was thinking of billing him with a 10% discount if he brings us in on a job. Does that seam reasonable?