Our Worst season yet

all right well it's been raining all day and now it's like really [Music] raining and we're off good morning everybody we're getting an early start today we need to get rock we got a little further along yesterday than we was thinking we were going to which ain't a bad thing but got a boogie out there real quick with this rock so otherwise they ain't going to have nothing to do but I'll stop talking ain't nothing to it but to do it let's go all right first shot last there we go [Music] all right do our pre-trip fill out our log book and get on down the road oh that's a big old boy you guys see him there he goes look at that guy come here let's get you out of the way we go under the topper that's a good spot for you big Old Toad dang all right we're all hooked up pre-trip done log book filled out it did end up digging out those pallets so I don't got to do it again in a little bit and we're off Worst season yet it started this winter when winter skipped us we had one of the driest Winters in Minnesota History but then it was followed by one of the wetest springs that we've had so all of the moisture that we needed in January and February and March to keep us busy working skipped us but it came in May June July and into August where we've been getting hit with rain and thunderstorms and system after system but if you're a contractor you should be ready ready for that and I'm going to share some of the strategies that I used over the years to level out some of those uneven bumps that inevitably will come our way [Music] now we got to go get blacks [Music] all right good morning everybody so y'all's going to have to use your imagination we're time traveling jumping jumping forward a day so yesterday got our first step set Little Wing wall all this stuff got a I got a little bit more base to get in I don't think we're going to have to run it all the way to the curb like we were initially thinking the yard dumps down real quick over here and if I'm doing my mathematics correctly once we get kind of past the shovel there all you're going to be seeing is like cap and I think that might look kind of dumb but we'll cross that bridge once we get a little closer to it that'll be a future problem H so today steps we got quite a bit of rain last night we did a whole bunch of prep but it's still pretty wet it's just kind of how this year's been going ain't nothing but a thing had two step UPS down in here or step Downs in here that one went real quick that one freaking was a bear finally got her lick I ain't going to say how long it took me yeah we're going to have a day of uh building and no back filling it looks like [Music] he all right good morning everybody I'm tired today thankfully it's Friday it's been a week um so we got most of our stairs in yesterday we were thinking that we could get away with six it didn't quite work out like that so we got to slap that seventh one in there we're going to do that right away in the morning get the rest that the rest of that second wall all built up today so that's all done we're a little bit behind on our time frame here just cuz that first wall took such a a long time to demo out um we kind of made up for it on how quick the second wall went but we got concrete guys coming on Monday to demo and start pouring the driveway so we might be here tomorrow doing the Caps just so that that's all the way done and we're not going to be in their way or anything like that so we'll we'll have to see where we get today but after the steps we just got a little bit of wall to throw up and then it's a little paer walkway going from the steps to the uh their their deck it's not going to be very big it's going to be like 12 by4 I think 12 and A2 by4 something like that we'll see once we get into it and where this final step lies um that's all I got that's all I got let's get into the day [Music] all right well it's been raining all day and now it's like really raining so we're going to leave but we got our stairs in Wing walls are done got that built up a couple more courses and uh got a decent amount of stuff done for how long we were out here I'm happy with that you happy with that Zach I'd say i' say we got a lot done for with the WEA being the way way it is yep Silver Lining all right wow it is really really raining over there it is filling up our drain socks all right well let's get picked up all right so weird weather day we got a little bit of a break in between fronts it looks like so me and Zach are frantically going to throw this pallet up get this built up to where we want it to be so that we just had to do caps over here on Monday or tomorrow Saturday so like I said yeah concrete's coming on Monday and then we don't have to be in their way at all we could do caps from the back but I'm not super a big fan of doing that yeah our back fill is all soaked so all we're going to do real quick is get this up to height and then get some get some fill in here tomorrow and caps hopefully and all that stuff but we're racing the rain racing the rain it's been a lot of that this year huh racing rain yeah yeah yeah lot of lot of rain lot of rain [Music] good morning everybody so our last day on site today um we're a little bit behind on this one not too bad like I said that first wall we had to take out was built to hell in back so that took a little bit longer to demo out we made up for that a little bit on that second wall um then we had like 3 days of rain so that was kind of just how this year's been going it seems like which is fine um so yeah last day it's going to be a whole lot of cleaning up going to get our little patio walkway all finished up right away in the morning just edgy in sand and give her a good old I'll give her a couple of good old packs and that'll be that and a whole bunch of cleaning up and some grading and it will be on to the next one that's all I got let's get into the day for me me survival has always meant Imagining the worst possible scenario and being absolutely prepared and ready for that so that if it doesn't come everything else is cake and that's why you see a lot of times I talk about getting ready about getting prepared about putting systems in place it's because as a business owner you never know what the future holds but you hold the future in Your Hands by getting ready for the different kinds of scenarios that can come down the pipeline see most people that are employes don't worry about the future because they have a 40-hour work week ahead of them so they think about one week at a time but as a business owner we have 52 week work weeks work years so that means we're always constantly thinking about what is h going to be happening next and how are we going to prepare for that it's a completely different mind frame so if you were thinking about starting a business you've got to fundamentally change how you think about the future and I don't even think about the future in one year Rifts anymore for me it's always fiveyear Rifts now when I began I thought about seasonal riffs I thought about okay I got to optimize this season in case the next season is bad but no then I As I Grew and matured as a business owner I realized that think about this year because next year could be bad when you start to live through different kinds of recessions but then when you see the impact that a long-term recession can have on a person you think about how long can a recession last well the average recession can last about 3 years before it starts to slowly climb out so if you have a fiveyear plan then you should be safe so that's how I've always survived as a business owner is not thinking about this week next week next season next year but always in a 5year time frame so my question to you is what do you think is going to happen in the next 5 years scary put it in the comments down below but tell me what you think now as a contractor I don't just worry about my 5-year game plan there is more to it I actually break each season down and think about the worst possible case scenarios inside of a season so let's take snowplowing for instance if I want to survive a bad snow plowing season I don't put all my eggs in one basket and go out and bid on an hourly basis I have some hourly accounts so if it does get snowy I'm covered but I also have some monthly account accounts and monthly accounts means these are accounts that pay me whether I plow or don't plow and I get this balance between accounts so that season no matter what can happen I Will Survive That season into the next season but now when it comes to spring summer and fall and you can get these really rainy seasons and I don't worry about drought so much because I just don't mow Lawns so I don't have to worry about making Tall Grass short but I do worry about excess rain and the way you can combat excess rain as a contractor that does what we do is demolition Demolition and working off from hard surfaces so not only do I look for a number of jobs that are my typical profit makers but I also look for those jobs that if it starts pouring rain down I have a hard surface that I can work off from doing a building demolition doing uh uh new retaining walls off from a driveway those are things that allow me to for the most part continue work and not completely shut my job sites down what do you guys do but that's it for this video hope you guys enjoyed going along for the ride God bless and go get him you guys we'll catch you on another one good morning everyone all right we're all wrapped up concrete guys did their concrete things all right well that's that on to the next one which I'm pretty sure is another wall we'll find out when we get there all right and then if any of y'all viewers or anybody's looking for a concrete company or any concrete work um bombardo those are the guys that we use they're out of the Twin Cities they've been doing it for a long time they do some really fantastic work can't recommend them enough can't say enough good things about them they're a great group of guys so you need any work done those are the guys to talk to all right everybody I got a uh update on the critters that fell out of our wall there my uh better half came and picked them up and took him to the um animal rescue and it turns out that they were red squirrels which was super bizarre cuz they were nested way deep down into that wall and the gals up at the rescue had never heard of uh red squirrels making nests in a old block wall but um one of them I can't remember if it was in the video or not but had kind of a cut um down at stomach um so I called a couple of days after she dropped them off um to see how they were doing uh the one that had the cut in his stomach took like three stitches and other that other than that he's doing great and then um so they'll be at the rescue for couple more weeks here getting big and strong and get released back out into the wild [Music]