Smack Talk on a job site - I will make some of you mad- How contractors really communicate Landscape

So, we're out on our landscaping site. It's the middle of November and we're going to talk about the fact that November is the best time of the year to lay sod to get everything wrapped up because it's also a time of the year when you have the least amount of maintenance that you ever have to do. That right there brings up a good point. Inside our company, it's always the laborer's job to look out for the piece of equipment. It is never the equipment operator's job to look out for the laborer. Although that may sound bass backwards in this age of millennials where you guys think you can randomly walk across the street at any time and expect a car to stop for you. Well, guess what? It weighs more than you do. So, if they don't happen to see you, you're the one paying the price. Now, in this case, on our job sites, we always tell operators, look out for the laborers, but we teach the laborers, don't assume that they are going to see you. This guy doesn't have the visibility that I have. I can rotate my head around. This guy's got two boom arms up here. We're supposed to be talking about the best time of the year to lay out. I don't know if that's going to be the topic of this video. You know, when I do these, I don't know what I'm going to talk about in the first place. Not for sure. So, we're wrapping up this landscaping job. It's the middle of November. And one of the things that I want to point out is it's the this is the best time of the year to lay sod because the owner of this house is going to do nothing with this sod when we're done. In fact, if he waters it once, that's probably the most he's ever going to have to do with this. In this case, you got how much how many inches of black dirt we got laid down, Tim? Six. 6 in. Way overkill. In fact, I looked him in the eye. I said, "That's overkill." His wife wanted 12 in, though. That's what she said. Actually, that is what she said. She wanted 12 in of black dirt and we said, "This is just too much." In fact, what happens is when you get too much black dirt in place, the roots of the sod rot. It needs free draining soil. So, when you lay this sod down, the roots love moisture, but they don't love mud, right? So, as it goes as the roots go down, they want to be watered, but they don't want to be drowned. If you drown them, if you lay too much organic material down, you get your black dirt too thick. What's going to happen is those roots are not going to be able to breathe and they're going to die. The sod is going to suffer more than having too much black dirt is going to make your sod suffer than not having enough black dirt. Believe it or not, these sod rolls, come here. Take a look at this. This is what I mean. These rolls of sod. Yeah, I'm talking. You can talk if you want. Let's see where we got the door. Why are they no good? No, they're good. lock went to lock this yesterday. Yeah. The other day locked it. Yeah. Just and then went to unlock it. It just spun right out. Uh got them. All right. So, we had Are we rolling? Oh, yeah. So, we had all of our doors stolen. So, now it's stuck in the lock position. So, was me. That sounds like someone who's guilty. Hey, you put it on. That's true. And uh Elliot, actually Elliot built them. We had to assemble these doors. They were $700 each. They're normally about $1,800 each. We bought them at allidsteers.com. So I'll have to get a hold of allskidsteers.com and see if allskidsteers.com is going to fix this door for me or if it's my fault. It could be my fault. It was probably your fault. It's actually his fault. Anyway, all skidsteers.com. [Laughter] That just spun right out of there. That doesn't look spun. That looks snapped, right? But look at them. That does not look like a very uh strong metal there. So, I'm I'm just going to go right off the cuff and see aluminum. I don't think these are quite as good as standard Bobcat. Well, at least that part's not cuz I went to lock it and I went to unlock it and it just kept spinning. Then we found a stick. That's our new key. So, you got to leave this door cracked. Then you got to get to the handle and go pop and it opens. Golly. So, I can't tell you how many times I've locked myself out already cuz the habit is to walk out the door and let it shut. And let it shut. You're like, or you could get in here and undo that little screw and then this piece will come out and then you don't have to worry about it. Well, then you got nothing. Well, you still have that piece. Never mind. Yeah. You still It'll still It's still um Okay. So, all right. I'll have to get a hold of them. But yeah, that pushes right into there. So, if we get this out, and if you if you sense any sense of contempt on any of our parts, well, then your senses are right. Cuz the last thing I've got I mean, hell, I've got nothing better to do, right? I mean, yeah. I'm going to call them and go, I need this little tiny part set. Find time to do that. It's the lock tumbler. All right. So, we were talking about black dirt. Sod comes You know what, Tim? Sod comes with black dirt. So, I want to get back on this sod topic. Even though it's not the most important thing to talk about, it's something that got to be it has to be mentioned. Are any of the things that you talk about important though? Uh, I guess to some people um camera crew today. Yeah, Elliot's Elliot's here to help you. Actually, you have to hire such a ly camera crew cuz then Yeah, I know. Yeah. I let him be in one video and all of a sudden he thinks he should be in them all. All right. So, come here. Zoom in on this. See? All right. So, here's this is a great example. This is actually froze. All right. Back off a little, Elliot. So, you can see that this is froze. That's good. That really is good. As long as you can unroll it and lay it down, this customer, his life is easier. If we laid this stuff in July or August and it didn't rain and even if he was out there watering it every day, the heat of the day is going to cook the sod even when it's wet. It'll cook that moisture underneath and it will literally just kill this sod. Laying it later in the year or super early is better. We've actually had to take a butane heater, put it on these rolls and thaw them out enough to roll them out, lay them out. I've laid this stuff when it's snowing. I've laid it in sle freezing rain, and the best results you will ever have with the least amount of maintenance is later in the year is so much better than in July or August. You can still late in July or August, but you got a lot more work laid out for you. Is there anything else we need to know about this site, Tim? Are you hand raking everything? Going to Yeah. I was going to get that vent track attachment, but I got to go get the skid or the trailer and go get it. Yeah. And sod was on its way already. Still on it. The vent. So, there's a vent a track attachment for the vent track and it's called a power rake. I think that that is just the bomb. Yeah, it would be for this. Yeah. Oh, and we also need the multi-tool, don't we? We need the Echo multi-tool to clean. Yeah. I didn't know you're back. I can go get it, but I was going to get I was going to get a blower and a and the multi-tool. What do you want to put for blow? Blower doesn't do anything. You think it's going to blow anything off? Yeah, it'll blow the sawdust off, but it won't blow. Bill brought them up. The customer brought them up, went out and picked them up and had them delivered. He wants one set and a couple He wants one set somewhere around. So then the question is, are we setting them in the ground? Or we just setting them on top of the on top of the sod. Right on top of the sod. Well, we can cut sod around it or I just don't like that look. I'd rather if I was going to do it, if I was going to have my choice, I'd always try to do a boulder setting, pock them in like, oh, look at what mother nature has exposed because literally that's the best way for it to look, not just here's two monumental stones sticking in the front of a person's yard. Hey, Stan, how do you feel about that? How do you feel about rocks sitting in your grass? I think I I painted that picture enough. All right. Uh, steel edging. We've got steel edging on this site. Blaine, how did that go in? No, seriously. How did it go in? Uh, it's tough to put in. But is it tough? Is it tougher than black? Oh, yeah. Way tougher. Yeah. Really? No. Why is that? Uh, you got to get them like almost perfectly level because of joints. Okay. They don't bend this way. No. No. They bend this way a lot. Okay. They bend the way you don't want them to bend. Especially when you want straight lines. Okay. But and you know, working in the mud. And I see you have corner joints. Oh, I see you have corner joints, but I also see you you you've actually leveled it. Did is this Did you use this? Yeah, we actually level it. No, I actually brought that out to show you how level it with the driveway cuz the driveway's got a small pitch this way. Oh, okay. All right. All right. All right. We just went straight across. So you took the level and just put if you put it like on the edge of these two. Okay. So you took the level maybe just a hair higher. Just a hair higher over here. Okay. So we're higher here than there. Yep. So you didn't you didn't just go and stick it in. That's my new word of the day by the way. I mean that gets the What's your word? Making sure. So, you actually took time to make sure? We had to match the driveway pretty much all the way out until we got to the sidewalk because the sidewalk's higher. I don't have to tell him. Sidewalk's higher than the driveway. But see, he did all of this while I was in Chicago and Tim your thumbs. What was Tim doing? Was Tim? I don't even think I just stood here and watched him. Yeah, Tim, you weren't even here for two weeks. You were up chasing elk. It's a weird way weird word weird word for women. Elk. No, he was literally chasing elk. So, day in the life on one of our a day. What should we call? Maybe a a job site visit. What should we call this? What do you What should we call this? What do you guys What would you call this? Job well done. Job well done. Can you donate here? Elliot picture. Elliot, we need to donate to the Blaine. Oh, yeah. Come here. This is a landscaper. Holy. He's riding those out to the bitter end. Donate, huh? They're not waterproof anymore. This one is Do you Do you have just 10 cents a day you could spare? less than the price of a cup of coffee. Send it to 1 800 Blaine RDE. That's 1800 B L A I N E R U D E located in Egan, Minnesota. All funds donated to the Blaine RDE Foundation will go directly to his feet. Please put that in a video somewhere through the end of the year. I don't even know there. You mean like a month and a half? End of the year. No. When we're done playing in the dirt. Oh, well. Have you met Stan? That might not ever happen. All right, boys. Job well done. And there's the lip behind the camera right there. Heck yeah. No shame. And there's Thomas. We keep putting the camera on him, but he keeps pretending like he's working. He does. Yeah, Thomas. man been working. He's He's really good at doing the least amount of work, but making it look like the most amount of work. Try swinging that thing for about half hour, half a day. Especially when you're like 70, right? Yeah. Can't you tell? I think I got him beat. Who's got more gray? Who's got more gray? Oh, come on. Me or the Mexican? Me. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Before you flame me, he's actually my nephew and I love the crap out of him. But I still got to tease him somehow. I do. I got to edit out the part that I called you next. Yeah, right. Cuz half your viewers are are Hispanic, right? There goes the numbers. My website just crashed. Damn. Mexican. He's actually related to me. He's so I can call We are family. Yeah, we are family. Oh, Tim and I are family. I have no relation to him whatsoever. I want to make sure we put that in. None whatsoever. You sound pretty happy. It's better than nothing, right? I got I got I got one good thing going for me. Wow. Wow. All right. I got to go get you guys a power, bro. All right. All right, job well done, you guys. I hope you guys have job well done. These are my guys. I love them. I love them like brothers from different mothers. No matter who they are, where they are, you guys, too. I want nothing but the best from each and every one of you guys. That's all I can do. Peace. Have a good one, you guys.