I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT MY...

I supposed I could get along OK without my ladder these days. It's rare that a customer doesn't have a hatch.

The one tool that I'm pretty darn sure I could not do this without is my........ wife. She keeps me on track.

Coffee in the morn. Gotta get started with coffee and computer..the rest is easy and quite enjoyable EVERYDAY Oh and my most important is GOD without him/her I would be F.....

I need my safety BELT and tile hangers. This is my new belt, back when they had to be replaced with harnesses (early 90's?) I had about a dozen of them. Since I, as an owner am exempt, I continued to use them and just recently threw away the last of my old ones. I know if I were to go over the edge, a harness would be better. But I also know how much safer and maneuverable I am on the roof with a belt, ascender and climbing rope compared to my employees in a fully compliant harness, lanyard and rope.

The hanger is bent to fit over a tile in the field for storage of tile and tools.

I also have to admit I need employees to help get me going. If I have employees working, the trucks roll out at between 7:15 and 7:30. If I'm just by myself it might be 8:30.

Nice post, woody. Nice floor, too.

If I'm just by myself well "it might be one o'clock and it might be three...time don't mean that much to me...I got my plans I don't know about you...tell y'exactly what I'm agonna do-o..." (60's Rolling Stones I think) Been setting gopher traps in the morning lately and then going to work. So far I've only gotten one, but I definitely nailed him. Maybe I skeered the others off. Hardly.

egg, your gopher reference reminded me of a time back over 40 years ago when I was employed on the railroad gang. We got stationed out on the bald prairie and with no lakes and streams to fish, we used our fishing rods and went fishing "gophers". We made a noose with the fishing line and placed it over the hole, let out a bunch of line, sit back and when they popped their head up we would "set the noose" and it was gopher on. Played a few that decided to run but lost the ones that went down the hole again. The game changed though when we all went to town and bought 22's.

Some cool stories. I've been trying to reduce my cat food bill by 80% via elimination of a whole family of coons that have found our back porch.

Thanks, EGG. I bought my house and shops from a builder customer of mine that had lived here for a couple of decades. When he built the office, he upgraded things to show off his work. It was a time capsule of "elegant 80's" design. Unlike the brass coach-house lighting and gold package bathroom fixtures, the floor is timeless.

I gave up on gopher traps. Just setting it was more likely to draw my blood than the gophers. I use pellets now.

Seen-it-all, that's a picturesque story. Time marches on does it not? lol. Woody, your thumbnail descriptions of things just tear me up. You are a very discerning fellow. I couldn't come up with a more economical way of describing that building aesthetic if my life depended on it.

As far as the gophers go, I cleaned and oiled and put away my six cinch traps after work today. Altogether I got four in about four days. There is no more apparent gopher action anywhere. I actually don't feel any compunction to kill every last one that sets foot on my property; I think they perform beneficial services to the biosphere and they have as much right to a good life as I do, but I can't abide it when they eviscerate my wife's flower beds or undermine the piers of my little storage buildings.

They are stout-hearted little souls. Hard-working, solitary, territorial. Quite like all of us, actually. I got three clean kills but the fourth one hurt me more than just a little. I went to pull the trap out and he was jammed in the runnel and gave out a high-pitched groan of agony. I grabbed a shovel and made as quick and painless work of it as I could. I hate killing things and it made me stop and think about my motives and how implacable I can get when I make my mind up about something.

I'll get the traps out again if I have to, but if they behave themselves, I am willing to live and let live.

For a moment there I was feeling a little bad about the 4 raccoon that have died at the edge of my back porch this week. They were all quite cute and seemingly innocent sitting in that live trap.

But in the circle of life, we have too many raccoon, the flies need to eat too, and the fish under the pole that holds the carcasses will be eating well for the next two weeks. (good thing fish can't smell, woooo weeee, it does get a little on the ranky side)

When we sit down to a meal of slab sided 2 lb. shellcrackers or jumbo yellow perch, we quietly give thanks for the coon, opossum and groundhogs whose flesh fed the maggots who fed the fish, and for the fact that we sit on the top side of the food chain.

Yeah, I guess something else I can't live without is the traps. They struck in another zone this morning and by tomorrow morning they will probably have come to regret it.

I enjoy the good fortune of our food chain location for sure but it occurs to me that it's also a little like that paper/scissors/rock thing. The really really really little guys can bring it all back around in a circle again.

egg: those gophers are like a some new hires. Stout hard working characters but get them around sidewalls, chimneys or skylights and they can do a lot of carnage in a short period of time. As long as they stay out in the "field" they do ok.

lol. Yeah. And if we can keep them out in the "field" all that loose dirt and granules collected in the bottom of their nail bags just blends in with the scenery. (The new-hires, that is.) But now that you mention it, gophers have pouches too. I realize now that's why they call them pocket gophers. And, lord, the connections just won't stop...we all started out as go-fers. I can see that language can get a little dangerous when we look closer. Which brings up another thing with this thread. Something else I don't believe I can live without is my nailbags. I think if I have to give those up it's game over for me. Maybe I can treat them like any other addiction and just try to cut down. Does that ever work?? "It looked extremely rocky for the Mudville nine that day, the score was four to six with but an inning left to play and so, when Cooney died at first and Burroughs did the same, a pallor wreathed the features of the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go, leaving there the rest with that hope that springs eternal from within the human breast..."

my willpower,,without it I would never have seen the 1st day on a roof thru,,I mean after u say to yourslf "wth am I doing here ?" lol

This thread is never reconciled with the actual post date, after the date it was made.

ie: the topics page had it listed as last post by TRG on Friday June 13...

FWIW, maybe it's ploy to get people to read it???

Vickie the Boss Said: What is the one thing you use in your job that you cant live with out?

Tool or Equipment (for installation) or Gadget (for business).

Vickie,

Today it would be my computer. When I was a Pup I had a Pitch Book. When they came out with the Mini DVD players I was all in, matter of fact between those times Polaroid came out with an instant movie film maker and screen. Today, its the Pute. I can market with one and sell with one. I have a Cell Phone but don't talk on it because I can't hear but I can text and it gives me a live Hot Spot for WiFi anywhere.

You can buy the biggest building in the world, have the highest trained staff and applicators but NOTHING happens until someone sells something. :)