Day 9

Nov. 14, 2017
Woke up around6:30am

I woke up today to the sound of rain and decided to rest a bit more and wait a few hours before heading out. The rain cleared around noon and I headed directly to the lot. After about an hour and a half, my chainsaw chain got snagged and broke so I had to go out and buy a new one.

While I was out Hank called to tell me(not ask) that I needed help today and insisted that he took off work just to help me out and this would be the last day he can offer his help for a while. I did not ask for his assistance nor asked him to take the day off for me. We made a deal earlier in the week that if I needed help I would pay $25/hr for a minimum of 4 hours. The minimum was his idea as he said he can”t come out to waste his time for only a couple of hours.

Well, I reluctantly agreed to have his assistance as this would be the last time I use it and any help at this point counts. I do not mind being asked for work, but I do not like being told who I have to hire and when to hire them. I knew it would be getting dark in a few hours so if I wanted to get my money’s worth I better rush to get back.

Once I got back, with the new chains, I knew there would not be very much time left in the day so I wanted to hurry. Well, Hank had other plans. He came with food in his hand and decided to sit and eat his lunch first. After me pushing him to get started he slowly got going.  Making sure not to do anything major until the excavator guy came by to give me a quote.

At this point, I became fully aware of his ulterior motive. He only came by today because I was having someone come by to give a quote for excavating and he wanted to chase them away so I would hire his mate. Even before the guy arrived he kept making remarks as to how I should not trust this guy and how all people will just be trying to take advantage of me.

once the guy arrived, I quickly informed him of my neighbor’s intentions and to completely ignore his remarks. I went off with the guy away from Hank to talk. He kept trying to hover. Finding any excuse to come over to where we were. I got the quote but am still on the fence about who I might hire.

The one thing I do know is I am no longer going to ask Hank for help. I might hire him for one more day as this will be the last of the trees, and they need at least two people to take them down without them falling on the neighbors home. After this, I will do the rest sol. He did manage to get his 4-hour minimum for 2 hours worth of work. unfortunately, this is still the cheapest route to go, as tree services are extremely expensive here. But I could have pretty much done most of this work by myself.

Hopefully, I can find someone who is not out to try and take me for everything I have with as little effort as possible. I guess we will see.