HessLawns 2012 Pictures

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by PlantscapeSolutions

I was losing my mind in 2007 trying to use "born here" folks still. I only needed two guys but guys would come and go on a regular basis and quality control was suffering. I found two visa guys at ABC who wanted to jump ship the legal way. I was going to get skilled workers instead of getting straight out of Mexico workers who had no experience and may take a ton of training. And because they were returning workers they would not count against the cap at the time. Things were looking really good.

I spent $4000 and then the wheels came off the wagon. Two laws lapsed since Congress could agree on anything and the fact that my guys were H2BR didn't matter anymore. At first I thought my guys would be late and then it became apparent that I wasn't going to get anything but a $4000 gap in my bank statement.

Four years later the temp guys that I hired while I was waiting on my visa's are still my workers. My feeling was the government may screw me once and cause me to incur a $4000 loss but it's not going to happen twice. It's not like you can tell your clients maybe next year I'll have workers to mow your lawns. You have to do whatever it takes in this business to find and retain workers. The papers look good to me and E-Verify is not required is all I have to say.

The minimum visa pay used to be the federal minimum for visa guys. I was going to pay my guys $9 plus OT. It's funny to see the visa ads posted in the paper for job openings. The goal is to make the job look as crappy and low paying as possible. My ad had to go in the San Antonio paper even though I'm in Buda. I got two calls and sent out two certified letters about the jobs and of course never got a reply. It was just dead beats trying to extend their unemployment benefits I suspect.

Better kinda watch out .....I don't quite understand about your visa guy but if he still coming across on a yearly basis you will need to pay the new amount which is $11.75 The cost is a lot more than $4K now and the risk are high of not getting approved. The good part for us is we got a set of guys that want to come back real bad. And they are in a small town that could provide us more workers. We got two guys last year that never seen a trimmer work and I can tell you that in less than 30 days these guys could edge just fine. And our guys jump out of the truck and away they go and one guy is 40 years old. Before we got him 3 years ago he was digging irrigation trenches by hand.....he is really really happy with us. Before the drug problem in Mexico my son traveled to this town and talked to the potential people before submitting their names. One week ago we thought we was screwed for the year with shortage of workers now they should be on their was but not counting chickens before they hatch.

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by orlawncaresvc

You had to wash your mowers decks after cutting all those weeds, right? Don't wanna infest the good lawns.
Posted via Mobile Device

What do you mean those are the good lawns Yes I go home and wash my mower and put that snake oil on it....NOT. We don't mow any private homes with that mower and TRUGreen is my weed guy on the HOA properties.

[PlantscapeSolutions]

Originally Posted by ed2hess

What do you mean those are the good lawns Yes I go home and wash my mower and put that snake oil on it....NOT. We don't mow any private homes with that mower and TRUGreen is my weed guy on the HOA properties.

I recently got a letter in the mail from TruGreen letting me know I could use them as a sub for application work. I've been using Gye with Excell Pest & Lawn to do a bunch of sprays this spring.

[ed2hess]

Some of the stuff we got for this year. My boss took the purchasing away from me a couple years ago after I bought a snapper Pro. So I don't know what we are getting until we pick it up. Found two things about that vrider one is it don't go up curbs, and no don't tell me to go up backwards. Nearly rolled the front wheel off trying that. And good thing most operators are not 6' tall. And I thought I would never see the day that we would buy an edger One last time we are gong to try edging. And decided to get the big bad boy Honda not the cheaper one I recommended.

[LawnMan19]

Ahh yeah, I love new equipment.

[ed2hess]

During a rainy day a couple weeks ago I go to Walmart and the birds were just thick everywhere. And the rain is causing these rough cut areas to almost grow out of control. The big Briggs met its match. Guess I need to level the deck to get a cut cut eh Or maybe put some grease on the udnerside of my deck

[Chevy z71]

Nice honda 21inch.

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by Chevy z71

Nice honda 21inch.

We said we was never going to buy another 21" that is over $1K but here we are again. We had a 10 year old one that we put back into one of the trailers because of problems with a 21" snapper. It was always something with those units. I didn't get one call for repair on the old Honda for almost 6 months. Those Honda units just start so easy compared to Kaw on snapper.

[LawnMan19]

Originally Posted by Chevy z71

Nice honda 21inch.

That sure is.

[PlantscapeSolutions]

Ed if you want some edger blades I have about $100 worth of them lying around some where. Take that big cushy pad off your V-ride, the small fold down rider platform, and the extra weight plates under the front deck. This will allow the rider to stand over the center of gravity better. My V-ride 36 is about 80 lbs lighter and handles the hills better on cross cuts.