Day 3: MBTS

Today was a very laid back day at Murphy Brothers Tree Service Inc. I got to the shop at the usual time, 6:45am. I warmed up the trucks, fueled the saws and did a quick pre trip inspection as I waited for the guys to get there. When Kevin arrived, he informed me that today was going to be a "non productive" day. It was just Kevin and I today because Linus was at the firehouse and Steve had to teach a child seat safety course. We started off the day by taking down a small Pine tree and pruning a Hemlock tree of a house. Kevin started teach me the art of pruning with hand snips and a hand saw instead of using a chain saw. My job was to prune from the ground up to as high as I could go then Kevin would get the top with the bucket truck. The second job we did was to chip a brush pile. This took us all of ten minutes because we wrapped a wench around the pile of brush and it dragged it right to the chipper. After this chipping job, we were done with tree work for the day. We now needed to bring the chip truck to get an oil change and fix a transmission leak, and drop the chipper off to get welded because of stress and vibration cracks. Since it was just Kevin and I, we had the pick up truck and chip truck and chipper. I thought I would be driving the pick up truck, following Kevin the mechanic, but I was wrong. Kevin had me drive the chip truck and chipper. We had to make two stops, one to the welder to drop the chipper then to the mechanic to drop the chip truck. When we got to the welder to drop the chipper off, Kevin never got out of the pick up. He put down the window and told me, "Pretend I'm not here, how would you disconnect the chipper." I did so with no problem and now we were off the mechanic. On the way to the mechanic, we got stuck behind a school bus that was making stops every couple hundred feet. I thought I was going to have a lot of trouble, but in fact it was good practice for me getting out of the low gear and into first gear. One of the times I was stopped on the middle of a hill, and that is the worst possible situation to be in to shift. I thought for sure I was going to stall out, so did Kevin. Some how I didn’t. I took my time and did not get nervous and I was fine. Kevin told me that getting out of low and first gear are the hardest things to do. He was very pleased with how I handled the truck today on my own. Since Monday, I already feel more comfortable behind the wheel. After the chip truck was dropped off, we went back to the shop to get the bucket truck. It was now time to wash and wax the bucket truck. We took it down to the back of the firehouse, and enjoyed the beautiful weather while we washed. We scrubbed every inch of the truck, from the tires, to the boom of the bucket. This took us just about 3 hours. Kevin told me that the washing of the trucks is a weekly job, whether is during the week or on the weekend. They do this so that the trucks look nice when we pull up to job sights, so they will last longer, and most of all because they take pride in all their equipment. We finished up at 2pm. I was very happy with what I was able to accomplish today behind the wheel of the International 4700 chip truck, and I feel as though I will be getting better at driving everyday.