Steve Mercer

I view it differently Craig,
What are your 3 most valuable assets? 
 
Answer:  Your Health
 
                Your knowledge
 
                Your Time
Anything that can augment those three things are priceless!  Don’t gag at the nat and turn around and swallow the camel!
 
As to your second comment about dabbling in surveying… This is all…[Read more]

That attitude may afford you more sleep but this method will make you more money 🙂  !
 
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Ah but now you are in the relm of Human emotion.  And as such someone who is deathly allergic of bees wants to be as far from them as possible.  And even though what you say is true and logical, emotion has nothing to do with either.
 
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It seems like every company that has a problem getting rid of some waste by-product.  Grinds and colors it and mixes it with some landscape product an sells in a premium bag for the John Q homeowner that hasn’t got a clue.
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Hi Andrew
I invested 12,700.00
That included the Gun, 360′ Prisim, 2 (new) Field Hawk Radios, cable to connect the radio to the gun, Carlson SurvCE, and Carlson Survey and my Motorola MC75 and a holder for my data collector on the prisim pole.  I traded my topcon total station in so if you count that the above figure would be $2,800.00 less.  B…[Read more]

yeah and the flip side of that here in Louisville last year (where it is the smoking capital of the US) was a resturant that had rubber mulch layed in the landscape around the building.  One stray cigerette butt caught the mulch on fire and burnt the resturant to the ground!
 
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I doubt they are grinding those western cedars just for mulch.  Most of them are sawed for lumber and the bark is debarked before sawing and turned into muclh. (they would other wise waste the bark what is the problem?)  I have never been a fan of Black hardwood muclh,  So companies mix charcoal with the mulch to get it black  (the eqvialent of…[Read more]

Most retailers don’t want big shade trees in the parkinglot.  What happens to a parking lot of cars with large shade trees shading the cars when a sudden bad storm pops up?  Lots of damaged cars and pissed off customers!
 
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I suspect this is just a strategy to get zoning appoval.  Later after the project is complete and the tree is dead, they quitely come back in an remove the Island to make room for more cars!  I have seen that done more than once.
 
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That works great right up until the grass dies in the fall.  I pity the feller that has his car parked beside the island when some dipstick thows a well lit cigerete into that 6′ tall ball of gasoline called a ornamental grass clump.  At the very least the guy needs a new paint job on his car if not worse.
 
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Hi Jason, 
 
Well I am using a Leica Robotic Total station and Carlson SurvCE software on a Windows Mobile Device using Bluetooth Field Hawk radios between the Windows Mobile Device and the Leica Robot.  And it is very convienant because I also use my Windows Moble device for Remote Point of Sale, Tracking Crew Time by Job and also tracking eq…[Read more]

There is always the possibility of missing something.  Having said that if you are actually drawing your site-work drawing as you are shooting the shots, having the capability to see what the drawing looks like right there in the field drastically cuts down those return trips to the job site.
 
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I have to say that hiring a good salesperson to run interference for you would be a better approach.  And if you were using a Robotic Total Station you would be on-ste (depending on the size and scope of the job) 2 to 6 hours as opposed to 2 days.  By the time you got the data back to the office the site-work drawing would be complete and you wo…[Read more]

I would recommend a used Leica Robotic Total Station.  (my Robot is also reflectorless)  The Robot gives you a lot more capability.  Recording Contours is a breeze!  Reflectorless guns are good for taking shots to things like walls of a building they are not well suited for taking shots say to a property line pin or doing contour shots.  The Robo…[Read more]

I suspect that there is room for both native and non-native plants in the landscape.  People get tired of the same old thing over and over again.  So mix it up -why limit yourself to one camp or the other?  Just remember the plants that have stood the test of Father Time in your area are the natives. 
 
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You are most welcome Amy!  🙂 !!!
 
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Hi Thomas,
Check out this application,  I don’t think they have a droid app yet but one exists on WM and on a desktop PC it is REALLY COOL!
 
http://www.evernote.com/
 
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Depends on your point of view I guess.  Personally I find being able to use a mobile version of Excel and Word comes in mighty handy.  Using my WM phone to clock in mobile work crews with GPS location (that integrates into our Accounting system back at the office is pretty handy.  Oh and using my WM phone as a Data collector for my robotic Su…[Read more]

Android is still a relatively young platform for productivity apps.  Though it has promise it has a long way to go before catching up with more mature platforms such as Windows Mobile.  Though I scratch my head sometimes at Microsoft’s strategies.  Most all of the productivity apps for Windows Mobile are for WM 6.5 and lower.  WM 7 is a com…[Read more]

Sounds like a fluffer program to me.  Farmers have been stepping off fields for years and this is only an appoximation at best. When building Retaining Walls and Patios, I use a Leica Robotic Total Station survey instrument.  It is the only way to precisely measure (for quotation purposes) and then build the structure using the stake out f…[Read more]