What's your longest day this summer been?

[EPSON]

I am 17 my name is Mark and I am usuely a one man band running my own lawn care business, But yesturday (and monday) I worked with a lawn care crew, (they needed some help catching up, and one of the guys is a good friend) it was supposed to get up to 99 + humidity. So to beat the heat we started mowing at 3:00a.m. in the morning, we worked until about 1:30p.m. and then it was getting to hot, So we quit for the day. I got home about 2:00p.m. and took a break. well I said I have my own business to run wich means I have my own lawns to cut, so I was mowing again by 3:00p.m. and it was really hot then. well I mowed until 9:30p.m. and I don't think I have ever been more tired.

I was just wondering what some of your longer days have been, mine most likely is nothing compared to you veteran mowers out there.

-Mark

[BCSteel]

My longest day so far was on June 21.

[craigslawn]

3:00a.m wow , we can/will get ticketed for that.

[jrservices]

I am 17 my name is Mark and I am usuely a one man band running my own lawn care business, But yesturday (and monday) I worked with a lawn care crew, (they needed some help catching up, and one of the guys is a good friend) it was supposed to get up to 99 + humidity. So to beat the heat we started mowing at 3:00a.m. in the morning, we worked until about 1:30p.m. and then it was getting to hot, So we quit for the day. I got home about 2:00p.m. and took a break. well I said I have my own business to run wich means I have my own lawns to cut, so I was mowing again by 3:00p.m. and it was really hot then. well I mowed until 9:30p.m. and I don't think I have ever been more tired.

I was just wondering what some of your longer days have been, mine most likely is nothing compared to you veteran mowers out there.

-Mark

That's a long day. My longest was around 14 hrs. And it was hot.

[RRS]

I haven't had a day nearly that long in this biz, but when I was working on a crew building cell sites, I went a couple years working anywhere from 14-16 hour days for weeks at a time.

We would get projects doing equipment switchovers for cell carriers. All the work had to be done during a night time maintenance window when the call volume was low.

My crew would meet in our hotel parking lot around 8 AM and head to the site to get it prepped for the shutdown that night. Then we'd go back to the hotel around 3 PM and sleep until 8:00 PM. We'd head back to the site to get ready for the 11:00 PM shutdown and normally work until around 3:00 AM.

9 times out of 10 something would go wrong and we'd have to troubleshoot for an hour or two to get the site back on air and we wouldn't finish until daylight.

[The C Man.]

You should be happy you have enough work for long days like that
This is my first year and the longest I've worked is 4 hrs and that's because my mower broke down and I had to take it to the shop and get it fixed which took an hour. It sounds like you may be ready to hire some help already. If things don't pick up around here mabe you could give me a job :p

[EPSON]

3:00a.m wow , we can/will get ticketed for that.

Well, we were doing commercial lots, far enough away from any people's houses. But I/we can't mow any residential area's until after 8:00a.m.

-Markus

[njnewbie]

???

How do you mow and trim in the dark? What do you have flashlight helmets?

I can see having big lights for the mowers but it seems like it would be tough to make perfect stripes in the dark.

Or were there lights at the job site that could be turned on?

If that could be done I'd probably try to take a snow-plowing approach to commercial landscaping in remote locations (although I can't imagine why truly remote locations would care about landscaping). I'd just work 24 hour days on a big ZTR Monday to Wednesday. Give me my ipod and a few cases of redbull and I'd have a couple hundred acres mowed. During the daylight hours I'd pack an army of kids with wackers and blowers in my station wagon to clean up all the props I cut. Then catch up sleep into Thursday and take a nice 3.5 day weekend. You could clear WAY over a grand profit a day that way. I guess it's nice being young and a little crazy though.

Sorta kidding but that story kind of makes you wonder

[emmickslawncare]

I pulled a 16 hour day. Which included mowing my lawns needed for that day and working til 1am on a landscaping job. Made about $1700 that day though

[HemiSize]

lets see... today my partner quit... I need to pay him off his share... I'm in desperate need of a trailer and a 36"... I'm switching accounting programs from quicken to quickbooks... I took over bookeeping for the first time in my life... Sales taxes are due by the end of this month... need to change my partnership into an LLC and figure out what that meanse for my Business insurance and bond... have four personal credit cards almost maxed out... still need to keep up on my work which was not totally a full week for two guys but definatley is full for a one man show... over all todays about the same as tomorow.

[blesttt55]

i hear ya hemi. ever seen that comercial with the fat guy making the donuts. my wife says i talk about mowing in my sleep what little i get
most of my days start at 6 and end when the sun goes down. then there's that blasted paperwork that last till midnight, but if its not done day of, it all runs together into a stack of receipts, invoices, and proposals on the desk.
but it wont be long and it will turn cold, thoughts will go from mowing yards to hunting the fields and woods for that elusive 14 pointer that has it's spot already cleared over the mantle