I learned a lot about the business from that…
One of the more rewarding things about surveying for over fifty years is being honest about some of the more challenging things I’ve ran into over the years…commonly known as “screwing up”. And man I’ve done my share. I’ve often told people the only way I know how to do something correctly is simply because I’ve done it wrong before…at least once.
When I earned my license the boss decided to let me test my wings. In retrospect I now realize he was trying desperately to help me find a little humility. I’ve looked back and realized I was probably mouthy and cocky. And in short order I was humbled. It’s a necessary rung on the ladder of life in the surveying business. And God bless my old boss for caring enough to let me jump out there and grab a couple of tigers by their tail. I still have the memories and scars to this day.
I was bored with the usual surveying we did there as support for engineering projects and I had voiced my feelings about it. The boss came to me with a project in SE Oklahoma for the Dept. of Mines. It entailed cross-sections, control and quantity calculations for the reclamation of about 300 acres of a worn out strip coal mine. The boss let me put the whole proposal together myself. Man, I had this one in the bag. I mean how hard could it be to put a grid on the ground and shoot it? ????
I came up with the number of days the field work should take. I got a little cross ways with the boss when he doubled it. He placated me by telling me “If we don’t take that long, we’ll make some money. And if we run into trouble we’ll have some wiggle room”. We got the job and I took two crews with me to finish the field work on this “slam dunk”.
I was pretty fortunate that only one thing went wrong…..everything. We could only get within about 1/2 mile of the closest end of the project. The entire world down there was overgrown with scrub and brush, not to mention how grimy it is working in an dug out coal strip. The bench marks were gone. The section corners were missing. Trying to drive rebar for grid stations in rock killed those on the crew that were mortal. And last but not least..there was almost 100′ vertical difference across the job. Using a Philly rod was like trying to take a toothpick to a knife fight.
I persevered just out of stupidity and inexperience. We finally completed the field work with the help of some dedicated crew members. I couldn’t have done it without them. I don’t think we made much on the job, but I don’t think we lost much either. When I finally asked the boss if he was OK with not making any money he winked and told me, “Good experience isn’t cheap.”
I learned a lot about the business from that…
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Anybody else care to share any stories about things they’ve learned?
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