Clearing the Land

There are a variety of ways to clear land but it really boils down to two.  You can hire it done by spending a lot of money, or you can “do it yourself”.  The DIY method involves hard work, long days, and sore muscles.  It is much cheaper but takes longer.  We choose the latter method and spent about three months working each weekend to make the place “presentable”.

My plan was to work outward from both structures, the house and detached garage.  We would cut the heavier timber with my chainsaw and the little stuff with loppers.  Matt, our oldest, preferred the axe method and cut many the old fashioned way.  I took a few swings and decided to stick with the saw.

Where feasible, I burned off the ground debris afterward.  We put all the heavy stuff in burn piles for disposal.  Those became somewhat numerous because of my caution to burn them.

I would only burn when it had rained or was about to rain.  I had no desire to meet the volunteer fire department while uncontrollable flames were in the area.  Both sides of our acreage are covered with pines and therefore, pine straw.  It burns very fast and very hot, and being a former firefighter myself, I was aware of the dangers.  None of the fires got away from us, but I’m sure the neighbors were annoyed from the smoke.

We kidded everyone that our work days were from sunup to sundown and that was usually the truth.  When the sun set, we stopped for lack of light and literally “crashed” because we were so tired.

We finally reached the point where I needed someone with a tractor and bush hog for the final cleanup, since I had neither.  I sold my tractor and all the attachments when we moved to Birmingham, so I needed to hire someone to mow.  I searched Angie’s list, the Internet, and asked the locals.  One business kept popping up and it was “Man With A Tractor“.  Intrigued, I sent a text to the number saying I needed about three acres mowed.  In about ten minutes, Allen called me with an estimate and the day he could be there.  That’s the way I like to do business!

He did a great job mowing and even relocated a large pile of rocks with the front end loader, to the rear of the property.  I was planning to move those with a pickup truck, so it was a big help!

I would suggest that if you need mowing or clearing done in North Alabama, Allen is your man.  You can contact him at 256-653-1145.

Ready for a New Metal Roof

After purchasing our “fixer upper” home in Cullman, we hit the ground running.  During the first week it was ours, we had two big oak trees, which hung over the roof, removed.  We called about ten different roof installers to get estimates on a new metal roof. Two of them even came on the day that the trees were being cut down. Neither seemed to mind climbing the ladder to get their measurements while work was going on around them.

We decided on a metal roof over a shingled one based on longevity and looks. I knew it would cost about two to three times more but felt like it was worth the additional money. I scoured the Internet for installation information and felt I had a pretty good grasp of what I wanted in a roofer. I wasn’t fully aware of how much it would be but budgeted ten thousand for the project.

The first estimate was a really good one, coming in at $7,000.00 but didn’t include full tear off of the existing shingles and only partial sheathing repairs that needed to be made. The additional carpentry work and shingle removal was a disappointment for me, from most of those who came by. One told me the tear off raised the estimate $2,000.00 and very few had, what I felt, a good grasp on what needed to be done to fix the previous roof damage. Let’s face it, contractors are in the business to make fast money and move on to the next job. In this day and age, “customer care” isn’t high on their agenda.  When business is plentiful, some will even drop you for a bigger and better job and never call back!

It took about three days to get all the estimates and they ranged from a low of $7,000.00 to a high of $18,000.00, from Miller Roofing of Jasper, Alabama.  I mentioned the name of the last just because it was ridiculously high and he knew it.  He was pushing me for a shingled roof at a price close to what I was going to get a metal roof for.  I thanked him for coming and threw away the estimate.  Judy and I sat down and went over everyone’s opinion of what it was going to cost and the pros and cons of each.   We narrowed it down to two, the lowest estimate by Dale Howell Home Renovations and Terry Phillips of Phillips Roofing.  Dale’s didn’t include a complete tear off and Terry’s did.  I felt that was important, so we could find unforeseen roof problems.  Terry’s estimate was a little different too, it was $10,000 for the roof and we pay the wages & material for his carpenter to make the additional roof repairs.  He would also install a heavier gauge metal than the other roofers promised.  Since I was unsure of what the final bill would end up being, he promised to keep it as close to the estimate as he could and to keep me advised of the progress and how the cost was going.  He agreed to take the job and said they could start in two weeks.  I think there was a weather delay so the actual work started about two and a half weeks later.

We chose a charcoal metal roof because we halfway planned to paint the house ivory sometime in the future.  I discovered later that the color isn’t as important as I thought it would be.  The light from the sky, whether sunny or cloudy can sometimes makes it seem to be a lighter color anyway.  Another fallacy was that rain would be loud, it isn’t.  That story probably came from hearing rain on a tin roof, in an uninsulated barn.

Terry, true to his word, called often to advise me of what he had discovered and things that needed to be corrected.  They fixed two holes in the roof, one was pretty major, and corrected a valley with an improper slant.  In the end, we were extremely pleased with the results, especially with the final bill being only $1500.00 higher, even with the additional repairs.

About a month later, I discovered a small leak after a rain, under the carport.  I called Terry and he came by that afternoon and found a “boot” around one of the pipes needed a little more caulk.  It hasn’t leaked since.  That is pretty good service.  If your planning on a new roof, I would definitely recommend Phillips Roofing!

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The Large Oak Trees Have To Go

If you have a house that needs a lot of work, prioritization is key.  It has to be a ‘first things first’ operation.  After assessing everything we had to do, the top priority was the roof.  Nothing ruins a house faster than water damage and we had several locations needing attention.

We decided to put a metal roof on as a replacement for the existing shingled one.  That episode will be my next blog.  However, you’ll find with old houses, that before you do the thing you plan to, something else has to be done first.  So, we moved the roof down to number two on our list and decided that we needed tree cutters first.

Our new home had two towering oak trees which hung over the roof.  One of the large holes in the porch actually came from a falling oak limb.  They had to go.  Besides the fact that I’m fearful of falling trees from a storm, I certainly didn’t want the new roof damaged after such a huge expenditure.

We called Michael’s Tree Service in Cullman.  After looking them both over we agreed on a price for one and a half trees to be removed.  The second tree was split with half over the house and the other half toward the front yard.  They agreed to take down the house half and I would cut the other at my leisure.

The crew showed up at 8:00 A.M. the next morning with all the required equipment.  They cut a road to the work area, just to get their bucket truck in.

They did a great job and didn’t drop a single large piece on the house.  This was one of those jobs guys like to watch, so I have a series of photos as the trees got smaller and smaller.  If you have a tree cut, take before and after pictures.  It’s amazing how fast we tend to forget how things were.  It’s nice to look back and see how much has changed.

The crew even hauled off the logs and debris.  I was pretty impressed that the entire job only took about six hours.

The takeaway from this is twofold.  One, if you’ve got a small oak tree growing beside your house, cut it down now.  The longer you wait, the more it will cost.  If you want a large tree, plant it far enough away that the home wouldn’t be damaged if it fell.  Second,  if you need tree work done, I would recommend Michael’s.  They did a good job, safely, and cleaned up the mess.

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.  Romans 4:4

Our Remodeling Adventure Begins

My wife and I decided to purchase an older home and remodel it.  Our money was somewhat limited and we also wanted at least five acres.  That made our search difficult but not impossible.  I firmly believe in divine help and  know that God assisted us.

In the early eighties we purchased a house that was built about 1940 and worked on it several years before selling and moving to the Birmingham area.  I know how physical the work can be but I also know how elbow grease works.  All houses need attention, older ones are like the elderly, they go downhill quicker through neglect and abuse.

As previously stated in ‘Changes and More Changes’, the house we purchased was badly neglected. When parked in the driveway, heavy growth of hedge, poison ivy, pine trees, and briars hid most of the house.  That probably worked to our advantage because even the realtor wasn’t excited about showing it.  Most people looked at the cosmetic damage and decided to pass on it.

Here is the view from the front porch…

There was roof damage from two large oaks that hung over it and had lost limbs at times.

But just because something or someone is old and damaged, it doesn’t mean there isn’t value or that the value can’t be wildly improved upon.  Perception isn’t always reality.  You have to look deeper to what strengths are there.  I always think of the Rocky movies for great comebacks.  Just because everyone thinks your down and out, doesn’t make it so.

So we decided this was the one.  We would nurture it back to health and it would return that attention by being a good home!

“I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”  Jeremiah 29:11 MSG

Changes and More Changes

Hi, I’m an AT&T employee and much of what you’ll read here is my opinion.

The last year has been tough at work.  I’ve battled frustration, depression, and anxiety.  Last April, my Father-in-Law suffered stroke like symptoms during the night and was taken to the hospital in Gadsden, Alabama.  They processed him through emergency and placed him in a room, where, he coded a short time later.  Hospital staff were able to revive him and over the next couple of weeks were able to stabilize his condition.  He did two stints in the cardiac care unit before finally being dismissed to a rehab facility.  He is much better now, but that started an episode of several months traveling to Gadsden to assist my Mother-in-Law as she became his primary care giver. 

Our family helped out in any way we could and we still drive down every other week to take care of their yard work.  Judy and Stephen have born the brunt of all the mowing and raking but a couple of weekends we even called in extended family for extra hands.

All that helped me to begin thinking that my problems at work needed solving.  Life is too short to be miserable.  

Being locked in to a supervisor that I considered a bully, was ruining my normally happy disposition.  I couldn’t transfer anywhere due to undeserved personnel entries.  You can read about those in earlier blogs.  My thirty-five year anniversary was in June and the company donates $200.00 toward a meal for a celebration.  I refused to have one, since I believed it would be hypocritical for the manager to present any award at any party.  It was my decision and I’m still happy with it.

I spent July through August mulling over how I could afford to retire.  The numbers just weren’t there and I was too young anyway. The problem of what I considered harassment and bullying at work wasn’t going away, so through prayer and talking it over with my wife, we came up with a solution.  I decided 2014 would be my last year at AT&T.  We would look for a new home, a “fixer upper” in a rural area.  We would spend six months to a year remodeling, retire if the situation didn’t improve, and relocate there.

We decided our hunt would center around the Cullman, Alabama area due to it’s central location to the children, grandchildren, and Judy’s parents.  From the time we made that decision, an amazing series of events took place and we had a second home in about thirty days.  By the end of October, 2013, we were spending every weekend giving an old home life support.

The house had been owned by an elderly gentleman with medical problems.  He was unable to take good care of it for quite some time and had moved away to Memphis six months earlier.  “Fixer upper” doesn’t really tell the whole story.  I’ll do that over the next series of blogs and show you some pictures, along with some good stories of problems we’ve encountered.

Getting back to the work update, I was changed over to the “NIBS” group in February in a company reorganization. My work responsibilities changed from working on mostly “pots” (plain old telephone service) to Uverse repair with some outside plant routine work.  It was a good change except for the scheduled hours that go with it, 9AM-6PM. 

About a month later, I arrived at work, turned on my computer and got the “time for a new password” message.  I sat there a minute and thought, “I need relief”.  I typed “relief” and added a couple of special characters to it.  Not a minute later, my manager walked in and announced he was moving to a new job.  It reminded me of the Jerry Clower story, “just shoot up here amongst us, one of us got to have some relief”.  He called me on his last day to say all the entries in my personnel file were gone and that I was free to go.  I could write a whole blog from that last sentence but it would challenge my Christianity, so I’ll let it go…

Our group currently has a “relieving” supervisor.  I’ve still got a transfer request to Cullman pending, just in case an opening for a facility technician becomes available.  I now have a linkedIn account and have the idea that some company in Cullman needs an awesome employee.  

17 Tips to be a Better Manager

1.  Always be honest.  Without honesty, everything you say is considered a lie.  When they ask, "how do you know he was lying", the answer shouldn't be, "his lips were moving"!

2.  Stop giving all the awesome perks to your favorites.  Management requires that you treat all your employees fairly.   Discrimination is illegal and favoritism plants seeds of disgruntlement.  Disgruntlement leads to anger and that can lead to someone going to prison.

3.  Don't be racist!  We're all related if you go back far enough.

4.  Don't gossip with your employees, about your employees.  They talk, everyone knows what you said.

5.  If you agree to something, follow through with the agreement.  See #1

6.  When you discipline someone for a problem, wipe the big grin off your face.  Most people who enjoy giving others pain are in prison.

7.  Sometimes employees need help.  The people you "fired" were crying out for help, not punishment.

8.  Don't begrudge people for taking their breaks and lunch hour.  It is time allowed by the company.  The time belongs to them not you!

9.  Give up the infallibility impersonation.  You are not the Pope and you are not God!

10.  Take a personality profile.  Discover who you really are and realize that we are all different.  Different people can all work together with each one's ability complementing the team effort.

11.  Learn the difference between employee and slave.  You have employees to supervise.  You do not have slaves to whip!

12.  Don't live in the state of denial.  If most your employees are leaving, requesting a leave, quitting, or being fired - it is you that needs correction, not them!

13.  A promotion to management by a friend doesn't necessarily mean you are qualified.  It may only mean you support his college football team.  Keep honing your skills, especially if the role is difficult for you.

14.  Let's be honest, there are dingbat customers out there.  There should be some loyalty to your employee, versus an angry customer.  Dismissing someone over a minor accusation in an impulsive manner, should never happen!  Also, if you survey most customers, your chances of locating the dingbat increases exponentially.

15.  You will ultimately have to use company tools/reports to grade employees.  Many of those are subjective and don't always paint a true picture.  Your views of people are self-fulfilling.  The opportunity is there to make the employee look as good or as bad as you desire.  Don't fall for that trap.  Clear your mind of past/present prejudice and be honest.  It is an employee's career which may be on the line.  Other people/families are always affected.

16.  The bonuses the company promises to pay you each year, do not give you the right to do anything wrong to obtain it!  It isn't worth losing your job over.

17.  Management is like life.  Every decision you make will be judged based on what is truly right and wrong.  The rewards of eternity are just not worth losing. Think before you act.  If the commands given to you from higher managers violate your conscience and God's laws, you have a decision.  "Choose you this day who you will serve" Joshua 24:15

In the book, Principled Centered Leadership, Steven Covey writes;  Principle-centered leaders are men and women of character who work with competence "on farms" with "seed and soil" on the basis of natural principles and build those principles into the center of their lives, into the center of their relationships with others, into the center of their agreements and contracts, into their management processes, and into their mission statements.  The challenge is to be a light, not a judge; to be a model, not a critic.

Why Can't Johnny make His Numbers?

Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion as to why technicians are consistently rated “unsatisfactory” in the company grading system called MSOC.

I have written several blogs about MSOC and how I believe it is designed more as a management whip rather than a tool.  Let’s take an imaginary employee, named Johnny, and see why he can’t reach the required “satisfactory” promised land.  First of all, this will not be an exhaustive list.  Roadblocks come in all fashions and it seems to only be supervisors that do not understand how technicians are slowed in their daily progress.

It may be Johnny’s manager who is at fault.  Johnny may have repeatedly asked for tools or test equipment which have not been supplied.  I, for example, have to install or repair bonded pair Uverse service without a bonded pair test set.  I only have a single pair meter and have to jump through hoops to make it work on long loops.  Often, only the proper meter will sync when the loop has odd characteristics.  A technician may find that all the work done to correct a problem, wasn’t the problem at all, because of the wrong test equipment.  I also work on IPDSL at times.  It requires a different meter entirely and guess what?  I don’t have an IPDSL meter either.  I was given an old DSL meter recently by a service technician who had a spare, but it won’t work on the newer technology.  Johnny could be having the same trouble.

Johnny may also lack training in certain areas even when he has requested such training.  I, for example, have never had any DSL or IPDSL training.  You might think it strange that a technician would work on a product and yet does not have the proper equipment or training required.  You would be correct, it is strange.  Yet, trained employees and untrained employees have the same requirements.

Johnny may also be using an outdated laptop,  which cannot work correctly or is very slow.  I, for example, have constant cell connection issues in poor coverage areas.  Often, even with good coverage, the signal will drop off and I’ll have to reboot or hibernate several times to communicate again.  All that eats time that would be better spent elsewhere.  Two of our technicians have the newer tablets which seem to work excellent with little or no delays.

Johnny may also be unable to verify exactly why and even which troubles he received repeated reports on or which work assignments were delayed past the required time.  I know I’ve asked for assistance in verifying which troubles I’ve gotten “repeated reports” on, but have yet to receive a list other than the daily RATS report which reflects repeats for the entire crew.  That list is not employee specific and is not one that most of us dwell on very long.  We are bombarded with emails each day and are not given any time to read them.  Are we supposed to use the fifteen minutes we have during our morning huddle with the supervisor or the fifteen minutes we are finally allowed to stock our trucks before leaving for home?  Reading emails have to be pushed way down the priority list.

Johnny could possibly be delayed or even unable to complete a job because of customer access or order errors from the business office.  If access is required, and the customer isn’t home, why do we punish Johnny?  If the business office makes an error which causes delays or cancellation, why do we punish Johnny?  If the home or business has an old style flat drop, new guidelines say it must be replaced even if there is no trouble in it.  If Johnny fixes a cable trouble then has to spend an hour and a half replacing an aerial service wire, that extra time is lost and is punishing Johnny on his numbers.  Johnny may be a little frustrated that he is doing everything the company requires of him but is unable to make the required “satisfactory”.   It may be that Johnny, like me, has had management ride with him and critique every job that day, yet not give him any pointers to better his time.  On the day I had a rider, I asked upon completion what did they see that I could have done better or could have done faster.  The answer was that they didn’t see anything that would have bettered my results.  I failed my numbers that day as well, with obvious management approval!

Johnny may be delayed quite often by customers calling him for questions not even related to the service he provided.  Johnny now has to leave a “pledge sheet” with his cell phone number and his manager’s cell phone number with each customer he visits, unless that customer is a wholesale/resell customer.  I mentioned that to a Cisco employee recently and he couldn’t believe the company would use technicians for support calls during their work day.  Johnny could be fielding calls concerning how to set up a modem, router, or could he come by and hang a new rope on their flagpole.

Let’s say Johnny is a very good technician.  He has received four or five-star ratings out of the year but yet also received two counseling entries in his personnel file for lack of reaching his numbers for two months out of the year due to roadblocks.  Johnny is a little confused why he gets a sheet of paper for commendation which means little.  But the entry keeps him from even trying to reach a job he might be more capable in.  Personnel entry’s lock Johnny into his current job.  Managers who want to keep Johnny from transferring will refuse to remove those.  As evil as this seems, it happened to me recently!

Johnny will get little or no help from the company and often none from the union.  I came across this link from CWA local 3204 which might help Johnny and any others who are faced with this dilemma.  Johnny wants to believe that his company would never do anything on purpose to get rid of him.  That they would never grade him by a system which was grievously flawed on purpose.   Johnny and the company agreed  once that he would do everything they asked him to do and they would pay him the proper wages that job required.  They would also train him for any new tasks which would be required.   Let’s home both honor the agreement.