Tuesday 1 July 2014

A Whole Year Has Passed By….

 

Since my last blog, making this not so much a blog as a review of the year.  A bit like one of those letters you get from a distant relative at Christmas with news of marriages and new arrivals.

I am already married and I am probably not one of your relatives (even a distant one) and the only new arrivals since this time last year are some new bits of kit we have purchased.  So let’s start there.

Most recently we have invested in a self-propelled tracked post driver from Protech Machinery - http://www.protechmachinery.co.uk/ – The EVO 1 is a brilliant bit of kit and is earning its keep from the word go. This makes fencing a one man operation, from post driving to laying out wire and means we can get on with other jobs elsewhere.  That helps to pay the mortgage and this is a good thing.

We have also purchased a second-hand Engcon EC05 Tiltrotator to fit our 7 ton ZX70 excavator.  This is one of those bits of kit that sounds like it must be invaluable and you could never do without. You buy one and struggle like crazy with the seven button controls that make it function and end up looking like its your first day on a machine…..You curse it and hate it…. and then, slowly you begin to realise it IS invaluable and you could never do without it.  It’s one of those things that you cant quite put a value on, but you know it’s speeding your work up and giving you options in work that you never had before.  Love it.

Sitting in my office writing this and  listening to Wimbledon on the radio, I can see our programme of works on the wall and it’s choc a block with jobs to start.  This is great news (thinking mortgage again) and such a boost to business confidence.  We have something like 14 jobs to start and around 30 priced up. These are all good meaty jobs and all of good duration (Currently doing a 10 weeker) .  This is excellent and makes me realise my decision five or six years ago to drop all but the biggest of domestic jobs was the right one.

Looking back, work in the last 12 months has been really varied with jobs from arena construction, ditching, indoor schools, land clearance, one day pop-up round pens, estate railing, stock fencing, deer fencing, drainage……..and more.  This keeps life and work interesting and we are lucky to have always had such great customers to work for.

Thanks to them/you we are still here and working after 24 years.