Below Zero.

It has started. The cold weather that cancels workdays that is. This is not a good sign. It is only December 1^st and I have already canceled work for tomorrow. We are waking up to 20 to 30 degree below zero wind chill values. …

I have decided this year to be more respectful of the weather. It gets to the point where it just does not make sense to force our way through days that are just plain bitter. Too little gets accomplished– too much time spent just trying to stay warm, and nothing gets done well. I have spent too many years trying to beat it. It just doesn’t work.

It is a fine line I have to balance. Yes the work needs to get done, the customer expects it. They do have sympathy for our cold weather plight, however that sympathy doesn’t last forever. It is a time of year that you can’t price for, you just have to suck it up and do what it takes, to a point. That point is where your face, toes and fingers lose feeling, you have to stop for a half hour, and the production value has dropped to zero. 

As much as I try to give the guys the benefit of the doubt, it comes down to how much money and time do I lose to keeping warm. Last winter, I estimate I lost thousands due to snow removal, ice chopping, and just trying to stay warm. For a small company, that is just impossible to absorb. And that was just one winter. As I look back and multiply that by all the years I have had work outside through the winters, that money would have paid for many trips to Florida. 

So, if we are working on your home this winter, and we’re outside, please be understanding when the thermometer says below zero, the chill factor is -20 or colder, and you don’t see us. Just know that we will be back, it won’t be so cold, and your job will be done with warm happy carpenters.

~ The “warm” Carpenter