A. S. Aloe Engineer's Transit

couple more nice pieces,... if ya'll ever see anything like this out there somewhere,.. let me know.

K & E / Keuffel & Esser Convertible Level / Transit

Wow,.. found this site,.. www.Patented-Antiques.com, but I don't know that they are still in business,..seems like the last activity was in 2009,..anyway,.. been looking for a place to get some of this old gear,.I love the look of it,.I actually have a fake piece,..made in Pakistan, I'm sure,.. it's pretty cool, tho',.. I've got it in the living room,..it's just some brass tubes thrown together to look like one of the old instruments,.. boy,..would I love to have one of those,..

This is actually an old builder's level, ..neat, huh?

Moon & it's Phases

How many times are we gonna have this same article

I've read this same sentiment at least 20 times this offseason,.. of COURSE, folks are gonna be behind,..it's a lockout, we know they can't work together,.. geez guys,.. come up with a new angle,.. or something,..

Value of a Survey

What constitutes a SURVEY

by itsmagic @, Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 11:17 (4 hours, 25 minutes ago) @ Gene Baker
edited by itsmagic, Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 11:21

This reminds me of a discussion I had with a rural landowner a couple of decades ago while I was surveying an oil well site on a nearby property on behalf on an energy company.

He asked me how long I expected to be in the area and asked if I would place a few lath along his property line so he could build a fence. He indicated that he would slip me $300 as a thank you.

As it turned out, the property line in question ran for a mile through a largely forested area. After a search, I determined that the original monumentation defining the property line had been lost requiring re-establishment. After having a search done by my office and reviewing what I would need to do to locate his property boundary for a fence including the physical effort to run and mark the the line, I gave him an estimate that was closer to $1500 not counting travel time. This was in the pre-GPS days so there was substantial work required to re-establish the property line.

He got quite upset, telling me that all he wanted were 'a few lath' put up so he could build his fence. I explained that what he really needed were 'a few lath in the right place'. It was the last part that cost $1500; I would have provided the lath for free.

I think that we often overlook the fact that we provide a service to build a survey plan per legislated requirements and professional standards to protect public interests, not just sell the finished survey plan as a commodity.