AA Land Survey

Working locally today

Happy Birthday Dad (for yesterday) and thank you to Heather Allen for a gorgeous Barbecue with ribeye steak and cake for the Birthday Boy

Out in Strabane today

Near Cookstown today

We have been down with Covid and all projects are delayed by approx. a fortnight. No operational email at the moment. Email due to resolved on Wednesday

Just outside Lurgan today

Today's office near Keady Armagh

Near Loaneden

Today's view from the office over Lough Erne ain't too shabby.

Making sure I'm doing the job right

Wild Nephin National Park today. A bit outside my usual area

Imagine this being the site your new home and having a view over most of Tyrone from Carrickmore

Beautiful, stunning Donegal never disapoints

Office day today.There was a big clump of rain 5 mins ago and its moved over Mullagharn Mountain. You can see the former Omagh County Hospital site is fully cleared and just big trees now. In the future this view will have lots of houses in it.

ChatGPT selection of 'what do Land Surveyors do' including poems and 'explain it like I'm 9 years old'

Just outside Birr Co Tipperary, a wee topo and measured building survey. Don't often stray this far from Tyrone!

Well after a good amount of toil and tears doing part time study I have Graduated with a Bsc 1st Class Honours in Construction Engineering and Management. Today was the big ceremony. It was a great day to see my lecturers, fellow Graduands and my family who supported the whole endeavour since 2015 when I was foolish enough to take this on.

I post daily photos on Instragram of site surveys and interesting things I come across.

instagram.com

If you ever wondered if a Surveyor is competent and regulated the best way is to use the 'Find a Member' service by RICS. My listing is here https://www.rics.org/member-detail-page.html #/6633553

Tidy office tidy mind

Started surveying around this wee house today. A man came along and said 'a man died in a fire in that house' in a very cheerful way, so been waiting for the ghost in the window all day. No sign yet but maybe the photos will reveal something spooky!

Out on site today

Feature: Ballad of the Land Surveyor
Professional Surveyor Magazine - May 2006
Chris Springfield, Texas

When I am asked by others "What do you do for a living?"
"How do you earn your pay?"
I smile and say "I'm a Land Surveyor,
and I wouldn't have it any other way."
For you see while others work in offices
trying to beat the bottom line,
I stand out with Mother Nature
with the breezes and warm sunshine.
And when I go home in the evening,
my little son crawls up on my knee
"What was work like today Daddy?"
Tell me, "What did you see?"
I say "I saw the dew dry with the morning dawn,
and a mother doe standing quietly with her yearling fawn,
I saw a Red-Tailed Hawk fly high against the clear blue sky,
ever watching for a field mouse with his hungry eye."
Then my little son's eyes light up,
they shine a bright, clear blue.
He hugs my neck and whispers
"I want to be just like you."
I hug him back and don't try to hide my Father's pride,
I say "I would be proud little man for you to work by my side."
But when you take the Surveyor's road, the one traveled by Lewis and Clark,
you set out on a path of adventure and hard work; it's not all a walk in the park.
Yes, you feel the warm breezes of spring, and the chill of the early fall,
the cold, raw mornings of winter when the temperature doesn't rise at all,
and the hot humid days of summer, when it's 100 degrees in the shade,
when you'll think, if only I wasn't a Surveyor, I think I would have it made.
You'll wade through the ditches and water, fall on your face in the mud,
fight the briars and things that sting, searching for your Hub.
Sometimes you'll deal with nature, her storms and other acts of God,
while all the time you keep searching for your corner, that 5/8" iron rod.
But then one day you'll crest a rise and see a panoramic view
of cloudless skies where eagles fly and a mountain lake of crystal blue.
Yet when you pause and wonder about this gift that God has given you,
remember you're a Surveyor, and there's nothing you would rather do.
We gather every workday with all our tools of the trade,
our tapes, our rods, our flagging, and our freshly sharpened blade.
We have done this through the ages, mapped the World, distance and line.
We were there to build the Pyramids, in the Pharaoh's time.
We map it all on any scale, no matter how small or grand,
from Columbus' New World to the smallest parcel of land,
and when someday we go to the stars to expand the human race,
a Surveyor will be there waiting, ready to mark the place.
And when at last my job is done, and I'm laid to my eternal rest,
I hope they place a marker with my "final point," there on my chest.
I hope that I'm not forgotten, that I'm thought of from time to time,
I'll always be there with you brothers, somewhere "cutting line."

Chris Springfield
March 8, 2006

About the Author
Chris Springfield is an Instrumentman employed by WORTECH Land Surveyors, Inc. in Beaumont, Texas.

Interesting old house today