A question for all!

I started mowing lawns for a trip to Europe a couple years back, which turned into a small lawn maintenance business upon returning home. I wanted something else to do to make money, and being from Florida there are lots of palm trees around where I live. Lawn guys are a dime a dozen here and palm guys aren't, so I thought I'd give it a try last year. I got some old Bell System gear from a lineman friend of mine and messed around in my yard a little, scary. An aqaintence of mine had a full time palm trimming service until he got sick the other year, when he heard I was climbing with dangerous old crap, he came over and showed me his gear and how to climb/trim. I then went to the local Vermeer dealer and bought some new climbers and lanyard. The salesman gave me a Sherrill catalog which had the Arbormaster Training ad in it and I thought, hmmm. So I took a climbing and felling class last December and a rigging class this November. Now I am hungry for experience and info, so I've been working with the local cowboys trying to gleen any good stuff out of there dangerous stuff I can. I still trim palm trees some but I really prefer regular tree work. Ideally I'd like to transition from lawn maintenance to tree work, but lawns are paying the bills right now. I guess I feel like Mangoes, anybody can cut grass, I want to learn a skill. I've always been interested in trees, forestry and nature so I think it'll work. Now, if I can find some more educated guys to work with.
 
it started around 7th and 8th grade when my pops caught me skipping school.one day i thought i was in the clear and there he was,told me to come with him he had to show me something.that something was a log spliter.he thought i would hate it but sometimes i would just skip school and ride my bike to the yard and split wood all day. then when i finally made it to high school i needed money, so there i was dragging branchs on the weekends. got out of high school and tried a couple of different companys, and now im climbing over with mark and the rest of the guys.
 
Nice topic, Mark. I was always intensely interested in the woods and the logging operations I would see in Maine while on vacation as a kid. I started by going in to look around at an operation near my family's camp. I remember a strong sense of mystery as I walked quietly and slowly down the long woods road that led to the yard. When I got there, the sight of the skidder and the cut logs and the pile of empty 5 gal. oil jugs and wads of old cable and the junk log full of a hundred side by side kerfs where they checked their saw edges and the destruction and mayhem left behind in the logged areas basically left me mesmerized. And the strong smell in the air of white pine logs. The loggers were friendly to this 10 year old and I remember riding with one on the skidder as he drank a Bud (and me kinda wondering if that was safe), driving thru the mud filled 3' deep ruts and just thinking it was all unbelievably cool.
Years later when I was 18 in '77 and on vacation in Maine, my uncle had a logger friend who neeeded a new warm body (i.e. a new fool, as Craig and Terry would say in one of their loggin songs)and I jumped for it. They made me buy my own Stihl 045 the first week. The other guys would sharpen it for me and I'd keep that sweet edge for at least 3 to 4 minutes as I cut pulp and logs in the yard...Met tons of characters working in various parts of Maine, then moved out to Oregon to work with the big trees I heard about out there but never really believed in until I saw them with my own eyes. Did logging out there on the steep slopes. Eventually got homesick and came back to Connecticut and got into logging here, and slowly got proficient at falling timber by making ALL the mistakes at least 3 times each. The guy I worked for had a tree guy friend who he would help occasionally and so one time I went with him to help on a job. They were taking down big hemlocks by tying bullropes in the tops and cutting at the base. I saw one climber swing from one hemlock to the adjacent one and thought to myself " I wonder how long you have to be climbing before you can do that...? They asked me if I wanted to climb up and put in a bull rope and I said ok and they showed me the tautline hitch and up I went. Once at the top they said to swing over to the adjacent hemlock and put in that rope too...I did it but was scared witless by the whole process...
Well things went along and I eventually left logging to do treework. It was alot steadier and with far less travel time....It's been good to me so far!
 
I was working as a groundskeeper for a hospital in the area in 1994 making $8.00/hr. They always had me pruning, removing trees. Then one day it dawned on me. I could stay with this hospital and get paid let's say $24.00 for removing a short leaf pine, or I could start doing some research and possibly work for myself. Ten years later, well I'm not yet where I want to be but $300./day is much better!
 
After starting rock climbing as my hobby/obsession in 93', I graduated with a B.S.(setting myself up for some comments with that one) in Forestry from Virginia Tech in 1998. After graduating in December I did what any grad with no future plans does that is I joined the Peace Corps,w /forum/images/graemlins/applaudit.gifhere I did some nursery and potable water projects in the Dominican Republic. After I read a bunch of books, drank some Presidentes, and learned to speak spanish(something I am hoping will pay off-si alguien estan interesado) I came back to Virginia.

After one unfullfilling foreman job(Osmose Inc.)... I put in an application with F.A. Bartlett here in VA and am a hopelessly addicted arborist 2 years later.

Looking back I don't know why I didn't make the connection b/w forestry and my love of ropes/rigging and science earlier.....but I am glad that I finally did.

trepan fuerte,

Steve

P.S. Cool post!
 
I'm a fourth generation logger. My first job was shoveling snow from around the bases of trees so the "old man" could fell them and leave a low stump. Next came small chainsaws and pulpwod in WI, then came big chainsaws and big Douglas Fir in MT, then back to WI where I started driving skidders, packer-backs, dozers, feller-bunchers, and finally Cut to Lenth Processors. After 10 years and an estimated 50,000 removals I called it quits due to low satisfaction and even lower pay. Bounced around for awhile trying differrent things like cooking and masonry until I met the most wonderful woman in the world, got married, had a kid,and needed a real job. Saw an ad for a groundsman and thought "If ya got a tree down, I'll cut it up, if ya got one up, I'll cut it down." Boy did I have alot to learn. But learn I did, and now I climb every day for fun or work. I wouldn't do anything else.
 
Someone told me that the most frequently used word in the English language is "I". We love to talk about ourselves. And we like to read about what we can relate to....this is the best thread ever! Thanks to all for sharing.


I............
Loved free climbing as a kid. Heard about jamborees in a classroom. Met Ken P. at Steven's Point, WS in 1998. The rest is history. (And I wouldn't change it if I could).
 
Needed a job after high school in CT, had a friend who worked in the industry. Set up an appiontment with the boss, I remember him saying "so you want to climb trees" My reply was "I need a job" So many rules and attitudes those first few years. They told me I would be a groundie for 2 years minimum, but 2 months in I was climbing. A year later I was running a crew for them(completely green still) but it was a great experianced which has taught me to continually challenge myself and learn as much as possible.. Cheers to all!!
 
In late December 2000 I graduated with a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. Four days later I got married. Six days later my wife and I moved from Texas to Nova Scotia so she could start her graduate studies. There were no faculty positions available so I was only teaching part time and that wasn't getting it done. After a winter of shovelling snow my foreman put me onto a fellow who runs a tree company.

Six months of dragging brush and my foreman had me spike up a 14"dbh pine. Got the top and couldn't start the saw. I was scared to death, but hooked none the less. Two weeks later I climbed another and got her down without incident. Two months ago I earned my Tree Worker/Climber cert.

Today, my primary earnings come from research and teaching, and I freelance climb on the side. But I'm quietly putting plans together to have those roles reversed.

Cheers,
BAB
 
Dragging brush must be bliss after pounding your brain in pursuit of the PhD...

What's Halifax like?? Is there much winter treework??
 
read this in your best Kentucky hillbilly accent . " boy you livin in my house , eatn my food " I didn't know I was supposed to "git" paid. Sometimes I wish my ol man was a city slicker that went to work with a tie. Actually Mark , my first climbing Jobs were painting cuts , I 'd look like a roofer at the end of the day. Anybody ever have their own tar can n brush ?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Dragging brush must be bliss after pounding your brain in pursuit of the PhD...

What's Halifax like?? Is there much winter treework??

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to Highjack the thread, but

Treework and graduate study present different challenges but as long as I'm learning I'm happy.

In Halifax I find the treework starts coming in around March-April, gets busy Aug-Oct and usually dries up just before Christmas. Can't wait to get back to Texas. /forum/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Mark-

Here is a fun first day for you. Replied to an ad in 1989,"Work Hard, Be On Time, Learn a Trade, $6/hr". Was working in a mini-mart gas station and didn't get a call back because there "Wasn't No Way A Punk Kid Cashier Would Last A Day In Trees". They got desperate and I got a job 3 weeks later.

Went out the first day with a wicked looking foreman who didn't even want to teach me how to drag brush or use a rake. He decided to have me move and stack firewood, that we were not even getting paid for, all day.

I went home after a very long 10 hour day, thru-up, and fell asleep on my couch, woke up the next morning in time for work and decided that tree work was for me.

3 months later I was the foreman and the guy who had me moving firewood was out of a job. A few nicks, scraps, and a back surgery later the trees are still for me.

Still a little kid that now gets paid to play,

Brian
 
Great post Mark!

My love of the trees started while growing up playing in the woods building obstacle courses, probing fish eggs in vernal pools, and climbing to the top of the big old wolf pine that you could see for miles around.

With that love I knew I wanted to work with trees when I grew up, but how to do it? Didn't know what arboriculture was so ended up in the field of Forestry. Spent many years in different U.S. states working with several types of organizations working in the forests. It was a great gift and opportunity, but I didn't enjoy being layed off every winter.

A friend told me about arboriculture...I replied, "What's that?!" Ha, who wudda thunk it... I got to rediscover trees with a entirely different perspective. Now I learn, climb, teach, enjoy and breath trees.

Life is good, and I wouldn't change a thing. I love my profession and the people dedicated to it! /forum/images/graemlins/applaudit.gif <font color="purple"> </font>
 
All five of us kids would braid ropes from bailing twine to hang in two large elm trees in our front yard. We climbed all over those trees and others, swang off the porch roof and from the bedroom window etc.
The elms died in '68 or so and at about 11 years old dad had me cutting through limbs on the house side ,say 10'' diameter, with his carpenter saw and letting them down on our ropes.
Bigger brother Steve had me follow him climbing through a row of trees one day when he knew I was ready and coaxed me while I gathered my nerves to jump a ways and grab the next tree. It was exhillarating!
At boarding school I trimmed on the orchard crew and climbed the Big Ten trees on campus. Then it was two years of Hort. and landscaping classes and more years of nursery, landscape, garden center, and orchard work.
I`ld see the Asplund trucks around some and wondered why I couldn`t find the tree whackers phone number in the book... So one day I caught up with a foreman at a gas station and I was in... for four years mostly as a backyard champ or chimp as the case may be... Until they let me go to pasture when they couldn`t handle paying a few chiropractor bills... the next season, or two I learned how to stack a pickup truck, `til a twister came through town... That was ten years ago when I started my own little tree co. Most of it has been a blast.
"As the twig is bent so the tree is inclined." Mark Lam
 
Grew up on a farm.

Older brother Mark showed me how to use a chainsaw when i was around 12 or 13.

Split wood and wheelbarrowed it to the house for years, house heated with woodstoves.

Worked on farms picking melons and corn in summer, pumkins in winter. Worked at sawmill when 16 and other small jobs like spraying skeeters for Dept of Agriculture.

When 15 I started helping older brother Mark with tree work. He had a old drum style chipper that would whip you "to make you tough" and a pickup or two.

Around 16 or 17 started helping him every summer while in school and college. And even helped on weekends or after school somedays. Boy we worked hard. His business grew and he got nicer equipment. Man, I thought that new Bandit 200+ was heaven! and it was at that time.

Graduated high school and off to college (I always hated school by the way, ever since elementary school, thought it would never end)

First year of college I thought I was sick of tree work, so I took up criminal justice. Did good in first year, but after that break from tree work, I thought, "what I'm I doing, I know a lot about this tree work, and I DO like it, so I should continue".
Oh, and I was climbing some, but Mark liked to work really fast and it would take too long to have me do stuff when he could just do it himself faster.

As a groundman, I always liked the image the climber had. The customers and public would watch them in awe. And climbing to me, seemed much easier than ground work, not to mention much more fun. I knew I had to climb full time someday.

I wrote to the Society of Aboriculture asking them what college I could go to to learn more about trees. I thought that I may go into business with my brother Mark or maybe on my own. At that time, I wanted to go into business with him.

They wrote back and told me about a 2 yr. tech program at Allegany College of Maryland. A Forest Technology AA degree. So that's what I did cause I wanted a little more background to give me some advantage. I did not want it for my resume, I was working for Mark or myself. Good program, learned a lot. Not many of the students pass the courses.

The college was in Western MD. My home in North East MD (3hrs away). Met a girl while at college in W. MD, which kept me in that economically dead area /forum/images/graemlins/crazy.gif. Bought a run down house out there.

Hired by a tree service out there when I graduated. For either $6 or $8 an hour (forget, but not more than eight though), as a CLIMBER and using all my OWN gear and MY saw (011,cheap). I was supposed to be the secondary climber learning. I noticed that my little experience climbing was as good if not better than the full time climber and I ended up doing the trees he was worried about.

I was used to working fast and hard. I remember the other crew members asking me to slow down and take breaks with them, I hated that. That's not how I was taught to work.

After 2 or 3 weeks (after the boss saw what I could do) I asked him to give me a raise to at least $10.00. He wouldn't do it, so I quit.

I started doing odd jobs like fence building and tree removals (which paid much more than that 8.00/hr) and I got my Maryland Tree Expert License (you can't call yourself an expert or trim any trees in Maryland unless you pass this test and have insurance, my past working experience and college qualified me to take the test). After getting that License I created Arbor Experts Tree Service (Arbor-X). At 22 years old.

I worked out there for 7 years. Established a great client base, which was hard cause money is very tight and the competition feirce. Things were going pretty well and I was just ready to start a second crew the following spring.....

Then, relationship didn't work out with that girl, now wife. Seperation and divorce (but very civil luckily, no horror story).

Packed up and moved back to my home town. /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif Lots of friends and big family there. Man I missed it! Sold some equipment and went to being small again. Started over building up the Arbor-X name. I knew it would grow much faster here. I just now completed my second year in my home town area. Things are starting to roll again, building up bigger and better equipment and training key men for the future.

I'm still the main climber, mechanic, secretary, boss, spray tech, estimater, advertiser, purchaser and promoter.

It's a lot of work and I love it. But I do want to have key employees take over some of my responsibilities in the future, so maybe some day, I can have a life outside of the business.

-jeeze that was freakin' long, I'd skip over that one when I saw the size of it!

later,
 
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