Introductions / level of experience

VenasNursery said:
1 last thing you made me go and look at my trucks to make sure that I was right but none of my truck say that
My old forestry truck did say that but sold that this but we stopped 3-4 years ago
Our website hasn’t been updated in years also

But hey My wife has mulched a few beds while planting at a few jobs this year
If you dig into our Facebook you can find them also


But I’m over this also and for respect for me , you, and everyone else I’m done with this topic
Click to expand...
I’m sure somebody has made a good forum somewhere for gardeners like yourself to chat. Funny you’re going to play the victim after lying about somebody else’s name and being disrespectful right from the get go. However i’m also done wasting everyone else’s time having to sift thru this bullshit.
 
Last edited:
Alright I’m game. Sitting at 40 and just about 15 years in the industry.

I was living on some money my dad left me when he died, and breeding reptiles to supplement income. My now wife and I finally started talking about having a kid, and we decided to give it a shot. My dad being a logger from the mid 40’s to the mid 70’s taught me how to work, how to keep moving, and how to make a game out of it all. Dropped out of high school my freshman year, challenged my GED and immediately started community college.
I left home at 17, and went to a equipment school. Easy enough but I quickly learned that no one would hire a kid to run equipment. Managed to get a job where we raped a wetland to make a golf course. That was enough to put a end to that kind of work. Worked some odd jobs and was taken in under the wing of drag culture. Everyone talks about egos, drama, and foul mouths in tree work, that shit can’t hold a candle to some of the humor I’ve heard.
So back to breeding reptiles in the desert…. It turned out the Sun Dance ceremony we were invited to, we met some folks. He was an arborist and she was a mid wife. I didn’t connect much with them, but my now wife did. She asked if we got preggers if they would help deliver our kid. Fast forward a year, at the next Sun Dance there was some ‘feeling ill’. She went to a friend and a elder, to seek advice. The only thing he said, was well it’s going to be a boy!.
Now the puget sound is a long way from Tucson, and Bob being practical asked if we had any interest to move up here. Likely he saw it as his wife travel to us to help with the babe, or us coming up here. Being from WA and spending a shit load of time in the Olympics and islands, I was dumbfounded when my wife asked me what I thought about moving up. 3 weeks later we were sitting in line at the ferry.
I knew how to work but that was about it, what I didn’t know is that Bob was part of Seattle tree preservation 1.0, and had his own gig here. Eventually we all lived together after our son was born, working together, and he was a great teacher.
He and his step son went in on a chipper together, the step son was…. Well let’s say there’s nothing good to say. Bob and I worked together, and they shared the payments on a chipper. Bob was old school all the way, shunned friction savers, Blake’s hitch, rapped out from a notch on the top of the spar (flip line still on). Under his direction I was just starting to feel comfortable climbing and taking on some of my own jobs. He and I were in the middle of a bigger job, his step son called asking for w quick hand in the morning. He left me to go bust out a few trees while I fixed up some gear.
What I didn’t know is he called his wife to see if she could bring his big saw to the job, and she called screaming into the answering machine. Bob went up a small hemlock and the lower stem snapped on the back cut of the top. If he were 3’ lower in he would have landed on the soft shoulder vs the pavement. We sent him off after tending to his body for 4 days in the living room. Just before this I took a part time job with the other tree guy on the island who had 40 years under his belt at that point.
Between the two, I’ve had intensive mentor shop with easily 70 years of experience between the two. I haven’t been right on Spurs since bathing Bobs body and changing the ice out. But I did hear him when he said ‘you can be the rock star removal guy, but you have about 10 years before the surgeries, or you can get really good at pruning and do it forever.’
I’m on year 8 of starting my own gig with a heavy pruning and preservation focus. I started when all other arborists on the island said ‘gotta do removals, that’s the bread and butter’…. Well here I am, booked out for six months making my nut. Two rules have been, don’t get greedy and charge everyone a fair amount, but fair enough you can take on jobs for free when they really need it, and I’m not in this game to get rich, or make a huge company, just enough to feed and care for my family. It’s served me well this far. Now I just need one or two good people on board, to be exactly where I want to be.
 
Great stories and lives well lived, thank you all for the good reading. I’d like to share too.
I’ve been in and out of tree work for about ten years- I just turned 30 last month. I grew up in rural Michigan and loved the outdoors. Even the 6 months of snow ice and cold. Spent my free time fishing as much as possible. Trout, salmon, steelhead, bass, and pike -you name it. I really saw some beautiful natural scenes and I knew that office/ desk work was no good for me. So after some family struggles and upheaval I got an undeserved chance to attend college after high school and without a clear idea of what I should do in life I took it.
I spend the next 7 years in Berea Kentucky where I miraculously finished a bachelors degree and found a career path thanks to the college’s labor program where I had two great tree mentors. While I was there I did a lot of ornamental pruning, trailwork, and invasive species removal.
I got married young and my wife and I stuck it out in town for a few years just trying to launch careers. The opportunities were few and far between locally. I did carpentry, ran a landscape company for an ex marine, worked at an university up the road, and worked with an environmental services contractor. The last job mentioned was probably the best one. We worked in parks, national forest, and protected land. I felled a lot of trees in the Daniel Boone national forest as part of a timber stand improvement contract and that was a really beautiful place to work. Up and down small mountains identifying, measuring and cutting.
but it was all going nowhere and my wife and I had a plan to start a family and have careers. We ended up moving to chapel hill North Carolina and are glad we did. A couple more job bounces for me and I landed a cushy job managing a grounds crew on a 120 acre retirement community. I did it all. I love to just work and create and I had the opportunity there. Had all the machines to do it too. They had a lot of trees and I managed them too. Big old oaks and tiny whips that we planted to increase diversity. It’s at this point where I finally got tired of the limitations of working off the ground.
My boss sent me to arbor fest 2018 to a climbing training seminar. I got off the ground and loved it. But I had no one to guide me afterwards. So I took the plunge and bought my own gear and started practicing. After six months or so I got gear bought at my job and began doing as much preventative pruning and tree work as I could. The problem was that I still had no guidance and no one to even talk to about trees. I felt very alone.
So I did what everyone does these days and got on the internet- and joined tree buzz. Since then I quit my cushy job and got on a 4 person tree crew. It has been an adjustment but I am getting some climbing mentorship and experience.
my biggest challenge now is a work life balance. With a 1 yr old son I tear up when I hear “ cats in the cradle”.
 
Neill said:
Great stories and lives well lived, thank you all for the good reading. I’d like to share too.
I’ve been in and out of tree work for about ten years- I just turned 30 last month. I grew up in rural Michigan and loved the outdoors. Even the 6 months of snow ice and cold. Spent my free time fishing as much as possible. Trout, salmon, steelhead, bass, and pike -you name it. I really saw some beautiful natural scenes and I knew that office/ desk work was no good for me. So after some family struggles and upheaval I got an undeserved chance to attend college after high school and without a clear idea of what I should do in life I took it.
I spend the next 7 years in Berea Kentucky where I miraculously finished a bachelors degree and found a career path thanks to the college’s labor program where I had two great tree mentors. While I was there I did a lot of ornamental pruning, trailwork, and invasive species removal.
I got married young and my wife and I stuck it out in town for a few years just trying to launch careers. The opportunities were few and far between locally. I did carpentry, ran a landscape company for an ex marine, worked at an university up the road, and worked with an environmental services contractor. The last job mentioned was probably the best one. We worked in parks, national forest, and protected land. I felled a lot of trees in the Daniel Boone national forest as part of a timber stand improvement contract and that was a really beautiful place to work. Up and down small mountains identifying, measuring and cutting.
but it was all going nowhere and my wife and I had a plan to start a family and have careers. We ended up moving to chapel hill North Carolina and are glad we did. A couple more job bounces for me and I landed a cushy job managing a grounds crew on a 120 acre retirement community. I did it all. I love to just work and create and I had the opportunity there. Had all the machines to do it too. They had a lot of trees and I managed them too. Big old oaks and tiny whips that we planted to increase diversity. It’s at this point where I finally got tired of the limitations of working off the ground.
My boss sent me to arbor fest 2018 to a climbing training seminar. I got off the ground and loved it. But I had no one to guide me afterwards. So I took the plunge and bought my own gear and started practicing. After six months or so I got gear bought at my job and began doing as much preventative pruning and tree work as I could. The problem was that I still had no guidance and no one to even talk to about trees. I felt very alone.
So I did what everyone does these days and got on the internet- and joined tree buzz. Since then I quit my cushy job and got on a 4 person tree crew. It has been an adjustment but I am getting some climbing mentorship and experience.
my biggest challenge now is a work life balance. With a 1 yr old son I tear up when I hear “ cats in the cradle”.
Click to expand...
Great story, your last line makes me think of this video,
 
evo said:
Nahh cats in the cradle wins hands down sorry YouTube start
Click to expand...
You realize that’s also a YouTube video you posted? My son and I enjoy August’s because it’s actually relatable to our lives, and we aren’t jealous of other tree guys taking the time to make good videos.
 
AlanKekoa said:
You realize that’s also a YouTube video you posted? My son and I enjoy August’s because it’s actually relatable to our lives, and we aren’t jealous of other tree guys taking the time to make good videos.
Click to expand...
August is a world class tree-man who is producing wonderful videos..More importantly he seem to be an amazing family man and father. what’s not to love?



 
Last edited:
My name is Chris. I met my wife June 9, 2019 at the alter. I am from Texas and she is from South Carolina and we found each other by the grace of YHWH online. After recieving spiritual confirmation quite quickly that our union would be blessed, we started considering how many courtships we could reallistically make before making a decision. After her having been given a dream that gave her first hand account of my life, we decided to just meet at the alter. I had been a landscaper and dare I say, tree hack, for eight years off and on when we got married and after a few months started JUST-US Tree Service. The title is not in reference to competition, but to the aspect that it was just me and her, no employees and our email, justus2sticks is in reference to our faith with the northern and southern kingdom. " two olive trees". I had always used forklifts and manlifts for me removals with my companies in the past, but she was the one that showed me how differently things were done in South Carolina, vs North West Central Texas, and I became enthralled with rope access and fell in love lol
While searching for a used diesel that looked good for a work truck, I stumbled upon a 2005 Porsche Cayenne twin turbo that was mis marked and mis priced. With 500 hp, the ability to lock and store all my equipment inside ans more towing capacity than my 97 Chevy gas 1 ton, I didn't need any more excuses to by the dream car from 10 years ago when I was making 6 figures. This was before my trials, tribulation and a car wreck leaving me in a coma and on life support. So we started the business and I became an arborist. The difference between now and before is I stayed glued to research and actually started caring about my craft, more than just making a quick buck. After her getting pregnant, she ran ropes for me on the ground even after the baby was born, but after becoming pregnant again, JUST-US turned into JUST ME pretty dang quick lol. I've hired a few people but I always loose in the long run. So now I'm a solo tree company in a porsche. Who tries to stay humble and realises the importance of it. I have a lot of respect for my fellow arborist and climbers, but zero tolerance for companies that don't even have a sales tax permit. Not just accidental hacks who are trying to learn more and do a good job, but the kind that make header cuts so that they can come back next year and prune the dead out.
 
JUST-US said:
My name is Chris. I met my wife June 9, 2019 at the alter. I am from Texas and she is from South Carolina and we found each other by the grace of YHWH online. After recieving spiritual confirmation quite quickly that our union would be blessed, we started considering how many courtships we could reallistically make before making a decision. After her having been given a dream that gave her first hand account of my life, we decided to just meet at the alter. I had been a landscaper and dare I say, tree hack, for eight years off and on when we got married and after a few months started JUST-US Tree Service. The title is not in reference to competition, but to the aspect that it was just me and her, no employees and our email, justus2sticks is in reference to our faith with the northern and southern kingdom. " two olive trees". I had always used forklifts and manlifts for me removals with my companies in the past, but she was the one that showed me how differently things were done in South Carolina, vs North West Central Texas, and I became enthralled with rope access and fell in love lol
While searching for a used diesel that looked good for a work truck, I stumbled upon a 2005 Porsche Cayenne twin turbo that was mis marked and mis priced. With 500 hp, the ability to lock and store all my equipment inside ans more towing capacity than my 97 Chevy gas 1 ton, I didn't need any more excuses to by the dream car from 10 years ago when I was making 6 figures. This was before my trials, tribulation and a car wreck leaving me in a coma and on life support. So we started the business and I became an arborist. The difference between now and before is I stayed glued to research and actually started caring about my craft, more than just making a quick buck. After her getting pregnant, she ran ropes for me on the ground even after the baby was born, but after becoming pregnant again, JUST-US turned into JUST ME pretty dang quick lol. I've hired a few people but I always loose in the long run. So now I'm a solo tree company in a porsche. Who tries to stay humble and realises the importance of it. I have a lot of respect for my fellow arborist and climbers, but zero tolerance for companies that don't even have a sales tax permit. Not just accidental hacks who are trying to learn more and do a good job, but the kind that make header cuts so that they can come back next year and prune the dead out.
Click to expand...
"You come down here looking for justice and thats what's you find. JUST US"

Richard Pryor
 
rico said:
"You come down here looking for justice and thats what's you find. JUST US"

Richard Pryor
Click to expand...
That's awesome, because the name Just-us is actually justice said fast, im from a very corrupt county that lead to my demise lol previous company names were "psalm 35" and "Lawn and Order"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom