Where have I been for the last 2 years?

Well, its been brought to my attention that I basically forgot to check in here for a few years, here's what's happened:

so, as some of you know when I was here last, I was just getting into tree climbing, mainly around the house for fun, then neighbors, then friends, now I run a full time tree service out of Knoxville Tennessee, when I started I was working out of the back of moms car, and was lucky enough to be given probably 100 ton of logs from my dads boss, was also basically given free range of the entire lot those logs were sitting in, the fab shop on the property and any equipment I needed to move logs, there I met a really awesome guy, him and I are friends to this day, we worked out a deal where id cut the logs into rounds and sell them to him, he would split them and sell the firewood, he brought his splitter out and we worked for a few months there working 7AM to 5PM cutting wood all day long, some personal issues arose between me and the owner of the property which led me to packing up and leaving, haven't been back since

fast forward a few months, I get an old F350, 7.3IDI ZF5 dually, cab and chassis, that became my main work vehicle, it wouldn't start if the fuel pump was hot, reverse was practically non existent and on occasion the brake booster would go out, taking the power steering/alternator belt with it! but I loved that truck, eventually customers wanted brush hauled off, so I went out and bought my first new piece of equipment, a brand new homesteader 7x14 dump trailer, did a year or so of loading it by hand, hauling to the county landfill, carrying all my equipment in the trailer with the brush, I was in the middle of loading the trailer when another company stopped by to grind the stump I just left, (customer called them), little mexican dude named "Mario", he sees me loading this trailer and says "all this, you today?" me: "yes sir, all of it" him: "you need a cheebar, I sell you mine!"

well about 3 weeks later I dropped 15K on my new to me Bandit 250XP, dude didn't even know what engine was in it, neither did I till I got it home and I didn't care one bit, turns out it has a 4BT cummins! woohoo!

well now what, I have a chipper, a dump trailer and no chip truck, start shopping for a chip truck, came across a ragged out 1992 C7500 GMC topkick, with a 14 yard chip box, 55 foot holan boom, and my dad has a Class A CDL, know what this means? bingo, I have a chip truck now! (and bucket truck)

very quickly I realized the need for a machine to move logs, so I sold the F350 and I bought a Boxer 526DX mini skid soon after acquiring the chipper and bucket truck, gave $9000 for it with a 4ft grapple bucket and a set of forks, not bad despite all the work the machine needed at the time

just recently, about 5 months ago, I bought my second ever new piece of equipment, my baby lol, its a 2023 KX040 Kubota mini excavator, 10,000 pounds of pure awesomeness, heat, AC, full cab, 4 way blade, thumb, aux hydraulics for a grapple AND headlights? plus its got a spot for a radio (which I don't have yet)

now I'm shopping for a crane

I've also gotten my EHAP (Electrical Hazard Awareness Program) Certification, and my arial lift training card through TCIA, so now I can legally do line clearance/utility line trimming


all in all I've been super successful so far, I will update this thread with some good work pictures as I find them, sorry for the longwinded post but I had a lot to say

oh and that friend I mentioned earlier, that I sold wood to? he works for me now (well, we work for eachother, he also has a tree company and firewood bizz, so when he needs a climber or equipment he calls me, and when I need a groundie I call him)

 

land clearing brought to you by Kubota


heres me cutting firewood when I first started out

 

me working a massive hickory snag from the bucket with some fancy rigging/rope work


ropewalking from my F350 days to deadwood a 150ft oak, took 2 days


and the first EVER picture taken of my excavator after signing on the dotted line! (I still get the warm fuzzies, its such an amazing upgrade, even if it does cost more per month than my house)


little more climbing

 

some crane work (and the first time you guys see my face)


for reference, in that selfie, my head is about 115FT above the dirt!

up, up, and away

 

Wow! What a story. That picture of looking down by your foot gave me the willies. I am not a fan of heights. More power to you for doing this kind of work.

 

Good on you for your determination and work habits. Keep on keeping on.

 

Heck yeah! First and foremost, keep working safely!

 

Sounds like you are finding your way. Stay safe.

 

Congrats on your new venture.
Stay safe.

 

Looks pretty young for being 52.

 

Well…


Welcome back…


What do you do when you’re not playing?

 

That’s quite a bit of business growth in 2 years! A strong work ethic and strong faith in yourself and things unseen can go a long way. Good job and keep us updated

 

Well, I don't put my actual info out public normally, learned not to do that a while back

Sit around the house playing farming simulator, usually doing tree work or logging on there, works been slow the last few months due to winter so I'm bored oit of my mind lol

Thank you, not sure where you live but hey, if you're close by, the machines vailable




Thanks for the nice comments guys, I appreciate it! I will have a lot more posts to add here as we go along

Oh, and since I do tree work, I get unlimited firewood, and so do my buddies!

 

I would love to bring it out, but it's about a 10 hour drive dragging a trailer, and right in the middle of my work season unfortunately

I do have a custom log grapple for the kubota too, its a Branch Manager Grapple (BMG) for a dingo/mini skid, ran it on the boxer for over a year and now that I have a machine with 100x the capability, I made a mount for the grapple, I can swap it to the boxer if I ever need to




this log is cherry, about 13ft long and ~24" diameter, at almost max reach off the side of the machine for reference of lift capacity

 

Looks like the kubota has great lift capacity. Keep working hard, do an excellent job, be honest and you'll always have business.

 

That's what I'm after, so far only had 1 or 2 upset customers and that ended up being jobs I told them to call someone else for


The kubota does have excellent capacity, I think 1200 pounds at max side reach, and a touch over 4000 lifting directly over the blade! (Plus it can work on a 35 degree hill)

I'm loving this machine

 

Congratulations on the success of your business! You have a nice array of equipment. Knowing where to spend the money to grow your business is the key and it looks like you figured it out. Good to see hard work, determination and smarts lead to success.