I have been here for years! I just have been on auto cruise, taking care of those on my client list and keeping it small. When my wife was diagnosed with cancer, it changed everything for us. At that time I was a rocket ship, shooting strait up. When we got the word, I knew I needed to focus on her. So I scaled down and didn’t really promote or advertise. I tend to keep my clients, so they were keeping me busy enough. I was ready to hang up my saddle, sell of the equipment and open a taco stand or a BMX bike shop. Or move down to the swamps on the gulf coast with my people (Marines) and hunt frogs. But, as life often does, it threw another curveball. All my sons are college grads and are on their way. My oldest is up north with his wife and daughter killing it and my middle, down south with his wife and daughter, also killing it. My youngest Brock was still here in town. He has a degree in welding technology and is trained in robots. He was working at Deere moving up the chain. Then the layoff axe fell. Seniority is seniority.
All three boys came up working for me, when most kids where out causing trouble, mine were splitting wood or dragging brush. As they got older, they learned more and more. To the point where all of them learned to climb. Not wanting any of them doing this, I pushed them to do something different and if they came back to it, it would be their choice to do so, not dad expecting them to stay. Well, Brock had his fill of the factory life. The longer he was there the more he experienced. He was not a fan of the lazy guys getting away with underperforming while he would get in trouble for over performing. He likes to work. He also was tired of the same thing, all day, everyday.
He has made the decision to take the reigns of my little operation and grow it into something bigger and better. You will see more and more of us and we scale things back up to where we had them before and then beyond. Brock is ready to take the Certified Arborist test and ready to get his Pesticide License. Now, know this, although we will dive into the pest treatment side of things, we will only use natural remedies. Nature provided and if there is a solution naturally that is the route we will take, otherwise we will not go that route at all. I am, as is Brock, a firm believer that many of the heath issues stem from a over use of toxic chemicals used on our foods, in our water and in our landscapes. We stay away from that stuff. Neem tree oil does a lot!
So you will see us growing in new directions. We have some other things in the pipeline but we will talk about that later! We will continue as we always have and take care of our long standing clients who have over the years, become dear friends. We will start promoting more and more as we can afford to do so. But look out for Brock. He knows more about trees than me, he is young and motivated. I will still be around for as long as I can. I want to be the old cranky dude yelling at the young kids to hurry up! But that may be years down the road, wait a minute…..darn it. I guess I have been doing that
So, don’t call it a comeback. I never left.