September 13, 2023 • 12 mins
Kevin is taking part in the 2023 WAA Tree Climbing Championship in Cedarburg, WI on Sept. 22. He talks with Shawn about what he's preparing for and the gear he's bringing to the competition. Oh, yeah, and we talk about trees too.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Age twenty one thirteen ten Wiba Madisonin the morning and ask the experts.
Joined this morning by our good friendKevin Ham. Kevin, of course,
comes to us from hams Arborcare thewebsite hams Arburcare dot com. That's H
E. M. M as Arborcaredot com. Tellfone number eight six six
five nine six five three nine six. That's eight six six five nine six
(00:31):
five three nine six Kevin, howare you doing this morning? Well,
I'm doing great, Sean, AndI just mentioned's autumn. This is the
second week in the row. Ikind of spaced you out for right.
Well, it's all I like.I like the I like the surprise interviews.
Yeah, you know, it's justsays hey what And I didn't even
(00:51):
realize to like saw w Iba.Oh yeah, that's good thing. I'm
not you know, uh radio advertWell you are you are a busy man.
So we're going to talk a littlebit about tell what's going on at
hams Arborcare. Of course you're amaster arbors with hams Arborcare website hams Arborcare
dot com. We'll talk about that. I want to talk to you a
(01:11):
little bit about what's going on atGame of Trees dot Com as well.
But I know in a couple ofweeks you're going to be in Cedarburg and
there is the big Wisconsin tree climbingcompetition. You are competing, tailors competing,
let's talk. We mentioned it acouple of weeks ago, but I
don't think we've ever really got intothat. How often do you are are
you, like, on a ona weekly basis, are you actually scaling
(01:34):
tree climbing, actually doing that thattask? Well, you know every day
I'm physically preparing. Yeah. SoI've got my little bar in the in
the basement where I do my rollbackexercises, which are attributing to my ascent
technique, which it's going to beinteresting. Taylor and I are kind of
(01:57):
outside the box. I'm old school. I perform a technique called the footlock
up the rope, and it wassomething I was fairly adept debt in my
younger years and just kind of keptit all through the years. And Taylor
has subsequently acquired this method of ascendinginto the trees, and today the modern
(02:21):
climbers are utilizing foot ascenders and heascenders, and I put some on the
other day. I said, well, let me just do And there are
so many variable Sean tools it's like, okay, I'm nowhere close to any
sort of mastery with these. I'mjust not going to touch them. And
(02:44):
so we're going to kind of bethe novelty utilizing the old method. And
I've kind of developed a chest attachment, you know, on my full body
harness that I wear from Camp thatwe have on Game of Trees Dot Hump,
and it has a chest d ringwhich is a bona fide attachment point
(03:06):
for life support. And so byplacing my friction device at that level,
it gives me a lot of ropebelow that in which to you know,
walk it with my feet because you'vegot to roll back and you kind of
lock your feet in front of yourface if you can picture that, and
then you pull and you stand upand then advance the ascender that your hands
(03:30):
are attached to. So it's andit's going to take it's probably going to
be at about fifteen meters, soabout fifty feet of hype, and that's
going to be about you know,fifteen or so strokes, fifteen locks to
(03:52):
get up there and to have anefficient time, they've got to be clean.
You know, they've got to beright, and then that that ascent
technique is utilized in other events aswell, like the aerial rescue we do.
An aerial rescue is one of theevents where there's a dummy in the
tree, maybe maybe twenty five thirtyfeet up. They don't put them up
(04:15):
very high, but you've got toascend and usually you're ascending no less than
fifteen feet away from that that dummy, and so you have to move latterly
and get in a position to descendnext to him or her next to it,
(04:36):
and then you have to you know, catch that to your body in
some way, and then you haveto manipulate the descent device on the dummy
along with your descent device. Sothere's you know, little techniques you have
to employ to efficiently bring this wouldbe injured climber to the ground safely.
(05:00):
And all things are judged like,you know, did I just you know,
have you done more harm? Youknow, have you jossled them to
drop them on the ground, ordid you play him down nicely? Did
his leg bend up behind his backor did everything lay out just right?
You know, So a lot offun things that you know, a lot
(05:23):
of the practice is just mentally,you know, the visualization of seeing yourself
do these things over and over andover again. The beauty of the competition
and what it does for the industryis it polishes up the best practices because
you've got these guys that are beinginnovative and and a lot of the advances
(05:46):
in our industry have come by thesethese competitive innovations and also a best practice
like the ascent up the rope.I mean, no doubt, that's much
less uh grueling. Yeah, there'llbe some people that maybe watch me go
(06:08):
up the rope like, oh wow, that looks sufficient. Then you try
it. Incredibly amount of upper bodystrength that takes you pull yourself up from
that lock and stand up and thendo the next one. You know,
but it's what we do and we'rehaving fun. That should be awesome.
(06:29):
I remember in like high school andstuff I could do like twenty twenty five
chin ups, no problem. Andthen like a year or two ago,
my brother is over at his houseand he's he's got a pull up bar
and he's like, try it.He's like, have you done one?
Reason? Li's I No, Ihaven't done one for years, Like give
it a try. And like Icould not you forget. If you don't
use that upper body strength and stayin shape, you're you'll lose it really
(06:51):
fast. And that's gonna be goingon of course September twenty two, twenty
third, and twenty fourth and Cedarburg. Will you be filming and putting stuff
up at Game of Trees on yourYouTube channel? Yeah? Yeah, We've
got our social media guy coming along. And I probably won't wear a camera,
you know, focused on what I'mdoing, and a lot of this
(07:15):
stuff is better watched from the otherperspectives. The helmet cam isn't going to
be a great perspective to see what'sgoing on in the trees. So there'll
be people filming me and that willdefinitely make a competition video fantastic. And
of course you can subscribe now toGame of Trees YouTube channel hams Arborcare.
(07:38):
Just head on over to YouTube,type in Game of Trees Ham's Arborcare find
them there. They'd love to haveyou. I love to have you subscribe
watching most videos, they're absolutely fascinatingand Kevin, before we wrap up this
week, let's talk a little bitabout kind of where we are seasonally.
I know today is going to bea very cool day. We've got some
you know, we're at that timeof year where it's very cool for a
couple of days, then we havea warm spike for trees there, does
(08:00):
that stuff cause stress for them?I mean, as we're kind of winding
down the year, I'm guessing they'reprobably getting ready to start conserving energy for
the winter months. What's kind ofgoing on with trees this time of year?
Yeah, you know, when thetrees are expending energy actually too because
they're going to build in subscission layerat every leaf, right, so they're
(08:22):
they're they're making a barrier at everyleaf attachment, and so you know,
the fall is a time where theyare expending some of that energy that they've
stored all summer. And of coursethe leaves will will fall, but there's
actually a you know, process thatcauses those leaves the fall, and of
(08:46):
course the fall colors. As thechlorophyll wanes in the leaves, the other
colors that were there all along becomevisible and that's what causes the fall color.
And as we've talked about before,or the temperatures and different things,
if we get a freeze and reallyfreeze, that'll kill the leaf and that'll
(09:07):
that'll wane the color. We won'tsee as much color. If we get
a nice gradual change of temperature,then we'll probably see a better ball color,
which we have for the last fewyears had some pretty good displays.
There is nothing like driving through thecountry and seeing all those beautiful trees.
There's also nothing like having one ofthose beautiful trees planting on your own property.
(09:28):
And I know, Kevin, you'vegot quite a selection of different trees
for folks, whether this time yeardoing a planting or thinking coming up in
the in the next year getting thatdone. You guys have a great,
great selection for trees that are notonly going to be planted well, but
going to be cared for as well. Right absolutely, And we've got you
know, another fall shipment coming in. We're gonna we're going to receive a
(09:50):
shipment in the fall for next year. And then now you know, Legacy
Trees is ever advancing and we're goingto have a ailibility throughout the summer to
uh, you know, acquire morestock on an as needed basis. So
we're we're looking forward to expanding,you know, getting into some you know
(10:13):
commercial and municipality uh the tradition is, you know, go for the absolute
cheap bid. And you know,our philosophy and with the legacy trees is
to provide a quality tree. It'sgoing to be a legacy, it's going
to be there in the long run. And and we're replacing one in a
(10:35):
newer subdivision. We just just didthe quote yesterday and uh, you know
it, the planting and everything aboutit was just you know, subpar.
And now they're they've got a fairlyyou know, they're five years in and
they've got this struggling tree and thatcould be a twenty five foot tree right
(10:56):
now had it been uh properly doneand been a high quality tree that's planted
at the right depth. And sothat's that's what we hope to provide going
forward. So if you're in anewer subdivision and you know the trees are
looking a little tough, now thetime, give us calling and we can
(11:18):
get a new legacy tree in there. It's really important right now to have
that conversation. And of course youwant those beautiful trees. And we've talked
in the past with Kevin. Ifyou missed, by the way, any
of those previous programs Stover Game.You know it's listening to back to the
podcast at hams Arborcare dot Com.Talked about about, you know, when
it comes to proper care for yourtree, how much faster than what you
may expect they will grow. Andit's again because of that care of that's
(11:39):
being taken and of course setting themup for a lifetime of success. All
I got to do this morning pickup phone given. Give Kevin and the
ham and the team a call athams Arborcare eight six six five nine six
five three nine six. That's eightsix six five nine six five three nine
six mentioned the website hams Arborcare dotcom. Also at Game of Trees dot
com you can find Deck, Kevinand the team there as well. Kevin,
(12:01):
it's always great chatting with you.Looking forward to doing it all again
real soon. You have a greatday. Thank you. Sewing YouTube news
comes your way next year at thirteenten w I VA
Age twenty one thirteen ten Wiba Madisonin the morning and ask the experts.
Joined this morning by our good friendKevin Ham. Kevin, of course,
comes to us from hams Arborcare thewebsite hams Arburcare dot com. That's H
E. M. M as Arborcaredot com. Tellfone number eight six six
five nine six five three nine six. That's eight six six five nine six
(00:31):
five three nine six Kevin, howare you doing this morning? Well,
I'm doing great, Sean, AndI just mentioned's autumn. This is the
second week in the row. Ikind of spaced you out for right.
Well, it's all I like.I like the I like the surprise interviews.
Yeah, you know, it's justsays hey what And I didn't even
(00:51):
realize to like saw w Iba.Oh yeah, that's good thing. I'm
not you know, uh radio advertWell you are you are a busy man.
So we're going to talk a littlebit about tell what's going on at
hams Arborcare. Of course you're amaster arbors with hams Arborcare website hams Arborcare
dot com. We'll talk about that. I want to talk to you a
(01:11):
little bit about what's going on atGame of Trees dot Com as well.
But I know in a couple ofweeks you're going to be in Cedarburg and
there is the big Wisconsin tree climbingcompetition. You are competing, tailors competing,
let's talk. We mentioned it acouple of weeks ago, but I
don't think we've ever really got intothat. How often do you are are
you, like, on a ona weekly basis, are you actually scaling
(01:34):
tree climbing, actually doing that thattask? Well, you know every day
I'm physically preparing. Yeah. SoI've got my little bar in the in
the basement where I do my rollbackexercises, which are attributing to my ascent
technique, which it's going to beinteresting. Taylor and I are kind of
(01:57):
outside the box. I'm old school. I perform a technique called the footlock
up the rope, and it wassomething I was fairly adept debt in my
younger years and just kind of keptit all through the years. And Taylor
has subsequently acquired this method of ascendinginto the trees, and today the modern
(02:21):
climbers are utilizing foot ascenders and heascenders, and I put some on the
other day. I said, well, let me just do And there are
so many variable Sean tools it's like, okay, I'm nowhere close to any
sort of mastery with these. I'mjust not going to touch them. And
(02:44):
so we're going to kind of bethe novelty utilizing the old method. And
I've kind of developed a chest attachment, you know, on my full body
harness that I wear from Camp thatwe have on Game of Trees Dot Hump,
and it has a chest d ringwhich is a bona fide attachment point
(03:06):
for life support. And so byplacing my friction device at that level,
it gives me a lot of ropebelow that in which to you know,
walk it with my feet because you'vegot to roll back and you kind of
lock your feet in front of yourface if you can picture that, and
then you pull and you stand upand then advance the ascender that your hands
(03:30):
are attached to. So it's andit's going to take it's probably going to
be at about fifteen meters, soabout fifty feet of hype, and that's
going to be about you know,fifteen or so strokes, fifteen locks to
(03:52):
get up there and to have anefficient time, they've got to be clean.
You know, they've got to beright, and then that that ascent
technique is utilized in other events aswell, like the aerial rescue we do.
An aerial rescue is one of theevents where there's a dummy in the
tree, maybe maybe twenty five thirtyfeet up. They don't put them up
(04:15):
very high, but you've got toascend and usually you're ascending no less than
fifteen feet away from that that dummy, and so you have to move latterly
and get in a position to descendnext to him or her next to it,
(04:36):
and then you have to you know, catch that to your body in
some way, and then you haveto manipulate the descent device on the dummy
along with your descent device. Sothere's you know, little techniques you have
to employ to efficiently bring this wouldbe injured climber to the ground safely.
(05:00):
And all things are judged like,you know, did I just you know,
have you done more harm? Youknow, have you jossled them to
drop them on the ground, ordid you play him down nicely? Did
his leg bend up behind his backor did everything lay out just right?
You know, So a lot offun things that you know, a lot
(05:23):
of the practice is just mentally,you know, the visualization of seeing yourself
do these things over and over andover again. The beauty of the competition
and what it does for the industryis it polishes up the best practices because
you've got these guys that are beinginnovative and and a lot of the advances
(05:46):
in our industry have come by thesethese competitive innovations and also a best practice
like the ascent up the rope.I mean, no doubt, that's much
less uh grueling. Yeah, there'llbe some people that maybe watch me go
(06:08):
up the rope like, oh wow, that looks sufficient. Then you try
it. Incredibly amount of upper bodystrength that takes you pull yourself up from
that lock and stand up and thendo the next one. You know,
but it's what we do and we'rehaving fun. That should be awesome.
(06:29):
I remember in like high school andstuff I could do like twenty twenty five
chin ups, no problem. Andthen like a year or two ago,
my brother is over at his houseand he's he's got a pull up bar
and he's like, try it.He's like, have you done one?
Reason? Li's I No, Ihaven't done one for years, Like give
it a try. And like Icould not you forget. If you don't
use that upper body strength and stayin shape, you're you'll lose it really
(06:51):
fast. And that's gonna be goingon of course September twenty two, twenty
third, and twenty fourth and Cedarburg. Will you be filming and putting stuff
up at Game of Trees on yourYouTube channel? Yeah? Yeah, We've
got our social media guy coming along. And I probably won't wear a camera,
you know, focused on what I'mdoing, and a lot of this
(07:15):
stuff is better watched from the otherperspectives. The helmet cam isn't going to
be a great perspective to see what'sgoing on in the trees. So there'll
be people filming me and that willdefinitely make a competition video fantastic. And
of course you can subscribe now toGame of Trees YouTube channel hams Arborcare.
(07:38):
Just head on over to YouTube,type in Game of Trees Ham's Arborcare find
them there. They'd love to haveyou. I love to have you subscribe
watching most videos, they're absolutely fascinatingand Kevin, before we wrap up this
week, let's talk a little bitabout kind of where we are seasonally.
I know today is going to bea very cool day. We've got some
you know, we're at that timeof year where it's very cool for a
couple of days, then we havea warm spike for trees there, does
(08:00):
that stuff cause stress for them?I mean, as we're kind of winding
down the year, I'm guessing they'reprobably getting ready to start conserving energy for
the winter months. What's kind ofgoing on with trees this time of year?
Yeah, you know, when thetrees are expending energy actually too because
they're going to build in subscission layerat every leaf, right, so they're
(08:22):
they're they're making a barrier at everyleaf attachment, and so you know,
the fall is a time where theyare expending some of that energy that they've
stored all summer. And of coursethe leaves will will fall, but there's
actually a you know, process thatcauses those leaves the fall, and of
(08:46):
course the fall colors. As thechlorophyll wanes in the leaves, the other
colors that were there all along becomevisible and that's what causes the fall color.
And as we've talked about before,or the temperatures and different things,
if we get a freeze and reallyfreeze, that'll kill the leaf and that'll
(09:07):
that'll wane the color. We won'tsee as much color. If we get
a nice gradual change of temperature,then we'll probably see a better ball color,
which we have for the last fewyears had some pretty good displays.
There is nothing like driving through thecountry and seeing all those beautiful trees.
There's also nothing like having one ofthose beautiful trees planting on your own property.
(09:28):
And I know, Kevin, you'vegot quite a selection of different trees
for folks, whether this time yeardoing a planting or thinking coming up in
the in the next year getting thatdone. You guys have a great,
great selection for trees that are notonly going to be planted well, but
going to be cared for as well. Right absolutely, And we've got you
know, another fall shipment coming in. We're gonna we're going to receive a
(09:50):
shipment in the fall for next year. And then now you know, Legacy
Trees is ever advancing and we're goingto have a ailibility throughout the summer to
uh, you know, acquire morestock on an as needed basis. So
we're we're looking forward to expanding,you know, getting into some you know
(10:13):
commercial and municipality uh the tradition is, you know, go for the absolute
cheap bid. And you know,our philosophy and with the legacy trees is
to provide a quality tree. It'sgoing to be a legacy, it's going
to be there in the long run. And and we're replacing one in a
(10:35):
newer subdivision. We just just didthe quote yesterday and uh, you know
it, the planting and everything aboutit was just you know, subpar.
And now they're they've got a fairlyyou know, they're five years in and
they've got this struggling tree and thatcould be a twenty five foot tree right
(10:56):
now had it been uh properly doneand been a high quality tree that's planted
at the right depth. And sothat's that's what we hope to provide going
forward. So if you're in anewer subdivision and you know the trees are
looking a little tough, now thetime, give us calling and we can
(11:18):
get a new legacy tree in there. It's really important right now to have
that conversation. And of course youwant those beautiful trees. And we've talked
in the past with Kevin. Ifyou missed, by the way, any
of those previous programs Stover Game.You know it's listening to back to the
podcast at hams Arborcare dot Com.Talked about about, you know, when
it comes to proper care for yourtree, how much faster than what you
may expect they will grow. Andit's again because of that care of that's
(11:39):
being taken and of course setting themup for a lifetime of success. All
I got to do this morning pickup phone given. Give Kevin and the
ham and the team a call athams Arborcare eight six six five nine six
five three nine six. That's eightsix six five nine six five three nine
six mentioned the website hams Arborcare dotcom. Also at Game of Trees dot
com you can find Deck, Kevinand the team there as well. Kevin,
(12:01):
it's always great chatting with you.Looking forward to doing it all again
real soon. You have a greatday. Thank you. Sewing YouTube news
comes your way next year at thirteenten w I VA
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