Quality Matters

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Eight, nineteen thirteen ten wi BA and ask the Experts
brought to you by hams Arborcare Online Haymsarborcare dot com.
That's h A. M. M as Arborcare dot com. Also
check out the website of course a Game of Trees
dot com. The soap is fantastic. Also, if you're looking

(00:30):
for professional equipment and some other really cool things like
puzzles and unique gifts, definitely check out Game of Trees
dot com. Tellphon number for hams Arborcare eight six six
five nine six five three nine six. That's eight six
six five nine six five three nine six. And joining
us this morning is Master Arborist Kevin Ham. Kevin, how
you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Doing great? Sean? We just got back from the Wisconsin
Arbors Association Winter Conference.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Who and you were of all the guys up there,
you were a winner. You want to? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I did? Yeah? Far a leaf blower? Nice? Yeah, yeah,
totally functional. It's it's not one of the you know,
nine hundred cfm ones, but it you know, we we
we have some of the small ones like this on
every truck, you know, just in case, you know, somebody

(01:22):
leaves the big one at home. But so Yeah, they're
very handy for for doing the final cleanup, uh and
and making sure you're high and tight when you leave
the property.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
They make they do a good job too of clearing
snow off of cars.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Just yeah, absolutely, don't have to get your hand cold.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
I got to ask you, Kevin Is as we talk about,
you know, some of the manufacturers out there are arborist
partial to certain like I think obviously a big one.
We think of it like chainsaws, for example, I seem
to when I'm watching your your videos on YouTube, I'm
noticing some familiar brands, and one in particular when it
comes to chainsaws, are Arbor's pretty picky about the type

(02:05):
of equipment, the type of brands, and the type of
you know, you think of, like a Major League baseball
player or any like athlete or anything like that being particular.
Are Arborists that same way?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah? Yeah, the steel guys are the most vocal. Okay, yeah,
you know, but Husky is right up there and we're
you know, I always say it comes down to who's
your dealer, And I had a really great Husky dealer
up here in Portage. Schultz small Engine, which has now

(02:37):
been sold to Capital City equipment and they're operating in
the same location. And we had been friends with Jared
who owns Capital City Equipment, so they carry the Husky line,
and so we have ninety percent Husky saws, and but

(02:57):
we have a couple of my son, like the steel
climbing saw, and we have another, uh, you know, four
sixty one that's kind of an old school I'm probably
going to bring that in and get it ported and
modified because it's it's pre computer saw, you know, so
you know, those are kind of a vintage thing that

(03:18):
people like. So I'm probably gonna put another five hundred
dollars into that and get her, get her souped up,
and it'll be a hot saw that everybody will like.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
You've Kevin, You've done I feel like I know we've
talked about it, but you've done videos as well. You mentioned,
uh getting the saw ported and and other things. The
chainsaws you guys are using, Uh, you get them, you
get them. It's it's a lot like a lot like
like a classic car that's that's been tuned up and
set up. You guys, you guys take them in or

(03:49):
do some of the work yourself as well to give
them a little extra oomph.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, you know a lot. Not all of ours are modified,
but we we have quite a few modified mufflers. And
that's like the single the cheapest thing you can do
for an upgrade and get better airflow and and really
you know, give you a little bit more horsepower. The
porting is actually taking the exhaust port and and enlarging

(04:15):
it slightly, just by by hundreds. You know. It's it's
a machining type process, and of course it voids the warranty.
I was talking to the Echo guy. I've got a
little Echo twenty five to eleven. That's just just a
hot little timalie in your hand. Yeah, And I mentioned
it to him. He goes, oh, yeah, that avoids the warranty. Yeah,

(04:38):
I know, you guys can't recommend it. I showed him
a video of my most recent video up on YouTube
features that saw and it, you know, I take down
a whole oak tree and I'm cutting through sixteen inch
diameter stuff and it's just you know, you can hear
by the sound is this great? So he's I'm like,
you know, so maybe we'll work out a little promotional

(04:58):
deal because it's still sells the saw, you know, I mean,
Echo just wants to sell this off and if they
don't have to have to support the warrant, even better, right,
that's a.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Win win for them.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
I mean win win. Kevin.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
You mentioned with saws better airflow. Obviously that also applies,
and this will be a segue for all segues applies
to tree pruning as well, and maintenance is getting better
airflow through your tree also. And I think about this
time of year, obviously we are we're getting close to April,
which of course we started thinking of oaks, but trees

(05:36):
in general, it's a great time to get those get
those saws a buzz and and getting trees cleaned up
so they get nice great airflow comes summer and spring
and I could really really develop quite quite well.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, we have a great, a great job on track
today for you know, a minus three start to the day.
We're going to be doing training printing all day for
a municipality in the area, and it's gonna it's gonna
be a good day. But in the wintertime is great.
We can see the whole structure of the tree, and

(06:12):
we've got trees from you know, one inch caliper all
the way up to you know, six inch eight inch,
ten inch, twelve inch that are going to require a
fair amount of training. But you know, it's a municipality.
It's taken a proactive approach to to get these trees
off to a good start. So a couple of newer

(06:32):
neighborhoods that we're going to be cleaning up the trees
in winter time is a great time for training printing
because we can see the structure, you know, and so
many people say, well, you won't see where the branches
when the leaves are on, but you know where are brisks,
We can kind of, you know, for foresee that what's
most important is the actual structure, not not where the

(06:56):
type of you know, the tip of the branches any
given moment. So, yeah, winter is the best time for
training pruning.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
With that you mentioned obviously talking about training pruning and
the option you know, and having that done and the
benefits to it is. The other thing too, is is
it helps that structure grow properly. And by grow properly,
we're talking about preventing things like it falling down, yeah,
the catastrophic.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yes, yeah, yeah, Like your tree is just looking great.
It's thirty feet tall and it's full and all of
a sudden half of it peels away and it just
tears it all the way down the trunk and the
tree's gone, you know. And and so you want to
avoid that. And there's a lot of autumn blaze maples

(07:45):
out there. We've talked a lot about autumn blaze and
they're just you know, a maintenance nightmare. But they can
be I mean, they're beautiful, they're four weeks of fall color,
you know. I mean you know that. But they need
good attention. And so we're we're pretty adept at taking

(08:06):
care of these these Friemani highbred maples as they're called.
And we can we can rain in their their growth
in the right direction and get them, get them going,
you know, get them protected.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Such beautiful trees as as they as they grow and develop.
But yeah, you want to make sure that they are
And there's uh, what is it like the three limbs
They kind of create a little pool in the middle
there and that starts to ride.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, and there's included bark is what it's called pinching
the bark and it's not a good union. Uh, there's
just and and on autumn blaze, there's you know a
lot of trees you maybe have one union like that
that's bad and on Autumn blaze it's three four five
of them, you know, and you just gotta kind of
mitigate it. It's best if we can get them real young. Uh.

(08:52):
The older trees, we can kind of do remedial pruney
and maybe we prune it to be a three stem tree,
and we we put in some cable support, you know,
and so we say, oh, in three years we're going
to put in cable sport, we'll start proning this. So
it's it's kind of a long term commitment. And you know,
so that's a great thing to line into a company

(09:14):
like like Ham's Arboricare that that has a long term
view and is going to treat you as if you're
never going away, and we're going to take care of
that tree, uh, for for a long time and really
have it be stable. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
And that's and you mentioned of course longevity, and and
you think of you know, how rewarding a mature tree
is and all the great benefits to it, and you
really want to make sure and a lot of that stuff.
You know that that that longevity is owed to not
just regular maintenance, but especially as they're as they're new
and developing, making sure that they're that they're growing properly.
It's a great day to give Kevin the team at

(09:51):
Ham's Arborcare a call. Also real quick too, Kevin Oak.
If you've got Oak, you really want to make sure
that that that's getting taken care because we are April's
going to be here at no time, which means restrictions
are going to go into play. So it's an important
time to give Kevin and the team at Hams Arbor
Courtcare a call. Eight sixty six five nine six five
three nine six. That's eight six six five nine six

(10:12):
five three nine six. The website Hamsarborcare dot com. That's
h A m MS Arborcare dot com. Kevin, It's always informative,
great talking with you. You have a great day.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Take care, Sean, you too.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
News comes your way next right here. Thirteen ten double
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