Winter is Here, Now What?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
WIBA and ask the experts. Joined this morning by master
arborist Kevin Ham. Of course, Kevin comes to us from
hams Arborcare at the website hams Arborcare dot com. That's
h A m MS Arborcare dot com. Delphone number eight
sixty six five nine six five three nine six. That's
eight six six five nine six five three nine six

(00:34):
has mentioned. Joined this morning by Kevin Ham. Kevin, how
was your Thanksgiving?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It was? It was delightful, Sean. I was up visiting
my eighth grandchild in Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Were you back in North Dakota.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
No, it was Wisconsin, up by black for fall. Oh,
my second daughter live. Oh that's Rry Farmer's what.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
That's a beautiful area.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, yeah, it really is very much.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
And and I don't know if it's fortunately or unfortunately
overlooked oftentimes by folks. And probably I'm guessing your daughter
and her husband probably are like, no, no, no, it's fine,
just kid.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, there's a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Of four wheelers that get up that way. There's a
bunch of trails up that way, and different attractions that
they have there.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, it is a winter and outdoor wonderland. And speaking
of four wheelers as somebody who has got their own
little side by side this time of year, it's kind
of nice driving on the trails. The grounds a little
more firm, It makes a little bit better acceleration, a
little more control when it comes to handling. And as
we think about the ground and the harder ground and

(01:41):
starting to freeze up there, this is good good stuff
for you and your equipment as well, isn't it, Kevin.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, it's get all things winter except the snow. Yes,
we've got firm ground and short grass. Yeah, no leave
for the most part, and uh yeah, no snow.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
So and for that when we look at look at
kind of how things get scheduled, that Ham's arborcare is
you know, as as regular folks, we look at the
calendar as a month to month calendar. As a as
an arborist, you look at the calendar more based on
on temperatures and conditions, ground conditions, air conditions, uh, forecasts,
those kinds of things. Things come and go, and as

(02:27):
as mentioned, it's a really good time I know for
you guys to do to do work. When it comes
to like pruning and those type taking down trees other things.
It's not necessarily a great time, and things like planting
and stump grinding. That stuff is on hold this time
of year, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, you know, for the stump grinding, we like to
have a solid finish. Were kind of predig the stumps
and salvage some of the native earth there, and then
you know, the rocks don't move very well on frozen ground,
you know, so there's tougher on your equipment, and so
the stumps we we tend to put off now till

(03:05):
till spring, and then we wait until alfter April fifteen
when the ground is kind of firmed up again. You
get that kind of mushy spring time and it's not
good to be driving out there with a stump grinder
and doing it in that kind of weather. So, yeah,
we're putting off our stumps now, and of course planting,

(03:25):
we were not putting anything in the in the frosty ground.
I don't know that we'll get I mean, we could
get some warmer weather. We've got some warmer weather coming up,
but I don't know that it'll take the frost right
out of the ground again. So we probably aren't going
to be doing any more planting until spring.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
By the way, I'm I don't know if it's if
it's genetic or or you know, having to do with
with being a guy, but there I love. I love
power equipment. I love seeing it work. And stump grinders
always fascinate me the how they work in that wheel.
What are the teeth on those things made up of?
And and like because it seems like as I as

(04:02):
I watch it watch those things be used, I'm like
those things the type of uh things that they encounter,
whether it's simply the tree itself, the soil, which I know,
you know, hitting soil with anything that sharpened will dull
it very quickly, in rock stones and gosh knows whatever else.
What exactly are those teeth made of?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Kevin?

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, it's carbide carbide tipped hammers basically, and and there's
various hardnesses of of carbides. So you can have some
that are that stay sharper longer, but they're more brittle,
and usually they use kind of a combination of a
tougher carbide that can take an impact with a rock

(04:46):
or or something. Uh, and maybe it loses a little edge,
but it still has a solid bite. And so yeah,
they got a fairly sharp edge on them when they're
they're brand new, and and the one we have we
can rotate to a different side. You know, one side's
kind of protected and the other side is out there

(05:08):
doing the cutting. And so you can fairly quickly if
you get a fractured tooth or something, you can flip
it around and use a good side. And so they've
got some pretty good practicality to a lot of the
tooth configurations on them. But there's probably about twenty twenty

(05:28):
plus teeth on a given wheel. And yeah, once you
start spinning, I don't get close.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, I knew as if I if I asked that
question you would indulge because I yeah, a lot of
folks like, wait what because it is fascinating, And you know,
one of the cool things is we talk about the
different equipment you guys have at Ham's Arborcare and kind
of walk through the seasonal change and seasonality. A lot
of a lot of folks in your industry this time

(06:00):
of year, uh start putting that stuff all away, all
of their all their tree pruning and climbing equipment, and
uh they stick to the ground as close to the
ground as they can with snowplows. Uh. Not in hams Arborcare.
You guys literally go full swing year round, don't you.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, And and on the snowy days, you know, we'll
take a day off all snowing, and then we're right
back out there the next day.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
That's pretty that, you know, And it's it's obviously for
your guys, it's good, but it's also good for folks
that are saying, you know that that are like, well,
you've got that limited spring, summer fall window with with
some people with hams Arborcare. This time of year. I
know we've talked about this in the past, but this
time of year is absolutely uh absolutely prime for for
some of the some of the operations, whether it's removals

(06:45):
and other things, this is a great time of year
to be to be doing that type of stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, all all your gardens are put to sleep, and
and you know your ground is currently it's hard, yes,
and so we can just get in there and and
get her and and there's very low impact. So yeah,
a lot of good benefits to to the wintertime. And
even when we get a little snow cover, you know
that that adds its own protection and allows our equipment

(07:12):
to kind of spin around and not not cause any damage.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
You know, last weekend we had small business Saturday, and
I did share a link to Game of Trees for
folks and to get out there and check out online
and which you have available at Game of Trees and
it's a great We talked about the soap and some
other things. There are some great gifts available at gameoftrees
dot com. That's gameoftrees dot com. Also, you guys started

(07:38):
carrying outdoor boilers, which is a great fit for what
you guys do at hams Arborcare. Uh, they're fantastic. Anybody
you got to you gotta shop, you've got wood. Uh,
you should probably have a portage and Maine boiler, shouldn't you.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, absolutely, they're They're a solidly built uh outdoor boiler
and uh we we actually carry them now the trees.
So we've got them on display at the intersection of
Highway sixteen and Highway twenty two. And we just got
our signage up. We use signs by Tomorrow, which is
a little plug for them. They're right there in Madison

(08:13):
and they made some beautiful signage for us so we
can display those. Got our first call the other day
on them. So yeah, people, people are interested anywhere from
twenty five hundred square feet to twelve thousand square feet plus.
You could heat with with various sizes of these doves,

(08:37):
although we have three is on display.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
And win with those. And for folks that don't you
think of like if you've got, you know, a garage
you do work on cars or that type of thing,
or even if you're just looking for and I know
man caves are quite popular, but I think of like
places where where folks congregate and this time of year
and I don't know, again, I feel like everything's a
garry thing today, but it does seem like to congregate

(09:01):
in in sheds and garages and keeping it comfortable and
warm is really, really, really a great, a great thing
to be doing. And what better than a boiler that
that's just burden the wood for you.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, and a tree guy to drop the wood off. Yes,
exact if you're in the right spot at the right time,
you never know.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
It's good that's dropped off. Kevin, as we talked to,
I want to real quick before we wrap up this week.
Of course, it's a great day to get on the
schedule at ams Arborcare. I'm going to have your trees
checked out. Of course, Kevin and the team can get
a great look since the leaves are off your trees
and can get a really good look at the overall
healthier trees. Got to do some gotta do some pruning.

(09:40):
Is great, It is a great time a year for that.
But I do want to mention as well, we talked
about game off trees dot Com this time of year,
especially Honey, if you're listening or others. Soap, uh, the
the soap that you in shampoo that you guys carry
Game off trees dot com. I can't say enough great

(10:00):
things about it. And you mentioned last week what a
perfect stocking stuff or isn't it?

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, And currently it's buy three, get three for free,
so you know you can stock up for the stockings.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, that's made with activated charcoal that we we've made
out of our own chips, so kind of a you know,
circle of capturing the carbon. There. So some good good
use of our of our waste products.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
And for parents that are listening, if you've got a
kidder kiddo or a grand kiddo that's in sports. I
don't think i've shared this on there. Christina took one
of my game of trees bars of soap and dropped
it in our son's soccer bag. So it's and I
don't know how it's so like his uniform and stuff
all smells. It's like it's it's like a nice little

(10:49):
air fry. So just saying, folks, there's a lot a little.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Little multi purpose yes, good little tip. Yeah they call
that a hat, don't they. Good? Uh, good soapack there, Sean.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, it is a great sobag is a great gift
for everybody. Again, check out game offtrees dot com. That's
gameoftrees dot com. Place your order today, buy three, get
three free. Trust me, you will absolutely love it. The
gift receiver will absolutely love it. It goes, it smells great,
it it cleans you up good and again. You can
get that all at game offtrees dot com. Website for

(11:22):
hams Arborcare's Hamsarbacare dot com. Tell for number eight six
six five nine six five three nine six. That's eight
six six five nine six five three nine six. Kevin,
it's always great chatting with you. You have a fantastic dame,
my friend.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
You take care of Sean.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
News news comes your way next right here at thirteen
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