Episode Transcript
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(00:09):
Have you been thinking about updating yourbathroom or in need of some new windows
or looking for just some advice onthe next do it yourself project, Well,
let's talk about it live from theDonovan and Jorgensen Hitting and Cooling Studios.
This is the Creative Construction of Wisconsinhome improvement show. Let's turn it
over to Mike McGivern and Bingo Emmons, only on the Big nine twenty Man
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your iHeartRadio App. Welcome into theCreative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on the
Big nine twenty in your iHeartRadio App. Coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen
Indy Cooling Studio is the largest employeeowned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin.
Go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com.Alongside my co host, He's Bingo
(00:57):
Emmons, the owner of Creative Constructionwith Scott's a big all. You been
doing good and doing good at dayin the March. We're getting a lot
of work done outside of this.I know it's unbelievable. I bet you
are. We're not done. Wehave people like just well you know,
the people that just need stuff done. You know, we had a job,
they had a fire, they can'tput their sign back up that we
got done. I always say,hey, don't worry about it. We
get we're getting a lot of stuffdone. We're gonna get caught up.
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So maybe we'll have some openings forthe summer. Well, you know,
Sam, I'm going to get atext from Sam in about thirty seconds.
Tell him quit saying that I knowyou guys are booked, but there are
some indoor and we're not done withwinter yet. People. I'm just telling
you, you guys that are gettingyour golf clubs ready, just hold on,
be patient. Yeah you still call. We're still doing inside work.
But you know, we pretty mucheverybody went outside last week. Well it's
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you know what's interesting is we hadthem and I'm so happy with our special
guests coming in. We had GeenWagner Plumbing in. I mean they sponsor
our shows, and they sponsored myhigh school showing faith in the zone.
And and we had Scott in andI said, Scott, what in this
commercial? We want to talk aboutwhat you guys doing the wintertime? And
he talked about that. He alsotalked about trees and the roots, and
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he said, look, we getcalled a lot this time of year with
it because trees don't stop growing.Now, I'm one of those. Happened
to my shop, I added,Doug a Adam digget out the roots in
the same thing at my house Ihad. I'm doing that and that's what
the That's the first thing you sayis just because that's winter time doesn't mean
they stop no at all. Andour special guests we talked about that before
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he came out of the air.He is Freddie Happy. He is the
co owner of a hoppy tree service, Third Generation. They have three locations.
Their main location is is in Tosa. He's a Tosa East boy,
by the way. And uh,well, yeah, that's good. I
did most of those tosies guys,you know, they go on to bigger
and better things like you have.I think most of them do. I
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don't know, Freddie Happy, howyou doing to that. I'm doing great,
Mike, thanks so much for havingyou in person. We had you
on the other station, but itwas via cell phone during the whole COVID
thing when we couldn't really anybody inAnd it's really good to meet you.
Third generation. Did you know,Freddie, let me ask you this.
When you were in high school,did you know that this was kind of
going to be your future. Ihad no clue that this was going to
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be my future, you know,up into when I was going on to
UWM for business. I was abouttwo and a half years into college when
I was like, this is agreat opportunity. We have a well known
family business. I know what I'mdoing, So it was a no brainer
at that point to the family business. When you were young, were you
working for the fail? Oh?Yeah, I didn't have summers off,
you know, as soon as Icould, I was working with my dad.
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So yeah, my parents, mymom and my dad were both always
entrepreneurs, having small businesses. Sothis was great to uh to keep going
with man and your brother's involved aswell. Yeah, my brother August is
the president of the company and coowner, and he also has been a
lifelong tree guy. Older brother,younger brother, older brother by three years.
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Yeah, do you guys, canyou guys get together for Christmas and
Thanksgiving? Me that talk trees.We are getting way better at that.
You know, in the past,we that always dominated every conversation, much
to our significant others chagrin, werea we're getting better at having hobbies other
than we're a talking policy at dinnerand so, did you give me a
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hobby that you're involved in. Myfamily just got big into downhill skiing.
So I have three kids, aten, ten year old, eight year
old, and six year old,and my middle daughter, Becks, is
her first year of ski racing withthe Park Ski team on Key Oscar.
Wow. Yeah, so the wholefamily is into it now. So it's
a great hobby if you could.And this is a question that I wouldn't
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normally ask at home. I provementshow, but if there's is there anywhere
in the country that you haven't goneskiing that you go? Man one day?
Oh, I've been fortunate to goout west the last three years for
little trips, but I mean I'malways looking for a wood place. What's
the best, the next one isthe best one? There? I haven't
gone to enough place. No.I was just out in Aspen and actually
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in Tahoe this year, so itwas a yeah, I'm really fortunate.
It not often like I'm not likea two ski trip kind of guy,
but it just happened to line upthis year. A little different than Little
Switzerland. It is a little different. I'm actually a Little Switzerland is where
my daughter's racist tomorrow, So hopefullythe whole the snow holds out. It's
been a rough week for fans.One time, I was in junior in
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high school and three of my buddieswere They did this a lot, and
they said, hey, why don'tyou come? And they took me on
the bunny hill once and said,yeah, you're natural, let's go.
Not good. Nobody taught me howto stop. Yeah, that's important part.
Yeah, and I'm not kidding.I ended up on the porch of
like back then at least they hadlike a porch a chalet, and people
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are on having you know, hot'sstill there, and I slid right on
it. And when I when Itook kind of my glasses off, my
cousin Susie was right there. Shegoes, but givr, what are you
doing? I go, I haveno idea, I have no clue.
Never again, by the way,never again. Hey, how is business?
By the way, business is good? It a couple of weeks ago,
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it is. It's been pretty crazythe last few weeks. You know,
this winter storm that came through hasbeen uh when I haven't seen I
haven't seen one like this in quitea while. The damage that it did
to the trees in our area waspretty devastating. Trees hang down as far
as they did. Some of theones that didn't break, I've seen it,
yeah, just not for as longas they have. So it's really
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going to be remaining to be seenwhat the true extent of some of the
damage is. You know, treesare very resilient and they can take a
lot of abuse, but when theyget bent over with a heavy snowload and
then and then kind of frozen intime like what happened for multiple days,
it can it can do some Imean, healthy branches were breaking, not
just weak branches. You know,we're very good at spotting defects and trees
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in advance, you know, anda lot of these trees that fail,
you know, that could be preventedby having them inspected by a qualified arborist,
like a certified arborist, I sayyou are one, yeah, correct,
Yeah. At our company, wehave I believe it's over close to
twenty certified arboris. You know.Before you guys came in and I'm doing
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research for the show to make surethat we're getting to the things that we
want to get to. One ofthe articles I read and it was before
you you hire a tree service,what are the questions you should ask?
And the second question was do youhave any arborist on staff? Very important?
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lotof people out there with chainsaws and
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trucks, but you know, anda lot of people that are great at
taking trees down. But that's onlya small part of what we make.
I make quite a bit of moneyfor people that try to take to on.
I bet you do. Yeah,yeah, that's part of yours.
Yeah, especially especially people that Iknow old are contractors. Yeah, I
do my own. Yeah, Hey, anyway you can fix this real quick?
Yeah. It was actually after thislast storm I saw a local asphalt
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company was advertising storm clean up andtree of removal. The funny thing is
there actually clients of mine too.Did touch my head off? Did you
call it? Say? What doyou hire in me? Yeah? What's
going on with that? I haven'tmade that call yet, maybe this weekend.
Hey, your grandfather started the company? Yeah? Correct. And I
find it really interesting whenever you getto a second or third or even fourth
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generation or sixth, like Creative Constructionis going to be here soon that that
I always think that if you're goingto work with a company that's third generation.
Man, there isn't anything you haven'tseen, and if you haven't you
know, Like I asked Sack this, he said, Look, if there's
something I don't know, I goto my dad, and if there's something
he didn't know, we go tomy grandfather. Because there really isn't anything
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that's going to throw its because we'regoing to have the answer for it.
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean,there's not much we haven't seen, and
if there's something we haven't seen,we have a great network of other owners,
uh, business owners, street careowners across the country that we are
in business groups with that we canwe can ask is your father still involved
at all? No, he passedaway three years ago. He no,
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thank you, but yeah, hewas very involved up in up into the
end. Both of my parents were. It was great. You know,
you hear about a third generation companyand it's hard to do these these days,
but it was great. My parentswere very uh willing to give me
and my brother kind of the keysto the castle and let us roll with
it. You know. They hadthey knew we could take places that they
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they didn't really have the the energytoo, so they weren't stuck in their
ways and and and gave us thatleeway, which was one of the biggest
things he did is as old UrbanWood Labs. That's that's oh, that's
my most favorite single visit. Yeah, you said, man, if you
get a chance to go see thisthing, it's really incredible. And we
are going to get to that.Which interesting what you just said, talk
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to Randy Miller and Jordan's gonna takeover that company. And you talk to
Jordan, he goes, yeah.When when he finally does, he keeps
kind of like maybe giving me thekeys. But when he does, we're
gonna make some changes. All thetime. Well, I'm still gonna be
your dad forever. Yes, yesyou are. I'm not leaving that.
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But because the younger generation, right, they have different ways and everything now
is a little bit different, ita little quicker. You can put this
here and you can get it donethis way. And it's interesting that when
you said, look, they werereally open to allowing my brother and I
to take this to the next level. And I like to hear that because
that that means they have so muchtrust in you and your brother that you
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understand the mission of what Hoppy treeservice is and look, I've I've known
people that have used your service andwe're the common thread behind all of it
is they're really professional and they takecare of it and they do what they
say they're going to do. Andthat had to start with your grandfather.
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean,being good in business isn't rocket science.
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You know, you do what yousay you're going to do, and you
fix something. If something happens right, you make right by it. So
we had a company that when Iwas working at the other radio station that
decided they were going to go withus for some of their marketing. And
we were competing against some other peopleand at the end they chose me and
us and I said can I askwhy? And the guy said, because
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you could work here, and Isaid, what does that mean? He
said, we feel like if youmake a mistake, you're not going to
hide it. You're going to goright at it. Come and tell us
and say, look, here's whathere's the mistake we made, and here's
how we're going to fix it.And he said, that's what we do
here at this business, and wefeel like you'll do that. And that's
what it sounds like is similar towhat you guys do. Yeah, absolutely,
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and that's how you've become a thirdgeneration company. Right. You can
turn those contentious situations content like aclient that's not happy into raving fan by
the way you handle it. Andthey you know, when you've been around
for a while, you've been throughthe recessions, the problems, and you
know how to adapt for like theyou know, the supplies being you know,
just things we just because the thingshappen, you know, we get
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some history. You can just youknow, look what do you do in
the past, and you just workwith that. Yeah, and we're always
being around for three generations and we'rea growing company. Do you have to
do that these days? You createan opportunities. There's not our generation coming
up because you see these guys onpraise and stuff there hanging by their tree
swings, and these kids are readyto go already. How many employees We're
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about sixty five employees over three locations. That's all we do, not big
difference. Yeah, we were everyoneworks year round. We have a number
of interns that will come in throughthis during the summer. But we have
a plant healthcare division, a landscapedivision where we've really ramped up our planting
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program, so we have we doa lot of planting of trees and shrubs.
We have a master gardener on staffthat helps with clients with planning division.
Yeah, we did some lilacs.I'll have to check those, inspect
those this this spring, see howthey came through winter. But act you
have a little ribbons on them,Baily girl marked. What was the key
for you? Yeah, we havespecifications are pretty strict. Yeah, well,
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you wanted to be able to walkoutside. I want to be able
to make us some my neighbors dancing. There it is. We'll just go
with you. We'll go with that. Freddy, what is the best season
if people are you know, theyfeel like they need to take down a
tree, and I know, lookfor you guys to take down the tree
is kind of the last resort,right you would, let's find out if
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the tree needs to be taken down. But if there if somebody has to
get a tree taken down, isthere a best best time of the year
for that? There's really I meanany time of the year is good.
The important thing is knowing what youhave and what kind of shape it's in.
So I really encourage people to havea qualified person look at their their
yard once a year make sure thatthere's no hazards. I mean, as
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a property owner, you have aduty of care to take a look at
your property and make sure the treesthat you have don't pose a risk.
You know, safety is always thebiggest thing that we're looking at. I
also learned something too, you know, because our house, because DeBie that
does mulberry tree. You know,she loves that mulberry tree so much.
You can't cut that one down.That's the male Apparently he was a male
and female mulberry trees. Yep,really, I did not know that.
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No, I did not know thateither. Yeah, Mulberry's are the ones
in your property. Were kind ofvolunteers that came up, you know,
and not everyone has such rosy feelingsfor mulberry trees. Dev dev Is,
she has a special place in myheart because she loves her trees so much.
So that's like a perfect client forus, someone that really cares about
their landscape and wants to see itthrive. And that's where we can really
help quite a bit. So onthis house that Terry and I owned for
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thirty some odd years. When webought it, they had just planted a
small, like kind of little Christmastree type in the front and we're there
for I don't know, five sixyears and they had grown quite a bit
and we're thinking about taking it downand my son, Matthew, who was
probably five or six or seven atthat time, started crying and I go,
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what here is That tree's my friend. I go out and play football
with that tree and I throw itand if the tree catches it, it's
a catch, and if it drops, it's you can't cut down my friend.
So we ended up not cutting itdown to the point that it got
so big that we had to getit taken down. But we kept it
because my son started crying saying,that is my friend and that's who I
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play with when there's nobody else toplay with. Please don't cut my friend
out. And goes like, howdo you cut down the tree? If
your son says, you know,that's my only friend on the block,
please don't cut it down. Sowe kept it up way longer than the
shit and it needed to come downfor sure, and when it did it
they did. I'll tell you duringthe break it wasn't the greatest experience,
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but it wasn't so bad. Yeah, it worked. Okay, before we
get to a break, if somebodysays, look, when should I can
consider tree removal, and again it'sit's kind of the last resort for you,
and I understand that. But ifif a tree obviously is dead or
dying, there there are other waysor reasons that people should consider tree removal.
Well, I mean, uh,you got us. It's about where
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the location of that tree is andhow much of a risk it poses,
or if it's unsightly in the landscape. So planning, you know, most
companies have a backlog, but gettingsomeone out there as soon as possible,
so it doesn't matter if it's winteror spring, summer or fall. You
know, safeties paramount anytime of year. But you know, traditionally winter can
be a great time. I wouldsay, you know, interrupt them.
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But he's got a machine that's thatgoes up really high. But it can
go through the smallest little areas.I mean, see, I see it
just go right through a little fencewalkway between two of the houses and then
it gets and it goes and itjust goes way up. Yeah, the
equipment equipment has really come around quitea bit as you say that part of
your business has changed. Yeah,we don't have your traditional area of bucket
trucks anymore. We have these selfpropelled lifts that can get through a standard
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sized gate and still go two feet. You've got the machines of around to
pick up all logs and carry yourstuff around there. It's just like flying
when you're doing Do you do thestump as well? Yeah, we do
stump grinding as well. Yeah,that's a big part in You know,
there are people that will just comeand cut the tree and they'll take it
if you want it. But thatstump then is a whole different thing.
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Yeah, we do it all inhouse. In my house. He has
to leave the trees. Oh,firewood, firewood for the fire. The
firewood hound man. That's awesome.He's Freddie Happy. He is our guest
for the entire hour. They havethree locations, but their main location and
they're known best in the Wawatosa area. But I'm telling you guys, go
to Sheboygan. What is the radiusfor you? We go all over down
to the state line. We havea location in Caledonia, so we're servicing
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rasine in Kenosha Counties. We havea little grafting location. So we're going
into Sheboygan, Washington County, anywherewhere there's treets and people, you know,
hot Hoppy Tree Service and look,they're right on their website taking care
of people and their trees since nineteenseventy two. They've been around. It's
nineteen seventy two, which tells yousomething. I want to talk more about
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the Urban Wood Lab and you wantto see somebody's eyes light up. The
guy next to me in the redhere it's really cool. He's like,
man, it's really cool. Yougot to see this. We'll talk to
him about that on the other sideof the break again. He's Freddie Happy.
Go to Hopytree Service dot com.One word Hoppytree Service dot com.
Go on their website. You cansee their services. You can see company
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info, office line, you canonline bill pay, everything you need to
know about this company, and youcan request a quote right online and just
say, hey, look, thisis what we're looking for in their website.
Pruning, removal, plant healthcare.I think that's part of what sets
them apart, by the way,they're not just looking to cut down your
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tree and then get out of there. Plant healthcare is important to them as
well. The Urban Wood Lab iswell, we're going to talk about next
and and I know again Bingo Emmon'slike, look, if you ever get
a chance to see this, youguys see Tim the toom, Taylor and
in hardware store. Oh oh man, I feel like if you want to
take me on a date, that'swhere you're gonna take me. Right there.
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This is the Creative Construction of WisconsinHome Improvement Show on the Big nine
twenty in your I Heard Radio App. Welcome back to the Creative Construction of
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Wisconsin Home Improvement show. I'm theBig nine twenty and your I Heard Radio
App. Coming live from the Donovanand Jorgans and Hidy Cooling Studios. Make
mc gibbrin alongside Bingo Emmons, theowner of Creative Construction Wisconsin. Our special
guests Freddie Happy, I gotta tellyou Hoppy tree service. All I have
to say is, hey, tellme about the Urban Wood Lab. And
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before Freddy could start talking, myboy here at Bigo, Hey, man,
let me tell you what they didhere. And then they moved in
there and deb sent me a textsaid, hey, tell Freddy, I've
got him on my speed dial becausesimilar to me, having Zach on.
Well, my wife has Zach on. It's funny Freddy because anytime I try
a project at my own house,try to do it on my own my
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wife's got Zach right on speed dial. She's like, Zach, he did
it again, could you please comeand help him and fix it. So
I love the fact that Dev hasyou on speed dial. Talk to me
about the thought process before it evenopened. The thought process of doing the
Urban Wood Lab. Yeah, itwas mainly a product out of Emerald Ashboar
and that passed, you know,decimating ashtray in our area and everyone,
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every tree service had to do alot of removals unfortunately. So we were
coming across a lot of beautiful woodand it's a shame to cut it all
up into firewood or to take itto a dump to get disposed of.
So trying to find the highest andbest use for that wood is something that
is great to do, something thatwe're passionate about. And it made sense,
you know. We we do alot of live edge slabs is kind
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of what we're known for. Wedo some dimensional number. Can you explain
what that is? Yeah, Soit's uh, well, basically the Urban
Wood Lab is our store where wesell our wood products. So the trees
that we're taking down that have tocome down, we're recycling them and milling
them. So we have a bigband saw and depending on what the cutting
plan is for that log, itcould be live edge slabs, so people
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use those for coffee tables, sureshelving are two big options for that.
It's like the center section of theof the wood just cut off with the
barts on the edges and yeah,it's just no matter no matter how you
cut it, it's always looks great. Every piece is like one one of
a kind of very unique. Ifsomebody has a tree taken down and they
want something made from that tree,so they hire you to come take the
(22:11):
tree down, and then they getsent to the So yeah, so the
process would be we can take thattree down, you know, and usually
we like to know in advance oftaking that tree down, so we can
take it down in sections that willbe viable for whatever they want to use
that wood for. But yeah,we can we bring that trunk section or
limb section back to our our yardand graft and our grafting locations where we
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do our our milling. So we'llcome up with a mailing plan. We'll
cut the log into whatever dimensions thatyou want, and then we actually uh
air dry it for a number ofmonths and then we put it into our
dry kiln. So that dry kiln, if you're going to be using it
for inside furniture, you want toget it to a certain moisture content.
So the kiln drives out that woodand you know, faster than air drying.
(22:59):
If if you go on their websiteand go to Hoppytree Service dot com
and then if you go over tothe tab where it says more click on
that inspiration gallery. There are somepictures of some of the things that we're
talking about here that I'm telling you. Some of these tables that you guys
are you get the fireplace Lentel,right, you get the big here,
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yeah, mantles right right, yeah, mantle right. You're taking me,
you know, because you know,as our contract, you go, I
needed this piece cut to this andthis, and they'll cut it for you.
Yeah. That's one unique thing aboutthe Urban Wood Lab. Also,
we have a lot of services thatwe offer as far as giving people a
leg up on a project. Sowe have the actual wood products, but
we have industrial belt, sander,planer, straight line ripping sauce, so
(23:42):
we can give someone a headstart onthat project. And we have a whole
a number of craftsmen that we knowthat we can refer people to, you
know, finish that project, butwe can give them a head start on
it. Not everyone has a bigbelt, sander or planer, so we
can get people rocking and rolling.If my wife is listening, do you
know the picture that you have ofthe bed that you guys made. We
(24:04):
have been looking for and I don'tknow if what this is called, where
you have the slabs like that.We have been looking for this for probably
I don't know. It looks likea craftsman style kind of bed with the
slabs there, because nobody makes thoseanymore. You stop in at the Urban
Wood Lab this afternoon, Well we'regonna you and I are gonna be talking.
(24:26):
And I'm not kidding. We havesince probably the first of December,
because we decided, hey, youknow what, instead of buying each other
gifts, why don't we why don'twe get a Kingsides bed? And this
is the way, this is thekind of bed we like. We have
not My sister yesterday said, look, on Costco once because they do with
a lot of still can't find it. So you and I are talking during
(24:48):
the you know, he'll cut thewood or what you want is not that
you're not this is your choice ofyour design. It doesn't work like that
with him because he just spects,you know, want like this and that,
and that's what they cut out to. Unbelievable. It's you can see
people's the gears turning in their headand the imagination and things going when yeah,
yeah, it's a fun store towalk through. It's a lot of
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people. They always talk about thesmell of it, you know, the
different smells at different times of theYou're not going to out in five minutes.
Where is it located. It's ona twenty seventh street between Elm Road
exit and seven Mile Road in Caledonia, so it's just across the county county
line. How big is the store. It's about three thousand square feet totally.
Like a portion of that is likewhere our shop services are located in
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the The other three quarters are wherewe have what you got some cool tools.
We'll look at you if you letsyou well here and here's the person
question. If we don't have woodfour to be to make something like this.
Are we able to still come inand say, hey, if you
get wood, this is what we'dlike to order. Yeah. Absolutely,
you can order evans like bins andbins of wood there. You could pick
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out the flavor and yeah, ittakes. We have we have stuff staged
in graft and so if we getlike kind of a punch list or a
wish list of stuff that people wantcertain species or dimensions, we can try
and fulfill that as best as wecan. Sometimes terries. Listen, honey,
if you're listening right now, HoppyTree Service, h o Ppe Tree
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Service, and go over to whereit says more and then Inspiration Gallery.
And if you're not listening, I'llshow this to you when I get home,
because this is very funny that thatpicture is on there. Look at
Inspiration Gallery and I can tell youthat some of these tables that the pictures
are unbelievable and I can't imagine,you know, somebody owns a cabin up
(26:41):
north or something that this would notbe like perfect for some what they're looking
for. Yeah, well, especiallyif you have a family heirloom like a
tree. You know, some ofthat halls for a couple of generations and
the tree comes down in a stormand you can save it. And that's
you know, because I know thatstories when I go there, because people
will do that with a tree.They'll save it and make up something out
of it and say this was atree my grandpa planted or whatever. Yeah,
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but Mike, like you said,your son was so attached to that,
that tree, that evergreen. Youknow, it's a lot of times
trees have to come down and peopledon't want them to. So it's a
it's a great way of honoring thattree and perpetuity by utilizing it in lumber
and in the cool project. Well, and I would assume that that in
these pictures that are on that thatthat's exactly what you know, this rocking
(27:25):
chair, I mean, I'm surethat it's somebody that had it. And
look, let's not waste the wood. Why don't we do this? And
man, this is really cool.The Urban Wood Lab by Hoppy. Did
you have any idea when you cameup with that idea? And I don't
know if it was you or ifit was August or somebody else that it
would get to words at right now. No, it was it was it
(27:47):
was. It's it's really it's reallygrown quite a bit, you know.
And from our first store in uhon Blue Mountain Road. It was actually,
if it wasn't for the Urban WoodLab, I might not be here
because that was the first place Imet Bingo and deb was like an after
hour nary event at our brand newurban Wood Lab. Yeah. Yeah,
Debby's like he said, well,I got a tree you gotta cut on.
You can make finishre out of it. Well you came out and looked
at the tree, said no,you can't do anything with this. You
(28:10):
guys, there's nothing you can do. By the way, my wife sent
me a text and she's listening,so I would assume she's going right to
Hoppy Tree Service, going to moreand going to the Inspiration Gallery to look
at the bed because it just makesme laugh that we have been looking for
this for two months now, somethinglike this and cannot find it at all.
(28:32):
Yeah, we probably have the craftsmenthat did that, so we could
connect them with you, and wehave the product to make the bed and
we have the actually back to comeput it together though, because you know
what, I'm a big boy andI don't want to fall through the Oh
there you go, one of thetwo. But we know with Zach's on
speed dials, so he can takecare of that. What is the amount
(28:55):
of time that people have to wait, like you talked about, to dry,
to make sure that it's dry.What's the weight for that? It's
probably about a year process from whenthat tree comes down, when it's milled,
having to air dry, and thenhaving to get in the kiln.
The kiln is kind of the bottleneckof the whole operation because it's you only
have so many square feet and that'swhat's really unique. There's a lot of
(29:18):
producer about us. Unique about us. There's a lot of producers of urban
wood, but not many people havecapacity to have a kiln to dry it.
So that's one thing that sets us. You don't want to build something
out of split later on, youright? Or air drying takes about a
year per inch of thickness. Yeah, so it takes quite a while,
so people have to have patients.Yeah, and you guys, the kiln
(29:41):
process is now depending on what sizethe wood is, but it's probably about
twenty two days I think on average. But we air dried a little bit
before that to get it to thatshorter period in the kiln. Did you
move out of space necessity? Isthat why you moved from Bluemont to Caledonia.
Yeah, it was. It wasa small storefront on Blue Mount Road.
(30:03):
It was attached to our first officespace. You know, we were
working out of my parents' house.At least the office was working out of
my parents' house. So our firstadministrative office on Blue Mount and we had
an extra space next to it.So like, hey, this would be
a great gallery for some of thewood pieces we had. So we had
a beautiful mural wall made out ofcutting ends from the mill that was just
(30:26):
trash, but we had this reallyarchitectural, artistic mural made and the whole
floor was made out of ash treesthat had to come down, so we
worked with a mill that actually routedthe the wood so that we could put
it together as flooring. So thatwas really It's cool that right now that's
a salon that's in that space,but they still have the wood floor in
(30:48):
the in the mural wall. Soit's fun seeing that. When I stopped
by, you know, it's it'sfunny because I didn't I didn't think that
we would spend a whole segment onthe urban world. It's easy to we
talk a lot about it. Wecould do a whole other segment on it.
But I've got some questions regarding,you know, tree service and some
of the other services that that youguys offer. If somebody wants to treat,
(31:11):
needs a tree taken out, butwants another tree in its place,
you guys are able to do thatas well. Absolutely. We never have
just a removal conversation. It's aremove and replaced conversation, especially with we're
kind of on the last uh lastlegs of Emerald dashboar decimating our tree population
and it's it's amazing. It's it'ssad to see what it's done to the
(31:32):
canopy in southeast Wisconsin. What's thenext one that's coming up? You got
one starting to get you starting tosee signs up. I know, termite
just starting to show up. Yeah, with uh, you know, warmer
winters. There's a number of insectsthat are are kind of on the horizon,
spotted lantern fly, asian longhorn beetle. Nothing's been confirmed in Wisconsin,
(31:55):
but nothing as devastating as emerald dashboarhas been. But you never know.
What the you know, global commerceand shipping. You never know when something
might pop up, hey on yourwebsite. And I don't want to spend
much time on this, but organicand mosquigo mostique take a mosquito. Yeah,
(32:15):
I don't even want to think aboutthose guys right now, but the
organic treatments for that is something youguys also offer. How important was that?
Was it something that you guys havedone for a long time? Yes
and no. So we really expandedour offerings in that realm last year out
of you know, want from ourclients. There's a lot of clients of
(32:40):
ours north Shore where yards are packedin close to each other. So when
you're doing insect and disease treatments,you want to have something that's as friendly
to people and the environment as possible. So it's good having those those options
man really important, I think,And and the fact that you guys offer
that. It's funny there's there's companiesin your category that they they are really
(33:05):
good at. You know, they'regoing to take your tree down and maybe
grind the stump, but you havenow taken it to three or four different
levels, right, Like, we'rejust not going to do that let's talk
about you know, how what elsedo you want here? On your website?
If you go to tree planting,the first thing it says is the
world needs more trees. That's whyI Hopy Tree Service plant plants trees and
(33:29):
shrubs. It's important to put itright tree in the right location. You
guys are are are thinking about thatpart of it as you're you know,
having that conversation with the homeowner oflook, we're gonna cut this down.
What do you what do you wantto do in its place? Let's let's
plant something, or let's I lovethe fact that you have people on staff
(33:50):
that can can look at somebody's landscapeand say this would be perfect. Yeah,
it's a it's a balancing act,you know, listening to what the
client wants and what's really viable,because you want to pick the right tree
so that tree can thrive. Youknow, you don't want to force something
into a site conditions that aren't conduciveto it, you know, being a
great tree for its whole whole life. Yeah, he's also he's also a
(34:12):
tree doctor, dude, because like, we had a birch in our in
our front yard that I thought weshould just cut it down. Well you
brought it back to life. You'vegot big eight foot injection that you do
or something you tabble with something.There's yeah, a number of services we
provide, soil injection of nutrients,insect control, you know, speaking of
paper birches like at your house,bingo bronze birch bore is always something to
(34:32):
consider. So there's nice preemptive treatmentsthat can be done to deter that insect
from doing damage. So, youknow, one component is UH insecticide to
control insect issues, but another isyou know the health of the tree.
So proper watering and fertilizing when neededis are two important things that can easily
get overlooked. So and it's goodto take care of the things these things
(34:57):
preemptively as opposed to way to somethingbad happens. So it's it's easier to
keep a tree healthy than is tofix it if it's sick. Hey,
the idea of having the amount ofemployees that you have and not having subcontractors,
you're able to keep these guys busyall year round. Yeah, absolutely,
(35:19):
we uh. We have a dedicatedsales team that's out there taking a
look at clients properties. Writing upgood scopes of work and our guys,
Yeah, we have a healthy backlogmost of the year. Yeah, and
when the phones uh, there's kindof the sales side and the and the
production side. The production side neverreally slows down in the winter. Our
(35:43):
sales force really spends their time visitingour existing clients, checking in on them,
like do at your house bingo.We get to the point where our
clients don't have to call us.We call them say, hey, your
trees are due for service. Letus come and take a look, make
sure our program's still on track,any adjustments that are needed, offer suggestions.
So that's a huge thing that wedo that adds a lot of value
(36:07):
to our services, a whole bunchof value to your services. I look,
your grandfather be really proud. ThankYou're really proud of the direction that
Happy Tree Service is going. Andthe fact that you guys, are you
understand your visionaries with this right?I mean, I would assume there are
people throughout the country and you said, look, we're in networking that you
(36:30):
have conversations with and when you guys, when you came up with the urban
wood lab, is that something thatpeople are doing other places in the country
they are, but we're kind ofleaders. I think we are legitimately the
largest producer of urban wood in theMidwest, and it's also where members of
urban Wood Network, so we actuallyteam up with other producers and sell their
(36:52):
pieces at our story as well.So it's a there's a lot of room
in that space for a lot ofproducers. And you don't have to talk
about the dollar investment, but thedollar investment had to be huge. This
was just an idea and a thought. But to take that next step and
be able to do the stuff thatyou guys are doing is not cheap,
(37:13):
right, and to be able tosay, okay, now we're ready to
go, there had to be ahuge investment and a belief that this thing
is exactly what needs to be donein this area. Yeah. Absolutely,
And that was nice having the TreeService doing as well as it was and
is to be able to give usthe leeway the flexibility to really turn the
(37:34):
urban Wood Lab into what we want. Never thought we'd spend twenty minutes on
the urban Wood Lab until his eyesuntil Bingo's eyes lit up and said,
Hey, I'm taking you on adate and you're going to go through this
thing. And you're gonna let youbetter have more than five minutes once you
get there. Our special guest foryour entire hour, and he's really good.
He's Freddie Happy. He is aco owner of Hoppy Tree Service with
(37:55):
his brother August, third generation,third generation. If you need to call
them phone number four one four twofive seven two one one one two five
seven two one one one, orbetter yet, go to Hoppytree Service dot
com all the information you need andyou can even just as easy as request
a quote right online and they willget right back to you and get you
(38:20):
the information that you need again HoppytreeService dot com. This is the Creative
Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement show onthe Big nine twenty and Your iHeart Radio
App off lifting from laughting and youcould give him, I said, somebody
who's gotta take care of him soI could scool It's ready. Welcome back
(39:01):
to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin homeImprovement shown the Big ninet twenty and Your
iHeart Radio app coming live from theDonovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios.
Frettie Hoppy is our special guest,and you can go to Hoppytree Service dot
com. First of all, happyanniversary to you. Been god, I
(39:22):
know if you knew that. Yeah, it's yeah, one year we've been
doing this together here at this newstation. Yeah. They didn't say we'd
last a year, but here weare going into years. It seemed like
we started a couple of months ago. I know, it goes quick,
right, especially when having fun.All I know is that days go slow,
in years go fast. That's that'swhat I think. And man,
it's been great doing this with you. Even this hour goes by so fast.
(39:45):
They like, we're oll man,Hey, we've got to talk about
his webinars and stuff. We gotto do that yet you know why because
you turned me onto the Urban WoodLab. And my wife, now,
oh yeah, she called and she'slike, hey, listen, I want
to see this bet you keep talkingabout. So I've got her over on
on the on your website Hoppytree servicedot com. And hey, on the
(40:06):
event page, you guys have youguys do webinars and there's one coming up
with your brother by the way,February eighth, learn how to prune with
confidence and people can sign up righton the website. Correct, correct,
it's free and it's a great educationalopportunity to be really uh, that's one
of our big goals is to educateour clients about what we're doing and it's
(40:30):
it's a lot of fun to do. We used to do a number of
them in person, but when covidcame we the webinar became a big deal
and that it's really worked well.We've been able to broadcast it to a
larger network of people and people arereally appreciative of it and that's good value
to the attendees. And then you'vegot one that you're going to do on
March seventh, top trees and shrubsfor planting in your yard. Obviously timing
(40:53):
on this kind of stuff that youguys do is perfect. You can go
to that website and go so didthe event events tab events tab, and
you can sign up for any ofthe webinars. It's free. There's also
a link that's coming soon twenty twentyfour free kids climbs. Well yeah,
that so during the summer months wedo a number of events where we have
(41:19):
kids climbs. We love getting kidsup in trees to you know, have
them appreciate trees even more. Youknow, who doesn't have a fond memory
of climbing trees as a kid.But we we have ropes and harnesses,
so they get to be a littlejunior professional tree climber for the day.
So it's very safe, very fun. Hey, my wife set the text.
(41:40):
So I want that bed. That'sthe one, that's the one we've
been looking for. So I'm gonnacome down and see that store, and
I'll let bingo and I'm gonna bringmy wife and we'll come down and take
a look and try to figure outhow we can we can have it made
the idea of giving back to thecommunity and and doing the stuff that you
(42:00):
guys do. Look at the webinarstuff and the free kids climb and stuff
like that. Important to your grandfather, important to your father. To make
sure that that people in our communityknow that we're we're not here just take
your money. We're here to educateyou, here to teach you some things.
Yeah, that's always been very important, important to us, a community
(42:21):
involvement. We actually just opened upfor applications for day of service. So
every year we do throw this outto different nonprofit or different organizations that could
benefit from from a day of servicefrom us. So we last year,
we did one at UW Parkside.They have a there an old overgrown oak
(42:43):
forest that's been kind of overrun withcertain invasive species. We help clean some
of that out for these oak treesto thrive. We've worked at Urban Ecology
Center, so we do about twoor three of those each year. So
that's that's huge. It's a greatway for us to give back to the
community. Well big o, similarto to your to your company. You
(43:05):
know, Sam, you guys giveback to the community a lot, and
I think it's really important because wedon't talk about that part a lot.
You know that service leadership hard isa learned behavior that we do a lot
of events where I keep running intoyou know, like we do praise together,
we do stuff and has the anthoptisspreads here, you know what I
mean, because we do the thingHe's step beyond green and all that stuff
(43:27):
we do together. I know theydonate when to restore for them to help
make money. Man, good foryou guys, you know what, keep
up the good work. I thinkthat's it's just awesome. If you have
any interest in learning more about thiscompany, are you guys hiring by the
way, Yeah, absolutely, we'realways looking for people that want to outdoor
experience. If you say, likean eighteen year old shoaming up a tree
(43:47):
pretty quick you Yeah, all thekids at the rock climbing walls, Yeah,
give us a buzz. Hey,what is your day to day now?
Are you? Are you still you'renot out? I still? I
spend most of my time visiting clientuh, looking at their yards, you
know, diagnosing potential issues, makingsure trees are safe. I manage our
sales team. Also, do youmiss crew and stuff? You know?
(44:10):
Some days I do. I wasrather talk with trees than with people some
days. But hey, if you'redriving in northern Wisconsin, can you just
enjoy it or are you always lookinglike you must look at some landscape?
Way different? Every tree I lookat like, I always look at it
in terms of where's a good tiein point? Because I started my career,
you know, climbing tree. Sothat's how that's the first thing I
(44:31):
look for, is this tree Ihave good structure where I can tie into
so that that creeps in every treeI look at. Yeah, those days?
What is what are your kids names? And is your family? Are
they involved? Is your wife involvedin the company? My wife has worked
helped out with the company in thepast, but not anymore. But I
have her name, Mel. Isshe listening do you think I think so?
(44:51):
Hey, Mel, you know whathe did great? He said nothing
but good things about you during thebreak, by the way, And these
kids are keeping you busy for sure. Yeah. Van is my oldest,
he's ten years old. Beck ismy middle daughter, she's eight, and
little Low Baby Low is our sixyear old. Baby Low doing some downhill
skiing as well. She is andVan van is also does Mel do that
(45:15):
she does all the whole family does. It's a family affair. It's a
lot of fun. Man. Goodfor you. It's been so good having
you in studio rather than than thephone. And I'm really I'm so happy
and proud of this company that youand your brother third generation and understand that.
Man, it's not just about cuttingdown a tree to make some money.
(45:37):
Go on this website and there's somuch more that these guys do.
They would prefer not to cut thetree down, but if you're gonna have
to cut it down, they've gotan option for you to plant something in
its place. Fredday, It's goodto meet you in person, absolutly Thank
you for the opportunity. It's alot of fun today. Yeah, Bengo,
well done. What a nice Youtold me. Man, you're gonna
love this guy. We could dothree hours with him. I told you,
(45:58):
you told me been Wood Lab You'regonna get a chance to meet my
wife Terry because she's not exporting tome. Hey, I'm telling you that's
exactly what we've been looking for.Go to Hoppytree service dot com. This
is the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvementshow. I'm the Big nine twenty in
your iHeart Radio Appsie I sho
Have you been thinking about updating yourbathroom or in need of some new windows
or looking for just some advice onthe next do it yourself project, Well,
let's talk about it live from theDonovan and Jorgensen Hitting and Cooling Studios.
This is the Creative Construction of Wisconsinhome improvement show. Let's turn it
over to Mike McGivern and Bingo Emmons, only on the Big nine twenty Man
(00:34):
your iHeartRadio App. Welcome into theCreative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show on the
Big nine twenty in your iHeartRadio App. Coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen
Indy Cooling Studio is the largest employeeowned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin.
Go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com.Alongside my co host, He's Bingo
(00:57):
Emmons, the owner of Creative Constructionwith Scott's a big all. You been
doing good and doing good at dayin the March. We're getting a lot
of work done outside of this.I know it's unbelievable. I bet you
are. We're not done. Wehave people like just well you know,
the people that just need stuff done. You know, we had a job,
they had a fire, they can'tput their sign back up that we
got done. I always say,hey, don't worry about it. We
get we're getting a lot of stuffdone. We're gonna get caught up.
(01:19):
So maybe we'll have some openings forthe summer. Well, you know,
Sam, I'm going to get atext from Sam in about thirty seconds.
Tell him quit saying that I knowyou guys are booked, but there are
some indoor and we're not done withwinter yet. People. I'm just telling
you, you guys that are gettingyour golf clubs ready, just hold on,
be patient. Yeah you still call. We're still doing inside work.
But you know, we pretty mucheverybody went outside last week. Well it's
(01:42):
you know what's interesting is we hadthem and I'm so happy with our special
guests coming in. We had GeenWagner Plumbing in. I mean they sponsor
our shows, and they sponsored myhigh school showing faith in the zone.
And and we had Scott in andI said, Scott, what in this
commercial? We want to talk aboutwhat you guys doing the wintertime? And
he talked about that. He alsotalked about trees and the roots, and
(02:06):
he said, look, we getcalled a lot this time of year with
it because trees don't stop growing.Now, I'm one of those. Happened
to my shop, I added,Doug a Adam digget out the roots in
the same thing at my house Ihad. I'm doing that and that's what
the That's the first thing you sayis just because that's winter time doesn't mean
they stop no at all. Andour special guests we talked about that before
(02:27):
he came out of the air.He is Freddie Happy. He is the
co owner of a hoppy tree service, Third Generation. They have three locations.
Their main location is is in Tosa. He's a Tosa East boy,
by the way. And uh,well, yeah, that's good. I
did most of those tosies guys,you know, they go on to bigger
and better things like you have.I think most of them do. I
(02:49):
don't know, Freddie Happy, howyou doing to that. I'm doing great,
Mike, thanks so much for havingyou in person. We had you
on the other station, but itwas via cell phone during the whole COVID
thing when we couldn't really anybody inAnd it's really good to meet you.
Third generation. Did you know,Freddie, let me ask you this.
When you were in high school,did you know that this was kind of
going to be your future. Ihad no clue that this was going to
(03:12):
be my future, you know,up into when I was going on to
UWM for business. I was abouttwo and a half years into college when
I was like, this is agreat opportunity. We have a well known
family business. I know what I'mdoing, So it was a no brainer
at that point to the family business. When you were young, were you
working for the fail? Oh?Yeah, I didn't have summers off,
you know, as soon as Icould, I was working with my dad.
(03:35):
So yeah, my parents, mymom and my dad were both always
entrepreneurs, having small businesses. Sothis was great to uh to keep going
with man and your brother's involved aswell. Yeah, my brother August is
the president of the company and coowner, and he also has been a
lifelong tree guy. Older brother,younger brother, older brother by three years.
(03:58):
Yeah, do you guys, canyou guys get together for Christmas and
Thanksgiving? Me that talk trees.We are getting way better at that.
You know, in the past,we that always dominated every conversation, much
to our significant others chagrin, werea we're getting better at having hobbies other
than we're a talking policy at dinnerand so, did you give me a
(04:18):
hobby that you're involved in. Myfamily just got big into downhill skiing.
So I have three kids, aten, ten year old, eight year
old, and six year old,and my middle daughter, Becks, is
her first year of ski racing withthe Park Ski team on Key Oscar.
Wow. Yeah, so the wholefamily is into it now. So it's
a great hobby if you could.And this is a question that I wouldn't
(04:41):
normally ask at home. I provementshow, but if there's is there anywhere
in the country that you haven't goneskiing that you go? Man one day?
Oh, I've been fortunate to goout west the last three years for
little trips, but I mean I'malways looking for a wood place. What's
the best, the next one isthe best one? There? I haven't
gone to enough place. No.I was just out in Aspen and actually
(05:04):
in Tahoe this year, so itwas a yeah, I'm really fortunate.
It not often like I'm not likea two ski trip kind of guy,
but it just happened to line upthis year. A little different than Little
Switzerland. It is a little different. I'm actually a Little Switzerland is where
my daughter's racist tomorrow, So hopefullythe whole the snow holds out. It's
been a rough week for fans.One time, I was in junior in
(05:27):
high school and three of my buddieswere They did this a lot, and
they said, hey, why don'tyou come? And they took me on
the bunny hill once and said,yeah, you're natural, let's go.
Not good. Nobody taught me howto stop. Yeah, that's important part.
Yeah, and I'm not kidding.I ended up on the porch of
like back then at least they hadlike a porch a chalet, and people
(05:50):
are on having you know, hot'sstill there, and I slid right on
it. And when I when Itook kind of my glasses off, my
cousin Susie was right there. Shegoes, but givr, what are you
doing? I go, I haveno idea, I have no clue.
Never again, by the way,never again. Hey, how is business?
By the way, business is good? It a couple of weeks ago,
(06:13):
it is. It's been pretty crazythe last few weeks. You know,
this winter storm that came through hasbeen uh when I haven't seen I
haven't seen one like this in quitea while. The damage that it did
to the trees in our area waspretty devastating. Trees hang down as far
as they did. Some of theones that didn't break, I've seen it,
yeah, just not for as longas they have. So it's really
(06:34):
going to be remaining to be seenwhat the true extent of some of the
damage is. You know, treesare very resilient and they can take a
lot of abuse, but when theyget bent over with a heavy snowload and
then and then kind of frozen intime like what happened for multiple days,
it can it can do some Imean, healthy branches were breaking, not
just weak branches. You know,we're very good at spotting defects and trees
(06:58):
in advance, you know, anda lot of these trees that fail,
you know, that could be preventedby having them inspected by a qualified arborist,
like a certified arborist, I sayyou are one, yeah, correct,
Yeah. At our company, wehave I believe it's over close to
twenty certified arboris. You know.Before you guys came in and I'm doing
(07:19):
research for the show to make surethat we're getting to the things that we
want to get to. One ofthe articles I read and it was before
you you hire a tree service,what are the questions you should ask?
And the second question was do youhave any arborist on staff? Very important?
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lotof people out there with chainsaws and
(07:42):
trucks, but you know, anda lot of people that are great at
taking trees down. But that's onlya small part of what we make.
I make quite a bit of moneyfor people that try to take to on.
I bet you do. Yeah,yeah, that's part of yours.
Yeah, especially especially people that Iknow old are contractors. Yeah, I
do my own. Yeah, Hey, anyway you can fix this real quick?
Yeah. It was actually after thislast storm I saw a local asphalt
(08:05):
company was advertising storm clean up andtree of removal. The funny thing is
there actually clients of mine too.Did touch my head off? Did you
call it? Say? What doyou hire in me? Yeah? What's
going on with that? I haven'tmade that call yet, maybe this weekend.
Hey, your grandfather started the company? Yeah? Correct. And I
find it really interesting whenever you getto a second or third or even fourth
(08:30):
generation or sixth, like Creative Constructionis going to be here soon that that
I always think that if you're goingto work with a company that's third generation.
Man, there isn't anything you haven'tseen, and if you haven't you
know, Like I asked Sack this, he said, Look, if there's
something I don't know, I goto my dad, and if there's something
he didn't know, we go tomy grandfather. Because there really isn't anything
(08:54):
that's going to throw its because we'regoing to have the answer for it.
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean,there's not much we haven't seen, and
if there's something we haven't seen,we have a great network of other owners,
uh, business owners, street careowners across the country that we are
in business groups with that we canwe can ask is your father still involved
at all? No, he passedaway three years ago. He no,
(09:16):
thank you, but yeah, hewas very involved up in up into the
end. Both of my parents were. It was great. You know,
you hear about a third generation companyand it's hard to do these these days,
but it was great. My parentswere very uh willing to give me
and my brother kind of the keysto the castle and let us roll with
it. You know. They hadthey knew we could take places that they
(09:39):
they didn't really have the the energytoo, so they weren't stuck in their
ways and and and gave us thatleeway, which was one of the biggest
things he did is as old UrbanWood Labs. That's that's oh, that's
my most favorite single visit. Yeah, you said, man, if you
get a chance to go see thisthing, it's really incredible. And we
are going to get to that.Which interesting what you just said, talk
(10:01):
to Randy Miller and Jordan's gonna takeover that company. And you talk to
Jordan, he goes, yeah.When when he finally does, he keeps
kind of like maybe giving me thekeys. But when he does, we're
gonna make some changes. All thetime. Well, I'm still gonna be
your dad forever. Yes, yesyou are. I'm not leaving that.
(10:22):
But because the younger generation, right, they have different ways and everything now
is a little bit different, ita little quicker. You can put this
here and you can get it donethis way. And it's interesting that when
you said, look, they werereally open to allowing my brother and I
to take this to the next level. And I like to hear that because
that that means they have so muchtrust in you and your brother that you
(10:43):
understand the mission of what Hoppy treeservice is and look, I've I've known
people that have used your service andwe're the common thread behind all of it
is they're really professional and they takecare of it and they do what they
say they're going to do. Andthat had to start with your grandfather.
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean,being good in business isn't rocket science.
(11:07):
You know, you do what yousay you're going to do, and you
fix something. If something happens right, you make right by it. So
we had a company that when Iwas working at the other radio station that
decided they were going to go withus for some of their marketing. And
we were competing against some other peopleand at the end they chose me and
us and I said can I askwhy? And the guy said, because
(11:30):
you could work here, and Isaid, what does that mean? He
said, we feel like if youmake a mistake, you're not going to
hide it. You're going to goright at it. Come and tell us
and say, look, here's whathere's the mistake we made, and here's
how we're going to fix it.And he said, that's what we do
here at this business, and wefeel like you'll do that. And that's
what it sounds like is similar towhat you guys do. Yeah, absolutely,
(11:52):
and that's how you've become a thirdgeneration company. Right. You can
turn those contentious situations content like aclient that's not happy into raving fan by
the way you handle it. Andthey you know, when you've been around
for a while, you've been throughthe recessions, the problems, and you
know how to adapt for like theyou know, the supplies being you know,
just things we just because the thingshappen, you know, we get
(12:13):
some history. You can just youknow, look what do you do in
the past, and you just workwith that. Yeah, and we're always
being around for three generations and we'rea growing company. Do you have to
do that these days? You createan opportunities. There's not our generation coming
up because you see these guys onpraise and stuff there hanging by their tree
swings, and these kids are readyto go already. How many employees We're
(12:33):
about sixty five employees over three locations. That's all we do, not big
difference. Yeah, we were everyoneworks year round. We have a number
of interns that will come in throughthis during the summer. But we have
a plant healthcare division, a landscapedivision where we've really ramped up our planting
(12:54):
program, so we have we doa lot of planting of trees and shrubs.
We have a master gardener on staffthat helps with clients with planning division.
Yeah, we did some lilacs.I'll have to check those, inspect
those this this spring, see howthey came through winter. But act you
have a little ribbons on them,Baily girl marked. What was the key
for you? Yeah, we havespecifications are pretty strict. Yeah, well,
(13:16):
you wanted to be able to walkoutside. I want to be able
to make us some my neighbors dancing. There it is. We'll just go
with you. We'll go with that. Freddy, what is the best season
if people are you know, theyfeel like they need to take down a
tree, and I know, lookfor you guys to take down the tree
is kind of the last resort,right you would, let's find out if
(13:39):
the tree needs to be taken down. But if there if somebody has to
get a tree taken down, isthere a best best time of the year
for that? There's really I meanany time of the year is good.
The important thing is knowing what youhave and what kind of shape it's in.
So I really encourage people to havea qualified person look at their their
yard once a year make sure thatthere's no hazards. I mean, as
(14:01):
a property owner, you have aduty of care to take a look at
your property and make sure the treesthat you have don't pose a risk.
You know, safety is always thebiggest thing that we're looking at. I
also learned something too, you know, because our house, because DeBie that
does mulberry tree. You know,she loves that mulberry tree so much.
You can't cut that one down.That's the male Apparently he was a male
and female mulberry trees. Yep,really, I did not know that.
(14:22):
No, I did not know thateither. Yeah, Mulberry's are the ones
in your property. Were kind ofvolunteers that came up, you know,
and not everyone has such rosy feelingsfor mulberry trees. Dev dev Is,
she has a special place in myheart because she loves her trees so much.
So that's like a perfect client forus, someone that really cares about
their landscape and wants to see itthrive. And that's where we can really
help quite a bit. So onthis house that Terry and I owned for
(14:46):
thirty some odd years. When webought it, they had just planted a
small, like kind of little Christmastree type in the front and we're there
for I don't know, five sixyears and they had grown quite a bit
and we're thinking about taking it downand my son, Matthew, who was
probably five or six or seven atthat time, started crying and I go,
(15:07):
what here is That tree's my friend. I go out and play football
with that tree and I throw itand if the tree catches it, it's
a catch, and if it drops, it's you can't cut down my friend.
So we ended up not cutting itdown to the point that it got
so big that we had to getit taken down. But we kept it
because my son started crying saying,that is my friend and that's who I
(15:30):
play with when there's nobody else toplay with. Please don't cut my friend
out. And goes like, howdo you cut down the tree? If
your son says, you know,that's my only friend on the block,
please don't cut it down. Sowe kept it up way longer than the
shit and it needed to come downfor sure, and when it did it
they did. I'll tell you duringthe break it wasn't the greatest experience,
(15:54):
but it wasn't so bad. Yeah, it worked. Okay, before we
get to a break, if somebodysays, look, when should I can
consider tree removal, and again it'sit's kind of the last resort for you,
and I understand that. But ifif a tree obviously is dead or
dying, there there are other waysor reasons that people should consider tree removal.
Well, I mean, uh,you got us. It's about where
(16:15):
the location of that tree is andhow much of a risk it poses,
or if it's unsightly in the landscape. So planning, you know, most
companies have a backlog, but gettingsomeone out there as soon as possible,
so it doesn't matter if it's winteror spring, summer or fall. You
know, safeties paramount anytime of year. But you know, traditionally winter can
be a great time. I wouldsay, you know, interrupt them.
(16:37):
But he's got a machine that's thatgoes up really high. But it can
go through the smallest little areas.I mean, see, I see it
just go right through a little fencewalkway between two of the houses and then
it gets and it goes and itjust goes way up. Yeah, the
equipment equipment has really come around quitea bit as you say that part of
your business has changed. Yeah,we don't have your traditional area of bucket
trucks anymore. We have these selfpropelled lifts that can get through a standard
(16:57):
sized gate and still go two feet. You've got the machines of around to
pick up all logs and carry yourstuff around there. It's just like flying
when you're doing Do you do thestump as well? Yeah, we do
stump grinding as well. Yeah,that's a big part in You know,
there are people that will just comeand cut the tree and they'll take it
if you want it. But thatstump then is a whole different thing.
(17:17):
Yeah, we do it all inhouse. In my house. He has
to leave the trees. Oh,firewood, firewood for the fire. The
firewood hound man. That's awesome.He's Freddie Happy. He is our guest
for the entire hour. They havethree locations, but their main location and
they're known best in the Wawatosa area. But I'm telling you guys, go
to Sheboygan. What is the radiusfor you? We go all over down
to the state line. We havea location in Caledonia, so we're servicing
(17:41):
rasine in Kenosha Counties. We havea little grafting location. So we're going
into Sheboygan, Washington County, anywherewhere there's treets and people, you know,
hot Hoppy Tree Service and look,they're right on their website taking care
of people and their trees since nineteenseventy two. They've been around. It's
nineteen seventy two, which tells yousomething. I want to talk more about
(18:03):
the Urban Wood Lab and you wantto see somebody's eyes light up. The
guy next to me in the redhere it's really cool. He's like,
man, it's really cool. Yougot to see this. We'll talk to
him about that on the other sideof the break again. He's Freddie Happy.
Go to Hopytree Service dot com.One word Hoppytree Service dot com.
Go on their website. You cansee their services. You can see company
(18:25):
info, office line, you canonline bill pay, everything you need to
know about this company, and youcan request a quote right online and just
say, hey, look, thisis what we're looking for in their website.
Pruning, removal, plant healthcare.I think that's part of what sets
them apart, by the way,they're not just looking to cut down your
(18:45):
tree and then get out of there. Plant healthcare is important to them as
well. The Urban Wood Lab iswell, we're going to talk about next
and and I know again Bingo Emmon'slike, look, if you ever get
a chance to see this, youguys see Tim the toom, Taylor and
in hardware store. Oh oh man, I feel like if you want to
take me on a date, that'swhere you're gonna take me. Right there.
(19:06):
This is the Creative Construction of WisconsinHome Improvement Show on the Big nine
twenty in your I Heard Radio App. Welcome back to the Creative Construction of
(19:51):
Wisconsin Home Improvement show. I'm theBig nine twenty and your I Heard Radio
App. Coming live from the Donovanand Jorgans and Hidy Cooling Studios. Make
mc gibbrin alongside Bingo Emmons, theowner of Creative Construction Wisconsin. Our special
guests Freddie Happy, I gotta tellyou Hoppy tree service. All I have
to say is, hey, tellme about the Urban Wood Lab. And
(20:14):
before Freddy could start talking, myboy here at Bigo, Hey, man,
let me tell you what they didhere. And then they moved in
there and deb sent me a textsaid, hey, tell Freddy, I've
got him on my speed dial becausesimilar to me, having Zach on.
Well, my wife has Zach on. It's funny Freddy because anytime I try
a project at my own house,try to do it on my own my
(20:36):
wife's got Zach right on speed dial. She's like, Zach, he did
it again, could you please comeand help him and fix it. So
I love the fact that Dev hasyou on speed dial. Talk to me
about the thought process before it evenopened. The thought process of doing the
Urban Wood Lab. Yeah, itwas mainly a product out of Emerald Ashboar
and that passed, you know,decimating ashtray in our area and everyone,
(21:02):
every tree service had to do alot of removals unfortunately. So we were
coming across a lot of beautiful woodand it's a shame to cut it all
up into firewood or to take itto a dump to get disposed of.
So trying to find the highest andbest use for that wood is something that
is great to do, something thatwe're passionate about. And it made sense,
you know. We we do alot of live edge slabs is kind
(21:22):
of what we're known for. Wedo some dimensional number. Can you explain
what that is? Yeah, Soit's uh, well, basically the Urban
Wood Lab is our store where wesell our wood products. So the trees
that we're taking down that have tocome down, we're recycling them and milling
them. So we have a bigband saw and depending on what the cutting
plan is for that log, itcould be live edge slabs, so people
(21:45):
use those for coffee tables, sureshelving are two big options for that.
It's like the center section of theof the wood just cut off with the
barts on the edges and yeah,it's just no matter no matter how you
cut it, it's always looks great. Every piece is like one one of
a kind of very unique. Ifsomebody has a tree taken down and they
want something made from that tree,so they hire you to come take the
(22:11):
tree down, and then they getsent to the So yeah, so the
process would be we can take thattree down, you know, and usually
we like to know in advance oftaking that tree down, so we can
take it down in sections that willbe viable for whatever they want to use
that wood for. But yeah,we can we bring that trunk section or
limb section back to our our yardand graft and our grafting locations where we
(22:33):
do our our milling. So we'llcome up with a mailing plan. We'll
cut the log into whatever dimensions thatyou want, and then we actually uh
air dry it for a number ofmonths and then we put it into our
dry kiln. So that dry kiln, if you're going to be using it
for inside furniture, you want toget it to a certain moisture content.
So the kiln drives out that woodand you know, faster than air drying.
(22:59):
If if you go on their websiteand go to Hoppytree Service dot com
and then if you go over tothe tab where it says more click on
that inspiration gallery. There are somepictures of some of the things that we're
talking about here that I'm telling you. Some of these tables that you guys
are you get the fireplace Lentel,right, you get the big here,
(23:19):
yeah, mantles right right, yeah, mantle right. You're taking me,
you know, because you know,as our contract, you go, I
needed this piece cut to this andthis, and they'll cut it for you.
Yeah. That's one unique thing aboutthe Urban Wood Lab. Also,
we have a lot of services thatwe offer as far as giving people a
leg up on a project. Sowe have the actual wood products, but
we have industrial belt, sander,planer, straight line ripping sauce, so
(23:42):
we can give someone a headstart onthat project. And we have a whole
a number of craftsmen that we knowthat we can refer people to, you
know, finish that project, butwe can give them a head start on
it. Not everyone has a bigbelt, sander or planer, so we
can get people rocking and rolling.If my wife is listening, do you
know the picture that you have ofthe bed that you guys made. We
(24:04):
have been looking for and I don'tknow if what this is called, where
you have the slabs like that.We have been looking for this for probably
I don't know. It looks likea craftsman style kind of bed with the
slabs there, because nobody makes thoseanymore. You stop in at the Urban
Wood Lab this afternoon, Well we'regonna you and I are gonna be talking.
(24:26):
And I'm not kidding. We havesince probably the first of December,
because we decided, hey, youknow what, instead of buying each other
gifts, why don't we why don'twe get a Kingsides bed? And this
is the way, this is thekind of bed we like. We have
not My sister yesterday said, look, on Costco once because they do with
a lot of still can't find it. So you and I are talking during
(24:48):
the you know, he'll cut thewood or what you want is not that
you're not this is your choice ofyour design. It doesn't work like that
with him because he just spects,you know, want like this and that,
and that's what they cut out to. Unbelievable. It's you can see
people's the gears turning in their headand the imagination and things going when yeah,
yeah, it's a fun store towalk through. It's a lot of
(25:11):
people. They always talk about thesmell of it, you know, the
different smells at different times of theYou're not going to out in five minutes.
Where is it located. It's ona twenty seventh street between Elm Road
exit and seven Mile Road in Caledonia, so it's just across the county county
line. How big is the store. It's about three thousand square feet totally.
Like a portion of that is likewhere our shop services are located in
(25:34):
the The other three quarters are wherewe have what you got some cool tools.
We'll look at you if you letsyou well here and here's the person
question. If we don't have woodfour to be to make something like this.
Are we able to still come inand say, hey, if you
get wood, this is what we'dlike to order. Yeah. Absolutely,
you can order evans like bins andbins of wood there. You could pick
(25:56):
out the flavor and yeah, ittakes. We have we have stuff staged
in graft and so if we getlike kind of a punch list or a
wish list of stuff that people wantcertain species or dimensions, we can try
and fulfill that as best as wecan. Sometimes terries. Listen, honey,
if you're listening right now, HoppyTree Service, h o Ppe Tree
(26:17):
Service, and go over to whereit says more and then Inspiration Gallery.
And if you're not listening, I'llshow this to you when I get home,
because this is very funny that thatpicture is on there. Look at
Inspiration Gallery and I can tell youthat some of these tables that the pictures
are unbelievable and I can't imagine,you know, somebody owns a cabin up
(26:41):
north or something that this would notbe like perfect for some what they're looking
for. Yeah, well, especiallyif you have a family heirloom like a
tree. You know, some ofthat halls for a couple of generations and
the tree comes down in a stormand you can save it. And that's
you know, because I know thatstories when I go there, because people
will do that with a tree.They'll save it and make up something out
of it and say this was atree my grandpa planted or whatever. Yeah,
(27:02):
but Mike, like you said,your son was so attached to that,
that tree, that evergreen. Youknow, it's a lot of times
trees have to come down and peopledon't want them to. So it's a
it's a great way of honoring thattree and perpetuity by utilizing it in lumber
and in the cool project. Well, and I would assume that that in
these pictures that are on that thatthat's exactly what you know, this rocking
(27:25):
chair, I mean, I'm surethat it's somebody that had it. And
look, let's not waste the wood. Why don't we do this? And
man, this is really cool.The Urban Wood Lab by Hoppy. Did
you have any idea when you cameup with that idea? And I don't
know if it was you or ifit was August or somebody else that it
would get to words at right now. No, it was it was it
(27:47):
was. It's it's really it's reallygrown quite a bit, you know.
And from our first store in uhon Blue Mountain Road. It was actually,
if it wasn't for the Urban WoodLab, I might not be here
because that was the first place Imet Bingo and deb was like an after
hour nary event at our brand newurban Wood Lab. Yeah. Yeah,
Debby's like he said, well,I got a tree you gotta cut on.
You can make finishre out of it. Well you came out and looked
at the tree, said no,you can't do anything with this. You
(28:10):
guys, there's nothing you can do. By the way, my wife sent
me a text and she's listening,so I would assume she's going right to
Hoppy Tree Service, going to moreand going to the Inspiration Gallery to look
at the bed because it just makesme laugh that we have been looking for
this for two months now, somethinglike this and cannot find it at all.
(28:32):
Yeah, we probably have the craftsmenthat did that, so we could
connect them with you, and wehave the product to make the bed and
we have the actually back to comeput it together though, because you know
what, I'm a big boy andI don't want to fall through the Oh
there you go, one of thetwo. But we know with Zach's on
speed dials, so he can takecare of that. What is the amount
(28:55):
of time that people have to wait, like you talked about, to dry,
to make sure that it's dry.What's the weight for that? It's
probably about a year process from whenthat tree comes down, when it's milled,
having to air dry, and thenhaving to get in the kiln.
The kiln is kind of the bottleneckof the whole operation because it's you only
have so many square feet and that'swhat's really unique. There's a lot of
(29:18):
producer about us. Unique about us. There's a lot of producers of urban
wood, but not many people havecapacity to have a kiln to dry it.
So that's one thing that sets us. You don't want to build something
out of split later on, youright? Or air drying takes about a
year per inch of thickness. Yeah, so it takes quite a while,
so people have to have patients.Yeah, and you guys, the kiln
(29:41):
process is now depending on what sizethe wood is, but it's probably about
twenty two days I think on average. But we air dried a little bit
before that to get it to thatshorter period in the kiln. Did you
move out of space necessity? Isthat why you moved from Bluemont to Caledonia.
Yeah, it was. It wasa small storefront on Blue Mount Road.
(30:03):
It was attached to our first officespace. You know, we were
working out of my parents' house.At least the office was working out of
my parents' house. So our firstadministrative office on Blue Mount and we had
an extra space next to it.So like, hey, this would be
a great gallery for some of thewood pieces we had. So we had
a beautiful mural wall made out ofcutting ends from the mill that was just
(30:26):
trash, but we had this reallyarchitectural, artistic mural made and the whole
floor was made out of ash treesthat had to come down, so we
worked with a mill that actually routedthe the wood so that we could put
it together as flooring. So thatwas really It's cool that right now that's
a salon that's in that space,but they still have the wood floor in
(30:48):
the in the mural wall. Soit's fun seeing that. When I stopped
by, you know, it's it'sfunny because I didn't I didn't think that
we would spend a whole segment onthe urban world. It's easy to we
talk a lot about it. Wecould do a whole other segment on it.
But I've got some questions regarding,you know, tree service and some
of the other services that that youguys offer. If somebody wants to treat,
(31:11):
needs a tree taken out, butwants another tree in its place,
you guys are able to do thatas well. Absolutely. We never have
just a removal conversation. It's aremove and replaced conversation, especially with we're
kind of on the last uh lastlegs of Emerald dashboar decimating our tree population
and it's it's amazing. It's it'ssad to see what it's done to the
(31:32):
canopy in southeast Wisconsin. What's thenext one that's coming up? You got
one starting to get you starting tosee signs up. I know, termite
just starting to show up. Yeah, with uh, you know, warmer
winters. There's a number of insectsthat are are kind of on the horizon,
spotted lantern fly, asian longhorn beetle. Nothing's been confirmed in Wisconsin,
(31:55):
but nothing as devastating as emerald dashboarhas been. But you never know.
What the you know, global commerceand shipping. You never know when something
might pop up, hey on yourwebsite. And I don't want to spend
much time on this, but organicand mosquigo mostique take a mosquito. Yeah,
(32:15):
I don't even want to think aboutthose guys right now, but the
organic treatments for that is something youguys also offer. How important was that?
Was it something that you guys havedone for a long time? Yes
and no. So we really expandedour offerings in that realm last year out
of you know, want from ourclients. There's a lot of clients of
(32:40):
ours north Shore where yards are packedin close to each other. So when
you're doing insect and disease treatments,you want to have something that's as friendly
to people and the environment as possible. So it's good having those those options
man really important, I think,And and the fact that you guys offer
that. It's funny there's there's companiesin your category that they they are really
(33:05):
good at. You know, they'regoing to take your tree down and maybe
grind the stump, but you havenow taken it to three or four different
levels, right, Like, we'rejust not going to do that let's talk
about you know, how what elsedo you want here? On your website?
If you go to tree planting,the first thing it says is the
world needs more trees. That's whyI Hopy Tree Service plant plants trees and
(33:29):
shrubs. It's important to put itright tree in the right location. You
guys are are are thinking about thatpart of it as you're you know,
having that conversation with the homeowner oflook, we're gonna cut this down.
What do you what do you wantto do in its place? Let's let's
plant something, or let's I lovethe fact that you have people on staff
(33:50):
that can can look at somebody's landscapeand say this would be perfect. Yeah,
it's a it's a balancing act,you know, listening to what the
client wants and what's really viable,because you want to pick the right tree
so that tree can thrive. Youknow, you don't want to force something
into a site conditions that aren't conduciveto it, you know, being a
great tree for its whole whole life. Yeah, he's also he's also a
(34:12):
tree doctor, dude, because like, we had a birch in our in
our front yard that I thought weshould just cut it down. Well you
brought it back to life. You'vegot big eight foot injection that you do
or something you tabble with something.There's yeah, a number of services we
provide, soil injection of nutrients,insect control, you know, speaking of
paper birches like at your house,bingo bronze birch bore is always something to
(34:32):
consider. So there's nice preemptive treatmentsthat can be done to deter that insect
from doing damage. So, youknow, one component is UH insecticide to
control insect issues, but another isyou know the health of the tree.
So proper watering and fertilizing when neededis are two important things that can easily
get overlooked. So and it's goodto take care of the things these things
(34:57):
preemptively as opposed to way to somethingbad happens. So it's it's easier to
keep a tree healthy than is tofix it if it's sick. Hey,
the idea of having the amount ofemployees that you have and not having subcontractors,
you're able to keep these guys busyall year round. Yeah, absolutely,
(35:19):
we uh. We have a dedicatedsales team that's out there taking a
look at clients properties. Writing upgood scopes of work and our guys,
Yeah, we have a healthy backlogmost of the year. Yeah, and
when the phones uh, there's kindof the sales side and the and the
production side. The production side neverreally slows down in the winter. Our
(35:43):
sales force really spends their time visitingour existing clients, checking in on them,
like do at your house bingo.We get to the point where our
clients don't have to call us.We call them say, hey, your
trees are due for service. Letus come and take a look, make
sure our program's still on track,any adjustments that are needed, offer suggestions.
So that's a huge thing that wedo that adds a lot of value
(36:07):
to our services, a whole bunchof value to your services. I look,
your grandfather be really proud. ThankYou're really proud of the direction that
Happy Tree Service is going. Andthe fact that you guys, are you
understand your visionaries with this right?I mean, I would assume there are
people throughout the country and you said, look, we're in networking that you
(36:30):
have conversations with and when you guys, when you came up with the urban
wood lab, is that something thatpeople are doing other places in the country
they are, but we're kind ofleaders. I think we are legitimately the
largest producer of urban wood in theMidwest, and it's also where members of
urban Wood Network, so we actuallyteam up with other producers and sell their
(36:52):
pieces at our story as well.So it's a there's a lot of room
in that space for a lot ofproducers. And you don't have to talk
about the dollar investment, but thedollar investment had to be huge. This
was just an idea and a thought. But to take that next step and
be able to do the stuff thatyou guys are doing is not cheap,
(37:13):
right, and to be able tosay, okay, now we're ready to
go, there had to be ahuge investment and a belief that this thing
is exactly what needs to be donein this area. Yeah. Absolutely,
And that was nice having the TreeService doing as well as it was and
is to be able to give usthe leeway the flexibility to really turn the
(37:34):
urban Wood Lab into what we want. Never thought we'd spend twenty minutes on
the urban Wood Lab until his eyesuntil Bingo's eyes lit up and said,
Hey, I'm taking you on adate and you're going to go through this
thing. And you're gonna let youbetter have more than five minutes once you
get there. Our special guest foryour entire hour, and he's really good.
He's Freddie Happy. He is aco owner of Hoppy Tree Service with
(37:55):
his brother August, third generation,third generation. If you need to call
them phone number four one four twofive seven two one one one two five
seven two one one one, orbetter yet, go to Hoppytree Service dot
com all the information you need andyou can even just as easy as request
a quote right online and they willget right back to you and get you
(38:20):
the information that you need again HoppytreeService dot com. This is the Creative
Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement show onthe Big nine twenty and Your iHeart Radio
App off lifting from laughting and youcould give him, I said, somebody
who's gotta take care of him soI could scool It's ready. Welcome back
(39:01):
to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin homeImprovement shown the Big ninet twenty and Your
iHeart Radio app coming live from theDonovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios.
Frettie Hoppy is our special guest,and you can go to Hoppytree Service dot
com. First of all, happyanniversary to you. Been god, I
(39:22):
know if you knew that. Yeah, it's yeah, one year we've been
doing this together here at this newstation. Yeah. They didn't say we'd
last a year, but here weare going into years. It seemed like
we started a couple of months ago. I know, it goes quick,
right, especially when having fun.All I know is that days go slow,
in years go fast. That's that'swhat I think. And man,
it's been great doing this with you. Even this hour goes by so fast.
(39:45):
They like, we're oll man,Hey, we've got to talk about
his webinars and stuff. We gotto do that yet you know why because
you turned me onto the Urban WoodLab. And my wife, now,
oh yeah, she called and she'slike, hey, listen, I want
to see this bet you keep talkingabout. So I've got her over on
on the on your website Hoppytree servicedot com. And hey, on the
(40:06):
event page, you guys have youguys do webinars and there's one coming up
with your brother by the way,February eighth, learn how to prune with
confidence and people can sign up righton the website. Correct, correct,
it's free and it's a great educationalopportunity to be really uh, that's one
of our big goals is to educateour clients about what we're doing and it's
(40:30):
it's a lot of fun to do. We used to do a number of
them in person, but when covidcame we the webinar became a big deal
and that it's really worked well.We've been able to broadcast it to a
larger network of people and people arereally appreciative of it and that's good value
to the attendees. And then you'vegot one that you're going to do on
March seventh, top trees and shrubsfor planting in your yard. Obviously timing
(40:53):
on this kind of stuff that youguys do is perfect. You can go
to that website and go so didthe event events tab events tab, and
you can sign up for any ofthe webinars. It's free. There's also
a link that's coming soon twenty twentyfour free kids climbs. Well yeah,
that so during the summer months wedo a number of events where we have
(41:19):
kids climbs. We love getting kidsup in trees to you know, have
them appreciate trees even more. Youknow, who doesn't have a fond memory
of climbing trees as a kid.But we we have ropes and harnesses,
so they get to be a littlejunior professional tree climber for the day.
So it's very safe, very fun. Hey, my wife set the text.
(41:40):
So I want that bed. That'sthe one, that's the one we've
been looking for. So I'm gonnacome down and see that store, and
I'll let bingo and I'm gonna bringmy wife and we'll come down and take
a look and try to figure outhow we can we can have it made
the idea of giving back to thecommunity and and doing the stuff that you
(42:00):
guys do. Look at the webinarstuff and the free kids climb and stuff
like that. Important to your grandfather, important to your father. To make
sure that that people in our communityknow that we're we're not here just take
your money. We're here to educateyou, here to teach you some things.
Yeah, that's always been very important, important to us, a community
(42:21):
involvement. We actually just opened upfor applications for day of service. So
every year we do throw this outto different nonprofit or different organizations that could
benefit from from a day of servicefrom us. So we last year,
we did one at UW Parkside.They have a there an old overgrown oak
(42:43):
forest that's been kind of overrun withcertain invasive species. We help clean some
of that out for these oak treesto thrive. We've worked at Urban Ecology
Center, so we do about twoor three of those each year. So
that's that's huge. It's a greatway for us to give back to the
community. Well big o, similarto to your to your company. You
(43:05):
know, Sam, you guys giveback to the community a lot, and
I think it's really important because wedon't talk about that part a lot.
You know that service leadership hard isa learned behavior that we do a lot
of events where I keep running intoyou know, like we do praise together,
we do stuff and has the anthoptisspreads here, you know what I
mean, because we do the thingHe's step beyond green and all that stuff
(43:27):
we do together. I know theydonate when to restore for them to help
make money. Man, good foryou guys, you know what, keep
up the good work. I thinkthat's it's just awesome. If you have
any interest in learning more about thiscompany, are you guys hiring by the
way, Yeah, absolutely, we'realways looking for people that want to outdoor
experience. If you say, likean eighteen year old shoaming up a tree
(43:47):
pretty quick you Yeah, all thekids at the rock climbing walls, Yeah,
give us a buzz. Hey,what is your day to day now?
Are you? Are you still you'renot out? I still? I
spend most of my time visiting clientuh, looking at their yards, you
know, diagnosing potential issues, makingsure trees are safe. I manage our
sales team. Also, do youmiss crew and stuff? You know?
(44:10):
Some days I do. I wasrather talk with trees than with people some
days. But hey, if you'redriving in northern Wisconsin, can you just
enjoy it or are you always lookinglike you must look at some landscape?
Way different? Every tree I lookat like, I always look at it
in terms of where's a good tiein point? Because I started my career,
you know, climbing tree. Sothat's how that's the first thing I
(44:31):
look for, is this tree Ihave good structure where I can tie into
so that that creeps in every treeI look at. Yeah, those days?
What is what are your kids names? And is your family? Are
they involved? Is your wife involvedin the company? My wife has worked
helped out with the company in thepast, but not anymore. But I
have her name, Mel. Isshe listening do you think I think so?
(44:51):
Hey, Mel, you know whathe did great? He said nothing
but good things about you during thebreak, by the way, And these
kids are keeping you busy for sure. Yeah. Van is my oldest,
he's ten years old. Beck ismy middle daughter, she's eight, and
little Low Baby Low is our sixyear old. Baby Low doing some downhill
skiing as well. She is andVan van is also does Mel do that
(45:15):
she does all the whole family does. It's a family affair. It's a
lot of fun. Man. Goodfor you. It's been so good having
you in studio rather than than thephone. And I'm really I'm so happy
and proud of this company that youand your brother third generation and understand that.
Man, it's not just about cuttingdown a tree to make some money.
(45:37):
Go on this website and there's somuch more that these guys do.
They would prefer not to cut thetree down, but if you're gonna have
to cut it down, they've gotan option for you to plant something in
its place. Fredday, It's goodto meet you in person, absolutly Thank
you for the opportunity. It's alot of fun today. Yeah, Bengo,
well done. What a nice Youtold me. Man, you're gonna
love this guy. We could dothree hours with him. I told you,
(45:58):
you told me been Wood Lab You'regonna get a chance to meet my
wife Terry because she's not exporting tome. Hey, I'm telling you that's
exactly what we've been looking for.Go to Hoppytree service dot com. This
is the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvementshow. I'm the Big nine twenty in
your iHeart Radio Appsie I sho
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