Well I guess I should actually say something here. 10 pages of posts to a thread with my nickname in the title
and I have yet to respond. Seems a bit shy of me. Well, here goes.
I sit at a desk most of the day dreaming that I was outside doing tree work. I work for a company where my dad is the GM, and I am the operations Manager. The job is almost certainly mine when he retires, which will be in a few years. We work great together and have a great relationship. I am struggling with the feelings that I don't want to sit in an office for the rest of my career. I am an outdoors person, and little over a year ago I discovered tree work. It incorporates my loves of climbing, outdoors, and power tools (don't give me lectures of safety here, b/c my #1 promise to my wife and son are safety first). If I decide to leave now and do tree work (I'm 31, feel like 21) then that messes up my dad's exit strategy and may force him not to retire when he wants to.
So here I sit reading your posts and soaking in as much info as possible about every aspect of tree work. Wishing I was out there with you guys and able to share my experiences as well. I am sharing my weekends with my wife of 9 years and my 21mo old son Blake, and my desire to get up in a tree.
I have quoted my first "official" job for our church. It's a 2k job that is going to test everything that I have learned so far and add a few elements as well. Most of what I have been doing so far has been for friends or acquaintances and trying to pay for some of the equipment. I do make pretty good money, and my wife works (which I've always told her that she doesn't have to) so I can buy a lot of the small type of equipment without much trouble. But there is a lot more to life than earning money. I want to do something that will provide for my family and where I am doing something I enjoy. I've told my wife since we got married that if I could figure out how to make a living and climb, I should do it.
That's the long a short of it. Things are going well here. We're a little low on the rain gauge, but all in all not to bad. I'm pulling for a presidential candidate that is a long shot, but he has morals that I agree with, and I'm not willing to vote for change for the sake of change, especially when it's not realistic.
My son is running around the house putting smiles on his parents faces and learning more than can be imagined by a kid that isn't even 2yrs old. He woke up from his nap on Sat. saying "daddy chainsaw, daddy chainsaw" b/c he could here me outside working on my saws. We bought him the little chainsaw and helmet from Bailey's and he loves it!
Ekka, thanks for the thread, but I don't buy lottery tickets, and my favorite drink is Dr. Pepper.
Keep up the good work guys, I'll try to be less of a leach!!