Welcome to the informal section That Tree Guy. Hopefully throughout the build up of this blog you will get to know more about myself, the business and the people that keep it running. not every entry will be news about the company nor will it be consistent with its updates. also the contents of this blog has no affect of the quality that customers receive as it is just the ramblings of some bloke that happened to start a company. Enjoy!

That Tree Guy was registered as a limited company after a discussion with my current employer in Auckland. i wanted to reduce my current hours and start working self-employed as a contract climber on Fridays and Saturdays. Informed that starting a limited company would be better than being self-employed and employed at the same time, as all the earnings will be used to buy tools, insurance and other shit to grow the company instead of taking a wage. The plan was to always move to Nelson but i had steady flow of work coming in from mates, other tree company’s, plus my 4 days employed making a 21 day working week more and more common. I never really minded it because i love what i do and have done since i got into the industry back in 2010. However moving to Nelson was the goal and with no time like the present i handed in my notice effective in 8 months as i didn’t want to leave but i also wanted to start the next chapter of my life.

July 12, 2022

Lots of stuff has happened between starting the company and now, but today marks the date of starting this blog. In short my wife and i relocated down to nelson. i found a job as the lead climber for a local company and That Tree Guy slowed down to pretty much a halt, understandably when moving long distance to a place with a lot less people. Being employed took the stress off from having no work for the company. After around 7 months of employment and a little influx of work, i decided to take the leap and go out 100% That Tree Guy. However the spike of work quickly dried up and with very little work coming i was shitting myself financially. To ease the pressure i would travel as a contractor up and down the country sleeping in my roof tent just to make ends meet with the wife at home (who works full time) to guard the fort. Currently the business is still on the bread line but with all this extra free time i can spend more time with the wife, out camping and tramping. Still commuting throughout NZ but spending more time at home in-between. So far i have been to Christchurch, Auckland, Hawkes bay, Wellington, Kerikeri and Greymouth mostly on multiple occasions. i have my eyes set on Queenstown for the winter next, but that just depends on the workflow in Nelson and where i’m called from next.

Every day without work makes me glad to have a finance free company and fuels me to go out and spam peoples letterboxes with leaflets. The next step is to see if the tree truck passes its WOF next month as the last WOF cost $3700.

To finish on a positive note, Christmas and New Year was good as my parents visited us for the first time since we emigrated to New Zealand from England back in October 2019. Plus we got to show them the country my wife an i fell in love with when we backpacked around on a working holiday in 2016.

Between then and now 12 January 2025

Januray 20th

Wof time for the truck, fingers crossed as I'm not having the best luck with engines at the moment.

The wife's 4x4 is running a little hot, in my Haste to change the thermostat I over tightened a bolt and snapped it off in the engine. Fuming with myself and at the extent of my mechanical knowledge of taking off some nuts, but obviously not smart enough to put the fucking thing back on!

Other than this hick up, myself and Alex who contracts to me decided to make the most of a long weekend and head away for the night in Kenepuru Head, with the plan to climb some trees on the way home. Waking up in the sounds is always a fantastic way to wake up. Coffee, baked beans and burnt toast on my hand-made stove that you would hand back to the chef if you paid for it. Yet tastes so good when your looking at a view and not the mess in the pan.
On the journey back we found ourselves on the wrong side of a road closed, only a couple of hours had passed until we was free to find a cool tree to climb and go over some rescue scenarios.

The rest of the week was a standard 3 days of tree work, hedges, a good size reduction, followed by some removals. A bit of office time setting the company up as GST registered, getting my head around a new bookkeeping software that the accountant advised me to get. Insurance renewals then walking into town to pick up the truck that had passed it’s WOF without a hitch! Happy that it passed, I bought a box for the lads at the garage and one for myself. 

Day two into the long weekend and it’s been one of the most productive weekends in a long time. Friday night spent round a mates house fabricating some doors for the back of the truck that came out better than expected, considering the amount of piss we consumed throughout the process. Waking up on their sofa bright and early. Sweating out all the toxins of the night before by leveling out the ground hiding away in the back corner of the garden to make into a firewood store. Three truck loads of handballing soil out one bucket at a time and I couldn't be asked anymore. I reckon there's two more loads to do before the real challenge begins!

It was a good first week back into it. Monday spent doing admin and quotes, basically a day of pretending to be the man in my smart hunting and fishing top. Flexing my brain with unsolicited facts about trees to the potential customer.
The rest of the week was off to a steady start then finishing strong with a two day job removing a decent size Conifer, plus some maintenance pruning on fruit trees and a hedge.
The Conifer was quoted for the stump to be removed, but my largest stump grinder shit itself last month when the piston rod came out the side of the block, also destroying the crank. It's cheaper to buy a new larger engine rather than replace the parts in the fucked one, but with 2 other working machines and the fact I'm still waiting on the supplier to deliver an order from 4 weeks ago, I'm not giving them more money until it arrives!

With the sun still shining, it’s evenings spent walking around, whispering all sorts of mushy crap in the wife's ear. With the New Year, New Me bollocks, we are trying to leave the phones at home. But unfortunately my wallet has to come with me, resulting in a well deserved pub lunch on Friday for getting through the 1st week back at it. We was both asleep by 20.30; shattered from walking every evening.

With no quotes or work booked in for Monday, I thought it would be a good idea to give the wife an evening of peace by getting away Sunday night to Siberia Flat Campsite before they close it for the road repairs. Spending the night just with my own thoughts; which was actually quite boring. Nevertheless I woke up to a beautiful backdrop, broke out the old homemade beer can stove for coffee and a snag, before heading home.

Was a good 3 day week at That Tree Guy following my last entry, With a quote or 2 after work.
One day was a stitch up on my part with an underestimated on a job, I quoted to allow 2 hours for both of us; but it ended up taking 4 hours with a full load on the truck that wasn't good enough to give away under the free mulch service we do. The customer on the other hand was amazing and could see on our broken faces that they were receiving a good deal, so decided to tip us generously!
The over payment on the invoice (that was the same as quoted as it was my fuck up and their reward) meant that job was at cost and not negative costs for the company.
We ended the week with a full garden removal, including stump grinding which was a full on job for just us two but was completed on time to our usual high standard.

It was a laid back weekend with nothing too adventurous planned and a couple of hours spent at the Italian festival, with work time quickly approaching once again. Booked a Removal of a tall Norfolk Pine where the customers put on a huge spread for us at lunch time, food is always welcomed with a big grin and we will eat you out of anything you have! Ending the week with an emergency reduction on a damaged Lacebark that came out really well, hopefully it will help the tree survive for a bit longer than if left to it's own devices. The tree had a large basal decay and lots of tight inclusions, so we removed as much weight out of the tree as we felt necessary to reduce the leverage force upon it.

The wife and I scurried down the west coast to indulge at the wild food festival, leaving Thursday and enjoying the scenic drive down as the west coast is my favorite part of the country. We wasn’t there to punish our taste bud’s with all that “I'm a celebrity get me out of here” food shit. It Was just for a dirty weekend away together.
Sweating it on the way home as we rolled through a cop stop after the copious amounts of piss I fired into my gut. We left Hokitika late as you would be silly not to expect our boys in blue to be out after an event like that.

With a bit of work booked in for the week coming let's just see how it goes.

Decided to go on a quick camp at Canvastown Sunday. It's my go to spot when I get the itch to lay under some canvas as it's not too far plus it is a pleasant drive out and back.
Always the same morning routine when I'm away. Wake up way to early, back to sleep only to wake up way to late with my back teeth swimming. Followed by a coffee and a wander around until I finish my coffee then back home to reality.
The morning was standard but with no shot walks from butchers flat I just walked up steam for a bit and back down before heading off.

Starting the week on a wet Tuesday, Alex and I was already talking ourselves out of working before we arrived on site, after about 19 seconds of unloading we decided to call it and go home. Ironically the rest of the day was mint, but with a large removal over a garage the following day we were happy to save our energy for it.
For just us two we worked like a couple of dogs to finish the removals on time. It was a fun day using some of the equipment to it's full potential setting up a zip line over the garage plus winching branches up away from the roof so we could maneuver larger branches. Having the right tool for the job always makes the day run better. with no time for high fives when we pulled off something we were only about 70% certain it was going to work it was on to the next one.