My husband, Kevin Turnbull. owns and operates Turnbull’s Tree Service here in Des Moines, Iowa.  He has been operating his tree service ever since graduating from high school in 1988.  He is such a hard worker and tends to impress and amaze his customers with the work that he preforms.  Trimming and removing trees is the core of what his tree services does, but he has gradually migrated to stump removal, firewood resale, and   skid loader work.  Last week he was hired to take down a 80 foot soft maple tree that reached over the house and garage.  It was quite an event.  A crane service was hired and the tree services crew of 4 groundsman’s manned the ropes.  I was impressed but scared to death watching him up in the bucket truck.  Each maneuver was frightening.  The boom truck would boom Kevin over to the large limb where he would then tie a “bull rope”  or cable around the part of the limb that could handle the wieght.   This bull rope or cable was then attached to the crane.  As Kevin would be cutting the limb, the crane operator would pull up on the limb  the limb to crack and splinter as Kevin was cutting the tree.  I had visions of everything that could go wrong!  Finally, all the large tree branches were cut down which left the larger trunk base.  My stress was over for the time being.  As the day progressed, many of the nieghbors stood by to watch the tree service show.

Much of our tree service business comes from referrals or bystanders that request a quote once they witness Kevin work.  I usually take the incoming calls to the office but on days like this, I enjoy getting out and watching the hard work take place. Turnbull’s Tree Service services Des Moines, West Des moines, Earlham, Desoto, Indianola, Ankeny and surrounding towns.

The tree service has really developed into a great business and correlates well with my line of work as an agent with United First Financial.  I am able to help my husband run his tree service business while sharing with others the value of getting out of debt by using the money merge account.

We decided to take the kids to Worlds of Fun …… not my favorite place to go but the kids love it!  We decided to meet up with some realtives from Council Grove, Kansas so it was well worth the trip. 

We also stopped at Home Depot to pick up out new BBQ grill!  How exciting.  We have been working on our landscaping so we are a few steps away from having a perfect outdoor hangout.  The boulders wall are finished, the bushes planted and the crushed limestone is on its way.  We are putting a stone patio in over the limestone.  Just about the time we get this all finished, it will be winter time!  Oh well, we are getting everything on sale due to the time of year.  Burning bushes were marked down to 4.99 and Autumn Blaze trees were marked down to 8.99.  That was nearly 75% off. 

I am an independent agent with United First Financial, come learn how you can be mortgage free much faster then you think!

Kevin turnbull, my husband, runs and operates a Tree Service in Des Moines, Iowa.  He has had a busy year due to the many storms that we had roll through the midwest.  We are expecting a busy fall also since the weather forcasters seem to think that we are in for an early snow. Snow and ice are so hard on trees when the leaves are still on them.  The weight of it all causes broken branches and many times, severe damage to the appearance of the tree.

He also offers stump removal.  Spring is a great time to do this but it can be done all year round.

Turnbulls Tree service has a 60 ft boom/bucket truck, a New Vermeer Chipper, a Vermeer  Stump grinder , a couple chipper truck and dump truck,  and  a skid loader.   He is thinking about getting into the business of building Rock retaining walls also.   Landscaping is hard work but Kevin  is great at it.

We built a boulder wall this weekend.  I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon.

Have any of you ever attempted building a retaining wall? It looks easy but there are some tricks that need to be followed to be successful.

We added an addition to our house. It goes out to a walk out so we had a perfect place to build the reaining walls. My husband has been collecting boulders from diferent job sites that he has been on so we have quite the collection.

Our boulder range in size, most of them need to be handled with a skid loader. It is easy to bring the rocks to the location but not too easy to place them with the large equipment.

Here are some important steps to follow:

1. Dig out the area that your wall will be placed. We used a skid loader. The first row of rocks are placed firmly into the soil. Black felt paper is used behind the boulders to keep the dirt from coming out of the spaces between the rocks. The boulders must be firmly seated in the ground.
2. Backfill the area behind the boulders with gravel or a well-drained soil mix.
3. Place the next row of boulders on top of the first, angling them slightly to the back to give the wall more strength. Make sure that the second row of boulders sits over the joints of the first .
4. Continue placing layer on layer until you reach the desired height.
5. Continue to back fill while you move up in height. This will allow the next layer of rocks to have a firm base.
6. Make sure the top 4 inches of soil is good for planting.

Here are some pictures of our weekend work!