OUR STORY
First off we want to thank you for taking the time to get to know us. Brianne and I both have a upbringing that involves artistic parents.
My father was an amazing artist on a pad of paper. I can remember growing up watching him draw and trying to draw what he was. In fact the first tattoo I ever got was in rememberance to him and the first thing he showed me how to draw.
Unfortunately my father passed away when I was only nine years old. This brings me to my wonderful mother.
My mother was left to support three children by herself. She made arts and crafts of all sorts and sizes to provide for us. Everything from bible displays to Christmas ornaments.
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They were really neat and it put food on the table when times were hard for us. She worked her fingers to the bone and made sure we never did without. Without a doubt I owe my mother everything and realize she is a huge influence to my willingness and desire to work hard to succeed.
Early Drawing From Curtis Michael Hubbart
Brianne’s father was a graphic designer who worked on advertisements for companies of a very wide range. He worked on everything from Ralph Lauren to mom and pop restaurant advertisements. When she was a kid they did their whole room painted in Looney Tunes.
Since I have known her she has had a pencil in her hand. She studied at SIUE for architectural drafting and can literally draw anything. From buildings to portraits or even fonts her pesky husband needs her to put on logs.
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How we got into Chainsaw Carving
When I was a kid I got a miniature scroll saw that came with really soft boards to cut and I loved it. I would find myself carving with a dremel by the time I was fifteen to sixteen years old. I met a man that widdled sticks into amazing walking sticks by hand on a resort that I worked at. His name is Larry. I went up to Larry one day and said how come you use all those hand tools dont you know that they make a dremel. His response was those are for young guys like you; you should carve one using your dremel he said. So I did.
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I begun carving mushroom sticks for mushing hunting for all of us that went. The only problem is when you carve and sand sticks down dust goes everywhere. The biggest problem with this was I was carving at my brother in laws garage which was the only place I had that I could do it at.
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He came home one day from work and realized there was sawdust in and on everything. His hunting clothes were trashed and had to be washed before he could go hunting. Needless to say he said don't ever carve anything in my garage again.
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Life got busy we had three children and I didnt think much about carving for several years. We were fortunate enough to obtain a neat A frame on five acres. The only proble was we could not get internet. We literally had to cut down several trees just to get a line of site to the nearest grain tower to get it.
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In doing so I thought there was some money in the trees that we cut down. I found that no one wanted them or wanted to give us any money for them because there was a house on the five acres.
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One day I was looking at the front entrance and there was a bench that the man who built the house had put up out of some old fence post and a few boards. This bench was rotting and falling apart. Behind it I could see a giant white oak that was laying on the ground that I had cut down for the internet.
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I thought man it would be cool to make that into a giant bench cut into a log. It was horrible, a ton of work and I blew up a chainsaw in the process. I swore I wouldn't do it again.
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My oldest sister started hassling me to make her a sign with this cheesy little browning sign carved flat into it. She even said she was going to pay this man $200 - $250 to do it. I said hold the phone if you are going to pay him to do that I will make you a sign.
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Being the smart ass that I am I thought I will show her. I dreamed up this idea to make a 3d deer on the sign next to her name. I found the perfect red oak log to do it in and after several back breaking hours of carving and sanding I was done with the Bell sign.
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The rest is history, I began taking orders faster than I can do them. With every piece I put out I get two orders (not complaining). The carvings at this point are a huge labor of love.
How we got into sawmilling
With all the orders I could see I was going to run out of usable logs on my property. A friend of mine Travis Baker had a huge Oak tree that was dropping acorns all over his house and wanted it removed. So I took it down and broght it home.
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I have been cutting wood for years just to cut it for various people that used it for heat and a good work out in the winter months. With everything that happened to me trying to sell my logs I thought what better way to help people out than to offer them a discounted tree removal for something that I could use. In some cases depending on the trees even a free removal or profit to the customer.
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This way it will work full circle to help me get logs and help customers get a service the need done.
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Still editing check back soon if you want to read all the story.