A little background:
My oldest Grandson, Casey, is 31 years old. His childhood was a sadly common story: Divorce, broken family, rebellion...for those and other reasons, I was pretty much the father figure in his formative years.
Something triggered a change when he was about 19 and a trip to Parris Island and the ensuing 6 years in the Marine Corps turned him into a Man. He's married now, owns a home, 2 boys of his own. Works a day job as an ATV/Snowmobile mechanic.
I started him out on tractors when he was something like 8 years old. When he got out of the Corps, he bought a property in South Carolina and a John Deere to maintain it with. A couple of years later, he sold the property (at a nice profit) and moved back to Maine.
In addition to his day job, he put his tractor to work doing property maintenance, and a little landscaping. As things got busier he added equipment to his inventory and started doing lot clearing, tree removal, stump grinding and heavier landscaping. Last year he got the stump grinder, this year he added a grapple for the tractor and a forestry winch.
Things have continued to grow via word-of-mouth and now he feels he can justify this new toy, complete with hydraulic thumb and a ditching/grading bucket. Between his day job and his side-hustle, he saved enough to put something like half down on it.
I'm some proud of the boy (man...) even if all I managed to do was keep him (or his Mom...
) from killing himself until he grew up.
My oldest Grandson, Casey, is 31 years old. His childhood was a sadly common story: Divorce, broken family, rebellion...for those and other reasons, I was pretty much the father figure in his formative years.
Something triggered a change when he was about 19 and a trip to Parris Island and the ensuing 6 years in the Marine Corps turned him into a Man. He's married now, owns a home, 2 boys of his own. Works a day job as an ATV/Snowmobile mechanic.
I started him out on tractors when he was something like 8 years old. When he got out of the Corps, he bought a property in South Carolina and a John Deere to maintain it with. A couple of years later, he sold the property (at a nice profit) and moved back to Maine.
In addition to his day job, he put his tractor to work doing property maintenance, and a little landscaping. As things got busier he added equipment to his inventory and started doing lot clearing, tree removal, stump grinding and heavier landscaping. Last year he got the stump grinder, this year he added a grapple for the tractor and a forestry winch.
Things have continued to grow via word-of-mouth and now he feels he can justify this new toy, complete with hydraulic thumb and a ditching/grading bucket. Between his day job and his side-hustle, he saved enough to put something like half down on it.
I'm some proud of the boy (man...) even if all I managed to do was keep him (or his Mom...
) from killing himself until he grew up.
