Branching Out: HillTop Tree Service Handles Tree Removal and Much More

BRANCHING OUT

HillTop Tree Service Handles Tree Removal and Much More

Writer / Angela Cornell Photography Provided

Having grown up around a family-owned sawmill, Derrick Harter has always known that he wanted a job that would allow him to spend time outside.

“I don’t like being cooped up in a factory,” he says.

After spending a few years cutting lumber, Harter decided to open his own business, HillTop Tree Service. Now, 16 years later, Harter and his team offer tree and shrub trimming and removal, cabling, stump removal, fence row clearing, and yard grading.

Thanks to servicing a 45-mile (and growing) area around Akron, Indiana, HillTop Tree Service would not be possible without Harter’s crew - Jason Lozano, James Lozano, Matt Keith and Damion Franklin.

“We get along like a family,” Harter says. “Not everyone is related, but we do have that mentality.”

The team has a combined 45 years of experience in tree removal and landscaping.

Very few trees are too difficult for the company’s crew to deal with, especially since one of the crew members, Jason Lozano, specializes in climbing.

“A lot of times you’re working in places you can’t get a bucket truck into - they have a septic in the way or it’s a lakefront property,” Harter says. “So a climber is almost a

necessity to tree service.”

Harter and his crew pride themselves on providing excellent customer service from the very first phone call. As soon as they connect with a new client, they establish a time to meet and explain what the job will entail.

When the crew meets a client face to face and Harter has a chance to asses a project, he explains the job in more detail.

“We’ll meet with them at the property and determine what they’re wanting to do, and advise them,” Harter explains. “If they decide that they want to do the project with us, we’ll schedule it.”

At each job, Harter and his crew are devoted to providing their customers with an excellent experience, especially when it comes to their cleanup after the job - something that is clear from customer reviews on social media.

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“We offer one of the best cleanups in the industry,” Harter says. “We make sure that the homeowners don’t have anything that needs to be done when we leave.”

They crew even goes as far as to truck in topsoil and patch up any holes in a yard made by falling limbs.

On the rare occasion that they receive a complaint, they deal with it as soon as possible.

“If somebody’s got a problem, we usually go out and get it addressed,” Harter says.

Once a tree is down, the staff at HillTop Tree Service will mulch as many of the branches as they can, and typically deliver it to those who have fruit trees in the area. They also make a lot of firewood. Both products are available to HillTop Tree Service customers.

“They call our number and we make arrangements with them to get some chips or firewood,” Harter says.

Tree and shrub maintenance and removal are not the only services the business offers. During the winter months, they provide snow removal for businesses in the Akron and Rochester areas.

The company even offers emergency services - something that their customers deeply appreciate after experiencing wind or storm damage.

“Typically, we remove trees from houses or structures of any kind,” Harter says, adding that the business can also help customers by filling out insurance claims. HillTop Tree Service is located at 9553 East State Road 14 in Akron, and their office hours are Mon. through Sat. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. To get a free estimate for your tree project, call 574-377-2478 or email Derrick Harter at derrickjharter@yahoo. com. Visit hilltoptreeservice1.com to learn more about the company’s services, view testimonials, and more.

PULL APART CHRISTMAS TREE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 LB. REFRIGERATED PIZZA

DOUGH • EGG WASH (1 EGG WHISKED

WITH 1 TBSP WATER) • 7 MOZZARELLA STICKS • 1/4 C. MELTED BUTTER • 1/2 C. FINELY GRATED

PARMESAN • 1 TBSP. THINLY SLICED BASIL • 1 TBSP. CHOPPED PARSLEY • 1 TBSP. CHOPPED ROSEMARY • MARINARA, WARMED (FOR

SERVING)

DIRECTIONS

•PREHEAT OVEN TO 450°. LINE A LARGE BAKING SHEET •WITH PARCHMENT PAPER. CUT MOZZARELLA STICKS INTO 1”PIECES AND SET ASIDE. •ON A FLOURED SURFACE, DIVIDE PIZZA DOUGH INTO TWO PIECES. STRETCH AND ROLL EACH PIECE OF DOUGH INTO A LONG RECTANGLE, THEN CUT DOUGH INTO 2” SQUARES (YOU’LL NEED 33 TOTAL). • WRAP A DOUGH SQUARE

AROUND EACH PIECE OF

MOZZARELLA, FORMING

A TIGHTLY SEALED BALL.

PLACEBALLS SEAM-SIDE DOWN

ON THE BAKING SHEET IN THE

SHAPE OF A CHRISTMAS TREE (THEY SHOULD BE TOUCHING). •BRUSH EGG WASH ON DOUGH BALLS AND BAKE UNTIL GOLDEN, 15 TO 20 MINUTES. •MEANWHILE, WHISK TOGETHER MELTED BUTTER, PARMESAN AND HERBS. BRUSH ON BAKED PIZZA BALLS. SERVE WARM WITH MARINARA FOR DIPPING.

CHRISTMAS PICKLE

The tradition of the Christmas Pickle has got to be one of the strangest modern Christmas customs, in that no one is quite sure why it exists at all!

In the 1880s Woolworth stores started selling glass ornaments imported from Germany and some were in the shape of various fruit and vegetables. It seems that pickles must have been among the selection!

Around the same time it was claimed that the Christmas Pickle was a very old German tradition and that the pickle was the last ornament hung on the Christmas tree and then the first child to find the pickle got an extra present.

However, the claim that it’s an old German tradition seems to be a total myth! Not many people in Germany have even heard of the Christmas Pickle! (Similarly in Russia virtually no one knows the supposedly Russian story of Babushka!) hanging the pickle on the tree, with the first person/child to find it getting a present. But it probably didn’t start in Germany! There are two other rather farfetched stories linking the pickle to Christmas.

One features a fighter in the American Civil War who was born in Bavaria (an area of what is now Germany). He was a prisoner, and starving, he begged a guard for one last pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and gave a pickle to him. The pickle gave him the mental and physical strength to live on!

The other story is linked to St. Nicholas. It’s a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from a boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the evil innkeeper, killed the boys and put them in a pickle barrel. Thatevening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, and found the boys in the barrel and miraculously bought them back to life! There is an old legend about St.

Nicholas rescuing boys from a barrel but the barrel was originally holding meat for pies - not pickles!

So it’s most likely that an ornament salesmen, with a lot of spare pickles to sell, invented the legend of the Christmas Pickle!