Happy New Year! Hopefully, you’re reading this after doing a little bit of celebrating for the year to come, even if it was just a quick raise of the champagne flute!

We write a lot of blogs that are focused on helping your property be the best it can be, but for this one, we want to help you get to know some of our staff more so that the next time they come out to visit your property you can strike up a conversation on a mutual interest! Our customers and our staff are the heart of our business!

So we went around the room and asked our staff that are on for the winter season:

What are your favorite winter activities?

Keri (Customer Service Representative):
Keri is the happy and bubbly voice that helps you figure out all of your lawn, tree and holiday lights needs!

Keri’s Favorite Winter Activities:

• • • Staying Inside – she’s not a huge fan of the cold.
    • Selling stuff from her phone on her couch – If you didn’t know, Keri also runs her own online boutique called Just Rad Market and it is truly RAD! Check it out if you’re also hanging out on your couch shopping. 
    • Hanging out with her family of 6 + 2 Great Danes – (hopefully you’ve seen Gus on our Instagram, if you’re not following us yet, start now!)
    • Snowshoeing – She braved her fear of the cold and rocked some snowshoeing! 
    • Potentially Pow Surfing – she said that she was getting a Pow Surfer for her husband, Ricky and that she would maybe be giving it a shot. Of course let’s all encourage her to do so! 

Tate (Field Manager) –
Tate gets to do a little bit of everything at Yard Guard, but his main focus is helping out current staff with questions and maintaining quality control, but you’ll also see him training new staff, spraying lawns and trees here and there and helping customers when they have questions about their property. 

His favorite things: 

• • • Skiing – if you didn’t know, it’s said that Yard Guard has created a bit of a ski cult, eh hem, I mean club and Tate is a full contributing member of the club!
    • He loves Mexico, so he can’t wait for the next time to go surfing and buy the amazing street tacos!
    • In his spare time, he’s also growing out his mullet and may take up bobsledding. We wish him good luck in his endeavours 😂. 

Cisco (Customer Services Representative):
Cisco’s voice rivals Morgan Freeman and if you’ve ever called and spoke with him, you probably get the overwhelming sense that everything will be all right.

Cisco’s Winter Favorites: 

• • • Hopefully skiing – We’re also trying to induct Cisco into our club, we’ve found him some boots and it’s only a matter of days before he’s ripping down Bridger Bowl!
    • Watching Football and cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs!
    • Spending time with family – his girlfriend Victoria and their two dogs!
    • Smoking Things – as a Georgia native and an expert in BBQ, we get pretty excited when Cisco offers to cook something for the team on the Traeger! Check out our Facebook post for our End of Year party when he whipped us up a crawfish boil!

Colin (Owner):
The man who makes it all happen! Colin makes sure all of us are well taken care of and that Yard Guard is running efficiently! Most days he spends his time in the office, but he loves to get out and meet our customers and vendors when he has the chance.

Colin’s Winter Activities: 

• • • Skiing – Colin is the leader of this infamous Yard Guard ski club. If you joined Yard Guard and didn’t ski before, you certainly do now. 
    • Snowmobiling – rivaling his love for skiing, you’ll also see him zipping around and enjoying the “sweet” smell of two-stroke.
    • Working – if you know Colin, you know he loves what society would consider “working.” For him, finding a better way to do lawn & tree care or reward his employees brings him a ton of joy and in the winter he gets to focus on Finding A Better Way to do these things.
    • Going to Mexico – Colin & I (Sidne) love going to Mexico and enjoying the sun and reading a book on the beach. Usually we’ll try and make a couple of trips down in the winter. 
    • Traveling – because winter is our down time, now is when we get to take the time to travel. Beside Mexico, Colin loves doing ski trips or loading up the camper or sled and heading to different places to explore. This year we’re (Colin and I) headed to Japan to ski some POW!

Sam (Lawn Technician) –
Sam is one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet! He’s always willing to lend a hand and is well known for helping our customers as much as he possibly can so they’re excited about the health of their property. 

Sam’s favorite activities: 

• • • Skiing – Sam’s been skiing forever and has now become part of our club! He’s one of the bada** skiers ripping down Bridger! 
    • Pow Surfing – he’s also a big fan of Pow Surfing so hopefully he’ll be teaching Keri a thing or two!
    • Hanging out with family – if you know Sam, you know that hanging out with his wife, Madi and their black lab, Lida brings Sam so much joy!

Reilly (Lawn Technician) –
Reilly has been with Yard Guard for two seasons now and is always eager to help and learn! When he’s not hiking around Three Forks, he loves making sure the shop is clean and that everything is running smoothly for his teammates!

Reilly’s Winter Activities: 

• • • Snowboarding – (maybe one day we’ll get him to ski ;)) but this year, Reilly is learning how to snowboard!
    • Leaving – when he’s not learning how to snowboard this year, he’s excited to travel South to the warmer weather!
    • Going to the Hot Springs – While he didn’t have a favorite, it was very clear that he was excited to hang out in the hot springs and relax with a beer!

Sidne (Office Manager + the person writing this blog)
It’s always hard to write a description for yourself, but my main focus at YG is making sure the customer service team has the support they need and then helping Colin with whatever needs to get done. I love working on growing the business and helping with marketing when time allows!

My Favorite Things: 

• • • Skiing – I was also not a skier when I first started at YG, but you should see me now! This winter, I’m just praying for snow….
    • XC Skiing – I love a good workout, so cross country skiing is a good alternative and something I can do quickly after work to burn some calories.
    • Traveling – I love planning fun trips in the winter, whether that be our quick getaway trips to Mexico or something larger like Japan! 
    • Reading – because we’re not as busy in the winter, I’m able to take the time to learn from different books that will help during our busy season! 

I would assume that if you are living in Bozeman or Livingston during the winter, you can relate to many of these! Hopefully we see you the next time we’re on the mountain (please pray for snow)! 

Happy New Year to you! Cheers to 2024.