For 25 years, John Moore performed his job with surgical precision, using the latest technology to remove unwanted matter from the human body. Financially secure at age 55, Moore retired as a general surgeon specializing in laparoscopic surgery to do cuts of another kind: land clearing. In May 2013, Moore started Surgical Land Clearing/Mulching in Dothan, AL, after purchasing a Terex PT-110 Forestry compact track loader (CTL). His son Patrick joined him. Together, they provide land clearing services within a 60-mile radius of Dothan, including reclaiming farmland, clearing undergrowth on hunting ranges, property development, and retention pond construction.
What He Does Day to Day
At first, Moore spent half of his time on the Terex and his son took care of business details. Now, Patrick Moore spends more time on the machine because he is “better, faster, and more efficient”, notes Moore, who spends more time on logistics such as bids, planning, marking trees for removal, and flagging property lines. They both maintain the equipment. Their fleet includes two Terex PT-110s, a one-ton truck, a three-quarter ton truck, and two trailers. Moore and his son use Facebook and YouTube to market their business with “before” and “after” images and on aspects that set their business apart, such as the use of sharp planer teeth, how they maintain the equipment, and how their approach doesn’t tear up the landscape.
What Led Him Into This Line of Work
Several years ago, Moore—who owns hunting property—hired someone to clean up and mulch his land. “I really like what he accomplished,” notes Moore. After his retirement, he bought the Terex PT-110 CTL for the sole purpose of cleaning up and maintaining his own acreage. He spent a few months learning how to run the machine. “I really started liking what I was doing; it was a lot of fun,” he says. From there, Moore took the machine to friends’ land to do site work for them as a favor. He amassed a list of people happy with his work at a time that dovetailed with his son Patrick moving back to Alabama from Georgia where his employer had shut down operations. With the dealer’s help and by watching videos, Moore and his son learned how to use the machine more efficiently and also picked up some tips on running a business, as well as job leads. They published a small local newspaper advertisement for their business. Word-of-mouth expanded the customer list and in a little more than two years, they added a second Terex PT110.
What He Likes Best About His Work
“I was inside for 25 years, plus the years of my training, so it’s been blessing for me to get outside every single day,” says Moore. In comparing his work as a physician and a site work contractor, Moore points out that laparoscopic surgery—which he helped pioneer in his area—was akin to a video game, as he used a screen to navigate his surgical tools in the human body. “Sitting in that [compact track loader] with the joystick controls is almost like a video game for me,” he says. “I like seeing the volume and quality of work you can do with the machine. I see something that I’ve done that looked terrible when I started and great when I finish.” Though Moore and his son do a variety of jobs, he says his favorites are out in the country, such as at large quail-hunting plantations, cleaning up farmers’ fence lines, and clearing roads for people on their land. “Nobody is bothering us,” he says. “It reduces our liability.”
