A Pumper's Outdoor Paradise

Joe Hall moved to Michigan’s scenic northwoods 26 years ago so he could fish and hunt more often. But business is so good he finds little time to do either.

When Joe Hall was a 25-year-old plant manager at a machine shop south of Detroit, he returned home one day and made a fateful decision: He would move to Michigan’s northern forest — not far from the northwestern tip of Lake Huron — to start his own company, and hunt and fish in his spare time.

There’s only one problem: Hall, now 51, is so busy running Hall’s Serv-All and its pumping, portable restroom, pipe cleaning and tent rental services that he seldom finds time for hunting and fishing. But he has no doubts or regrets. He figures he traded the “rat race for a hunter’s paradise” when he settled in Posen in northeastern Michigan.

Whenever he pines for more free time and his hobbies, he looks out his window to remind himself of his good fortune. Nothing he remembers from the urbanized landscapes between Detroit and Toledo matches the scenery surrounding his home, office and work building. All that matters to him is within easy reach on his 225-acre property, including the Hall’s Serv-All office and shop.

Northwoods Paradise

And wildlife abounds. White-tailed deer are so common on his land that his wife, Alicia, sometimes considers them too much of a good thing.

“By the end of June, she’d like to shoot them all because they’re always eating her flowers,” Hall says. “It’s nothing to look out there and see deer crossing the lawn or hanging out at the edge of the woods.”

Hall originally bought the land because of its sprawling woods and 95 acres of open farmlands. Along with a pond, trails and abundant food sources, deer have always thrived. The property also included a cinder-block cabin that once served as a deer hunting camp, but fell into disrepair after Hall built his home nearby. He and his son, Jon, and friends who hunt the property find it easier to simply walk out Hall’s back door when deer season opens Nov. 15 each year.

In fact, opening day of deer season is one of the few days Hall takes off, but that’s nothing unusual in northeastern Michigan. Nearly everything shuts down that day — whether it’s schools, stores or other businesses — because residents are either a deer hunter or they live with a deer hunter. Hall says customers know to schedule their cleaning or pumping services before or after Nov. 15.

“About the only businesses that stay open around here on opening day are restaurants,” Hall says. “I have four guys working for me, and they’re deer hunters, so I give them the day off, too. We leave the answering machine on, and that’s about it. A few women get panicky when their drains back up, but most of them know we’ll get back to them the next day. Opening day is pretty much a national holiday up here, so everyone is pretty understanding.”

Despite that one-day holiday, deer hunting generates a lot of business for Hall’s Serv-All. He isn’t the only one who considers northeastern Michigan a hunting and fishing hot spot. Cabins, cottages and year-round homes surround the region’s lakes and dot its forests, and many owners keep Hall’s business on speed-dial.

“A lot of those places are rustic, and they don’t always have (electrical) power or sewer hookups, so we pump out a lot of (holding tanks) before deer season,” Hall says. “Some of them are pretty big operations, so we’ll haul portable restrooms out, too. One place is huge. It’s a hunting club full of doctors and lawyers from the Detroit area, and it covers about 50 square miles. We used to pump the tanks for a camp where a bunch of (major league) baseball players went hunting. So deer hunting brings us a lot of business.”

Working rigs

When Hall’s Serv-All receives those calls, they have a diverse fleet of trucks to handle any task, starting with a 2009 Sterling with a 3,600-gallon steel tank built by Pik Rite Inc. and equipped with a 360 heavy-duty Challenger vacuum pump manufactured by National Vacuum Equipment. He also has a 2007 Sterling with a 3,600-gallon steel tank also built by Pik Rite and equipped with a NVE pump.

Hall’s other vac trucks are two 2005 Ford F-350s, one with a 600-gallon waste, 250-gallon freshwater steel tank and the other a 500-gallon waste, 250-gallon freshwater steel tank. Both were built in-house and carry Masport Inc. pumps. For his sewer and drain-cleaning work, Hall has a 2000 Ford E-350 with a 16-foot insulated cube van box. For handling deliveries, he uses a 1999 Ford F-350 pickup truck.

Successful Hunter

Although Hall gets few chances to hunt deer, he doesn’t complain. After all, he usually gets all the deer he seeks on opening day. Deer roam his property at will, and he makes time during the year to grow food plots, tend fruit orchards and plant hundreds of trees to ensure they have protective cover and food sources all year. When hunting season arrives, he has several good tree stands and ground blinds to hunt from.

“It’s been about six or seven years since I needed to hunt after opening day,” Hall says. “I usually get a deer the first morning, and the past five or six years I’ve shot two on opening day. It’s nothing to see deer. Sometimes we’ll look out in a field and count 40 to 50 of them. We’ve shot some big ones off the property, including a nice 8-point buck and a big 12-pointer.”

After Hall or his hunting companions shoot a deer, he returns for his tractor and hauls the deer back to his building. “One of our traditions is to cut out the deer’s backstraps and cook them for a late breakfast,” Hall says. “Everyone’s usually back at the house by 10 or 11 to eat. It’s hard to beat a fresh venison backstrap with eggs.”

He considers it just one more perk of living and working in paradise.

“It was tough to get this business going when we first got up here, but it’s going great now,” Hall says. “I wish I had more time to hunt and fish, but work comes first. That’s just the way I am.”



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