About Adamantine Spine Moving

Eric grew up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, the third of four brothers. He attended Middlebury College in Vermont, earned a Master’s degree in English at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English, and then earned a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing at the University of Iowa. He’s the author of two travel books that are supposed to be funny, Iowa Curiosities and New Hampshire Curiosities, collections that highlight each state’s quirkiest people, places, and attractions. (If you’ve never seen St. Ansgar, Iowa’s stuffed albino deer, permanently housed in its own little gazebo on Main St., then your life is not complete.) Eric’s favorite thing about owning and running a moving company is the chance it gives him to meet and work with people from all walks of life, from NFL linemen to concert pianists to sky-dive instructors.

An only child, Bill was raised on a farm just outside Mount Vernon, IA where he dug bunkers, fixed things, blew other things up, and generally learned how to keep himself entertained. He attended the University of Iowa where he majored in European History, had a band called Billy Howke and The Hoax, and made a narrowly unsuccessful run for student senate with the powerful slogan, “I’d vote for you if you were running.” He runs an annual Thanksgiving marathon from Iowa City back to the Hoke Farm in Mt. Vernon called the WHATDAM, which stands for the William Hoke Annual Thanksgiving Day Marathon (he always wins since he’s the only runner), tends a giant garden in his back yard that’s usually pretty squash-centric, and has visited well over 90% of the counties in the U.S. You can find him every Sunday at 9:30AM at the Motley Cow‘s brunch buffet.

By far the Spine’s longest working workhorse, MIKE MCNUTT, hails from West Branch Iowa and rarely goes back. A graduate of Kirkwood College with a degree in surgical technology, he now applies these skills to carefully rearranging the furniture and lives of the countless customers he moves yearly. With nearly a decade of moving for Spine, Mike has moved thousands of families across Iowa and the United States. One of his most memorable moves was a recent trip to Port Isabel, Texas, about 20 minutes from the southern-most city in the continental U.S. It was the first time he had seen the ocean. Before he joined the Spine, Mike worked as an EMT and as a “sandwich artist” at Subway, a period of his life he talks about with noticeable pain. A self-proclaimed hybrid of “man & machine,” he can talk about anything except sports and he is afraid of nothing except heights. In his spare time he maintains a healthy, yet rigorous gaming regimen, currently pouring his time and talent into Warhammer 40k. He’s not horrible. In the rest of his time he draws, reads and forgets to budget or check his phone. His favorite foods are skittles and caffeine.

If the Spine offered an award for the number of miles driven in a year, CLIFF WALLACE would win by a landslide and nobody else would come close. A three-year Spine veteran, Cliff earned his long-haul trucker (class-A) license in 2015 and spends most of his time behind the wheel of ASM’s formidable 18-wheeler, the Black Eagle. Born in Arkansas and raised in Oklahoma and Des Moines, Cliff eventually moved to Iowa City where he (slowly) earned a degree in ethics and public policy.In 2011, Cliff served a year with the U.S. Army in Joint Base Ballad, Iraq—just twenty minutes north of Baghdad. He won’t tell you what exactly he did there, but he will tell you it was surreal and bizarre to watch VIP-carrying Blackhawks fly in and out of the opulent Al-Faw palace—once Saddam Hussein’s nest egg, but now known as “Victory Base Camp.” While he was on tour he spent two weeks of R&R in Australia with his girlfriend scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, rafting level five rapids, skydiving and blowing all his cash on facials, jumbo prawns and piña coladas.If you don’t want to talk about the weather, you can talk to Cliff about anything else. He can do the wave with his eyebrows and he owns a one-eyed beagle named Wink.

A five-star recruit from a job he didn’t have, KYLE WRIGHT began working at Spine nearly three years ago and has become one of its most integral and inspirational crew leaders. A native of the suburbs of West Des Moines, Kyle (sometimes called Ky-Wry) served a year in Iraq for the U.S. Army before resettling in the Iowa City area. Above sub-par at pool, Kyle once dreamed of becoming a professional billiards player before an adolescent skateboard accident left him with a broken thumb, from which his shot never fully recovered. In his spare time, Kyle loves to go pheasant hunting with his younger brother and send Snapchats. A self-proclaimed critic of the pork tenderloin sandwich, Kyle hopes to finish his goal of trying this dish from every place that serves it in Johnson County. He is an optimistic and diehard fan of the Chicago Cubs, of which, yet again, he believes that this year is the year. He is allergic to cats.

Hailing from Camanche, IA, TAYLOR ROTH first attended Ashford University in San Diego to play basketball, before coming back to Iowa to finish his degree in Interdepartmental Studies; he graduated in 2015. At 6’1” Taylor is interchangeably talented as a shooting guard and a small forward. Mostly an NBA junkie (his favorite team is the Bulls but his favorite player is LeBron), Taylor once broke his ankle after driving through the lane for a reverse windmill dunk—only to land badly on an opponent’s outstretched foot. Ask him about it sometime. He’ll also tell you all about his size sixteen feet, how he expected to be upwards of 6’8”, but is still working on that. Taylor has been working at ASM for one year. Despite his size, he is scared to death of bugs, beetles and bees.

“If you can get on the same crew with Jim, Your day is guaranteed not to suck.” Multiple people have said multiple times. JIM WALSH, originally from Des Plaines, IL (a random Chicago burb), is a second-year up-and-comer at Adamantine Spine. Even though he’s pursuing a degree in mathematics at the University of Iowa, you wouldn’t guess it—he neither looks nor acts like a nerd. You might, however, be able to guess that he’s back at it for his seventh year, and counting. Sometimes known as ASM’s “Van Wilder,” he describes himself as “easy rolling” and “down to earth.” Though not as good as Milosch or Mike, he loves playing video games and volleyball in his free time. A competitive problem solver, he is always trying to make people laugh. When “all of this is over,” Jim anticipates a career as a math teacher. A jack of all trades, his success is likely; he’s already had successful stints as a welder, estimator, locksmith, and, of course, as a mover.

Hailing from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Dalton has trucker blood coursing through his veins with his grandfather and two uncles having spent lifetimes in 18 wheelers. With these fortuitous genes, he was destined to become the Spine’s quickest employee in our history to license up all the way to his CDL A, getting there in less than one year. In his first year working at the Spine, he has moved families through 37 states and logged an impressive 33,000 miles. He may be the most self-assured Spiner to join our ranks but he always backs it up — except for that time he went on video showing he could absolutely (not) squat 305 pounds without having lifted weights in five years.

Spine Des Moines was blessed with a second dose of Timp trucker blood. Upon graduating from Iowa State University, he did that thing you wish you did and he spent ten months living in Hawaii, lounging on world-class beaches between epic hikes, and jumping off of a 50-foot cliff in the southernmost point of the U.S. He loves meeting new people and his favorite days are when the crew and customers are singing along to his refined musical tastes. He would like everyone to know that he is a new homeowner, single, and looking to settle down if there is a Mrs. Timp-to-be reading this.

Brenden is the life of the party at Spine DSM. He’s from Maple Grove, MN (but doesn’t want you to hold that against him), and became a proud Des Moines resident while in high school, where he used to bully fellow Spiner Dalton Timp. The two of them became good friends and are now roommates. He was in choir until the 8th grade, so he can probably sing better than you. But he threw out his arm playing baseball, so you can probably throw better than him. He loves the Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Wild, and getting paid to travel the country with Dalton. In 10 years he hopes to be living the bachelor life in South America, where he inexplicably wants to start his own competitive league of the Japanese game called Kendama. It’s okay, we don’t get it either.

Yaw (like stepping on a nail: “Y’OWW!”) — not Yah, not Han, not Way — is originally from Accra, Ghana. “Yaw” means “born on a Thursday” in the Akan language. He moved to Ankeny when he was five years old, but he can’t remember which day of the week that was. Yaw is one of the founding fathers of Spine DSM and is working his way into Spine management as a true tour de force. New guys come to know him as “The Drill Sergeant,” and quickly learn that no tardiness or poorly taped box will stand with Yaw around. He’s all in for “the brand” and our Des Moines location owes its high-quality standards almost 100% to his dedication and perseverance.

Josh learned the meaning of hard work early on, scrubbing toilets at the age of five to help out with his dad’s janitorial business. Child labor laws aside, this taught Josh that he did not want to scrub feces for long, so he made the next logical step one would and decided to study physics at the University of Colorado Boulder in the fall of 2022. In 10 years, he hopes to have won his battle against entropy and to be in a mansion in Colorado, teaching ski lessons to sexy Europeans.

Ethan comes from the town of Pleasantville, IA which has no stoplights and just the one gas station if you’re hungry. While Ethan loved his small town, it did leave him hungry for more and he decided to pursue his BA in International Relations at the University of Iowa where he simultaneously earned his moving chops with the Spine. He left with a degree and a severe caffeine addiction right as the world closed down and people weren’t so keen in keeping international relations. With all this boundless energy he decided to come out to Des Moines to help the Spine grow. His most challenging moment with the Spine was navigating New York City with a 26-foot truck pulling a 20-foot trailer. Ladies, he loves golf, talking about past wars and conflicts, and hopes to one day be working for the DOD or State Department (can you say consistent paychecks?).

Andrew was born into one hospital and immediately sent to a different one for a collapsed lung. As a kid he enjoyed climbing trees, jumping off roofs, and terrifying his parents. Nowadays he likes melting his brain with video games and smashing it with regular games of rugby. Don’t worry though, all of the probable head injuries and near-death experiences carved out a pretty decent guy. After working for the Spine in Iowa City and picking up a degree, Andrew decided to join the corporate world for a while with a job at Wells Fargo in Des Moines. It didn’t take long for him to realize that the typical 9-to-5 cubicle life was not for him. So when he heard that the Spine was opening up in Des Moines, he decided to join the crew again, and hasn’t looked back since. Upon completing his CDL A drive test, the administrator said, “It felt like I was riding with my dad who had been driving a truck for 30 years.”

Brody not only has one eye with two colors, but also self describes himself a master at ping-pong and badminton. This inspired him to get a Master’s in Sports Management from Grand View University. His best and worst moment at the Spine are one and the same: the day he helped carry not one, but two nine-foot couches up nine flights of stairs in a narrow stairwell (because the couches were too long for the elevator). He hopes to be coaching basketball or to be an athletic director upon finishing school so that he can show Lebron James how to dunk more efficiently.

Drew spent most of his childhood either fishing, playing Xbox, or boating. Since then, not much has changed other than adding on five pounds of couch-wielding muscle and truck-loading magic. He’s known to please even the most challenging of customers and he loves the opportunities that the Spine gives him to travel the country. He’s decided that only when he’s seen all 50 states he’ll move to his favorite one — and not a moment sooner. He hopes in 10 years to be married with a brood of Mini Menkes.

“THE DONZ” is our morale booster, popping in to help crews in the afternoon after he’s spent a morning working as a full-time chiropractor. We’ve never seen him upset and if he’s on your crew, you’ll be guaranteed a smile or three. Ryan worked for us just one summer before graduating from the University of Iowa in 2014. He saw fellow Spiner Yaw Frimpong at a wedding in 2020, learned of the company’s new presence in Des Moines, and was excited to rejoin the team to stay in shape. When he’s not cracking backs or dollying stacks, you’ll find him taking whacks at the local golf course. His favorite part of the Spine is the camaraderie and teamwork involved with pulling off a complex move. In 10 years he likes to think he’ll be sipping margaritas on a beach, but realistically he will be chasing his (future) children and driving them to and from sports practices.

Steve works for Spine part-time, for the Air Force National Guard part-time, and is in his last semester of the Iowa Culinary Institute at DMACC full-time. If he’s not behind a couch, a fighter jet, or a grill, you can bet he’s cooking up some new conspiracy theories. Let’s just say he knows even more about the JFK assassination than the uncle you’d like to block on Facebook. He’ll be sharing these well-researched theories all summer long while grillin’ up hot dawgs at the warehouse when crews roll in after a long day of work.

Shane, colloquially known as, “THE FORKLIFT” comes from a large (in both muscular stature and sheer number) family out of Charles City, Iowa. With his six siblings (3 brothers, 3 sisters) he was raised in a cauldron of good Iowa values and old fashioned sibling competition. He was named Male Athlete of the Year at his high school and went on to become a D1 college football wide receiver at Drake University, where he also earned a BS in Kinesiology. This was excellent training for his worst day at the Spine when a spring-loaded treadmill popped him in the face, requiring stitches just above his eyebrow. His older brother, Griffin Feller, continues to work for the Spine in Iowa City and they love to talk about the history of Western civilization, cryptocurrency, and how Griffin would be a millionaire had he not lost that hard drive with Dogecoin on it. The Forklift is currently applying to physical therapy schools and he hopes in 10 years to be somewhere out west in Oregon, Colorado, or Montana with land and a dog.

Emily likes moving so much that she decided to enter the world almost two months earlier than her mother planned. After a couple weeks out of the womb she left the hospital (legend has it) at a sprint, and she never stopped running from there. She kept her feet moving across the globe, working as a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army Reserve in Joint Base Balad, Iraq; a journalism degree as a Hawkeye; a page designer for the Des Moines Register; a backpacker in South America; and has booked 2,000 moves for the Spine in her four years with the company. All that running finally paid off when she recently qualified for the Boston Marathon. She even picked up a fellow Spiner (Cliff Wallace) for a husband. Together, Emily and Cliff started Spine’s first successful branch in Des Moines, and in the course of a year they’ve brought it from a single truck to a fleet of eight trucks by its second summer. She loves the seasonal nature of the job (work hard, play hard), which allows the Spine duo to take long trips like their six-week, 5,000-mile honeymoon through the Rockies up to Banff, Canada.