Hello Rivercut! We are the Wests.

We've lived in Rivercut for 4.5 years on South Hunters Trail along with our two pets: a black/white long-haired Dachshund named Brody and a Siamese cat named Charlie (some of you have probably seen him sitting at the front window). I'm Derek, and I'm a native of Springfield. My wife Ashley is from Stockton, MO, and we've been together for 22 years. 

After living in the Parkcrest Neighborhood area for 18.5 years, our family decided to move in 2019. After searching for a month or so for homes in the Cherokee/Kickapoo district, we kept coming back to Rivercut and decided it was the place we wanted to be. 

The short story of how we found the house on Hunters Trail is… One day I was talking to a friend at my gym, Proximal Strength, about how we were looking for a home in Rivercut. Surprisingly, he knew a good friend with a home in Rivercut that was soon to be for sale. If you know the Rivercut Neighborhood at all, you know it's typically difficult to find a property for sale or one that fits your wants without building a new one. We viewed the property and loved it! It had been nicely updated and had amazingly large views of the 10th-hole waterway with the James River behind it. 

So then, my childhood friend Dave Puckett, who is the President of the Springfield Wood & Huston Bank, stepped in to help and worked with us and the previous owners in facilitating the details of acquiring the house off the market. It all went smoothly and was meant to be! We're now neighbors with Dave and live across the street from each other. The crazy thing is, we also lived a street over from one another in the Parkcrest Neighborhood growing up and into early adulthood.

Our daughter London is a Junior at Kickapoo High School this year. She works at Cox South as a unit assistant and is also very busy playing club volleyball. The winter months are filled with family trips to volleyball tournaments across the Midwest. Her club team for the past 2 years has earned their way to Nationals, so she's played volleyball year-round due to Nationals going through the summertime. London has played volleyball for almost 7 years. She can also play the piano and took singing lessons at the Conservatory of the Ozarks from the time she was 4 to 11 years old.

I spent 20 years professionally racing off-road vehicles. This created many fun opportunities for the family to travel the country, visiting most of the states, making lifelong friends from all over the world, and seeing a lot of sites in the USA. I even raced in London, UK! 

I recently retired from racing to make more time for our growing family business, family activities, and volleyball trips. We also own and operate Solar Energy Services, LLC which was founded in 2014. We both worked with my stepfather Nathan from 2007-2014, operating and installing solar energy systems on boat docks on the area lakes. By 2014, the solar industry had really started to grow in Missouri for residential and commercial systems. My stepfather was also retiring, so we ventured out and started our own company.

The focus of our business is solar power systems for homes and businesses, backup generators, and EV chargers. I'm a master electrician and handle the daily operations while Ashley has a business degree and takes care of accounting and marketing for the business. Ashley has also been a florist for 25 years, and she started in the industry when she was 16 years old. We owned and operated a floral shop called Elite Floral in Springfield for 5 years (2002-2007) before going into the solar industry together.

  

Our family enjoys spending time at the lake on our boat, hiking, and traveling together. Our lake time is typically split between Table Rock, Stockon, and Lake of the Ozarks. Generally, day trips are made to Table Rock to hang out with Ron and Michelle Moses who live next door to us in Rivercut. Our families have also enjoyed Chiefs season tickets together for the past 4 years. Go Chiefs! 

Our favorite things to do around the area include having dinner at Casa Bella restaurant, hiking the trails around Ponca, Arkansas, being on the water at an area lake, and going to Silver Dollar City and Top of the Rock.