Layin' out $4500 this week to a tree removal company. In addition to things like removing a sweetgum tree growing to close to my house, with roots starting to get under my slab, removing a dead birch and severely trimming back a water birch in my front yard that has gotten huge, the main event is a 60 foot oak tree that has died and is leaning towards my bedroom.

bendable warns us from time to time about the trees that can kill you but I'm beatin' the death tree to the punch.

The tree guy looked at this tree and said "That's an accident waiting to happen."

So, goodbye money. Hello, peace of mind.

You give those trees an inch, and they'll take the yard.

H&K-Guy

They'll take the yard but leave the cannoli.

Ask them about stump grinding if that's not part of the quote.
Done properly they take it down at least 6" under ground level and top it off with soil. Much better than waiting years for the stump to go (rot) away and having the raised area for years after that.

You may want to sleep in a different bedroom until it's down. Why tempt fate?

Be sure and have the stumps ground and dirt put in to fill the depression. You will appreciate this later. Have experience in this department.

Hope you get to watch the tree guys do their thing. They're a unique sub-species of human beings.

Ouch. I hate it when I've got to spend that kindof money on much of anything...

(Except maybe a nice vacation...)

A sweet gum, a dead birch, and an oak.

Well these things come in trees.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
A sweet gum, a dead birch, and an oak.

Well these things come in trees.

Oh Gawd!! I luv it

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Hope you get to watch the tree guys do their thing. They're a unique sub-species of human beings.

Yep, a buddy has a video of his tree guy falling out of a tree on site. His neighbor saw the upcoming disaster developing and recorded it for posterity.
This was 1990 ish. Dude was all tatted up including Razor Wire tats around his neck.
Buddy's soon to be wife is Japanese and couldn't understand the tats. She actually asked "How is he going to be able to get into a nice French restaurant looking like that"?
Buddy responded that he didn't think that was going to be a problem. :-)

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
A sweet gum, a dead birch, and an oak.

Well these things come in trees.

It was either a son of a birch or a son of a beech. Or maybe a nice piece of ash.

I hear what you are saying.

Since living in Missouri we have built two homes. The first one was surrounded by trees because everyone said you had to do that to get some shade. Huge mistake. I spent countless hours raking and blowing the leaves around and then one of them died and and we had to hire a tree company to take it down...piece by piece.

By the time we built the second one, I learned my lesson. We bulldozed all the trees out and now our piece of mind is there and the leaf blowing is so much quicker.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
A sweet gum, a dead birch, and an oak.

Well these things come in trees.

Nicely done!

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Hope you get to watch the tree guys do their thing. They're a unique sub-species of human beings.

Just before selling our townhouse in MD, we had to hire a tree service because the tree in our front yard had way overgrown, branches laying on the shingles, etc. Next door neighbor was selling at the same time, and she split the cost. The tree grew in our yard, but many of the issues impacted her house as well. The tree service team showed up with a cherry picker truck and another truck with a belt fed chipper. The guy in the cherry picker was a wonder to watch work. He swung this way and that, attaching lines to the branches before he cut them off, backed off to take an assessment, swung back into action. He was fast, kept two helpers on the ground busy carrying branches and feeding the chipper. The whole operation lasted about an hour, and he removed a considerable amount of wood, leaving a well shaped and much smaller tree. Fascinating tradesman.
 
Back in MD, many very old and large oak trees would fall over in any high wind storm, due to internal rot and no strength. We just had a large (50ft crown) Palo Verde blow over in the front yard, probably due to a passing dirt devil as it was not a very windy day. Rotted inside the trunk, with no sign on the outside that its demise was imminent.
 
I will never plant trees that close (25 feet) to the house again.
 

One reason I chose this particular company is that the owner doesn't sub out any work and his entire crew was born in the United States.

^^^^^^

It is amazing how hard it is to do that these days. We just put new floors in our house and I had to go through 6 decently named contractors before we found one.

quote:

Originally posted by H&K-Guy:
You give those trees an inch, and they'll take the yard.

H&K-Guy

I can recommend a local stump grinder if your in need after the trees are down.

are you going to video the event...you know...so we can all enjoy it?