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Post by Clipper on Oct 4, 2022 11:38:59 GMT -5
One more estimate to come yet, but I have one for $2400 and one for $1800. Not that I didn't expect it to be costly but my wallet quivered in shock at the prospect of being sucked dry, haha. I will probably just go with the $1800. The guy has an excellent reputation and took down a tree last spring for the next door neighbor and did a good job of cleaning up and repairing the lawn. It is a big tree and it will probably take an entire day to get it down and cleaned up. I just hate letting go of that much cash. I will hand him the 18 crispy c-notes and then come in the house and cry, lol.
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Post by Ralph on Oct 4, 2022 13:24:30 GMT -5
The triple stem maple tree I had taken down in August cost me $3806.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 4, 2022 14:44:44 GMT -5
Wow! And I thought 1800 and 2400 were outrageous. Glad I don't have to pay that kind of money. If I had taken note of all mature trees around the property we probably would have hesitated to buy the house.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 13, 2022 8:39:39 GMT -5
Well, they called yesterday morning and came about 10 am. They worked until 6pm and have to come back today to finish. The tree was 80 feet tall according to the tree cutter. It is in such a location that most of it had to be cut and lowered in small sections with a rope. Great guys. They have been cutting a lot of the stuff up to 12 inches in diameter into 12-14 inch blocks for firewood and piling it along the fence for me. I will have to rent a splitter and hire the lad next door to help me split and pile it. I decided against having any sawed into boards for the shop. Sawmills want too much to saw it and it has to season and dry for a year or more before it is dry enough to used.
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Oct 13, 2022 10:45:11 GMT -5
A family across the street from me had someone cutting down a huge tree like that on there property. They took it down in pieces since space was a major issue as to where to place the large bucket that was used to hold the person cutting the tree.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 13, 2022 15:40:08 GMT -5
They finished up about 1pm today. What a nice job they did. They raked up all their leaves and debris, along with cleaning up all the walnuts, put the fence back together, cut down a small dogwood I wanted gone (no charge) asked me how much firewood I wanted and when I said I would take whatever they felt like cutting to length, they cut ALL the limbwood and stacked it neatly. I ended up with about 4 face cords. (a pile about 32 feet long, 4ft high. They were so careful with the skid steer loader that there was zero damage to the lawn other than a few dents I will have to fix where the heavier chunks hit the ground when they cut them.
I will probably wait a while before I rent a hydraulic splitter, recruit a team to help get it all split and re-piled. I won't have to buy stove or campfire wood for 4 or 5 yrs by the looks of it. I am overjoyed to see that damned tree and the walnuts gone.
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Post by BHU on Oct 13, 2022 17:18:04 GMT -5
When we had our cherry tree taken down a few years ago the thing was so huge that they brought a crane in to raise the tree climbers up to limb it. Cost me $1000, they left the wood & I gave it away to family members who have a fireplace. We don't. Some of it was punky. A couple years ago I finally tackled the stump & it took me about 4 days with a 14 inch chainsaw which is all I have to bring it down to ground level. Some of it is still there but I would have to hire a stump grinder to get it out. It's out of my way so I'm not worried about it. We had that sucker taken down at least 10 years ago. The crew who cut it were drooling over that wood.
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Post by kit on Oct 14, 2022 6:33:10 GMT -5
As the saying goes... "You get what you pay for." True, the job wasn't cheap, but you can deduct the cost of 4 or 5 years of firewood, and if you paid a cheaper price you probably wouldn't have gotten such a nice neat job. Also, the crew who did the job got to put food on the table for their families, thanks to you.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 14, 2022 8:49:43 GMT -5
It was well worth the price, and we actually got excellence compared to our last experience with a tree service. What a difference from the tree service we used when we had a large willow and a huge sweet gum tree taken down a few years ago. I had gotten several estimates that time also, and I chose a company that had great looking equipment, uniformed workers, and a guy that talked a great ball game. Unfortunately all the glitz and shine of the new equipment, and super sales pitch did not insure any increased level of quality. The shiny trucks, impressive array of equipment, and the uniformed workers showed up and went to work. It didn't take long to realize that he had sent Curley, Larry, and Moe. They ran over the septic line, crushing it, and did donuts in the yard with a track Bob Cat skid steer while moving the brush to the roadside to put it in the chipper. The owner ended up paying for a new septic line from the house to the tank, and spent an afternoon personally raking off and seeding the large area of damage to the lawn. By the time he deducted the costs in time and money for the damage they did, he took a significant hit to the profits.
The crew we had this time showed a maximum level of professionalism and skill at every turn of the road, cleaned up as they went, keeping the area around the bottom of the tree free of debris. It was interesting to watch. The aerial worker has over 25yrs experience and expertly rigged the ropes to drop the pieces exactly where he wanted them to land, and the ground man who manned the rope would take a turn or two around the base of the tree and belay every piece in a controlled the descent alleviating any damage to the lawn. I am truly amazed when I walk out there. You would hardly know that they were ever there except for the stump cut flat and close to the ground and a bit of sawdust left in the grass. What a difference from the Curley, Larry, and Moe experience.
I was talking to a fellow wood worker that I bowl with last night. He does a lot of wood turning on a lathe and when I told him how beautiful and dark the heartwood was in the chunks I have and offered him some for turning on his lathe. I lost interest in lathe work and sold my lathe, but he spends a lot of his time turning things on his lathe. He makes everything from bowls and vases to candlesticks, lamps, and writing pens to mention just a few of the products he turns out. He is coming by later this morning and I will let him pick out some of the pieces well suited for turning on his lathe. It is a little barter deal. He offered to make us a bowl or two and a couple of ball point pens. He does beautiful work. He turns writing pen blanks out of exotic hardwoods and sells them at craft fairs. He is going to make me a pen out of a piece of the heart wood from our tree. They sell kits on-line that contain the mechanical parts and decorative accessories for the pens. It is intricate work and requires a small miniature lathe and specialized turning tools. He is a retired coal company executive and actually sells much of his work. He is of a much higher skill level than I am and actually supplements his retirement income with his work by selling it at craft fairs and local festivals where vendors are invited to sell their wares. His wife also produces crafts to sell.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 14, 2022 9:05:36 GMT -5
Just another little tidbit of trivia concerning walnut wood. It is toxic to plant life. The walnuts that always fell, if not picked up and were crushed or chewed up by the mower, would kill some of the grass. The sawdust from walnut wood cannot be used for mulch in a garden because of it's herbicide qualities. I fully expect to see it take a year for the aleopathic effects of the jugalone natural herbicide in the sawdust to subside and the grass to actually thicken up and thrive again.
If you have a butternut tree, butternut wood also contains jugalone natural herbicide and plant life may not grow well around it.
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Post by BHU on Oct 14, 2022 16:57:06 GMT -5
I'm still picking up deadfall pears. I have two 40 gal. trash receptacles that I've filled halfway with pears. I can't put any more in or I won't be able to drag them out front even though their wheeled & if they're too heavy the guys from the city won't dump them in the truck. I'll bet there's 500 more pears on that sucker. Next spring I'm going at it with my chainsaw & pruning it. There are so many bees on those pears that I have to go out in the morning when they're not as active yet. Haven't been stung yet.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 14, 2022 18:38:15 GMT -5
aAe they bees or yellow jackets? My mom and dad's windfall pears were always crawling with yellow jackets. If they are honey bees shoo them out of there and put a cover on the can. If they are yellow jackets fog it with raid and put the cover on. I hate those aggressive and nasty little buggers. I suppose they have a place in God's plan but I will be darned if I can find any positive reason for keeping them around. I hate going for ice cream or a burger at a place like Voss's in summer because the trash cans are swarming with them and they will even crawl into your drink if you aren't careful. When I was a kid we were having a picnic at Baker's Beach on Canadarago Lake. I left a half a can of soda on the picnic table while I was swimming and when I went back to take a sip I got stung on the lip by a damned yellow jacket that had crawled into it. I had an upper lip that rivaled Satchmo for a couple of days.
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Post by BHU on Oct 18, 2022 15:56:36 GMT -5
They're bees. I went out Sunday afternoon after we got back from a friends camp & probably picked up more then 500 pears swarming with bees, was not stung once & the temp was in the low 60's so they were active. I filled two 32 gallon trash receptacles half way because of the weight, a 5 & a 3 gal. bucket & a city orange recyclable container with pears & set it out for green waste pickup. Sunday I'll probably have to do that again & that's it. Whatever falls after that the bees & squirrels can have at it. Lol
As a side note when I got up Monday morning I found that someone had stolen the 5 & 3 gallon plastic buckets. What kind of ahole would steal plastic buckets? Maybe we have a klepto in the neighborhood. Unbelievable.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 18, 2022 16:13:18 GMT -5
Typical Utica. The scrappers are out there every night they will take anything that isn't tied down. When I worked at the base I worked with a guy that had rental property in Rome. He had a tenant leave and a week later he went to show and rent the house and scrappers had broken in and pulled all the copper plumbing out of the house. Had someone just called and had the water service restored the cellar would have filled up with water.
You are lucky that was all they stole. When we lived in N Utica there was someone going around and stealing the garbage bags. They would dump the garbage on the lawn and take the bag.
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Post by BHU on Oct 18, 2022 21:33:12 GMT -5
We have a couple outdoor lights with motion sensors that hopefully will discourage any thieves out on the prowl & some of our neighbors leave their lights on all nite so the area is well lit. We lock both our vehicles every night & leave nothing of value in either one of them. My worry though is the cat converters getting stolen which cost a fortune to replace.
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