Trees

I noticed my neighbor on the ridge had someone cleaning up her dying trees at the edge of her yard. She has had these guys out there before doing work for her. I drove by slowly to see what they were doing.

One of the big guys gave a regular country wave as I started to go by. Now, by nature, I'm not the sort of person who just stops and talks to strangers. But. 

I'd been having trouble getting any recommendations for people that cut down trees. There are so many services that have sprung up in the past few years, it makes your head spin. I've called and had no luck. I've had others search for me with no luck.

So I stopped. I figured, no time like the now.

I'm little, this guy was HUGE as in very tall and very imposing. However, he smiled and walked towards me.

I stuck out my hand to meet his big meaty paw and said:

"Hi, I see you are dealing with Linda's trees. I was curious if I could ask you to stop by my place and look at two trees I have that need some work so they don't fall down on my pole shed."

"Oh sure we can! We have to finish up this job and do another job over at the church," he pointed across the ridge. "But we can come down and take a look at what you need this afternoon. I'm Don Stussy, and he pointed to another fella and that's my brother. We do trees."

I looked over and saw the Stussy Tree Service truck with a boom on it. Perfect. These guys were local and have been around for at least 30 years. 

"We did Linda's fencing back a while ago too." He offered.

"I recall that! You did a great job."

I gave him directions to my house and then waited for them to show up.

The guys showed up later and walked around the two locust trees I've wanted trimmed or cut down for years.

One of them walked around one of the trees and said, "Well dang look here, you can almost see through this tree." He pointed out where holes were in the upper trunk.

"Ma'am, these will come down, don't know why they haven't. I see what you mean, be a shame to ruin your nice pole shed."

The guys walked around and sized things up and we chatted.

"We'll be here next week after we get the church done," Don said. The others nodded. "We'll cut them down and you can use what we leave as posts. $800 bucks a tree, how's that sound?"

"Deal." We shook hands and I'll see these guys next week.

I've only been trying to find someone to do this job for 5 years. Granted, with the garage mess no longer there, the job will be much easier to do. 

No wonder I've never found these guys on the internet, they don't do internet. They are good ol' boys with cell phones and no time for social media. However, word of mouth is how they get referrals. 

Don handed me a card that was made out of card stock and home printed and laminated. I wrote down my cell number on the back of another and gave it to him.

Looks like I'll have a huge brush pile when all is done. Bonfire this winter anyone?

Not only that, I'll be able to look up at the NE sky in the future too!