That is a great price today. When I was young, we (Dad and I) would have cut those down for you for free (by hand with a crosscut saw and/or axe and no bucket truck) if we got the wood for firewood. We would have cut the limbs by axe after it fell. We split wood into rails or firewood with a wedge and a hammer/maul. Sometimes made rough beams for small barn-building. That is a big job. Not too bad to cut trees out in the open (nothing to hit when it fell). Probably would have taken a week to get it done and hauled away.

I cut quite a few trees like that these days (most are a bit smaller trunk but much taller) on my properties...and a couple of years ago, some really big ones that fell on my house in a storm. That was a huge job as it was on a very steep hill, and I could get no equipment or truck in (had to carry wood/limbs out by hand for quite a distance). If I could have found someone reasonably, I would pay for the work and haul (as I do not burn wood and just end up hauling/dragging it into the woods to waste/rot). That job would have cost quite a bit more here too.

I had a pretty big tree in the yard of one of my rental homes (very close to the house) about 15 years ago. The best estimate was $1200. A fellow Pelican (that was doing a renovation on the home for me) did it for his hourly rate (total was $400). I imagine he used the wood since he had to haul it away.

Since you found a reasonable contractor, I'd also have him remove that tree (pine?) surrounding the wires........

^^^ Yeah, I thought about that after they started. I'm thinking the Spruce might fill out a little better with the big Maple gone.
It probably should be taken out.

The little tree with the green protector around it is a Mulberry tree. It will only get about 10 ft high and have berries.

As a teen in the 60's my brother and I were nosing around in our G'pa's shed and noticed his 2 man crosscut saw used for felling large trees.
We took it out in the woods and tried to cut a tree down....tried. It was all work and exhausting to get halfway thru a med sized tree and we gave up.
My father said it was nothing to go out and cut trees all day long. How times have changed.

We did it all day when building fences. Pretty much daylight to dark. Fit it in between planting and harvest (and school).

We would find the closest tall black locust trees (to where we were building) and saw one down. Remove the limbs with an axe and use the saw to cut it into 8 ft sections. They were hundreds of pounds. Then, if we had a horse or mule at the time, rig it up and drag the log to where they were needed. Then do another. When we had enough for the job, we would start splitting them with wedges and a very large hammer.

If we had no horse/mule, then we split them on the spot and carried them to the field. I carried the wood that was not right for fencing to home or to where we could access with a pickup truck where possible... and it was sawed up with a similar saw into pieces that could be split for firewood.

I got a real summer job when I was 13 or 14 and was a lot less help...and added an afterschool job at 15...so was not able to help out nearly as much. The graduated and left home after turning 17. It must have been hard on my father. We raised our own food and harvested firewood for heating.

My father bought a secondhand chainsaw before I left home...but it was as hard to use as the crosscut for us as we really did not know what we were doing, it was very dull, and it was hard to keep it running (knew little or nothing about small engines). Yep...we were pretty poor and backwards. But, it sure made the rest of the world/life/work seem pretty easy.

When did someone do research that found those other photos? I don't recall ever seing those.

^^^ one click search....roof girl

The original Tree Girl:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1726509862.jpg

^^^
I remember watching the Tarzan tv show every week...silly but good.


<iframe width="500" height="560" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a_aOloz7E_o" title="This man knows how to cut a tree!" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1726538351.jpg

^^^ Search on this forum. :)
(Although, it could be her.)

That’s a smart move with the rubber mats. I had some tree work done last fall, and the crew used a similar approach to protect my lawn from damage. They removed a couple of large pine trees, and I was worried about the mess they’d leave behind. But they laid down plywood around the base to catch falling branches, and it made a huge difference.

Finally had the stump grinder guy show up this morning.
He rolled in at 8:30 with the grinder and his teenage nephew.
At 9:00...he was loaded up and gone!

The grinder was on tracks and had a double wheel cutter.
He measured the stump first at 5ft dia. and said the charge will be $300
I thought that was a very fair price.

Three pics....the stump before he arrived, him running the grinder, and when finished.
Couldn't get a closer pic of the grinder working, the kid was there to make sure no one got close. (flying pebbles and rocks)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1728156638.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1728156691.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1728156760.jpg

$300 seems like a very fair price.... I would have asked for $3K... at least!

They call me $tumpy :D

Soon after he left, I started digging the mixed dirt and shredded root out. The mixture has to be one of the worst things to shovel. Can't foot drive a shovel in, a garden rake works to loosen each shovel full.
I counted 9 wheelbarrows full and I'm almost done with that. I'll get a few yards of top-soil on Monday to finish the job. (plus seeding)