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Oct. 5th, 2005 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianHmmm... must be getting smartererTM... I finally remembered (a week later) what I had wanted to post!
Talked with a guy from a tree service that was doing some work next door. We walked around my property, examining some trees I was concerned with. Turns out two of my biggest concerns - a pitch pine, and an overly skinny, overly tall oak - were not on his list. They both lean away from the house. The pitch pine would be a high dollar removal. The oak will eventually spread a canopy over much of the house, so it might become a concern later.
Along the back edge of the property, five trees (including the two foremost ones in the group of three in my icon) lean towards the house, and their canopies are growing rather lopsided in that direction. Two other trees - a large two-headed monster along the driveway and a smaller one at the base of the lawn and the island - are dead. The two-header threatens both our driveway and the neighbors, and would likely take out a car or two if it came down. The other might possibly land on the sand mound, but really isn't that much of an issue.
He advised getting the five in back taken care of, and optionally the two dead ones. $100 a tree for the felling, chipping, and optional removal. He felt they could all be taken down fairly easy if I had my own chainsaw.
My debate is this: pay him $700 and get it over and done with vs. pay Home Despot (or some other vendor) $700 and get a chainsaw and a chipper. The latter makes much more sense in the long run. I'll have to get a chainsaw some day - although I plan on letting things fall and rot where they are in the woods, I have no doubt some management will be needed to keep things healthy and happy. I've already tried to sell my wife (best offer! erm, wait...) on the idea (oh, that changes everything...) of getting a fairly heavy duty chipper/shredder. I've spent upwards of $50 on mulch this year, and I've covered less than half of the anticipated area to less than half of the desired depth, and I'll need to reapply mulch every few years (or, if I continue in the current fashion, constantly...)
Of course, the balancing factor in the other direction is that I really don't want to drop a tree or three on the house.
Talked with a guy from a tree service that was doing some work next door. We walked around my property, examining some trees I was concerned with. Turns out two of my biggest concerns - a pitch pine, and an overly skinny, overly tall oak - were not on his list. They both lean away from the house. The pitch pine would be a high dollar removal. The oak will eventually spread a canopy over much of the house, so it might become a concern later.
Along the back edge of the property, five trees (including the two foremost ones in the group of three in my icon) lean towards the house, and their canopies are growing rather lopsided in that direction. Two other trees - a large two-headed monster along the driveway and a smaller one at the base of the lawn and the island - are dead. The two-header threatens both our driveway and the neighbors, and would likely take out a car or two if it came down. The other might possibly land on the sand mound, but really isn't that much of an issue.
He advised getting the five in back taken care of, and optionally the two dead ones. $100 a tree for the felling, chipping, and optional removal. He felt they could all be taken down fairly easy if I had my own chainsaw.
My debate is this: pay him $700 and get it over and done with vs. pay Home Despot (or some other vendor) $700 and get a chainsaw and a chipper. The latter makes much more sense in the long run. I'll have to get a chainsaw some day - although I plan on letting things fall and rot where they are in the woods, I have no doubt some management will be needed to keep things healthy and happy. I've already tried to sell my wife (best offer! erm, wait...) on the idea (oh, that changes everything...) of getting a fairly heavy duty chipper/shredder. I've spent upwards of $50 on mulch this year, and I've covered less than half of the anticipated area to less than half of the desired depth, and I'll need to reapply mulch every few years (or, if I continue in the current fashion, constantly...)
Of course, the balancing factor in the other direction is that I really don't want to drop a tree or three on the house.
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That's the sort of heavy injury prone work
Date: 2005-10-05 07:27 am (UTC)Now, if you *like* playing tarzan and don't mind the occasional fall, go ahead and get the chainsaw and chipper. Personally I'd consider getting them anyway, just based on the mulching you do, and still hire out the tree felling.
Get someone to do it for you.
Date: 2005-10-05 08:06 am (UTC)The cost is not only the tools, but your time and the extra expenses that mysteriously add themselves on to the total.
In a way, it's a bit like that old joke about the oil change.
;P
Reminder just in case:
Women:
1. Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 since
the last oil change.
2. Drink a cup of coffee.
3. 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly
maintained vehicle.
Money Spent:
$20.00 Oil Change
$1.00 Coffee
----------------
$21.00 Total
Men:
1. Go to auto parts store and write a
check for $50 dollars for oil, filter, kitty litter, hand
cleaner and scented tree.
2. Discover that the used oil container
is full. Instead of taking it back to recycle, dump in hole
in back yard.
3. Open a beer and drink it.
4. Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking
for jack stands.
5. Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7. Place drain pan under engine.
8. Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9. Give up and use crescent wrench.
10. Unscrew drain plug.
11. Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil; get hot oil on you in
process.
12. Clean up.
13. Have another beer while oil is draining.
14. Look for oil filter wrench.
15. Give up; poke oil filter with screwdriver and twist it
off.
16. Beer.
17. Buddy shows up; finish case with him. Finish oil change
tomorrow.
18. Next day, drag pan full of old oil out from underneath
car.
19. Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during step 18.
20. Beer. No, drank it all yesterday.
21. Walk to 7-11; buy beer.
22. Install new oil filter making sure to apply thin coat of
clean oil to gasket first.
23. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
24. Remember drain plug from step 11.
25. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
26. Hurry to replace drain plug before the whole quart of
fresh oil drains onto floor.
27. Slip with wrench and bang knuckles on frame.
28. Bang head on floor board in reaction.
29. Begin cussing fit.
30. Throw wrench.
31. Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit Miss
December (1992) in the left breast.
32. Clean up. Apply Band-Aid to knuckle.
33. Beer.
34. Beer.
35. Dump in additional 4 quarts of oil.
36. Beer.
37. Lower car from jack stands
38. Accidentally crush one of the jack stands
39. Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil
spilled during step 23.
40. Test drive car
41. Get pulled over; arrested for driving under the
influence.
42. Car gets impounded.
43. Make bail. Get car from impound yard.
Money Spent:
$50 parts
$12 beer
$75 replacement set of jack stands; hey the colors have to
match!
$1000 Bail
$200 Impound and towing fee
---------------------------
$1337 Total
Many apologies, I tried to lj_cut the joke but it doesn't seem to have worked
Date: 2005-10-05 08:08 am (UTC)Re: Many apologies, I tried to lj_cut the joke but it doesn't seem to have worked
Date: 2005-10-05 09:50 am (UTC)For the record, I take the cars to the garage for oil changes - I won't work on any car newer than the mid-80's! I rebuilt the carb on an '82 Citation, but couldn't even change the head light on the '90 Taurus... =)