ladyjanelly

So Kendra called the lawn guy to have the stumps pulled and he gave her another number of a guy who only does stumps and tree service.  and um, may or may not have said it was a birthday present for her wife. :)

His name was Joe and he was like the friendliest old guy ever. Ground out the stumps I had planned to remove for a good price ($75 ea) and took them down like over a foot below the ground surface. (most guys only want to go 4" down or so).

he did the other three along the fence for $50 total (too good of a deal to pass up) and the horrible messy branching mess of a stump inside the side yard for $75. That one had to be ground out like 18" down. He had to take the panel off of the fence where the gate latches, and fixed the gate latch for me while he was at it.

He kept saying how glad he was that he'd met us girls and we talked about plants and life and his grandkids.  I think it was really cool for him to hang out with someone he felt wouldn't judge him for his love of cooking shows (and cooking) and that he lost weight with WeightWatchers or he burns candles and sculpts the wax as therapy. Sometimes I think men, especially of his generation, are boxed in by the expectations the world has of masculine behavior.

I'd already written the check and given it to him before we knew he had to take apart my fence to get to the monster-stump so I felt i should give him a tip. He'd been talking about how big stumps throw chunks of wood and bruise up his right shin. So I went into the craft room and used some scrap leather I'd had for years and years and an old belt and made him an armored flap to go from his belt to his ankle on that side.

Anyway, he'll probably come cut down the tree on the side yard that's aging sort of poorly and that the fuzzy worms from hell love.

Awesome guy. Anybody in DFW need tree service or stumps ground, let me know and I'll get you his number.

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lapillus

Folks like him are a treasure; I'm so glad you found him (and that he found you, given what he told you about his interests.)

kentucka

it does make it sound like your garden's half a forest ;)

ladyjanelly.livejournal.com

The people that had the place before us were tree-happy. I think we've got either 1/3 or 1/4 acre.

There's a huge old peach tree and three decorative miniatures (like 15 feet high) in the back yard.

In the side, there's a 30' mulberry tree that never makes berries, just fuzzy catepillars (gotta get that taken out).

There's ancient hollies all along the front (that I just pruned to look like giant bonsai instead of green cubes) and a young magnolia tree.

There are 20- year old red-tip "bushes" on both sides that are taller than the damn house.

When we moved in we had 5 oversize red-tips and a 10' tall box-holly taken out. Those are the six stumps that were ground down.

But yeah. More trees than any smallyard should have.