The Buckets by Greg Cravens for October 16, 2016

Just pay the man. It’s worth it to have the job done right the first time, in less than 1/2 the time it would take you. Damages and injuries are not your problem to fix.

Some jobs just aren’t worth the time and effort to do them yourself. I can install a wall heater myself, but called the pros for the main furnance.

This fine cartoons goes out to my wife, who really did save us thousands of dollars (again) by renting a boom lift, getting another chain saw (I’m really sorry about that last one) and arbored the heck out of the old Pecan tree out back. I was not allowed to go up in the boom lift. And therefore, I’m around to draw cartoons for you.

Apparently spellcheck thinks ‘arboring’ is not a word, but ‘arbored’ is. I don’t think either of those is really a word, much.

You’re getting ripped off! You can have the tree removed for $200!

This reminds me that I need to go do something nice for my neighbor, just because. A dozen years ago someone quoted me $6000 to take out a huge dead pine that was leaning over my house, and I said, it’s not my tree, it’s hers! She didn’t want to spend the money. Later I was deathly ill in the hospital, and her please-get-well gift to me was to take out that tree so that I would be coming home to a house that was safe. And I made it safely home.

My former next door neighbours used to have a willow tree.

xxx

We used to have a neighbor who worked for the National Park Service. When our 50ft scarlet oaks died, he showed up with a chain saw and offered to cut it down – said he could lay it down in the one clear area of our back yard, between the raised garden, bird bath and fence. Hubby offered to help. Before he could get back with a ladder and ropes, our neighbor dropped the oak exactly where he said, without touching anything.

The 60 ft black locust was a different story. When it split in a storm and looked like it might fall onto our neighbor’s roof, we hired some guys who were cruising the neighborhood in a beat up old truck with a couple of kids in tow (They were straight out of the back woods. We dubbed the elders, the Deliverance Brothers) One of them climbed the locust , 3 inch thorns and all, topped it while the other manned the ropes. But the best part was listening to the kids: 7, 8 and 10, brag about the chainsaws they each got for Christmas.

Do people talk like this? “trim up” “arborist” ?

We would say “need to get the tree branches cut. We need a tree trimmer.”

Do people talk like this? “trim up” “arborist” ?

We would say “need to get the tree branches cut. We need a tree trimmer.”