Every time I cut the lawn, I would look up at our tallest palm trees and think, “I really need to find someone to clean up those branches.” Lately, ten-foot long dried up fronds have been blowing down whenever a storm blew through. Even the trees were telling me they needed a trim.
Someone gave me our tall front yard palm trees when they were only a foot high. Now, they’ve grown to twenty-five feet tall, far beyond what I can trim myself.
When I heard a knock at the door, I saw his truck out on the street. John had trimmed my palm trees before. I was really glad to see him. It had probably been three years since his last visit. He walked about the base of the four tall trees, sizing up the job and quote me a price. We shook hands and he and his partner got to work.
He’s been doing this kind of work for about forty years, as long as the community has been here. He pulled a twenty-four foot extension ladder out of his truck, and as his assistant set it in place and raised the top portion, he sat down, attached tree climbing spikes to his boots, and sharpened his chain saw.
I didn’t remember him using the climbing spikes before. I soon found out why he strapped them on. He climbed up to the top rung of the extended ladder, strapped himself to the tree, and then used the spikes to climb another six feet up the tree. From there, he started up the chain saw and cleaned up the overgrown branches. His assistant held the ladder and carried each trimmed branch to the trailer.
I could hardly look. But I couldn’t look away, either. He was careful, but fearless. He was efficient and finished the whole job in less than ninety minutes. Two-thirds of the job was putting up the ladder, climbing up and down, and loading up the trimmed fronds.
As we said the last two times, “It’s worth every penny.” There’s no way I’d be up there with or without a chain saw. And I suspect he charged less than the tree services who are often in our neighborhood looking for business. He just cruises the county roads, looking for overgrown trees.
And, he takes a check for payment.
Waite for it... 