Joe Guerrero Tree Trimming
Being from West Texas, this whole concept of “trees” still baffles me. Even more so is the event that happens twice a year when there are piles, I mean PILES of brush that is stacked up on the side of the road. Not being around trees I really had no concept that you actually had to take care of them.
Apparently the people who previously lived in my house before me must have been in the same spot because they had grossly neglected taking care of the trees. They were a mess – lots of suckers, ball moss, branches growing down/towards the roof line, dead branches, etc., etc., etc. I decided that this was going to be the brush pickup where I was going to make a difference.
My back yard before the work started
My front yard before they got started; to the right of the house are the two big cedar elms.
I love my neighborhood and neighbors; I am sure that I will mention them more throughout the course of the blog. Anyway, across the street is a guy who is a straight up hippie; he is nice as the day is long, showers outside, traps rainwater, helps me out with my house, and really is a green thumb. Hippie Tom has never led me astray when it comes to taking care of my yard and really had been encouraging me to get the trees trimmed. He even had some advice as far as cutting down one of my two rather large cedar elms in the front yard. Hippie Tom had advised me that by cutting one down, the other would be able to flourish and really become a cornerstone of the house.
Now, if you recall, I had just had a pretty bad experience with a haircut. The nice thing about hair is that it (1) grows back pretty quick and (2) if it is jacked up it can be fixed relatively easily. I was a little apprehensive to say the least about cutting the tree down. What if it made my front yard look terrible? Trees as big as this one take a while to grow. I was more than a little scared, but keep in mind that Hippie Tom is very in tune with the earth (I think that is a prerequisite of being a Hippie). I decided I would trust him.
Another one of my friends, Jackson, told me about an awesome guy who has a tree trimming business. His name is Joe Guerrero and apparently he did a bang up job on Jackson’s house and was the most reasonable bid. In fact, he did such a good job that all of Jackson’s neighbors got in and hired Joe to do their trees. This is a businessman that I can work with.
Joe came out to my house to bid on the job and quoted me a good price of $700 for front and back with taking down that one huge tree and one little tree. This was a superior quote from any other thing that I had received and I took him up on it. He wrote down the estimate on his card and said he could be back the next week. Hippie Tom and Neighbor Mike got in on the action to have some of their trees cleaned up. All in all, Joe ended up getting a pretty decent book of business from my street.
Joe arrived with a crew of four at my house at 8:00 in the morning. I knew that it was going to be unbelievably hot, so I ran and got the crew a bunch of Powerade and water and iced it down for them; I am glad I did as they went through thirty 20 oz bottles of Powerade and twenty four 12 oz bottles of water throughout the day!
The crew was extremely nice and really got after those trees. It amazes me how they can just get up in the branches and wield a chain saw to cut out the errant branches. The speed of those workers in the trees is equally complimented by the speed of the folks on the ground who gather the debris into piles, haul it to the front yard for brush pickup, and cut the large branches into fireplace sized wood.
My back yard and the stacks of wood after the fact.
They really did a great job on the backyard and had that knocked out by about 12:30. I brought the crew lunch and they were really happy about that. You know, I was probably out an extra $40-$50 on the drinks and lunch, but I can tell you it was worth it. The crew knew that I had their best interest at heart, and I really think that this was reflected in the work that they did for me.
It was now time to tackle the big tree. Like I said, I was incredibly apprehensive and stayed outside with Hippie Tom and Neighbor Mike to watch them take it down. After the first big branch came down, I realized that there was no going back! The crew worked swiftly, and before you knew it there was just a big pile of branches in front of my house. The crew also broke down the bigger branches and cut them to fit a fire place. Additionally they stacked them on my wood rack; I really was appreciative to this because it saved me a lot of time and energy.
When the tree came down it really allowed the other one to be the focal point. You could see how the tree was stressed from the one that was beside it, but my neighbor assured me that it would really start coming into its own in a couple of years. He told me that it would then become the dominant tree in my lawn and having that space would allow it to mature even more. I am fortunate to have a neighbor who knows his stuff!
Look at that pile of brush! To the right is the lone cedar elm all cleaned up!
Needless to say, if you are in San Antonio and are looking for someone to work on trimming your trees, call Joe Guerrero at 210.381.7866. He will definitely give you a good price, do excellent work, and treat you right.
