And Nobody Yelled 'Timber!'       
   
   Have you ever hired someone to do a job and been 100 percent satisfied with their work? 

   We were bummed by a tall tree behind our property that hurricane Irma "shortened," leaving an eyesore that still rose above surrounding trees. Anyone coming down the street intersecting with our street could see it.

   We got permission from the now-closed, golf-course owner to cut it down. 
(It would have been nice of him to do it, but that's another story.) We hired a tree-removal company to do the job, along with two smaller, aging trees in our front yard.

   Monday morning about eight men showed up, all wearing orange, company tee shirts. They brought trucks, chain saws, a tractor with a claw, and another tractor with a saw blade for chewing up tree stumps.

   Without bothering to ring our doorbell, they went straight to work. In no time the items in front were down, and "deep grind" work started on the roots.

   Meanwhile, others went to the back. Soon the lead guy was up top of the ugly pine, maybe 40 feet high. A few branches answered to gravity. Ker-thump!  

   Another orange shirt worked below; the tractor claw arrived, and two other guys were picking up small pieces. None of the surrounding trees were damaged.

   While the helper climbed a 20-foot ladder to attach a rope to the trunk, the leader, now on the ground, began sawing at the base. Interesting. But they knew what they were doing, and nobody needed to yell "timber!" 

   Within an hour, all three trees were turned to sawdust, and away they went, with our check as well. The memo line said, "good job." 

      Jimmy