The most unusual customer requests you've gotten..

[arborealbuffoon]

Hello to all of you fine folks here @ AS. As you can see, I am new here and taking the opportunity to make my "maiden post".

Nearly twenty years ago now, I got a couple of very strange messages on my business line. The caller was a woman who was pleading to my answering machine for someone to come and remove her cat from a tree. Of course, I initially presumed that these messages were someone's idea of a clever prank. However, a short time later a third message appeared and this time from an obviously distraught individual. I decided I should probably return the call, and discovered after some discussion that a very frightened feline was indeed sitting about 30 feet up in a Silver Maple where it had been for a couple of days. I got in the truck with my usual gear, choosing to add some additional leather clothing to use as PPE while handling this potentially unhappy kitty. I did remove the cat without incident, and remember trying to figure out an appropriate cost for such work. I don't recall what I was paid, but the cat had apparently broken its hip and could not manage a descent.

Just yesterday I had another unique request which inspired this post. A friend called me saying "I have a friend who needs to use a chipper. I told her that you had just the thing...." . At first I was a bit skeptical (as you might imagine). It ended up that this woman wanted to recycle a large quantity of foam sheathing board scraps to use as attic insulation in her new house! Anybody here ever run Celotex thru a Brush Bandit?!

Regards

 

[rebelman]

I refused a request to run phone books through my bandit. I wanted to help the recycling effort, bit dreaded some sort of damage to my machine. Unusual requests? How about "top 'er off halfway." Welcome.

 

[yooper]

I'm sure running Styrofoam through your chipper wont hurt it,although i wouldn't do it,But that sure would be a sight on a good windy day.

 

[younggun]

had a guy ask me to remove a tree then half way through asked if save it and remove the one next to it

 

[treevet]

I had a 5 am crying call from a women to rescue her macaw parrot from a large oak. Upon arrival the distraught woman pointed out a huge white bird maybe 80 feet up that had apparently penetrated the canapy not in full wing span and was not about to try takeoff w an open wingspread. Not a stupid bird by any means. As I got up to him I was standing on the same branch as him but he kept scooting out and away from me. On the advice of the owner s brother I had some cocktail cherries sent up to me and asked also for a pillow case. During this time the bird kept saying a number of inappropriate things to the dog walking around below the tree. I visualized the beginning of the fiasco as they both lived together in the trailer below me. This all was all quite surreal as this was in my era of crooked cigarrettes (many years removed and something I am certainly not very proud of). It all ended well as after a few second thoughts and my repeatedly calling his name "psyche" ,hecame to take the cherry and I put the pillowcase over his head and took him down. She handed me a 100$ bill and gave me a big kiss and it wasn t a bad start for a day. Near Flemington, New Jersey around 1973.

 

[ddhlakebound]

Nice save on the parrot treevet.....and I bet a hundred bucks in '73 was worth a whole lot more than it is now.

I had one couple request that I take the top 15 feet off a 60' hickory. "We just need the part with all the leaves off there.....its blocking our dish reception.....". The thing was, it was their neighbors tree, but it was ok, because they had talked to them. We told them we'd have to have the owners of the tree sign off on paper. "You don't need to.....they said it was ok...."

We went next door, to the retired couples home, only to find out that the gentleman had alzheimers, and he was who the satelite impoverished neighbors had talked to. The wife had been told it was a maple tree in the back, instead of her prized hickory next to the deck. The wife still wanted to help the neighbors if she could. We had to explain to her that what they wanted would either kill or forever malign her tree. She finally realized that the neighbors needed to move their dish, instead of her tree.

A funny one was this couple who had bought a trashed out property, to demolish and rebuild. It had a fairly large elm, 24 in dbh, and about 60' tall which they wanted dropped. "Sure....we can do that. Do you want to drag that truck out of there?" "Ummmm........no........just drop it on top of it". "Are you sure?" "Sure....I'm sure"

It was a beautiful crash, and a nicely mashed ranger.

 

[Blinky]

...

A funny one was this couple who had bought a trashed out property, to demolish and rebuild. It had a fairly large elm, 24 in dbh, and about 60' tall which they wanted dropped. "Sure....we can do that. Do you want to drag that truck out of there?" "Ummmm........no........just drop it on top of it". "Are you sure?" "Sure....I'm sure"

It was a beautiful crash, and a nicely mashed ranger.

That sounds pretty fun... too bad about the elm though.

 

[feller]

Getting kitties out of trees.

Hello to all of you fine folks here @ AS. As you can see, I am new here and taking the opportunity to make my "maiden post".

Nearly twenty years ago now, I got a couple of very strange messages on my business line. The caller was a woman who was pleading to my answering machine for someone to come and remove her cat from a tree. Of course, I initially presumed that these messages were someone's idea of a clever prank. However, a short time later a third message appeared and this time from an obviously distraught individual. I decided I should probably return the call, and discovered after some discussion that a very frightened feline was indeed sitting about 30 feet up in a Silver Maple where it had been for a couple of days. I got in the truck with my usual gear, choosing to add some additional leather clothing to use as PPE while handling this potentially unhappy kitty. I did remove the cat without incident, and remember trying to figure out an appropriate cost for such work. I don't recall what I was paid, but the cat had apparently broken its hip and could not manage a descent.

Just yesterday I had another unique request which inspired this post. A friend called me saying "I have a friend who needs to use a chipper. I told her that you had just the thing...." . At first I was a bit skeptical (as you might imagine). It ended up that this woman wanted to recycle a large quantity of foam sheathing board scraps to use as attic insulation in her new house! Anybody here ever run Celotex thru a Brush Bandit?!

Regards

I don't think you can charge less than $300.00 to get a cat out of a tree. Unless you know the customer or have a really big heart.

 

[oldugly]

Early last year while doing powerline clearance a property owner came out complaining and said I couldn't touch one of her "beautiful" trees. I tried to explain why they were flattopped (being burned off in the primary) and personally I didn't think her Chinese elm were really all that pretty. Needless to say the gutless wonders in the powerline office decided I shouldnt touch them.
About six months later I got a call to come out to do some clearance for a satellite dish. The same woman who didn't want to hurt the environment by trimming her (now dying anyway) chinese elm, had no qualms about removing several nice pines for her tv.

Removed a cat from a tree a few months ago. Beautful tabby in a skinny little birch. Climbed the elm next to it, threw a rope around the birch, and pulled the cat over to me. Gentle and docile little thing, crawled up on my shoulder, and rode with me as I repelled down the tree. Cool cat.

Back in early 80's I tried to remove a cat from a tree in OKC. Got halfway up the tree, and a raccoon jumped out of a hollow below me, and the cat jumped out above me. Both took off in opposite directions, although the cat was limping pretty good. (about a 60 foot jump for him).

 

[Timberhauler]

I have two customers that call me every year to come and hang christmas lights in their trees,and then come and take them down.Both are huge water oak trees.I must say that it looks kinda cool

 

[beowulf343]

Once had a couple kids walk four blocks to my job site to see if I could get a kite out of a tree for them. Seems one of them had lost control of it a couple days earlier and they couldn't get it down. One of the kid's friend's lived next door to where I was working and he called his friend to let him know there was a guy in the area who climbed trees. Cute kids-probably 7-8 years old, was happy to help them out. Funny though, I finished my job and headed over to get the kite down and there was probably 30 kids and their parents standing there to see what I would do. Most captive audience I've ever had-even got some applause when I reached the kite.

 

[DFD34]

Funny requests

I too have had some of the same requests. Can you get my cat out of the tree and so forth. A first for me was, "Can you come over and get my remote controlled plane out of my pine tree".
I went over a few days later and did climb up and retrieve the plane with out any incident. When I got done out of the tree the guy asked me what he owed me. I told him $100 and as he was walking away I crushed and yelled to him $75 would be fine. I packed away my gear and the customer returned with a check. I then asked him how much the place had cost him. He stated $35. I could not believe what I just heard. He could have gone to the store and bought 2 new ones. Funny stuff..... DFD34

 

[Mtnman4ever]

I had A guy who wanted me to drop about 4 huge white pine because he thpought it woudl be a cheap way to create a retaining wall the thought I treid to expail they would both rot bec0me infested with insect like wasps of soem sort . and asl o tey would not makea retain ing wall he was going ot pay mea mint but I told hime he was better off calling a guy who built rock retaining wall I am happy to drop the trees but at least let me make soem use of them . BTW Any one near SE NH looking for fora roadside sale of about 10 - 20 100 ft plus white pines noit sure on board feet yer as i only took a quick look but hey areeasly accsiublev once on theground . . Thsi isanothert guy he needs to drop them as he has no sunlightand itisa college rental place so They could use a lawn and aplace ot hanf out side as of now they only hace adrive way . or the are in te pines but it sure would makwa nice placeand looks like all nice clean wood

 

[musch]

I had A guy who wanted me to drop about 4 huge white pine because he thpought it woudl be a cheap way to create a retaining wall the thought I treid to expail they would both rot bec0me infested with insect like wasps of soem sort . and asl o tey would not makea retain ing wall he was going ot pay mea mint but I told hime he was better off calling a guy who built rock retaining wall I am happy to drop the trees but at least let me make soem use of them . BTW Any one near SE NH looking for fora roadside sale of about 10 - 20 100 ft plus white pines noit sure on board feet yer as i only took a quick look but hey areeasly accsiublev once on theground . . Thsi isanothert guy he needs to drop them as he has no sunlightand itisa college rental place so They could use a lawn and aplace ot hanf out side as of now they only hace adrive way . or the are in te pines but it sure would makwa nice placeand looks like all nice clean wood

idsh is sorhyajherd torerde yerr postsewhenyu tyiope withgyor fete.

 

[begleytree]

cool, good stories.
I too did the cat thing, once. big old cat 2/3 up a prev topped out pin oak, and all the way out on the clusters. the suckers were thick as hair in that tree, I got tied in and came down to the limb and the cat met me at the stem, I came down level to the limb and the cat climbed right on real sweet, I started to come down and felt the claws unsheath into my t-shirt. had to set him back on the limb and pull out the customer supplied pillowcase. she and the cat were thrilled, and I smiled all day. It took 18 years climbing trees before I was asked to rescue a cat.
-Ralph

 

[rbtree]

I don't think you can charge less than $300.00 to get a cat out of a tree. Unless you know the customer or have a really big heart.

How so? Dan Kraus, 2005 ITCC world tree climb champ, has a side business called "Cat in a Tree Rescue" He probably does 60 some a year...and charges 60-100, I think. I do a few, and charge the same....consider it community service.

 

[9th year rookie]

arboreal.....

I don't think that material will hurt the chipper either, but as others have said, .... I wouldn't put it in my machine.

There's a guy in my town that has an old disk chipper that he uses for demo.
He's a builder and just loads it with everything.

I haven't seen this done but I've seen the chpper, and the only tree work he does is with a giant excavator.

 

[9th year rookie]

unusual

How about removing a large Oak and leaving the bottom 20 feet (about 24-30"dbh) of trunk so they can use it to make a tottem pole?

 

[(WLL)]

we once removed all the duck weed out of a womans pond. we walked through it with blowers and skimmed it out with pool skimmers. it was a fun jod because it was 106deg out and we were paid a toytal of $3800.00. all the duck weed was back in a week and i would be more than happy to do it again in the summer but im not shure she will wast her money again.

 

[(WLL)]

wow

How about removing a large Oak and leaving the bottom 20 feet (about 24-30"dbh) of trunk so they can use it to make a tottem pole?

check out this man. Greg Napolitan chainsaw artist at Studio On 12
[email protected] www.studioon12.com #908-996-0794. he does amazing work at a great price of $800.00 per day and he is very fast!