I have a GIANT MONSTER of a tree, gnarly and rotten, with a HUGE colony of bees inside it. From 20 feet away you can hear the hum of the hive and see hundreds buzzing around. The tree looks like it could fall and crush the garage with a gentle puff of wind.

On advice of a beekeeper friend we waited for super cold temps so the bees would be dormant inside the trunk before disturbing the tree.

Original quote was $4500.

My tree guy texted and asked if we were ready to cut it down. He needs work for his crew.

I asked "Gee that's a lot of money. Any chance you could give me a winter deal?"

Price $1700.

Done.

Tip: I always pay him THE MINUTE the trees are gone so he knows I'm a good source of money to keep his crew paid.

BRAD

Ask and ye shall receive some sort of answer. Sometimes the answer is great. Good job Brad.

NE, because in the summer he saw the Ghost. Just kidding.

Good deal.

I remember the good old days when you could buy sticks of dynamite at the hardware store. We'd just dig a hole under the stump, put some in the hole and remove them that way (of course, not right near the house). Later, in Florida I knew people that would make holes for trees in orchards by using a half stick of dynamite to blow a hole in the coral for the tree root ball.

(Southern Florida is underlain by oolitic limestone from Lake Okeechobee south). It only has minimum topsoil over the limestone, except in some areas near the creeks where dirt has built up. To make holes for the root balls of the trees it's much easier to drill a hole and use dynamite.

These days, you can't go into a hardware store and get it anymore. In fact, if you ask for some they look at you in a funny way. Ah,the good old days.

I DID use Mike Butler's technique -

3rd party - I work for the manager.

This summer I told him the owner did not want to spend the money. He said "Ask him if $1700 will do the trick".

I said "I'll ask him".

Probably a good thing they don't carry dynamite in stores anymore as 6x6 might have fun with that.

Give me yer "I need the work price",

so my crew can eat.

What kind of bees? If they are honey bees you can easily find someone to come get the queen and rehome the colony.

I totally understand seasonal pricing. It's common at the beach, although it's often higher in the winter when everyone is busy and lower in summer when they are begging for work because all the big houses are full of tourists and no work can be done on them.

Brad, I like your way of thinking! You attended the Mr. LL Retreat and already applied one nugget from the retreat.

That one nugget saved you enough money to pay your full cost of attendance!

As best I recall, that's similar to the concept you used to acquire the Rolls Royce.

We all have overhead in business, some more than others. The tree trimmer's goal for that slow week might have been to just earn enough to cover his weekly overhead of payroll, equipment. etc. Or the guy might have had a more pressing situation and trying to get enough to pay a mortgage, bank loan, quarterly taxes or IRS debt.

I had an internal wall of an apartment building full of bee's with combs of honey. My bee keeper wanted to re-locate the bees to his land. Bee's are in short supply. Then he could farm them out for a fee. Upon investigation, he could charge farmers a small fourtune to pollinate their fields. Thousands of dollars. It would take him two days to remove all of my bee's.

The original price to remove the bee's was $1500. Then it dropped to $1,200. And on the day he came to remove them, the price went up. I found out why. The City was going to charge he a fee to relocate the bee's. $1,800. They wanted a piece of the pie.

So then wanted to screw me over in a time bee's were dying and crops were at risk. The bee keeper wasn't happy making $5,000 a month farming out these bees. And the City wasn't going to let anything happen without their $1,800.

I don't think he was cheating me. He is a smart business man who needed some quick cash to keep his crew. Good workers are impossible to find!

This tree was HUGE - 5 foot diameter trunk, larger at the base. The original price was not out of line.

This guy has done trees for me for years, several every year, and treats me right with good service and good prices.

I asked for a deal and he gave me a "good customer" discount. As boss and owner HE did not take home any money from this job.

His goal was to keep his workers so they don't leave his crew. Hiring and training is expensive.

He saved the $500 the beekeeper wanted to remove the bees during summer by waiting for freezing temps.

(Don't worry, the bees are alive and well, still in their hive in their chunk of trunk, in the city's natural materials landfill.)

We adjusted the site by removing some fencing, cars, a shed, etc to make access easier. I also gave him permission to drive his lift truck on the frozen ground of my rental next door making for much easier access and faster work.

Removed stump grinding from the bid. We'll catch that later.

Overall a win-win.

BRAD