I got a great deal from an out of state crew. I had 4 fairly big trees on the ground and 6 more pine trees that "snapped" in two. There were also several tree tops on the ground. My yard was a mess. I spent 2 days cutting up stuff on my patio and on the roof before I decided this was way more work than this old man could tackle.

Two days after Laura, one guy said he would cut up the stuff up near the house for $ 4800. This was maybe 40 % of my tree damage.

I had another guy come the same day he walked to the end of my driveway, looked at the mess for maybe 15 seconds and said he would cut all of it up and take everything [all the bigger limbs] and put it along the street for FEMA to pick up...... for $ 3200. To be clear, I asked him if that included everything to the street in the back. [I own the lot that is behind my house]. He though for a second and said YES. I could not shake his hand fast enough. And yes, I had him put it in writing.

They started later that day and finished the next afternoon. Took about 8 hours and maybe 20 man hours. For that night..... 2 slept on their flat bed trailer and 2 guys slept in trucks. They said a Sheriff car came by twice that night.

After that, my work started. The yard was still covered in small branches that had to be picked up. I used a 4x8 trailer pulled with my lawn mower. It took me about 2 week and 25 loads working part days in 92-95 F temperature. It was 27 days before getting power back on.

I slept in my small trailer. After the sun went down, I would switch my small generator to the trailer which was about 100 F inside. It would take 1.5 hours to get it down below 80 F. The generator burned about 2.5 gallons a day keeping the trailer, frig and 2 freezers cold.

This post was edited on 9/2/21 at 12:55 am