Georgia Brush Mowing and Land Clearing

We contacted Jimmy and he told us that the rate for the equipment we were interested in was $1650 a day, which included the operator. He said that he thought it would take a day to a day-and-a-half to clear our lot the way we wanted. We found this hard to believe because the costs and time frames we'd been given by other providers were so much higher. My wife and I even considered going at it ourselves with a chainsaw, but I'm in mid-sixties and the endurance to handle heavy work all day just isn't there anymore. My wife is 5-3 and about 100 pounds wringing wet, and though she was willing, the realities of the terrain and the job would have soon discouraged her. For us, getting it done would have taken several weeks. I'd sent Jimmy some aerial photos and a pretty complete description of the work to be done, and he said he didn't even need to come see the lot. He said he'd had a lot of experience clearing wooded areas and cutting trails through forests, and he had a clear idea of what we needed. This also surprised us, because the other providers all came out to look before giving us their estimates. But there was just something about the way Jimmy expresses himself that gives you confidence that he knows what he's talking about. He's very quiet, doesn't say much, and he's not at all the salesman type, but what he says is well worth listening to. He came out the first day with the Monster Mulcher, arrived around 9, and after taking about 10 minutes to talk with me to clear up some points, he headed into the woods with the machine. At about 12:30 PM he emerged, having cleared about 2/3 of an acre. The machine quickly ate up a lot of saplings and small trees that were 2 to 3 inches thick, mulching most of the stuff pretty well, although it did leave some branches and wood pieces that were up to a foot long. Still, he cleared more than we would have thought possible in three hours, and the area looked much better than we had expected. Jimmy charged us $850 for a half-day use of his equipment. That's when I knew I was dealing with an honest man, because he could have easily just futzed around behind the screen of big trees for a few hours more, and we wouldn't have known the difference. But Jimmy did and charged what he said he would. We had warned him that we had seen some trash in the area to be cleared, including some metal pieces. He found, pulled out and piled up a bunch of stuff, a tire, several metal poles and chains, some large plastic panels, and some other junk. Jimmy told us that he could give us better results by coming back for a full day with another piece of equipment, a tractor with a blade that can be raised high up in air to cut foliage hanging down from the large trees and remove small trees closer to the trunks of the large ones than the Monster Mulcher could. He also pointed out that we had trees growing on the pond dam which would eventually undermine the dam and cause us to lose the pond. Getting at those trees involved clearing more than we originally planned, but the lot would look more open and park-like. Jimmy recommended that we get a roll-off dumpster so that he could remove the branches he cut. That cost us an extra $260 but was well worth it. On the second trip, he cleared out more of the area around the pond including the trees on the dam, leaving the lot looking even better than we planned. He moved the branches he cut into the dumpster as well as the junk he'd piled up the first time. We were very pleased with his work. We still have some work to do ourselves before we have our park, but the tasks remaining are things we can do easily for ourselves. Jimmy did the hard part. Yesterday we picked the large branches and pieces of wood left on the ground. Today I plan to spray Round-Up to kill off some remaining foliage that was too low for the Mulcher to get, but it isn't much, and to ensure that the foliage removed doesn't start to come back. We also have quite an accumulation of leaves, but we have a mower-like machine with a vacuum and chipper that will make fairly short work of the leaves and twigs. Then we'll spread some grass seed - bermuda that can still be planted in late October. Our lot looks so much better now, and by spring we'll have our park and a bench by the pond.