Dyno Mike Landscaping

A monsoon came in and blew down an ocotillo we had in the front yard. Mike, of Dyno Mike, had a job in the area and was looking for more work for his crew. We had a big ocotillo, maybe 18' tall, come down. I was reluctant to hire someone on the fly like this but I felt good about it after talking with Mike. I was going to do it myself so when it came to pricing Mike quoted $125. I thought it was high and countered with $40 (which was ridiculously low). Mike came back with $75 and I wasn't going to go for it but then took another look at the beast. The canes of the ocotillo are loaded with long needle-sharp spines that can easily pierce the soles of athletic shoes. I also started to realize just how big the sucker was so agreed to the price. Mike's 2 man crew came by when they finished the other job. It was hot, humid, and occasional showers went by. They did a terrific job cutting up the felled ocotillo, loading it up for removal, and cleanup. Watching them do the work I realized just how crazy it would have been for me to have done it myself. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be so I gave Mike an extra $40 for the 2 guys doing all the work. Mike does a lot more than landscaping and I'd definitely consider hiring him for other work. I included 2 pictures - one shows the ocotillo at the start of the storm in which you can see the it bending in the wind. The other photo shows it down - snapped the roots right at the base. In the "down" photo, upper right, you can see an uprooted palo verde laying partially in the street. The wind was gusting up to 70 mph in the area so there was a lot of damage to trees in the area.