The Rock House

Some of you may be lucky enough to know of this lovely place along the Rio Grande called “the rock house”. My friends live there and are just the most warm and wonderful people you could ever meet. Like many New Mexicans, these acute and resourceful folks are used to solving problems and doing all kinds of jobs, even if they haven’t done it before. They really are good too–professional grade in all ways. So I was surprised to hear from them about a little old tree.

Okay it wasn’t a small tree. It was a large cottonwood that had been uprooting towards the house. Maybe it wasn’t going to come down that week, but some unlucky day it would fall onto the house. We agreed that it was already a difficult tree to remove and it would only keep growing. My friends decided it would be best for us to remove it.

It would have been an awesome and rare opportunity arrive at the job site by white water raft, but alas with a tree that is uprooting we cannot risk sending a climber up, and the crane wouldn’t fit in the raft. Instead, we inched the crane into position because the driveway was very tight like a proper New Mexico driveway.

Once in position all we had to do was get really high in the air in a wiggly crane bucket that pivots freely under your feet in a distinctly unpleasant way when you lean one way and pivots back when you lean the other way. Some people, including Baby Gorillas, enjoy this sort of thrill, but one has to set one’s glee aside to focus on the very serious job at hand—methodically taking the tree down branch by branch.

Our arborists stay in constant communication with the crane operator for safety using bluetooth communication devices in our hardhats. Even when using chainsaws and heavy equipment sometimes 100 feet or more apart our technicians can just speak normally into their noise canceling microphones.

 

Next, we send a climber up to work in tandem with the crane. We call this process “riding crane ball”. It’s slow and methodical but never boring, just the way we like it. At the end, I’m just using the crane as a safety point for me while I spike the spar and cut chunk by chunk until the trunk is small enough to drop without hitting the house. That’s how we roll at the rock house!

When your gut says you need professionals to work on your trees, call Northern New Mexico’s most trusted tree service. Call Baby Gorilla Tree Service today for your free estimate!

505.423.TREE (8733)

Click here to ask the arborist YOUR question!

Linda X.


Anthony is very knowledgeable about trees and just do great work. We have a lot of trees and they do great work at a reasonable price. He knows what needs to be done to really get them alive and looking their best while keeping the property/house safe at the same time. He also cares about the gardens and plants under the trees they are working on at t he same time. And his crew is really good as well.

Linda X.

Donna B. in Dixon, NM


Anthony of Baby Gorilla has helped us with pruning twice within the past five years, the first time on an ancient and beloved silver poplar and the second an apricot tree in front of our home. With the apricot tree, Anthony presented two choices for trimming, one a light pruning to enhance it as a beautiful spreading tree and the other a more intense pruning to help the tree bear larger fruit. Anthony and his crew did a great job pruning and with clean up. While he was at it, he removed a thirty foot high volunteer elm that was crowding out some of our small trees. We won the second pruning as part of Anthony's donation to the Dixon Volunteer Fire Department's annual pancake breakfast. Anthony is also a volunteer firefighter with DVFD.

Donna B.
Dixon, NM

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