[zcaveman]

I am not sure what the extent of the trimming is going to be to your tree. When the neighbor down the street had his oak trimmed, they bought in a rig with a telescopic arm, a dump truck, and a branch eater. It took three guys - some lifted into the tree by the telescopic arm - to do the work. It took half a day. I am sure that he paid big bucks for the job. The equipment alone was not cheap.

In NJ, I paid $300 for much more than that but they used ropes and cleats to get up and down.