Rick, you might look into taking out a home improvement loan with lower interest rates rather than putting the tree work on plastic, especially if it'll be a few months before paying it off. Taking out trees is expensive! If there are structures to work around, you I'm waiting to hear back from the landscape guy that does our lawn on when he can come for a half day and take down 2 old fruit trees (fence on one side, but as long as they can get it falling away from the fence there are plants but no structures in the way -- and plants are usually pretty resilient). I have other pruning to do, and if it were enough for a full day he would probably be more willing to work me in.
Bartlett (arborists) came in last fall to remove some dead/dying sassafrass trees (no issues other than being old, they're just not long-lived). Given the proximity to the neighbor's fence and other nearby trees, we decided that removal required a skilled touch. They couldn't take them down to the ground regardless due to an old wire fence that literally ran through the trees. They took them off at a variety of heights and made v-shaped cuts in multiple directions across the top of the stump so it kinda sorta looks naturally broken off. I'll see if I can find the photo, which is likely on my phone...
