Get To Know Leaf & Limb: Meet Andrea

This month, we meet Andrea, one of Leaf & Limb’s experienced crew leaders. From climbing, to cat rescue to growing juicy fruit, our own AG lends her talents all over.

The first question is always the same. Introduce yourself. However you want!

My name's Andrea, but at Leaf & Limb, I also go by AG, "The Annihilator,” or "Meemaw." I'm a climber and a crew leader, and I've been here for six and a half years.

Those are some wildly different nicknames. So, how did you get those?

I often fuss over my co-workers. I keep asking, “Did you drink your water today? Do you feel OK?” I was told, “You sound like my meemaw,” and I guess I really am like a meemaw!

In fact, your truck is actually named…

Yup! Meemaw's Van. And oh, do you wonder about the Annihilator part? When I was pretty new, I was working with Juan. We were working over a picnic area at the YMCA, and we moved all the picnic tables out of the way except for one. I was cutting a large stub that wasn’t really near that picnic table, but things like that can be unpredictable—it bounced around and eventually came right down on the table and smashed it. A co-worker said I annihilated it! The name stuck. Fortunately, the table was pretty old and was going to be retired soon anyway.

Why Leaf & Limb and what drew you to this kind of work?

This is my first real job out of college. Honestly, I didn't know what I was getting into. I knew it involved tree work. I love trees, but I don't think I really knew what tree work was like. But I've always been pretty active, and I'm okay with getting dirty and sweaty. Being up in the trees, observing the bugs, getting ready for a cut, I often stop to think that I’m being paid to do this fun activity. This is way cooler than being paid to answer emails. Leaf & Limb has grown and changed, especially after we stopped doing removals. I can't imagine working at any other tree company.

One important reason I’m still here is that we hire great people. My friends who work elsewhere constantly complain about their co-workers, but I feel like every person at Leaf & Limb is truly amazing.

When I came to Leaf & Limb you were the only woman on the crews. And now, we’re probably more like 50/50 men and women. Do you want to comment on that a bit?

Women are just as capable as men in the kind of work we do. It can be tough sometimes. People don’t expect women in this job. Sometimes clients assume that my male co-worker is in charge. But other times, I've also encountered the opposite, where people are impressed that I climb. Clients who know us well understand there’s a good chance a woman will be on the crew, or that the entire crew might be women.

What do you find most rewarding or fulfilling in your day-to-day responsibilities?

My favorite part of the day is when we return to the shop and everyone's hanging out, with snacks and drinks available, while people socialize. It's a chance to chill together.

I also really enjoy getting to a job where we pruned the tree structurally a few years ago, and you can see where the cuts were made and how they set you up for the cuts you're gonna make for this round of pruning. It's like they communicated from the past, and I don't even know who made the cuts. It could be someone you're currently working with, or someone who's already left the company. I think it's neat to communicate that way.

We do a lot of things at Leaf & Limb. Do you have a favorite kind of job and why?

I really like climbing medium-sized maples and structurally pruning them. It’s really fun because it's not too complicated to climb, but it's big enough that I’m still doing a proper climb. I love it when trees have a co-dominant branch that starts on the bottom and goes all the way to the top, and I get to reduce it by a third or half. I’ll fix that tree up whether it likes it or not! I think of structural pruning as like disciplining a bad cat. You’ve heard about my cat, Mr Vinks? He's a handful.

Speaking of cats, you’re becoming a well-known cat rescuer! Tell us about that.

I love cats, and it all started one time when I had a job where we needed to remove a pine branch next to a streetlight. Then we realized there was a kitten on top of that streetlight, right where we were going to work. I knew we had to rescue this kitten. But I felt nervous about it and didn't know anything about cat rescues, so we went back to the shop to get the bucket truck. However, the bucket scared the kitten, and it climbed down and ran away. I guess that's my first cat rescue, if that counts.

But I wanted to learn how to rescue cats so that whenever someone needs help, I could be there. You and I discussed climbing techniques for rescuing cats using our arborist climbing gear. Eventually, I got a call to rescue a cat, and now I’ve rescued 28 cats. I saved a very pregnant cat about a month ago. The rescue went smoothly, and her owner took her to the vet, saying she was fine.

If anyone ever needs a cat rescued, they can call Leaf & Limb or just Google it, and my phone number will appear.

You’ve also established a prolific little food garden at the shop. Tell us about that.

After concrete blocks were placed to contain mulch and compost supplies, a small square area remained that we couldn't really access. So, I asked if I could have a garden there, and I was given permission. Luke, our mechanic, helped a lot in getting it started, and EB brought me a blackberry bush that I'm eating from right now. One time, Olivia had to cut down a small peach tree on a job, but she took the time to dig it up so I could put it in the garden. In two weeks this year, they'll be ripe, and there will probably be 20 peaches on that tree, which should all be good!