AMHERST - Eric Schadler attached a pair of thick iron spikes to his feet, fastened a utility belt with a chainsaw dangling from it around his waist, and climbed nearly 100 feet into the crown of a pine tree threatening the colonial below.

Schadler, owner of Timbercruiser Tree Service, has been busy since Hurricane Sandy passed through town, but his first priority was to ensure that his mother's home on Parkhurst Drive was safe before tackling other projects.

During the night, one of the massive pines about 40 feet from her house lost an enormous branch, promising a slow death for the tree, and putting the home below at risk. But Schadler knew he couldn't just cut down the tree without creating havoc around it, so he took his time sorting out what would have to happen first.

"It's like solving a puzzle," he said. "I know I have to take down the trees next to it because they're going to be in the way."

With his plan in place, Schadler began his slippery ascent of a nearby pine. Once high off the ground, he pulled his chainsaw out and started cutting, dropping long, heavy branches that got in his way. Nearly 20 feet from the top, he stopped trimming and carefully sliced through the trunk of the tree, sending the crown hurtling to the earth below.

"That's the hard part," he said, and slowly began rappelling back down to the ground.

Schadler has been cutting trees since he was 16, working with his father on a 17,000-acre woodlot in the western part of the state. He quickly became an expert on chainsaw operation and taught others the skill at UNH, and learned how to climb trees with Bartlett Tree Service. But he eventually went out on his own, preferring to work alone so that he could concentrate on the job at hand.

"It's like going into battle, and I want to get out alive," he said.

Tuesday was busy for Schadler, but not overwhelmingly so.

"I think what helped was the winds that came through about a week ago that knocked a lot of the leaves off the trees," he said. "But I'm surprised by how little damage was done."

Hurricane Sandy hasn't been a windfall for business, but a slow, steady stream of calls has been keeping workers busy, said Dave Burl, owner of Accurate Tree Service in Hooksett. Burl was on the road early Tuesday morning assessing the damage done overnight by Sandy, and said that overall, things weren't bad, but some spots got more than their fair share of wind.

"I'm doing a lot of work near water, or anyplace where the wind had a chance to pick up speed before hitting the trees," said Burl.

In Derry, a pine with a 36-inch diameter trunk fell on two waterfront homes. And a big hardwood tree fell onto a home in another part of town, he said.

For Abair Tree Service in Weare, the Tuesday wasn't about the quantity of fallen trees, but the size of the trees that fell.

"The phone started ringing in the morning and kept ringing," said Jodi Gilman, whose husband, Jason Abair and son Ron Gilman do the tree work. "They've been scouting out jobs and have been taking down some big trees."

For Abair, the cost of tree removal depends entirely on whether he gets to keep his feet on the ground. Abair, like Schadler, is a climber, which his wife Jodi Gilman said is "a dying art."

"If his feet have to leave the ground, he charges $50 an hour," said Gilman. Trees that fall on a lawn or a driveway tend to cost a lot less.

Burl uses a crane to hoist the trees off of the houses and uses chainsaws to trim branches that can do further damage. The cost to homeowners to remove a tree from a roof can vary significantly, "depending on the difficulty, the obstacles in the way, and the accessibility, said Burl. His bills can range from $500 to $5,000 when the crane needs to get involved.

Luckily, said Burl, having a tree removed from a house is generally covered by homeowner's insurance so the only out-of-pocket expense is the deductible.