Trees

Hello,

Memorial Day, Leroy and I were sitting in the living room when we heard a crack outside. I looked up to see the tail end of a dead branch falling. Which to my mind explained the crack as we are on the second floor. There is a bit of a drop from above our heads. About an hour later I went to the kitchen to see leaves blocking the window above the deck. Anxiously I looked out the window and spotted a crack running along and away from the base of a sizeable branch of the large old maple tree in the neighbor’s yard. At that point Leroy called our downstairs friends who own this house. Leroy and Clark went outside to get another angle on the possibilities. Nothing was solved. In perhaps another half hour Leroy saw the branch move again. A good bit of an off shoot branch was resting on the roof. It ws also quite close to the electric wires and even on them in some spots.

I got my clothes off the clothes lines all the while keeping my ears tuned for any noise of shifting weight above me. Clark thought it could be a bit unsafe. He was probably correct, but I started cleaning things off the deck. The branch was not quite so thick and heavy looking there.

In the meantime Robin was calling the electric company as well as tree services. As it was a holiday only one person answered. He came over, checked the situation, left to get some equipment, came back, and tied up the tree with a bit of help from Clark who had a long pole that could be used to snag the rope. Or perhaps I should say tied down the tree as it was secured to the base of the tree trunk. This guy declared it safe until the next day when he could bring a crew and more equipment. We mostly stayed away from the ground that was under those heavy looking branches.

The next morning the job was finished. I am grateful for people who know how to get equipment into tight places and who know which branches to cut first to keep damage to a minimum. The good things are that there was little to no real damage to property and certainly none to people.

I will miss the shade that used to spread over the backyard. I will also miss all the squirrel activity that I could watch on their level.

I thought maybe it was the weight of the leaves that broke the hold on this old tree, but Robin wondered if it was just one more squirrel running around. For sure trees are no respecter of holidays.

Paula