The Tree

Posted by My Heart Song

6/16/2016

We've lived here for over 7 years. During that time, our attention often is turned to "the tree." The tree is in our backyard. It actually is just over the border on our neighbor's property. But it leans entirely onto our property. It is massive. It is over 100 feet tall and over 150 years old. It is situated in a difficult to reach spot - behind one neighbor's shed, behind the other neighbor's playset. It was clearly here before our neighborhood was built here.

At least once a year we lose power due to downed electrical lines in our neighborhood. About half the time, these are in our own backyard due to our our own trees. Here are some pictures of storm damage last month, during which we lost power for 24-hours. A huge limb from "the tree" caused this damage.

So recently we went half-and-half with our neighbor to have the massive tree removed. 

What an exciting day that was... to watch from the safety and comfort of our home. :-)

So very tall. Another 40 feet higher than the bucket of the truck at its fully extended height.

A few shots of the progress. 

That last section to come down weighed about 10,000 pounds, the expert lumberjack guessed.

The tree was rotten from the inside out. We knew it had huge holes in it, as we'd seen entire raccoon families hide inside of it! Here you can see the rotten core.

So "the tree" is gone and we have more sun in our backyard. The area is currently a compost pile, but we hope to turn it into a full-sun garden in the future. 

PS: Here is a picture from 2011 with a coon peeking out of the hole in the tree.