Falling for #treetuesday

I love trees! At least, when they are standing. Not so much when they fall. And especially when they fall from my property onto a neighbor's property.

The above photo shows the tree. On the right side of the path is a mass of shrubs — roses, hydrangea, honeysuckle, yellow jessamine, etc. and the base of the tree was in the middle. On the left of the path is a hedgerow of Forsythia ("Yellow Bell") bushes that provides a privacy barrier between this property and the neighbor's property.

I'm not necessarily a good estimator of the height /length of very large things, but I would guess this tree was somewhere around 40–50 feet (12–15 metres) tall. It came down sometime overnight, and I am surprised that I did not hear it, especially since I heard the loud 'THUD!' of a large limb that fell a week ago. 😕 Perhaps the fact that it fell mostly over bushes kept it from making quite so much noise.

Because of the tall privacy bushes, I had to walk down to the road and over to the neighbor's property to survey their side of things. Thankfully, there was very little damage! Only a bit of the neighbor's fence was compromised, as well as one large storage box in their backyard seating area. I am so glad it wasn't any more than that!

The neighbor originally asked for my insurance information, but I asked if we could just handle it without the insurance company becoming involved, as my insurance costs would skyrocket, otherwise. 😬 They seemed agreeable, so I will pay, out of pocket, to have the tree removed (probably USD $150–$300), replace the storage box (USD $100), and repair the fence (not sure how much that will be, but not too much).

There was no damage on my side of the event, just the trunk of the tree blocking the path, but there are other ways around the area. The tree also served as an anchor point for the electrical line going to the outbuildings, but there's another tree nearby where I can tack the line. I am amazed that it still seems to be connected on both ends, or at least it seemed to be when I looked up. Maybe I should have gone into one of the outbuildings and tested it. Perhaps I will do that tomorrow.

The final shot shows my hand on the trunk of the tree that fell, just for size comparison. It was fairly large at the base, but tapered quite a bit over its length. The tree had died and I figured I was going to have to have it removed soon; it just wanted to be down faster than I expected. The absence of bark in the view above was caused by woodpeckers, going for ants and such on the tree, and might have led to the tree's demise. Another tree on the property had been completely stripped of bark by Pileated Woodpeckers many years ago and had to be cut down, so I think that's what happened to this one, too. I see the woodpeckers flying overhead sometimes and can hear them calling from quite a distance, as they're very loud. But I have yet to have one pose for me so I can photograph it. Perhaps someday it will happen, and hopefully before they kill another tree!