…or for that matter, falls one very windy evening in your front yard while you are away at your in-laws’ house celebrating the Christening of your wife’s sister’s baby, does it make any sound?
I’m not sure about sound, but it does make for a very exciting day the following morning when your neighbor comes over to let you know that a significant size limb has cracked away from the tree trunk on your front lawn and is leaning precariously into the canopy of the tree on the next door neighbor’s front lawn. In fact, were it not for the neighbor’s tree, the fall of the tree limb would have been broken only by the front of the roof of the said neighbors house (yes, the ones who are separating and leaving the house to the bank.)
E. was at home today, taking care of a feverish K., when our neighbor across the street rang the doorbell and let us know about our tree. E. promptly rang me up at work, which set in motion the calling of several local tree service companies to come out, take a look, and estimate the cost to remove the offending limb. Before long, the tree service from the next town over showed up, and let us know that the entire tree was in danger and needed to be taken down, at a cost of $2,600.00 Surprise!
The crew arrived shortly after we agreed to a reduced price of $2,300.00, and began to reduce most of the tree to a pile of mulch and wood chips before the sun began to set. A solitary tree trunk remains now standing guard on the front lawn, until the crew arrives tomorrow in the A.M. to finish the job.
I must admit, I have mixed emotions about the unexpected departure of our tree. We won’t be able to count the rings on the trunck until sometime tomorrow, but our house was built c. 1938, and I’m sure that tree has been on the front lawn for most of the years since then. It provided some very nice shade for our side screened in porch, particularly on a Saturday morning while enjoying the still rising sun and sipping the morning coffee. It also provided shade for the side of the house where we’ve planted the hostas and rhododendrons, and kept the inside of the house cool. The leaves turned a beautiful red, orange and yellow in the Fall, and the kids loved to create huge piles with the leaves for jumping. On the other hand, I will no longer need to rake those leaves; my lawn will (hopefully) receive better sunlight and nutrients, and I don’t have to worry about the tree falling onto my house any more.
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