Sunday, February 28, 2016

If a Tree Falls in the Woods...

I live on the Appalachian Trail.  My house is deep in the forest and my trees average 100 feet tall.  If the trees remain standing, they cause little problem.  When trees fall, however... Yeah, we worry about that.

Last week while I was teaching in Calgary, AB, Canada a wicked storm with heavy "sideways" rains and high winds hit my house.  Our home and property sustained some damage, but we are quite grateful that it wasn't much, much worse.

The most impressive looking damage came from a downed 100-foot tree:


This tree has been dead since we bought the house 14 years ago.  It was tall enough to hit the house if it fell, but it seemed to be leaning sideways so we didn't pay the thousands of dollars it costs to remove this particular tree.  We have removed many, many others.

Well, this dead tree that was leaning away from the house was damaged during last week's storm.  The tree roots broke right off and it fell straight at the house:


It bisected my rhododendron and hit the deck.  Fortunately, the tree broke instead of breaking the deck.  The rhododendron might not survive.  It took heavy damage from an ice storm 6 years ago and has been funny-looking ever since.  I don't think a tree ripping through its middle will help the rhododendron's overall health.

We have other less impressive yet more expensive damage to deal with, but are mostly grateful that the tree wasn't 15 feet longer and healthy.  It would have crashed through my sewing room had that been the case.

So, if a tree falls in the woods, pray that it's a dead tree and the tree breaks apart instead of breaking your house.

1 comment:

The Civil War Quilter said...

Oh, my! You were lucky it didn't hit your house. Way too close for comfort. Sorry about your poor rhodie. I hope it can be saved.