Tree Emergency

A few weeks ago when the weather was finally nice enough for Isaac and I to venture outside for a walk, we noticed a crack in our front maple tree. We thought, "we really need to look into that some time". But as usually happens when you have those thoughts, they slip your mind and you forget about them until it is too late. (This is a picture of our giant tree prior to the operation.)

About a week later there was a large windstorm in Milwaukee. I was getting ready for church and Isaac was just staring out the window at the crack in our tree. He kept making comments about it not looking good and he was worried about it falling down. I basically ignored him until we actually walked outside to go to church. Then I looked at the tree myself and went around to the side we couldn't see from inside. Every time the wind blew, the tree branch would open up about an inch. (This tree is really thick, so you couldn't see all the way through it or anything, but the whole branch would sway precariously.)

Now this tree is HUGE. Trees in Utah aren't usually this big, so our families had a hard time grasping the size of our tree. But the branch that was going to break off was as big as a full-size Utah tree. This branch was hanging directly over our neighbor's house with some of the smaller branches on top of our house. If it were to fall, it would have demolished the neighbor's house and part of our house.

So we called the tree people to come have a look. They told us that we needed to have the branch removed immediately. So they came with their large cherry-picker truck and started to cut down the branch. It was quite a process to watch. They had to tie ropes to the branches and had pulley systems in place so the branches wouldn't fall on our houses when they were cut off.

Because it was a weekend, we had to pay emergency rates for the removal of the branch. So we had the people leave the branches on the lawn until they could come back and clean up for a cheaper price. Here are some pictures of the damages. The branches covered our entire front yard and the two neighbor's yards on either side of our house.

This picture is the branch that would have crushed the neighbor's house. I put my shoe on the log for size. Note: I wear a women's size 9-10 shoe, so it is about 11 inches long.

Unfortunately because we had such a large section of the tree removed, it is now lop-sided and will probably die. So we need to have the remainder of the tree cut down.

One really frustrating thing we learned from this experience is that homeowners insurance is lame. I asked the tree people who would have to pay for the damages if we just let the tree fall on the neighbor's house. He said that her insurance would cover it, but they might battle our insurance to help cover it. But if it is a standing tree the insurance company won't cover anything. So from our stand-point it would have been financially better to let the tree destroy two houses and just pay our deductible. But I didn't want to kill anyone, so I had it removed preventatively. At least health insurance encourages preventive care so that you can avoid the larger emergencies. Go figure.