Tree saga

[pbray]

Patricia's Number One Rule of Home Improvements: Never, ever get an estimate unless you are prepared to immediately begin forking over cash. Your house (and yard) can hear you talking....


Last week a tree service was working on the street, trimming trees for a neighbor down the street and then my next-door neighbor. The foreman offered me an estimate on trimming the giant maple tree I have in my backyard, and I said "Sure."

There is a large limb that overhangs my house, and in high winds I've occasionally wondered if it would fall onto the roof above my bedroom. So it seemed like a good idea to get it trimmed, and after due consideration I agreed to have them do it.

Sunday night we had strong winds, and the limb in question decided to split in a rather ominous fashion. It hasn't fallen (yet), but now the job is far more complicated, since before they can start working on the limb they have to stabilize it. Cost of project just doubled.

And with high winds expected tomorrow afternoon (>40mph), there's no time to chase additional price estimates.

Since moving in I've experienced several tree issues including:
- 40 foot pine tree (mine) went down in a snowstorm, taking out section of fence and north neighbor's shed
- Large maple limb (south neighbor's) fell, missed my house but crushed several sections of fence
- Larger willow tree (west neighbor's) wiped out replacement fence a couple years later

Keeping in mind this history, I authorized the tree service to go ahead and start stabilizing the tree today, in preparation for cutting down the offending limb and trimming other problematic branches.

Sadly they are doing this the low-tech way, using ladders, and climbing up the tree to use ropes and slings. When I had the original problematic limbs trimmed several years ago, the tree service used a crane parked on the street and then swung the severed limbs over my house while I held my breath and wondered about the insurance deductible. Now that was exciting.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I went through the tree service thing last year, though I will admit that nothing was really pressing...except maybe for that oak tree limb that hung precariously close to the roof of my neighbor's garage. Every time we have a high wind, I'm glad I had all that deadwooding done.

The top that snapped off my pine--I don't think that could be helped. Blasted wet snow.

Good luck!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's the wet snow that gets you every time-- that's how I lost my giant pine tree which gracefully uprooted itself as it fell over.

[wen-spencer.livejournal.com]

When we lived in Pittsburgh we had this TINY little plot of land (like 30x50) with three huge sycamores, a dying plum tree, a unindentified tree that became a problem at some point, an like 15 maples.... yes...15. Yes there was a 3 bedroom house, a four parking space and a deck off this house. Someone insane had planted a row of maples on the 50 foot line about three inches apart. (Fall was insane, like 20 feet of leaves came down)

In the middle of the night, I heard this CRACK and then unmistakeable sound of a tree coming down. I bolted out of bed and peered out all the windows. (Did I mention that most of the trees could land on cars or 4 lane highway?)

Lucky for us, it was the neighbor's equally huge and old scyamore and it just took out their garage and SUV. My husband -- who has never lived with tree problems -- couldn't understand why I rejoiced over our nieghbor misfortune..

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh. Sometimes you look at houses and really wonder what the former owners were thinking.

From the stumps in my backyard I can see that there used to be 4 other good-sized trees there. Plus the pine tree that came down not long a few years back.

And to make things more fun, I'm going to have to plant a tree this spring/summer back there. It's a really damp spot and with the neighbor's willow gone, I need something that thrives on water.