The Tree Might Grow in Brooklyn...

but it fell in my yard. I was out of school for Good Friday--and the beginning of our spring break--and was sitting at my dining room table using my laptop. I heard a crack, and looked up in time to see a large tree falling across my fence and into my yard. A small limb brushed across my storage building, but the top of the tree caught between two limbs of another tree.

We were having tornado-like weather at the time. We've had a lot of rain since the beginning of the year, and this follows several years of drought conditions. I've read that many trees are falling because the dryness caused the tree roots to loosen, and then the heavy rains have loosened the ground around the roots. When a strong wind comes along, the tree doesn't have the strength to stay in the ground.

My first thought was to call the neighbor who lives "behind" my house. I thought the tree was on his property, but had fallen into my yard. He was not home, and after I walked around the yard and thought about the situation, I realized that the tree belonged to me even though it was on the "outside" of my fence. When my husband arranged to have the yard fenced (when we were moving into the house), he put the fence about six feet inside the property line. That was because of the line of trees and bushes that were planted at the edge of our yard. It would have been an added expense to remove the foliage, and it provided a good blind on that side of the yard. My husband passed away just over two years ago, so he wasn't here to remind me what we'd done...

My next-door neighbor is a "tree man". He has cut down two other trees in my yard, and he'll probably handle this situation, too. I called my insurance agent Friday afternoon, but she's out of the office until Monday, and I think the cost of getting the tree down will probably be about the same as my deductible. The tree didn't cause any trouble with power lines, etc., and since it was "caught" by a fellow tree, it didn't hurt the fence on the other side of the yard. One of my husband's best friends came by and looked at it yesterday morning, and told me what I knew--I was very lucky: the tree didn't hurt anyone or anything more than my fence, I live next door to a man who can help me manage the situation, and there's no rush to get it down immediately.

I am having a DAR meeting at my house next Saturday, and I'd like for the tree to be out of the way by then, but it will be a great conversation piece. My husband's brother is the speaker for the meeting, and he's been trained in using a chain saw to remove debris from tornado-ravaged areas...wonder if I qualify?