The Tree Fiasco
Posted on April 20, 2009
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oops.
I swear I have a good excuse.
You see, this Tree – a red oak – was uprooted during a horrible storm with winds reaching 75mph last Monday April 13th (tree with a capital T since it’s 100 year life-span and 15-ton weight sort of make it a Tree). It fell in the direction of our neighbor’s house. It did not land on said neighbor’s house (that would have been bad for them, but easy for insurance to cover). Instead the Tree got tangled up in a pine about 1/2 the girth of the Tree and stayed there all week while the pine slowly kept bending under the weight.
All week our neighbors did nothing while we were stuck trying to figure out how to take care of this Tree. Insurance wouldn’t touch it since no buildings were damaged. Our neighbors wouldn’t touch it because it was “our Tree” although the law in GA says that what falls on your land is your problem…
Four tree service quotes later we found a service that would take it down for $1200 LESS than everyone else was quoting and wouldn’t completely screw up our lawn with a crane. It came down on Thursday. I suppose it would have been sooner if a) the Tree actually fell on our neighbor’s house and b) if there weren’t 17 kazillion other trees in the Atlanta area that fell.
Hubs and I ended up borrowing money from my dad to pay for this tree removal since we were not prepared for this in the least. It’s scary when you know something needs to be done about a precarious situation but you don’t have the funds to accomplish it. The Tree came down on Thursday, and the large parts went to a craftsman. I’m glad the bulk of that gorgeous red oak went to a good use.
Where that huge tree stood for 100+ years is now a bare patch of earth with roots sticking out of the ground. The last barrier between us & our neighbors has fallen and we’re not too happy about that. How does the saying go….? Good fences make good neighbors? Well, we’re going to put one up. As soon as we have the money.
We were supposed to drive up to New Jersey for Pascha (Greek Easter) on Thursday but that’s when the tree service folks came to remove it. So Easter was downsized… I made some killer lamb chops, but nothing could possibly compare to what my family had without us…
So it’s been a rough week, and I’m still coming down from it… I have 3 shows in May as well as my first Tiny Art Make & Swap class at the local community center, and I have a feeling I have overbooked myself. I’ll try to make it here more often but I can’t promise.
Send some vibes this way if you can – I’ll need all the positive energy I can get to push through the rest of this and next month.
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