Fallen

Over the past week, we had some pretty powerful storms.  As you can see in the picture, my husband is shown cutting up the large branch that was blown down by the wind over the weekend.  We have a tall corkscrew willow in our back yard that we planted when we first moved into the house over 20 years ago.  It is really big now and slowly dying off, and we really can't afford to have professional tree person come in and trim it or analyze it.  We have been kind of letting Mother Nature take care of it for us.  This is the largest branch that has fallen so far and fortuately it didn't fall on the patio and destroy what was there.  I have a number of containers with plants there and it would have been a real shame to have lost those although it would not have been that costly to replace.  My biggest fear is that the tree will fall on the house.

A friend of mine did have a tree fall on her house and it was pretty serious.  Fortunately there was no one home at the time because if they had been home, her son would have been seriously injured, if not killed by that tree.  The damage was through the roof, her son's room, and the kitchen, and they have to move into an apartment for about 6 months until the repairs are complete.  The upside to this is that she is getting a new kitchen out of the deal, which was on the list eventually anyway. 

I guess I can live with that proposition now that I think of it as this tree is situated in the rear of the house and if it does fall on the house the same rooms will be affected in my house as in hers.  The kitchen has been a sore point for me in all the years we have lived there but my husband has not gotten around to updating it so I continue to live with it as it is.  But then again, I need to be careful with what I wish for because despite the fact insurance will cover most of it, the cost of the new kitchen I want along with repairs to the house caused by the tree will far exceed the amount of coverage we have.  At least now we have a great supply of firewood for our patio firepit for the next year or so.