Thursday evening, Atlanta was hit by some pretty nasty storms. My commute home was fine, but as soon as I pulled in the driveway, it got really bad. My car was being pelted by sticks and pinecones. Justin got home about ten minutes after me and he said a lot of the traffic lights near us were out. Shortly after arriving home, a couple of our friends picked us up for Mexican food.
It was dark when we got home, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We got up Friday morning, got ready for work, let the dogs out and back in and then we headed to work. Justin got home a few minutes before I did and I knew he was outside because the dogs were essentially glued to the back door. This is what I saw:
How did we miss this Friday morning?! I seriously doubt it fell during the day Friday, so it had to be like this when we left Friday morning. I think we're both pretty observant people, but I am now questioning that label. Seriously, how did we miss this?
About eighteen months ago, a storm came through and snapped off the top of this tree. Luckily, it landed on our fence, but didn't get the neighbor's car that was parked very close to the fence. We cleaned it up, which was not an easy task. We've talked about having someone take down the remainder of the tree since it was obviously going to rot and become very unstable, but we just never did it. Mother Nature took care of that for us Thursday night.
The tree trunk fell on the fence at the very back of our yard. We got very lucky again since it missed the condominiums that are just on the other side of the fence. It did damage the fence, but it can be repaired. The trunk did destroy another small tree beside it when it toppled. That's what all the leaves and bushy stuff is in the photo.
Justin and I have been discussing clearing out some of the bushes and stuff in the back of the yard, so this kind of jump starts that project. Justin posted an ad on Craigslist last night while we were eating supper and within an hour or so, he had six or seven offers to remove the tree. A man is coming this afternoon to actually do the deed. I hate that someone else is doing that, but I'm glad it isn't me. I don't know if you are aware of this, but trees weigh a lot. Even chopped up trees weigh a lot. We don't have a wheelbarrow, so we used our dolly the last time to remove the tree. That actually worked very well since the pieces fit quite nicely on the dolly and we just rolled it to the road for the county to retrieve. Our lot is somewhat narrow, so it's impossible for a vehicle to get to the backyard.
We obviously don't learn from previous experiences. When we lived in Tifton, a hurricane came through and snapped off the top of this tree. It fell on our fence. We cut it up and moved it to the road for the city to pick-up. We discussed having the trunk professionally removed, but never did it. A year or two later, a storm came through and caused the rotten trunk to lean. Justin was concerned that it might fall on our neighbor's house, so he used a rope and a nearby tree as leverage and pulled the trunk down. I called him Lumberjack Justin after that. I have pictures of him posing with the tree, but I won't embarrass him light that. We did get the remaining tree down so we were left with a small stump.
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