Tree Down!

Well, we've had our first drama as homeowners. A short, isolated, but powerfull little storm swept through Mahtomedi on July 27th and claimed one of our trees. The tree was a not particularly tall but very full Norway Maple. The branches all emerged from the same spot and were beginning to rot at the groins. Put water on all those leaves and add a 50mph wind and we have a mini natural disaster on our hands (did I mention this was dramatic). The main force of the tree missed the deck by a foot or two. It did, however, take out a 15' cedar (or arbor vitae) and the nieghbors fence on the way down. We're lucky it did no worse.

John Biedrzycki, Eli Sagor, and neighbor John helped with the initial cleanup on that very wet evening. Thanks again guys. I was hoping that the mayor would show up with a camera crew and look noble. Maybe make some defiant claims about rebuilding, etc. I'm still working on removing the wood. I figure I've hauled 10 cubic yards (of about 16) of branches to the compost site.

All jokes aside, we're very sad that this happened (particularly Angie). This tree shaded our entire south facing deck all day, making it a very delightfull, pleasant grove indeed.

Check out the pictures at our Picasa photo website: http://picasaweb.google.com/larix37/TreeDown. As with the blog, I'm just starting to figure this stuff out so I'll work on some sort of permanent link in the future.