Weather Damage

We had a single strong storm blow through Lubbock about midday.  It was preceded by strong winds and blowing dust, and followed by strong winds and blowing dust.  Sometime in all of that, the tree in my neighbor's front yard blew over, leaning against their house.  I cannot see what damage was done, because the tree is still leaning against their house. Tree Loving Care http://treelovingcare.com/ is on hand, slowly removing all the little branches before they get to the large branches and trunk.  This will probably be a logistics nightmare, because if they do this wrong, the branches and trunk can fall off the roof and into the window and wall beneath where the tree is leaning. Yikes!

Tree Loving Care cut down my very old and very leaning, half dead Lombardy Poplar.  I had to wait for their service, although they told me they did emergency service as needed Fortunately, I did not have an emergency.  They got to me before the winds got to my tree. They are expensive, but I left the gate open, they came, cut, and cleaned up while I was at work. They were not in a hurry to send me a bill, either!

I am sorry for my neighbors. but they are in good hands.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring in West Texas is interesting.  This year, spring officially started shortly after noon on March 20, 2014. Hmmmm.  The weather did not change much.  But amazingly, the trees responded:  All of a sudden the trees that bloom did so within just a few hours of the official arrival of spring!  This is amazing to me. But, it usually happens every year in Texas.

The locals tell us that the mesquite trees tell us if we have had a final freeze or not:  The mesquite trees do not leaf out or blossom until after the final freeze occurs. There is a mesquite tree down the street from where I live, and I need to check to see its status.

Lombardy Poplar

I awoke a little early this morning, and could hear the early morning birds outside the house.  The male cardinal was singing and singing and singing.  He has trained me, and does this when the bird feeder is empty and he is hungry.  The birdfeeder still had some food in it this morning..  But the tree he likes to sit in was gone!

As I pulled out of the garage this morning, I saw several birds, doves and grackles, fly up to the house and sort of stop short.  I think these are birds who used to sit in the Lombardy Poplar that had to come down.

I had considered how much shade I would be loosing.  I had not considered how much of an impact on the birds having the tree downed would cause.

There is nothing I can do about it.  The tree really, really, really needed to be cut down.  It was dead on the south side.  It grew up around the concrete patio on the south side of my house. Part of the tree that overspilled onto the concrete had pulled away, and the tree was leaning. There was a gap of about an inch between the concrete and the tree where it had pulled away.  I asked to have a few feet of stump left, for a "table." The center of the tree seen in the cross section of the table was dead and rotten.  I still plan to coat it with some sort of sealer and use it as a table.

I feel badly for the birds, but there are a lot of other roosts in the area. I needed to get the tree down before it blew down and damaged my house, or that of my neighbor.

Tree

There is a tree in my back yard that needs to be removed. It is dead on one side and has several branches that are dead.  It is very near my house, on the end of my house where the hot water heater is. It is also close to my neighbor's house.

I had hoped, when I was on vacation at the end of May, to get someone in to cut the tree down. I have had difficulty getting people to respond to my phone requests to provide estimates The estimates I obtained while I was on vacation were by people who inspired fear in me regarding their ability to fell the tree safely. To the extent that I though that if I used them, I would have to put the cats in day care, in case something happened while they were trying to fell the tree. I have called several other people who are supposed to provide me with estimates this week. 

Today, someone came by who gave me a much higher estimate, but who instilled in me the confidence that he knew what he was doing. I had thought that if I use a low bid, and have damage, I am not saving myself any trouble or money. 

I am expecting two more estimates this week.  Both said they could come by and check out the tree without my being home.  I am about to spend a LOT of money to get this tree removed.

A coworker wondered if the wood could be cut and stacked so someone could use it in a fireplace.  I am not sure about that.  I will ask.