Tree Damage

On the night the sirens sounded, after the county emergency management team gave the all clear we returned back to our house and noticed the pecan tree in the front yard had lost a sizeable limb. I also found a torn photo of a woman and child at a first birthday party. I'll always wonder where that blew in from. The same night we took shelter there were two EF-5 tornadoes in western Oklahoma and a smaller tornado just 45 minutes west of here. We went to bed that night thanking God for protecting us.

The next day I emailed Mrs. Best-Next-Door-Neighbor a picture of Gabe on the little red tractor and she replied back asking if we'd like Mr. Best-Next-Door-Neighbor to cut up our tree. I was a little perplexed because we do have a tree in the backyard we have been wanting to cut down (like for years now) but I couldn't remember talking to the neighbors about cutting down that particular tree. Mr. Best-Next-Door-Neighbor is retired and spends a lot of time working in his yard, so I thought well, if he enjoys that sort of thing and that's how he wants to spend his afternoon we'd be glad for the help. And, he wouldn't have offered if he didn't want to do it. So, I told Mrs. Best-Next-Door-Neighbor that if he'd like to he's welcome to it, but he really doesn't have to.

You may remember seeing the tree in my back flowerbed (well, technically there aren't any flowers in it...) from a post a couple of weeks ago. Here's another look in case you forgot.

There it is. Way too close to the house.

The day after the storm we came home from work to find this.

You don't cut a tree out of the ground like that.

It was definitely uprooted by the storm.

There's Gabe's poor table in the back.

Ruined. And, we only had it about a month!

Gabe surveys the damage.

Apparently, the storm the night before had uprooted the tree and knocked it down. Because the tree is on the far side of the house in the backyard and it was nearly bedtime when we went back home, we didn't notice the downed tree. And, Mr. Best-Next-Door-Neighbor had cut the entire tree up into sizeable pieces for picking up and carrying off while Casey and I were at work. I told you they were the BEST.

The only casualty was Gabe's new picnic table.

We've already replaced it with a new one.

Our next chore was carrying off the logs.

I'll let Gabe show you where to take them.

Carry the log high...

...like so.

Check out your shadow...

...as you head for the side of the shed.

Check out another version of your shadow...

...and then place the log on the pile with the rest.

Lastly, help Daddy get his chain saw tuned up.

 While I worked on getting the limbs taken care of Mr. Best-Next-Door-Neighbor came over and even helped Casey take out a large portion of the roots from the ground. That guy knows how to swing an axe I tell ya. Thanks to Mr. Best-Next-Door-Neighbor, we had the entire tree cleaned up and gone in just two days. That's record clean up for this family. It helped that Casey was on a break from school too.

And, now we get to enjoy that tree we wanted down years ago burn in the fire pit that's also now been waiting years to be used.

Ahhhh...ain't it funny how things work out sometimes?