Just when I thought I was finally taking the proactive approach I needed on these trees, mother nature said… “Nope!”
Only a few days before Christmas and Mom and Dad are staying in their place. A massive weather event came through the mid-Atlantic region bringing moisture first then heavy rains. That’s always the recipe for disaster and indeed, that’s what arrived.
I was still working in my offices when I heard the loud bang and watched the giant poplar begin its downward trajectory to the ground. Anything in its path was doomed and unfortunately that was the tree house. As it fell, my brain was quickly calculating triage and assessed that the house wouldn’t be struck, but it was damn close. Barring that, watching the tree house that Ryder had spent hours and hours playing on smashed to bits was depressing. Yes, it can be rebuilt so thankfully that was the worst of it.
The poplar that came down was the one that had been struck by lightning a little while back. The first year following the strike, we were pretty sure it had survived and showed some greenery in the canopy, however the following year it wasn’t looking so good. We had planned to take it down later this year but gravity had other plans for a speedier result.
The next day when I reassessed, I also learned that the upper portion of a big tree had fallen within inches of my neighbor’s shed and had squashed his fence. ugh. Thankfully the shed is fine but it adds more work to my list for later.
It’ll be months before I have this poplar off the ground. It’s massive.
