I'm a suspicious sort, and I got on a ladder (not a trivial exercise in that location) and jammed a skewer into the lowest crotch of the tree here and there. I found a deep hole, and some soft wood nearby.
We called for tree removal. A few days later I found a mushroom lying beside the tree, and a week later my wife noticed one growing in that lower crotch.
So we bit our nails during the wind storm, and then came the day for it to come down.
Yep, that section was going rotten--but so was another section unexpectedly high up. That would have landed on our neighbor's van.
So now we have a 10x8 foot divot in our (and our neighbor's) lawn, and no time to try to grow grass. When we bought the place there were 7 trees on a 90 foot city lot--4 in front and 3 in back. One of those was a Russian olive. (Never get a Russian olive, especially if you have kids. The branches are low and inviting, but spiky. And they die quickly.)
A maple every 15 feet probably seemed like a good idea at the time. The "leaf forts" in autumn were fun.
The front yard will look strange for a while, and the car will get hot in the driveway next summer. I hardly remember the other trees anymore.
2 comments:
You might give half a try at establishing some grass. Construction firms seem to make it work very late in the year. I always wait until September and have a friend who swears by the first day of autumn as easiest, because you aren't walking over it while you mow everything else.
We had about 4" of rain, and the truckers were afraid of getting stuck, so nothing today. Just a freeze.
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