If a Tree Falls in My Yard . . .

If a large part of my tree falls in my front yard, does it make a sound if nobody hears it?  I say no unless it lands on a car and sets off a car alarm.

When I finally got out of bed (it was bipolar depression o'clock, 4:30 pm I think) and went to check the mail Saturday I was surprised with what I saw.  A large branch from my front yard tree had snapped off and was lying across my front yard!  I was lucky it didn't hit my car parked less than 10 feet away!

Large Limb from Tree

We had some rain the night before, but I didn't think much it.  I mean it wasn't a big storm.  Will a larger storm bring down even bigger limbs and branches?  The entire tree? 

I knew this tree had the potential for mayhem.  Each year manageable sized branches fall during heavy wind and rain.  But never has such a large limb separated itself from the tree.

Besides giving me an excuse for not mowing the lawn, what should I do?  I have a big tree limb sitting in my front yard.  Should I cut it up, save the wood and hope this doesn't happen again?  Or should I hire a tree trimmer to trim the whole tree down to a manageable size?  I'm leaning toward the latter.

For sure I will relocate the car during storms until this beast of a tree is contained.  Knowing me I may just move the car over a little and pray a branch on that side of the tree doesn't land on my car.  Or maybe I'll swap out my truck with the car and take my chances.  I wonder how the truck feels about that?

Tree Clearly Dominates Car

Now the fun part of all this is that the tree technically belongs to the city of Ventura.  I believe they will come out and remove the limb for me.  A good example of tax dollars in action.  But from talking to them in the past I know they won't pay for a tree trimmer to come out and remove all the potentially dangerous limbs.  They leave you on your own with that one.

But alas!  I called the city at 10:20 this morning and spoke to a nice gal about clearing my fallen branch.  She asked for the address and whether the tree was impeding pedestrian traffic or not.  At this moment I thought maybe I should fib and say it was so I would be a higher priority for them!  But no fear, I told the truth and she apologized for any wait I might have.

Well, by 1:40 this afternoon the city had come by and shredded the fallen branch.  They also found a "loose" branch and pulled it down and shredded that.  I thought that was cool.  One of the city staff even apologized for the time it took and I told them not a bother.  I thought they were responsive.

Overall the experience was fantastic.  Nobody or nothing got hurt.  I got a limb cut off and removed for free.  And the city staff were very courteous and efficient.  Thanks City of Ventura (Parks Dept.) for your well appreciated work!