If a tree falls in the woods...

Oops!! For the second year in a row, we have had a tree fall on a structure on our property. Kathie and I were on the lake side of our home and heard a loud crash. At first, I thought it came from a neighbor's property just down the shore. However, Kathie wondered if a tree might have fallen, since she had heard one near the driveway creaking and cracking earlier in the day. So, we headed around the house and down the drive to find the extremely disappointing situation pictured here. I had just had two other trees removed*, so now I'm kicking myself for not having asked to have this one removed too, although we really had no clear indication that we were in danger of it falling. I don't know if it might have been weakened in last year's storm, or if, instead, it was just this tree's "time." As you can see, it did quite a bit of damage to the roof of the garage, although you can see that it missed the trusses. So, tomorrow, there will be phone calls to the insurance company, the tree removal man, and the young man who built the garage for us. At this point, I'm inclined to give the axe to any tree with suspicious leanings toward the garage or house. These "popples" (as they call them here) get to be very, very tall, and I'm told that they tend to break like this one did about eight to twelve feet up.

* The trees we had removed were also popples. One was near the parking area near the house. It tended to lean toward the house and also was frequently backed into by persons trying to turn around to leave. The second was one that was leaning badly after last year's storm. It was near the steps leading down to the dock. The view on the lake side is improved with this obviously damaged tree out of the picture.