gullyfoyle

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Picture taken from our dining room window a little while ago. We had a line of strong storms come through. This was the biggest oak tree in the back yard, easily 3 or 4 feet across. It demolished a couple of substantial pines too as well as a big section of fence. But no damage to house, people, or domesticated animals. That was the tree where I once saw a flying squirrel, the only time I've ever seen one. The deck and house are gonna be getting a lot more sun. The tree fell directly away from the house, hence: lucky! But I know of at least one house in the neighborhood that suffered a hole in the roof.

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From:

ysabetwordsmith

Lucky!

Can you keep it, at least the rootball and part of the trunk, as a down log? That has a lot of wildlife value, the bigger the better.

We lost one of our big trees some years back, and it eventually wound up as a down log.

From:

gullyfoyle

I sympathize, but having a 12 by 8 feet rootball (and associated hole) a few feet from the back door is too much, and the downed logs -- there's also a large pine down too, you can see the snag sticking up -- split the yard in half. Our property abuts a lake and we don't have enough room between the yard and the lake to keep the logs. There's a chance we could be selling in a few years, and we'd have to be incredibly lucky to find a buyer who'd consider the downed trees and rootball in a positive light. There's a second good-sized broken pine off to the left that I do plan to leave in place beside the lake. I have a couple of brush piles for smaller limbs and yard cuttings and those piles do attract wildlife.

From:

ysabetwordsmith

I didn't realize it was right by the door. We've had that happen a couple times. :/ We're still trying to pry loose a stub that's right in front of the shed door, but at least that one is small.