There they go…
I’m sitting here uneasily listening to the buzzing of chainsaws right behind me. Followed by booms.
The trees are coming down today, having been struck by lightning last month.
It happened the first night we were in Boston. July 7.
It had been a long day, flying in from Columbia, with a brief stop at LaGuardia. We had ridden around Boston to get our bearings, then checked into our B&B in Newton before walking around that area — checking out the location of the dance studio where the twins had their training with Boston Ballet, and other local features. We’d been up since 3:30 a.m., had put in 18,515 steps, and were ready to relax when we went to have dinner at O’Hara’s Food & Spirits on Walnut St.
My wife had ordered a chicken pot pie, while I had chosen the broiled steak tips, with a Guinness to wash it down. The food had arrived, and we had just started enjoying it when… I got a text from our neighbor in West Columbia.
A shot my neighbor took that night. Note the Harry-Potter-scar effect…
He was checking on us to see if we were still alive. He was wondering why we hadn’t come out to see what had happened in our front yard — on account of the loud, booming crash. He had had a perfect view of it. He’d been in his garage watching the storm we knew nothing about, and his garage door perfectly framed the spectacle.
He said it was really something — the light flashed around multiple trees in the yard in various colors. He said it seemed to go on for about 10 seconds. He wished he’d shot video. Then, as soon as he said that, he apologized for seeming to speak of the event as a source of entertainment. I said no, don’t concern yourself — I wished he’d gotten video, too. I’d like to have seen it.
He did his best, though, going over and shooting some pictures of the damage. It was pretty spectacular, without the light show. There were streaks of stripped-away bark on at least three of the trees — a couple of pines and a sweetgum.
After we got back, we watched the pine nearest our house start going brown. I had an arborist out to look the situation over, and he said that one would definitely have to go, and mostly likely a couple of others as well. In the end, we decided to say goodbye to five of them, and they’re coming down now.
Mind you, this was not an isolated incident. We’ve had a rash of this sort of thing on our street lately. A neighbor across the other street (we’re on a corner) had trees behind the house hit a week or so before we did, and those came down just recently. They also had some damage in the house, from the charge running to it underground.
What greeted us when we got home…
We had a bit of that ourselves. At the bottoms of the streaks down the trees were pits where earth had been blasted away, and then trenches dug toward the house where the roots ran. But the damage was minimal. It put two HD TV antennas — the kind you put in a window — out of action, without harming the TVs. It also, I just realized to my sorrow a couple of days ago, destroyed the electronics of my elliptical trainer — which was plugged into the same outlet as one of the antennae, on the same side of the house as the trees.
The worst damage, the thing that worried us the whole time we were in Boston, was that our upstairs air-conditioning went out. When my son checked on things the day after the storm, he found it was 105 degrees up here, so he turned the system off.
But we lucked out there. The only damage was to a valve, the loss of which had confused the system so that it was trying to cool the house by blowing heat. It was easy, and cheap, to fix.
The biggest deal is what’s happening now — the felling of the trees.
After this, the view from our house will be radically different. See that house across the street in the picture below (this is the other street, not the one from which my neighbor witnessed the event)? We’ll have a perfect, unobstructed view of that house after today, since all five trees between us and it will go.
Maybe we’ll plant something in place of them. I’m thinking a Japanese maple. Those are pretty cool…
We’ll have a perfectly clear view of my neighbor’s house when we’re done.
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Those guys work very hard and know what they are doing. Their insurance payments are high so the work isn’t cheap.
Over the last few years, I have had all my pine trees that were in my backyard cut down. I didn’t like the constant work pine combs and pine needles caused. Plus, in bad storms I always worried one would crash into the house.
The only problem now is my neighbor has a tall pine tree right on the fence line. He hasn’t had his cut down. So the pine needles from his tree fall into my yard.
One day a few years ago, I was in the backyard raking up pine needles and picked up pine combs and complaining loudly about “that awful pine tree” not realizing he was in the backyard. My fence blocked my view. He heard me and responded that he would take a look at getting it cut down. I told him I appreciated it but understood if he didn’t. That was the end of it.
Two years later, it’s still there. It’s the only tree in his backyard and it makes as much of a mess of his backyard as it does mine.
Since then, I take any pine comb that falls onto my property and toss it back to his property. I just barely toss them over the fence. I don’t throw them into the middle of the yard or anything. I’ve also started dumping the pine needles over the fence on to his property. After all, it’s from his tree. I’m tired of cleaning up the debris from his tree which is a constant and I take care of my backyard. I want it to look nice. He doesn’t seem to really care about his backyard other than cutting the grass about once a month. There must be 1000 pine combs in his backyard.
Cones
cones
cones
computer kept changing to combs.
Dispelling the notion that good fences make good neighbors.. not the least bit surprised by this story.
Nah- you are wrong as usual
My neighbor is a nice guy. We talk all the time. But his dang tree is a problem.
I will say though- it is a good thing two people like Doug and I aren’t neighbors. That would not be fun.
You never know. Y’all might get along great.
There’s a huge difference between encountering people online, and really getting to know them in person…
Bought my current house ~20 years ago . 30 very tall pines and 2 huge oaks. Lost 5 pines over the years. I rake oak leaves from October til New Year’s Day. The leaves refuse to fall all at one time. Rake pine needles several times a year. Silly me didn’t realize needle raking would take so much time.
Recently National Geographic devoted an issue of their magazine to trees. Very interesting. Global warming is causing major issues with trees’ health.
I hate to see a tree being felled. A new clinic is being built in my town. A huge swarth of trees were cleared. I’m like “Damn, why so many”? What makes it so bad, just down the road are open fields. I hate that just for losss of wildlife habitat.
18,515 steps for a guy just past COVID is pretty good. Glad you’re feeling better.
Thanks, Bud!
Have you taken your trip to Boston yet (or should I say, Newton)? It’s a nice place to walk — especially in the evenings…
Next month.
Years ago, I was working on the 21ˢᵗ floor of the Affinity Technology building, across the street from the Capitol. [I don’t know whose name is on the building now.] There was one helluva a storm. I saw a ground strike near the Finlay Park/Arsenal Hill area. The ground glowed yellow for about three seconds. It was very interesting to see.
PS: As I was pulling into our driveway, I noticed a huge limb had fallen from the tree in front of our house.
When I inspected the limb, we narrowly missed severe damage.
Now, remember back to the 60’s and that sitcom, Get Smart. Hold your thumb and forefinger close together and say “Missed it by that much, Chief”. The upper limbs brushed beside the house. Nothing to cause any need for repainting.