This is the left arm of a tree that is at least 20 years old. It sits in our backyard. It's been there since we moved into the house 18 years ago. The right arm, not shown, reaches straight up, with a trunk no less thick than the left arm.
I've seen this crack in the tree in the last few weeks but never noticed it. It's been like part of the scenery; I hadn't registered that it's a problem. Yesterday, cousin Kiki said to me, "What's that big crack in the tree?" That's when it dawned on me that must be the sound of wood splitting I keep hearing.
Even as we stood there looking at it, with the wind blowing fiercely above, we heard the sound of wood cracking. The bottom half of the trunk shook with each howl of the wind. The top half of the trunk leads to a branch that is sitting on Bell lines. The lines are now bent.
As I walked down the street in disbelief with Kiki, talking about what to do with the tree and wending our way to lunch, a truck drove by. It was a tree care truck. I flagged it down. The owner came back to the house with us straightaway. He sounded knowledgeable, was energetic, had clean, efficient looking equipment mounted on his truck, and both Kiki and I felt he was trustworthy.
He said he would treat our case as urgent. The tree will fall down before the end of the summer and cause a lot of damage, especially to the neighbours beside and behind us. It may come through our back window, depending on how it falls. He's quoted $1,500, half of what I feared. I had heard in the Spring someone had cut their tree down and it cost over $3,000. But his quote does not include getting rid of the wood.
I've call up a couple more arborists to obtain more quotes. Meanwhile, I'm scheming up ways to make a business of the wood that could be left in the yard. A firewood stand on the sidewalk to compete with kids selling lemonade?
4 comments:
we had a simmilar experience when we bought our house on Knig st. The Manitoba Maple was cracked and growing over the back of our house as well as over a portion of our neighbour's. The arborist said it would fall down in the next wind storm. We cut it down and one week later the winds were 120k!!The kids would have been toast. Our neighbour across the street took the wood. Unfortunately because your tree is the same species, softwood plays havoc in one's chimney. Most people don't want it. I suggest you either have it cut up, advertise it in the paper or bite the bullet and have the tree guy take it away. Otherwise you may see it sitk there for some time providing a perfect home for carpenter ants which will then invade your house and then you will have to hire an exterminator. The ants are probably already happily living in the tree already. I remember eyeing kyour tree years ago and Dad and I forsaw a potential disaster. Sorry!! Kathleen
The two tree servicing companies that I have delt with over the last couple of years, are Al Miley & Associates and Davey Tree (which the city often uses). Both companies have always taken away all debris whenever they've done work for me. As for trying to pass the spent wood off as seasoned firewood, good luck with that. The wood will most likey be too damp and spongy to burn in a residential fireplace. So unless you can store it and season it for atleast one year, I would have them take it away.
Thanks. Good to see another reference for Davey Tree. I am waiting for a quote from them. I'll give Al Miley a call as well.
I believe Mike Grey is still the supervising arborist that comes to do the assesment and quote, but the best part is the group of hot young guys that come later to do all the grunt work....very entertaining indeed.
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