I Think That I Shall Never See A Poem As Lovely As A Tree

But I like it much better when all the limbs are actually in the tree and not all over my back yard!

Obviously, we got some wind last night.  Not that I was aware of it, because I actually slept through the storm.  I was unable to get to sleep for about 2 hours and then I did manage to sleep but not much, not long and not very good.  At one point, I found my ear plugs and used them thinking that maybe I would be able to get to sleep.  That is the only time I actually got any sleep, and that's also apparently when the thunderstorm hit and brought wind with it.

This morning, Otter and I were just about to leave for college/work when I happened to glance out the dining room window.  This is what I saw:

It wasn't quite light yet, so the first couple of pictures are kind of dark.

The orangish light in the back is actually the reflective tape label on the electric box that is in the corner of the yard.  The angle might make it look like it's in the middle of the yard, but it's actually in the far corner.

When we got home, Otter and I went out to see just how bad the damage is.  I was able to pull one limb down, they are all very big limbs.  Really big, in some cases.

We discovered that the entire top of the tree came down.  It's not easy to see in this picture, but a pretty big limb was caught on Lovely Neighbor's fence.  Bill got it off the fence, and it was a very big one.

The limb that is going across this picture is broken off, it's still there because it was too high for Bill to reach without the ladder and the ground is way to soft from the rain to even think about a ladder.

This one and the next one are taken of the tree itself, but because I know where to look and where the damage is I can tell that it's pretty bad.

Hopefully, we won't lose the tree.  But when the top part breaks off like this, sometimes they don't recover.  The trees have never really come back to full strength from the ice storm in December, 2007.  We're actually kind of surprised that this hasn't happened before.  Maples are also not the strongest trees.  Sometimes they get brittle.

Look at the last tree picture  It's the one in question, in December 2007 and it has grown bigger since then but not stronger, obviously!

When we went to bed last night, about 10:00, we knew that there were a couple of possible thunderstorms that could get to us about midnight.  I was awake somewhere around that time and they weren't here yet, so I'm not sure what time they actually arrived.  The weather in the north and northwest part of the state, as well as into Kansas, was the really bad stuff and tornadic.  We "just" had winds, but strong winds and compromised trees are not a good combination!

This is the tree that is right outside the dining room window and we were lucky.  Well, there really is no such thing as luck - it's all God and His will, but you know what I mean!  Also, it could have damaged the fence that the one llimb fell on but the llimb was partially supported by lower limbs that remained on the tree.

Well, at least we'll have a little more firewood to add to the stack.  It remains to be seen if the rest of the tree will need to be taken down or not.