Oh my! There is so much going on with property/plant damage lately. That's such a beautiful tree. I'm so sorry that you've lost it.

Was there a storm that caused this?

Cameron

Oh, bless your Heart! I came home to find an ancient oak fallen over once, but it was lying neatly on the edge of my lawn and in the highway right of way
but not in the road, so the county took care of it.

It will be interesting to see how you treat this area with the limb/tree gone. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Nell

Marylu, that happened to us years ago (pre-gardening days). About half of our biggest water oak split and fell in our pool! What a mess! It has since recovered and stands proudly in our backyard garden.

From the pictures, it doesn't look like there is damage to your garden beds? Or your shed? And maybe your tree will live on in your garden if you have the tree man chip the removed part and leave the mulch for you? Oh geeze...I'm just trying to see a bright spot in a sad situation. I don't think I'm doing so well though. :(

That's horrible! I am really sorry. =(

Oh Marylu, I am so very sorry. What a horrible loss.
Hopefully the rest of the tree can be saved. It was certainly a beautiful tree.

Bonny

oH, Marylou, I hope that didn't hurt your little shed! I fully understand, we lost a whole host of trees this spring, and it's so sad to see the older ones go down. They lived such a life,

GGG

So sorry, Marylu - hopefully it can be saved and will continue to provide shade and beauty for you. The weather certainly has been mecurical - from rainy and temperate to ferocious. Storms are so beautiful, but destructive - seems Mother Nature is giving us a run for our plantings these days!

Old trees are generally pretty resiliant. Even if there is rot in an old tree, the main part of the tree could still be healthy and strong. Looks like, all things considered, the damage isn't extensive. I hope the damage and clean-up are not too bad. It must have been quite a bad shock to see that limb down!

Lorna

Oh my Marylou, what a shock,I hope the mess can be cleared away without hurting your property any further, good luck, Martha

It looks like it will have to wait until tomorrow as I can first call the electric, cable and phone company then to drop the wires from the pole to the house down. They will need to do this so that the truck with an extension bucket can get to the limbs. Must say I am a little nervous going out the back door. But the tree guy said the limb is wedged in there pretty good and "should" not move?

Cameron, no we really didn't have a bad storm. We did have some wind, but have had much worse this spring/summer.

Nell, not sure how we will treat it. Talked to DH about it last night, and if the tree has to be taken out, we might see about buying and having planted a large tree?

bamateacha, yes we are lucky. Had the shed not held the weight on the lower limb, the larger, longer limb that you see in one picture would have some down on the house. It probably would have torn the wires down as well. That would have meant no power for a few days. Plus who knows how much damage to the house.

mehearty, bonnylynn, yes it really does make me sad. An old tree like that one just cannot be replaced.

GGG, no from what I could see, it doesn't look like the shed was hurt. Keeping my fingers crossed as I am worried about the weight continuing to rest on the shed until we can get it removed. Hope that shed is nice and strong!

zigzag, yes this year the weather has been so unpredictable. Yesterday it rained off and on all day. We had some weather warnings, but nothing really bad materialized. (Except for my poor tree)

Lorna, I am hoping that the rest of the tree can be saved. I have a call in to the owner of the house next door as the tree is actually on our lot line. So...community property. I am hoping he will help bare the expense of removal. And yes the damage could have been so much worse.

Martha, me too. Mike, the tree removal guy said that hopefully he can remove the top, heavy stuff first and work his way down. The base of the limb seems to be attached pretty solid yet. His concern is that it would tear off the rest of the way and then swing into the shed or the arbor. So he will have to move carefully.

Thank you everyone for your concern. I really appreciate it especially as I have not been very active here for the past year. I still feel like you are all part of my extended family. Thank you.
Marylu

Marylu ~ That is awful! Loss of a beautiful, old shade tree is traumatic. It would be nice if the tree can be saved. Whatever happens you will make the area beautiful.

FlowerLady

I feel your pain. We've lost two huge old trees in the last two years, through age and disease, and it's awful to see that bare patch of ground where there used to be lovely shade...and privacy.

Oh, no! I really hope your tree can be saved!

Irene

Very sorry, what a shame...
alida

It's heartbreaking when something like this happens, it's not something that can be easily replaced. It looks like there's a fair amount of rot, hopefully it can be saved. The newer trunk on the right looks like it could be saved, although this will give the tree a lop sided appearance. I think there is a way to form new branches on some trees by making a slight cut above a dormant bud to stop the sap flow. Ask your tree guy if that would be possible. Good Luck.
Annette

So sorry to see this, Mary Lu. I hope your tree man has good news for you today.

Is there any indication why the tree suddenly fell like that? You mentioned there was wind, but not a heavy one. Was there insect damage or rot present? I think I would ask your tree trimmer to gauge the health of any other trees in the vicinity.

Best of luck, and I hope everything turns out well for you and your family.

Marilyn

Well, it's done. First this morning I tried to coordinate the electric co., telephone and cable co., to drop their wires. The electric co was here by 7:30 but the cable co couldn't even tell me if they could do it today until after 8 AM. Long story..short version... by 11:30 I had the electric and telephone cable down. Cable company never did show up. But that was ok, as their cable was not really in the way after all. The guys got here shortly after 12 noon and were done by 2 PM. All down and chipped up. I had the telephone and electric back on by 3:30 PM. Whew...

There were a couple of times I had to go in the house as I just couldn't watch, was afraid something would happen. All the maneuvering they had to do both with the boom truck and with the boom/bucket itself to get in position to take down some of the really high limbs.

I couldn't believe it, but there was almost NO damage to the shed roof. Unbelievable, even the guys couldn't believe it. Said that I was REALLY lucky the way it fell.

For now they just took off the downed limb. Not sure yet what we will do with the tree. Hoping we can keep it. However, I suggested "topping" the tree and they said that with a tree this age it would not be good. That we would end up removing it in a few years if we did that. So maybe just trim it up, take some of the "heavy" areas off? There appears to be some rot in the trunk, so not sure yet.

This was the view I had when I came out into the screened porch when I found the downed limb.
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Forgot to take pictures until they were well on the way to having it down. The limbs/branches were almost to the top of the red door before they started dragging them off to the chipper. Couldn't believe there was so much tree in that limb.
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As it looks now...after clean-up.
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Well...it doesn't look as bad as I was afraid it might. In fact, considering the scare you had, it looks pretty good, don't you think? Are you feeling okay now that it's all cleaned up? I surely hope so.

-Sharon

There are some really oddly shaped trees in town because of the way they've been trimmed. The utilities company often takes out the middle of the tree, so the tree branches won't be amongst wires. I originally thought it looked ugly, but I decided it is better to have an oddly trimmed tree than no tree at all.

Thank goodness you had so little damage, MaryLu. Please keep us updated.

Lorna

So sorry about the tree limb but glad to know there was no major damage. It's a beautiful tree. I hope it isn't rotten but best to find out before the whole thing comes down.

And I can relate to your shock. We had some terrible winds one day last week that took out one of our sycamores. It was just a few years old but getting big enough to provide the late afternoon shade we needed on the west side. It snapped in half! I think it was a little top heavy from DH removing some lower branches before the trunk was strong enough. Live and learn! : )

Diana

I'm so happy for you that the big limb didn't damage your pretty shed! It sounds like it was just gravity...a really heavy limb just had to fall.

I had similar frightening tree situation that ended up okay, too. When Hurricane Fran came through here a long time ago, I was living (alone with my son) in the middle of the woods at my previous house/farm. My son was at his dad's house so I was really alone...I heard the crashing, the uprooting all night long. When morning came, I couldn't see out of my house. I lost over 100+ trees, but they stacked up like dominoes around the house and didn't do any damage to the house. I gigantic oak fell where I parked my truck and car...however, I had parked those in the open pasture for the night saving the vehicles from damage.