Mastodawn

Eye 6h ago

@Armadillosoft

Do you think you'll replace the trees in your backyard?

This might not all fit in a single toot..

Background: A few decades ago, my husband & I were walking on a bridge. It collapsed because it had been improperly repaired. His back was broken. We ended up with lasting scars - physical and medical-debt-wise.

When we bought our current house, it had a very decrepit back deck attached to our 2nd story. It was the very cheapest house we could find in the area. Every appliance in the place was broken. There was lots to fix/replace. 1/

Given our experience with the collapsing bridge, I was absolutely terrified of that deck. But given that we had just bought a house we could barely afford (see: medical debt), we prioritized getting a working stove/oven, microwave, washing machine, dryer, electrical system, water heater, furnace, etc.

So the rule was: we do NOT walk out on the deck. Which was very sad for us, because it is LOVELY in our yard.

After many years, we had paid off most of the bills ...

So, finally, we did replace the deck.

A few weeks later, we came home late at night and - could not find our dog, who had worked her way into the very back of a very small closet and refused to come out.

In the morning, we looked out the second floor windows and saw - an ~ 30 foot branch had fallen off of one of the backyard trees and landed on the deck, smashing pretty much everything on the deck.

Must have made a terrifying noise, hence the hidden dog.

The rebuilt deck had nary a scratch.

Took forever to cut that branch and get it off the porch.

So, we hired a tree surgeon to look at the trees in the back. There were still 3 trees. Very tall. The arborist told us that two of the trees were badly infested. I think with powder-puff beetles, but I might be misremembering.

The guy said that the two infected trees had to be removed and the 3rd would eventually die. It was going to be costly to remove the trees.

We could have left the uninfected tree, but eventually, we were told, it would succumb and then it would be much more expensive to remove the singleton than it would be to remove the 3 at once.

Once the trees were down:

1. Once again not terrified to walk on the new deck.

2. A LOT more sunshine in the house. (It's mostly foggy here, but still, without the trees there was a lot more light.)

3. We could better see the multitudinous wildlife in our yard & our neighbors'.

In the years since we lost our trees, many of our neighbors' trees have been blown down by the very severe storms that now pass through.

Very often, when trees go down here, they take out neighboring roofs, decks, and (not-buried) power lines and the entire neighborhood loses power for days at a time.

(We were lucky that our branch fell onto our porch and did not damage anything structural.)

Lately, birds come and hang out ON OUR DECK where they are easier for me to see than they ever were in the backyard trees.

I don't worry about stepping out on my deck. (Our house is higher up than my neighbors, so their trees are not likely to land on me.)

Fire is of late also a concern. If a tree caught fire and fell on our house ....

If we planted trees now, it would take decades for them to grow tall enuf for raptors to fancy.

So for now, we are choosing safety, sunlight, & views rather than new trees.

Our neighbors are being forced to make similar decisions as their trees blow down.

If all the trees were gone, we'd probably miss the wildlife, but there are a LOT of trees here so probably not going to happen, failing a huge fire, which of course is a possibility, sigh.

Sorry TLDR; Thanks for listening