Falling limb

My Daughter, and Grand Daughter had just returned from a horse ride. They were putting their horses away. I was in my garge. I heard a large crash sound. I couldn't imgane what had happened. I went to look, and found a very large limb had fallen right where the girls had just passed by, not three minutes or so before. The limb fell part way into one horse corrall. The branch was about 12 inches at the base. This is a 90 year old pepper tree. Just glad no one was hurt. The barn cat finally showded up tonight. This shows just how quick thinks can go bad.Stan

A few years ago a friend parked her suburban under a huge oak tree. Base had to have been nearly 5 ft in diameter. She went to McDs to get a coke and when she came back (2 minute drive each way) the whole tree had come down. No wind, earthquake or any other reason, but it came down. It took a tree company a week and a half to clean it up and there was a pile of wood about 7' high, 20' long and 15' wide (at the base). Turns out it was only being held up by 2" of live material 3/4 of the way around the base. Amazed it didn't come down years ago as we often have gusty winds. Sometimes there is no explaining mother nature.

One morning I went to visit my elderly uncle as I have done hundreds of times by taking a short cut across the park, the path runs beside a brick wall. After I had a quick cup of tea with him I said "You know it is such a nice morning but apparently it might rain later I will go back and fetch my mower and cut your lawn". I went back across the park only to find that a long section of the wall had fallen down! 10 minutes earlier I might have ended up underneath it.

Must have been 15 or so years ago but I was doing some free lance repairs out of the end of the barn I use as a shop. I had pulled the head on an Izzue Trooper and taken it in for valves. The owner showed up to see when the head would be back, parked his mid 60's collecter plated T Bird and talked to me. About 2 minutes after he left with no warning an oak tree came down right where his car had been. Base of the tree was about 24" and the car had been parked no more than 15 feet from the tree. I was more than 100 feet away and felt the ground shake! WOW!

Rick

Heard a crach the other evening while I was working in my shop, but didn't immediately see what made the noise. The next morning as I walked down to the shop I noticed about 15 feet had come out of the top of a pine tree right behind the shop.

I was attending a country show in the UK a couple of years ago outside a little town called Aylsham. The event was being held on the grounds of a local stately home which features a lot of very large, very old trees. It was quite a warm, sunny day but I noticed that none of the exhibitors were near the trees which seemed like it would be a nice shady spot to me. I asked a local and he explained to me that depending on the weather conditions the trees could pull large amounts of water out of the ground and into their canopy and that sometimes they sucked up enough water and would simply collapse under their own weight. Either way be careful and it's a good job no one got hurt. Sam

A friend of mine, was walking through the back lawn, tree limb came down striking him in the head. He had a fractured skull. He apparently got up, and walked into his house, where his mother found him in a pool of blood, unconscious, several hours later. He was flown to the hospital, and made a good recovery, after 9 months. He still has memory and motion sickness problems. Thing to remember is it Could be worse...

I had a nephew get killed from limb like that one time, but it was from a tree he was cutting down. I guess with the chain saw running he couldn't hear it.

Grandpa would say "Let that be a friendly reminder of who is really in charge here".

Thanks I needed something more to worry about. These Oak trees were planted by a previous owner of this house when he returned from the Civil War. He actually planted a whole row of them down the property line. These two are the only ones left. Last fall I put about 100 acorns in the end of the garden and this spring had about 25 Oak seedlings that I have planted about the property. Think I will go out and mow them all down before they become a problem.

I wouldn't mow them off. It will be 40 or 50 years before they are big enough to cause any problems.

Here is a nice one, I had to mow around it yesterday, need to get a line on it, see if it will shear off, we've had those recent cold fronts and high or straight line winds and it still won't come down, right over a gate which I removed, weight is all on the opposite side I want it to fall, will have to take closer look, be nice to pull it from the direction it wants to go, but the gate posts and bracing are under it, with a 12' berth for it to clear if it would fall right. I have enough line to stay well away, like ones I have done in the past, up the ladder, put a cable choker on it with a clevis, to heavy chain, pull with tractor in a favorable and safe direction. For now I let it be, no hurry, these kinds of post remind you gravity does not sleep, ever LOL !

The other side of this once fully canopied maple was one heavy dense hardwood limb, broke off and while on the ground, my tractor struggled to just push it out of the way, made 3 trips to haul the wood to the house, excellent maple firewood, the one above is the same, would crush whatever it falls on, funny how this part of the tree is healthy, just the trunk is disintegrated yet the top is healthy like nothing is wrong.

When our 35 year old son was about 2, we lived in a mobile home, with a big maple tree next to it. Maple had some dead and dying limbs.

Got a windstorm one night- maple was right over son's room, so we made up a "camp" in the living room for the 3 of us- he thought it was great fun.

In the morning, sure enough, a branch had fallen and poked a hole in the roof of his room. And he was fast asleep in his crib- apparently had awoken in the night and went back to his own bed. The best laid plans. . .

We got the local tree guy out pronto, and trimmed out the remaining bad stuff.

I learned a log time ago while hunting to be on the "look up".. A real big wind suddenly came through and limbs were falling like mortar rounds....Been very watchful ever since.. you'd be surprised of the widow makers lurking.