Our majestic mesquite is no longer. Just a sapling when we bought the house, we’d babied him through many storms—picked him up once, tethered him…and in return this tree grew to be a giant standing 40-50ft tall with a trunk over a foot in diameter. He shaded the entire front of our property, cradled many nests, and provided the stage for my favorite mocking bird’s mating song (which lasted all night long). But a couple of weeks ago, the last monsoon of the season burst forth with 65 mph winds, uprooting our beloved tree. We watched as he succumbed to the force, gently lying back onto the roof. There was no “bang,” simply the crackling of splintering wood barely heard above the sound of the rain.
It was several days before we could get a company out to remove the tree, during that time it was a bit like living in a tree house. Branches covered most of the front windows and completely blocked our front walkway. Luckily, we were able to clear enough away to get our cars out of the garage! A crew of four tackled the take-down; it took them just two hours, I thought you might be interested in seeing the process.
They began by removing the branches. A worker climbed the tree up to the roof; I noticed he kept his footing mostly on the larger branches and not on the roofing tiles. Once the branches were off he started with the trunk, tossing down large pieces (you don’t want to be standing anywhere near those falling logs!
With the trunk finally clear of the house, the next question was how to finish the job. The workers decided to pull the tree away from the house so that the falling debris would not crack the concrete walkway. They tied the top of the trunk to the tow hitch on a pick up truck and drove until the tree leaned the opposite direction.
The worker climbed back up the trunk and continued cutting foot long segments. Once he got to the largest part he cut segments about two feet long—horribly heavy but they will make nice side tables out on the patio.
Guess I have a new landscaping project…
A Ponderance of Things 
October 8, 2014 at 5:15 am
Ouch, Robyn. Sorry! But I must admit to being struck by how your description matches your title “A Ponderance of things” — seeing more than “…the facts, ma’am, just the facts” and instead remembering and noticing things most of us would miss. Nice piece. 🙂
October 8, 2014 at 8:34 am
Thanks, Don! I did ponder some more obvious details such as, “Why did the previous owner plant a mesquite so close to the driveway.” But I’ve come up with no interesting (read”intelligent”) answer.
October 8, 2014 at 7:02 pm
Wow, scary!
October 9, 2014 at 8:48 am
It was a bit scary…just glad it didn’t come through the kitchen window!