About a year or so after we bought this place, a large limb fell. It landed parallel to the barn, and did no damage, thank goodness. The rest of the tree looked solid.
When we were trying to find someone to restore our barn, almost all the contractors who saw the tree insisted that it had to come down. The contractor we eventually hired told me that we could leave it. The trunk of the tree had lifted the foundation in that one spot, but he would scribe the new posts to fit around it. (see it there in the lower left corner of the photo below?) He even hung a swing on one of the branches for my grandson.
You can see how the power company would come trim it every few years. Those power lines are for our neighbor's house behind us.
One evening after the barn was finished, a storm dropped another limb ... this time onto the barn roof. Fortunately, there was no damage and the neighbors helped us clear the debris. (no pictures of this one, sorry)
This summer, we noticed that the whole tree appeared to be leaning a little bit farther away from the barn than it used to. It still seemed stable, so we put off calling the tree company ... it's really expensive to have the tree guys work near power lines, and I didn't want to spend the money until we absolutely had to.
When I looked at this photo that I took last month, I realized that I was holding on to the idea of what this tree had once been ... storms and decay had left it with none of the beauty it had before. It was silly of me to risk the barn or neighbor's electricity like this ... so I called the tree company for an estimate.
Last week, who do you think showed up at our door? The power company was making their rounds, trimming the trees. After a short conversation with the supervisor, they agreed to take the tree down for us ... no charge.
We still have to cut down most of the big trunk, but we can do that now without the risk of electrocution.
I'm still sorry to see it go.
(written by Hartwood Roses. Hartwood Roses blog)