Like losing a friend

Wednesday the BF called me at work and said "you aren't going to believe what just happened!"  Turns our a HUGE branch from the neighbor's 100+ year old hackberry tree came crashing down into our yard.  We've watched this tree blow ar

ound like nobody's business whenever it gets stormy and I always worried that it could take down half my house if it decided to go.  It's right next to, and over, the neighbor's house, so it could easily take theirs down too. 

 All things considered, this is about the best case scenario - it fell into the yard hitting nothing.

  However, this branch left the tree lopsided and very prone to rotting therby put both of our houses in danger.  So the tree is coming down.  I feel horrible and it isn't even my tree.  It shades both of our houses in the summer and it's the thing I see from nearly every window on that side of the house.  What's the view going to be like now?  I took a picture from my sewing room window, which faces it, so that I could see the before and after.  Even this picture seems bare to me since it's where the giant branch is missing.  

 I feel so bad for my neighbor - we were out talking over the fence and she actually started crying.  She want to do something fitting for the tree so she's having some of the wood milled and dried so that she can have something built to keep in the house.  I thought that was great.  Especially since I have no idea how much that kind of thing costs, but the tree removal is more than $4K and insurance pays next to nothing.  The fence between

 our yards got mighty crunched, but it can be repaired, the yard is now a mud bowl because of the bobcat that keeps driving though to pick up branches but the grass will come back,  my plants are crunched but not killed.   Nothing will replace that old tree and I much sadder than I thought I would.    I can't stop watching the guys in their big lift cutting pieces down. 

 The neighbors took me up on their roof, which has a flat top and is REALLY up there - good thing I'm not afraid of heights.  I got to check out my roof, which felt miles below, and see just how badly my gutters need to be cleaned!  The tree extends probably 20 fee above their roof and it was amazing to see them work from that vantage point.  When they cut pieces and dropped them to the ground, you could feel the vibrations all the way up there!  Well, guess I'll go watch some more - it's both sad and fascinating.   This was the final before shot I could get before the cutting started:

Good bye ol' friend!