Well today’s post is about what’s on my mind, or more accurately on my roof, at the moment. It gives the term “fall”, which presumably is for falling leaves, a whole new twist when the leaves come down with the rest of the tree!

Can you spot our exciting new fall exterior decoration??

Okay, here’s a hint!

The story

We had a dark and stormy night this week and I was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud crash overhead…and by overhead, I mean right above my bed.

It was loud enough to wake other people in the house who came in to see if I was okay. I couldn’t really see anything since it was dark, but could hear tree branches scraping the skylights and roof over my bed in the wind and rain and assumed it was a branch that had fallen on the roof in the storm. I was right, sort of. As you can see, it was a bit more than a branch. One of the massive oak trees on our property had split and capsized onto the roof, narrowly missing the skylights and the wires on that side of the house. When I ambled into my kitchen for my morning tea, color me surprised to find the top half of what I estimate to be about a 60’ oak tree chillin’ on 3/4 of my deck! The tree is sprawled across the roof and deck. It managed to miss the grill…I think…it’s still hard to get to it, but bummer, because I could totally use a new grill!.

I posted some pictures on facebook, called the insurance company, and started calling tree removal companies….the tree guy pointed out that the limb on my roof probably weighs around 5000 lbs and would have absolutely come right through the roof if it had not stayed partially attached to tree. To say I am grateful to be alive is not an understatement. “Crushed to Death” would not be my preferred way to die, but on the plus side at least there would be a closed casket…I think I’ve made it clear to my loved ones that I do not want a line of people gawking at my waxy self in a casket when I’m dead, but you never know.

One of my friends sent me an email this morning which totally cracked me up. It said, “I belatedly discovered from Facebook the exciting redecoration of your home’s exterior. I’m both horrified and massively grateful that it wasn’t worse.” I couldn’t agree more! And maybe I can call my fall exterior decorating done now?! I confess I have yet to climb on a ladder to put the pumpkins in my windowboxes, nor have I transplanted the fall mums into my front porch urns…maybe this weekend…

Monday the crane comes to lift the behemoth off the roof and the truck comes to take it away. Helpfully (?!), the insurance adjuster doesn’t arrive until Wednesday, and I sure hope he is in a generous mood because cranes and logging trucks are serious business. I won’t have any idea what the state of the roof looks like until the nice tree people get up there to deal with the thing, I only know that there are, blessedly, no pieces poking through my ceiling!

So I’ve lived to see another day. Apparently God doesn’t want me dead yet, so today I am grateful , and a little more appreciative of the people that I love and the beauty of the season - even if it means the cold, damp, and gray month of November is looming.

UPDATE!

So we had our very own touch-a-truck event here on Monday…it’s a pity my son and nephew weren’t still 2 years old, they would not have been able to contain their excitement! The tree crew showed up at the crack of dawn with 7 or 8 guys and at least 4 trucks along with a sea of equipment…the lift came crawling up the driveway on a leash, the crane backed in behind it, a chipper was ready and waiting in the street and the logging truck came later in the afternoon. These guys, from Prestigious Tree, were artists and engineers of the highest caliber - negotiating how to get their equipment in place and the steps to getting the trees off the house without causing any further damage - it was fascinating to watch! And they were so nice to boot - taking care to move my mums out of harms way, taking my camera up in the lift to take some pictures from above for me, and even cleaning the debris off the lawn after the last log left! There was, miraculously, minimal damage to the roof…a smattering of broken or cracked shingles and some bent flashing on one of the skylights. Aside from the two suspiciously new stumps, and the mountain of photographic evidence, you would never know it happened!

I am feeling extremely #blessed!

Here are a few pictures of tree removal day…