Fallen

 So like nearly ... ... I don't know six years ago now? I think it's been around 6 years. We had a fire behind our house. 

Where I'd basically just woken up from a nap...possibly also had been dealing with a migraine and was just hanging out when I heard a bunch of popping noises coming from the backyard. Which upon investigation ..... showed that the strip of land between our back yard and the road below the house ....was on fire.

I'd been quick to react in that I was the first to call 911 for help so that we could get the fire department over.

And luckily there was minimal damages to the houses along that strip of land. A few balconies and fences received damage and that was about it.

But at the time of the fire we had 2 huge cottonwood trees behind the house.

And both of them had caught fire. The one on the left had gone up like a torch in front of my sister and had burned hot enough to singe some of the hair on her head.

But upon investigating after the fire was out and such.

The people in charge of figuring out saftey hazards and such...decided that the cotton wood tree on the right needed to be cut down.

But decided to not cut down the one on the left as they thought it would 'come back'

It didn't come back.

Like it may have had a bit of greenery the first year or two but overall the tree was dead.

And despite all our efforts. We couldn't get the city to come in and cut down the tree.

No the most they did was trim some branches to make sure nothing would fall on the powerlines.

But otherwise. 

They were like "Not my circus not my monkeys." as the tree was on "private property" in that the strip of land is actually owned by a person so that person is in charge of maintaining the land and the trees there. If the tree isn't on 'city property' then there's nothing they can do. 

Only the city didn't TELL US THAT.

No. Last we'd heard was that the city was considering buying the land from the property owner to make sure that a fire like that couldn't happen again. But I guess they did nothing with it?

In any case. 

Over the years the tree has been slowly rotting away. Like we'd get in storms of rain and snow and wind and pieces of bark and lots of branches would fall off and break and such.

And in many ways we kinda just figured the dead tree would be standing there forever.

And in others we worried about the day it finally fell because we weren't sure how much would be uprooted when and if this cotton would decided to topple over.

And like it's on the side of a hill. So odds are the tree would fall down the hill and not up it. But like there's always that chance that the tree would fall uphill and hit our or the neighbor's house.

Anywho.

Today.

Today I had been down with a migraine that got triggered yesterday. 

And it was towards sunset when I finally awoke from my midafternoon nap that I'd taken to try and get rid of the headache.

And I was just lying in bed when I heard this odd....crashing noise?

Like it kinda sounded like the wind rushing through the branches of a tree. But there was also a heavier sound that was similar to like heavy snow falling to the ground after a storm. But like...it hadn't been snowing at all and only recently had I noticed the wind was blowing outside and honestly the only reason why I noticed the wind was blowing was because of these odd sounds I was hearing.

And I had this thought of like "Huh...this combination of noise almost sounds like a tree fell down outside my window."

You know what tree is outside my window? Yep. The dead one.

So I venture out of bed to my window and peer outside.

And there's just....nothing.

No tree.

The tree is GONE. 

So I rush upstairs up onto our deck because I wanted a birds eye view and Yep. The TREE IS GONE. 

With a quick dart back down the stairs so I could put in some contacts so I could actually SEE SEE what was going on.

I go back upstairs.

And yah. The tree had finally fallen over. 

Which was crazy because yes the wind was blowing and it was a stronger gustier wind that had a bit of a biting chill to it.

But like. It isn't the strongest wind that we've had here. We've had worse winds that I thought for sure would topple the tree...but didn't.

But for whatever reason. This wind. This day. Ended up being the last day for the tree to stand.

And since I only heard it and didn't see it....I don't quite know how it fell.

Like it sounded like 2 separate breaks. But I don't know if a top portion of the tree broke off first and then the base...or if the base actually snapped and the portions of the tree towards the top broke off when it hit the ground.

I'm thinking the base finally snapped....because it has been rotting there for years now. Maybe the rot and the increased wind from just the right direction finally convinced it to fall.

As the roots of the tree are still somewhere in the ground. Because the base of the tree is a very jagged snapped look. 

Thankfully the tree didn't hit anything manmade on its way down. The powerlines were safe that were in the area. And the tree itself managed to mostly avoid falling into the road below.

Like the top maybe 6 feet of branches had made it into the road so if a car wasn't paying attention they could have hit it.

But overall. Nothing but fallen tree to worry about.

But in an odd twist of fate.

The owner of the property happened to be outside when the tree fell.

Like was basically just down the road in their pickup truck waiting for a supply of wood chips from somewhere when the tree came down.

I don't know if they saw the tree fall itself or happened upon it soon after.

But like between me rushing up the stairs to check, getting my eyes in, and letting my roomies know hwat happened...the owner (i didn't know it was them at the time) had already pulled up at the tree in their truck and was tossing branches and grabbing a power saw to cut larger pieces into more moveable pieces. 

With the sun quickly setting they didn't do much more than gather the branches they could into the bed of their truck and move the larger pieces off the road so it wasn't blocking anything or a danger to traffic.

I'm guessing that they'll be back tomorrow or maybe this weekened to finish sawing apart the tree??? Not sure.

But apparently the owner didn't even realize that the tree was dead? Because their portion of the strip of land ends just past our house...so I guess they didn't venture down this far that often?? Because the owner was like "So did this tree die this past summer?" and my roomie (who'd ventured down to see the tree) was like "No, it was dead since the fire." 

So yah. Not observant the property owner. Not at all.

But in any case.

It's just crazy that two similar events involving trees happened when I was experiencing similar circumstances of nap/migraine.

And it's just another one of those 'is this real life' moments. Because like you see it happen but you can't really believe that it happened.

Like I keep looking out the window and it's sooo crazy to not see the giant dead tree right there. It's all open view now. I have a new view of the valley that I didn't have before because giant dead tree was in the way. And it's just....something I'l have to get used to. It's crazy. So crazy.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi