Attack of the Killer Oak

Summer 2009 - At the end of our driveway near the old barn stood a massive old oak tree.  The 6 story tall tree was partially on our property and partially in our neighbor's back yard.  It had actually grown completely through a 19th century wrought iron fence that now ran through the middle of the 5 foot plus diameter trunk.  When we bought the house, it was winter so there were no leaves on the tree and we thought nothing of it.  However, when spring rolled around, we noticed that most of the tree remained bare and was apparently dead.  We knew we'd have to do something about it eventually, but we had other projects in mind that were higher up on the list.



Welcome home!

 One Sunday as we were returning home from church, we turned onto our street only to be greeted by a platoon of police cars and emergency vehicles in our driveway.  All sorts of thoughts went though our heads.  We were worried that either an elderly neighbor had gotten sick or that our house had blown up or fallen down.  We quickly learned that it was a sort of combination of both. 

I almost flipped over my truck as a I pulled up to the curb and we jumped out to see a man sitting in our driveway bleeding, surrounded by emergency personnel and with our neighbors Matt and Roxy.  We also noticed a huge branch of the oak laying in the driveway strewn next to a chainsaw.  We came to find out that Matt and Roxy had a friend over to trim a branch that was overhanging their yard.  However, the friend doing the work had been perched on a ladder and wasn't tied off to anything.  As he had cut halfway through the huge dead branch, it had snapped and hurled him and his chainsaw 20 feet down onto our driveway.  Fortunately he wasn't seriously injured, but we agreed with Matt and Roxy that we'd all need to save money to take the tree down soon.



Yes it is

Given the proximity to the Delaware River, our area is prone to very strong thunderstorms in the summer (and heavy snow in the winter).  One evening a particularly strong storm rolled through and I was sitting out on the front porch enjoying the show.  Monica had come home, but left her car at the front of the driveway because she was going to go back out and meet some friends.  As she and I were talking on the porch, we heard a deafening CRACK, followed by a loud crash.  I jumped up to look around the corner back towards the tree and my worst fears were realized.  A massive branch of the old oak had snapped and landed across the hood and roof of my truck.  If Monica's car had been where she normally parks, it would have been totaled.  As I ran out the back door to move the crippled truck, I heard another huge CRACK sound as an entire tree from a neighbor's yard was struck by lightning and fell across most of our back yard.



The Killer Oak's Final Battle



When the storm subsided, we surveyed the damage.  The truck was pretty banged up and would require a couple thousand dollars in repairs.  After Matt and I saw that another branch had pierced the roof of his garage, we knew we couldn't wait any longer to have the monster oak taken out.  After getting quotes, we had a tree removal company come out the next week.  Because we had to pay for the tree removal, many of our planned projects had to take a back seat.   Again, the property decided what it wanted done on it's own schedule, not ours.  Our other neighbor (or Weird Steve as we call him) had the second tree removed from our yard. 



 It took our crew three days with a bucket truck to remove the tree.  We were left with enough firewood for 10 years and a pile of wood chips 12 feet across and over 4 feet high.  When we counted the rings in the tree stump, we found out it was over 120 years old.  Although it was a mighty foe, the great old oak ultimately succumbed to the whine of a chainsaw. Vengance is mine, albeit via my smoker BBQ and the fireplace!