Arbor Ailments, Part Three (and Four?)

We'll (hopefully!!) conclude our series of "arbor ailments" in 2008. In the beginning of September, we walked outside one morning and it suspiciously felt like April all over again. Our friend the Mulberry lost another (much larger this time) branch into our poor neighbor's yard. Yes, that's right - the same tree lost three large branches in one summer. We again called several local tree services, and this time it was recommended that we remove the entire tree. We were told that the Mulberry (which happened to be one of the few large, healthy trees left in our yard) had been allowed to grow past the point where it could support itself, and would continue to lose large branches (and likely next time into a nearby garage.) We reluctantly agreed to the removal of the Mulberry, and also had a large redbud extensively pruned. Our yard is much less shady now, and we're hopeful that the additional sunshine will contribute to thick, green grass in the spring.






HOWEVER, just a couple days after we were faced with our Mulberry-removal, we exited the house in the morning only to discover the lovely sight you see below:



Yes, that's a 5-foot branch sticking up through the roof of the garage. As you might imagine, trees were not my favorite thing this summer. Luckily my very handy husband climbed on the roof (the following day) and had the hole and shingles repaired in a manner of hours. I was pretty upset by this whole string of tree-related events, but also count us very lucky that this was the extent of the damage caused by 4 separate incidents. Here's a look from the inside of the garage - you can see the end of the branch poking through the hole.




lastly, check out the massive spider I found on our porch the other day. I don't mind spiders as long as they stay outside - they eat all sorts of bugs that I'd rather not have around. I did some poking around online and I think it's a grass spider - the web is quite intricate and contains a couple funnels.