The Big Tree Falls (Aug. 3rd)

Yesterday at home in Lake Elsinore the day started with a crack, a rumble, a crash and a horn and that is never a good combination. 

Penelope on our roof

As most of you know we live at the base of the Ortega Hwy, we actually have a country feel about our area with a lot of wildlife (remember the baby hawks last year and Penelope Peacock?) and huge California Oak trees all around our property.

A few months ago we had a very large limb of one of the trees split, in slow motion and come to rest on top of our garage!  We were so fortunate that the split took a couple of days and there was no damage to any of our properity.  We have some pretty great neighbors that came to our rescue with chain saws before the tree came all the way down

Big limb coming down on our garage

Well yesterday we weren’t so luckey, or should I say our neighbors weren’t.

About 8AM the five hundred year old oak that sits exactly on our fence line split, and half of the tree came down on our neighbors garage, our back shed, fence and about a six foot section of our eves. There garage is a total loss, the car had to be towed away but is fixable, our shed and fence are done but our eve and and roof are reparable.

Kelly who was just visiting from Mississippi thought we were having an earthquake and headed for a door jam, Kim who was sitting on the couch about four feet from where the tree landed in our side yard will probably never be the same. Erik who was up stairs on the other side of the house thought a car missed the cornor and went through our neighbors house! I guess it was pretty exciting!  Praise God no one was hurt!  

We have been told that the oak had beetles, Yikes! We have three more huge trees on our property!  Definitley time to call in an expert.  The problem is these California Oak Trees are “protected”!  Yup, it is criminal to cut one down and you have to have a special permit from the state to even trim them!  But try to obtain a permit and its the big  government run around.  Several years ago we had to have one removed because it was lifting our foundation; after seven months of letters and phone calls to everybody from Lake Elsinore to Sacramento we finally had to find a trimmer who would “just do it” and come to find out, Keven and Shelly, our neighbors had a trimmer come out for an estimate a few months back and were told “its to hard to obtain a permit”, the guy didn’t even want the job.  Crazy huh?  These trees are so “protected” that peoples lifes are in danger, the government has made it so difficult that our hands are tied, trim and be fined, don’t trim and be squished!

Now Erik is in the midst of 3 different property owners and their insurance companys as well as the government trying to figure who is going to be responsible for and pay for cleaning up this huge mess.  

Good luck Babe!