Yesterday morning, a forest came crashing down in our backyard.
We’ve had trees come down before, but never like this: this one was huge, and when it was down it more or less filled our yard.
And killed our fire pit.
And massacred our Mystery Gnome.
All joking aside: this is just super-dangerous, and really freaked me out. Because yes, it was windy and rainy yesterday…but it wasn’t the kind of “windy and rainy” that would necessarily have kept me (and my dogs, and my son) out of the backyard for fear of falling sequoias. Last year, when a couple of trees fell onto the edge of our property, I called our town’s public works department but was told that the forest around our house is protected, so there wasn’t a lot they could do…but this time they agreed to remove four (dead) trees that would pose a pretty significant threat to our property (not to mention us) were they to come crashing down.
Which is great.
Also great: our town’s public works department, generally. I mean, they were here five minutes after I called, and had the tree out of our yard by the time night fell. I’m just trying to imagine what would happen if you were to call the NYC Public Works Department and ask them to swing on by; I’m thinking they’d show up sometime around Never.
Anyway, hopefully removing those remaining trees will solve the problem. I could do without this happening again.
Also: I think this is a nice opportunity to re-think the fire pit situation rather than just buying a new version of the one we had before. My friend Katie built one herself (similar to this), and I’m thinking it could be a fun DIY project. Any suggestions, either for a DIY fire pit or anything else that could be fun in the spot?
