A sure sign of rotting wood? Mushrooms. This tree is a very large maple and the main trunk is a split trunk which leaves it vulnerable to wind and ice damage. And we have had a lot of wind and ice damage over the past few years including the winds of Ike.
Sadly this beautiful maple with brilliant red fall leaves had to come down since it was so close to the house.
Seems like an army of trucks came in for the job. A crane, a chipper, a grinder and truck, and a large flatbed. They took it apart one very large piece at a time.
Bye bye tree.
There is also another large maple in the front yard on the other side of the drive. An arborist has told us that it will soon have to be taken down as well. It's too bad that the previous owners of this house did not take better care of the trees in this yard. When we moved in we had 15 trees and have lost 7 and there are still at least 2 more that have so much damage they need to be removed. It is an expensive task! With hugely varied price estimates. We had estimates for this tree from about 850 to almost 2000. Definitely good to shop around. Plus, this time of year is slow so it is a good time to get a deal!
The one bright side to removing this tree is that my front flower beds will have lots more sun and I will have a larger variety of flowers to choose from. We do however plan to replace this tree with a smaller flowering variety. One that is more manageable.