Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The other night, we were lying in bed (Lucy sleeping, me reading after having talked to Rolando, the night watchman) when suddenly out of nowhere, a thunderous crash echoed through the house.

Perhaps echo isn't the right word. More of a school bus swerving into a Jack in the Box type crash, with no one in the way. After getting into some shoes, I headed outside to talk to Rolando to see what the sam hill had happened. Turns out a rather large tree (probably about 60 feet high) had sheared off about 4 feet up and fell onto the house. Luckily, the tree was about 50 feet away from the house, so only the last bit hit the roof (denting it--the roofs are metal here) and messed up a portion of the gutters.

I've seen trees that have fallen over because of too much rain (the ground gets too soft and their roots can't handle the weight) but have not seen until now a tree just shear off like that. There wasn't even much wind.

It was a wild wakeup call, and hopefully one that won't be repeated anytime soon.