Art & Inspiration I’m a tree hugger, but I’m pretty pissed at this one

I fixed the tree leaf problem that occurs every fall..I let the wife help with corralling the leaves for a couple years; poof three big trees and about 70% less to do..Got to let them help!!

 

Several years ago I had a 68 firebird 400. Power Windows, tilt, air, fold down rear seat, bird glass, etc etc. Had every option but rally gauges, cruise and trunk release. The options cost more then the base price of the car.

Anyway, I pretty much restored the body, New quarters, New paint, vinyl top etc and started on the interior. Drive it about 30 miles a month so be dropped full coverage and went just to liability insurance to keep tags on it and parked it while gathering seat covers when a storm went thru and dropped a huge oak tree on it. Could only see partial taillights.

Crushed hood scoops down around the carb, top of front fenders flat, sucked rear package tray out, looked like you dropped a telephone pole on the rear quarters, car went down and push gas tank up into the trunk. Total loss.

Oh and it was a special order Pontiac exec car too

 

"Let" ain't got nothin' to do with it. Neighbors don't have any say in this matter whatsoever. In the interests of maintaining good relations it may be wise to discuss it with them beforehand but when it comes down to it, branches overhanging the property line can be removed, permission is not required. It is best to "drop prune" back to the trunk when possible but if they are being dickheads about it anytime the saw is sharp is a good time to prune.

 

Hi. My 46 coupe had been in shop a bit over 3 months getting some modifications. Got it out for a test drive & on the way home got rear ended by a driver going 75 & texting. It sucks. later this year I will get the from pulled back straight and see what I can do with it. Jimmie

 

DANG Clunker, I hate to see that.Will Insurance help you out??Bruce.

 

Why is everybody bad mothing trees? I would bet that a good percentage of every body here was called a shade tree mechanic, at one time or another. Who knows, maybe many still are.
Yes, trees are are beautiful and beneficial to everybody, but they can also be a pain. The only trees in my yard are palm trees (planted by the previous owner) and they do absolutely nothing for me. They do not produce anything, not even shade. The wife likes them.

 

The mention of the paint color pretty much defined the time period. Hope he had full coverage ins.



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I like trees. That is what the upper structural support system of my garage is made from. 2X6 wall studs and 2X4 roof trusses.

 

Ha!

Ouch!

Not even a scratch on my sister’s, my tenants’ or my wife’s modern day pos’s! It brushed my sister’s car as it came down without leaving a scratch.

 

BTW...I'm a bigtime birdnerd. I wouldn't have that hobby without trees. After my kids are done and out of the house I'm going so far north in Michigan no one will find me...lost in the trees.
But the one that killed my car can bite me.

 

Judge Judy should be on soon, I'll wait and see what she says.

 

Sad. HRP

 

Trees die of old age just like everything else. In the Ozarks the oak trees only live to be about 75 years old. And when we have ice storms pine & cedar snap in two. I kill trees on a regular basis. Today I cut a mature ash and made firewood. Also there is a wood boer insect that is killing trees in the Ozarks. When I split the ash I found insect damage. When we bought this corner there where some giant trees here. and I took a D 8 and pushed them down. And there where some leaningtowards the house and I attached a cable and cut them down. My wife didn't much like it. But I told her I wasn't gonna have those trees shedding limbs and leaves on my vehicles. And that winter we had a traffic ice storm. and the few trees I left lost all their limbs. Over at our other place a cedar root wadded and crushed the cab on a 63 chevy pickup that My wife learned to drive in when we where dating.

 

Well it didn't get the car but it damned near knocked the roof off the house


My son and I were sitting here in the living room during a windstorm when we heard a crash and the whole house shook. We did burn that wood in the fireplace over the next winter though. The roof had to be jacked back in place before it could be repaired.
That wasn't even the tree I was afraid would fall, I figured the big one out front would topple on the cars.
When I was in high school a local guy a couple of years older than me decided to use a branch of the tree in his folk's yard to do an engine swap. He got the engine picked up about 8 inches above the fenders and started to push the car back to let the engine down when the limb broke away from the tree. It didn't look quite as bad as flatheadpete's shoebox but was still totaled.

 

That's TV. Don't trust anything they say.

 

You and me both....

 

The problem is you are hugging them too tight!

 

Big trees look nice until they make a sunlight in your roof. I have 130 trees on my lot but nothing large enough or close to any buildings to cause damage. I thin out a few every year to avoid similar scenarios. Three of my neighbours trees have landed in my yard over the years,,,they learned the hard way.

 

I see the pic with the OT engine change using a tree got deleted... years ago I went and helped a buddy pull the motor out of his '60 Starliner using a tree as the overhead lift point. We were just about ready to push the car off from under the motor when the tree broke, dropping motor across the cowl and the tree limb across the roof. The car was a total loss.

I had a couple of Fir trees that started shedding limbs; one dented the center of the hood on my daily (luckily fixed with 'paintless dent repair'), the other one trashed the hood/windshield on my GF's car to the tune of $2800. Both trees are now gone.

Still didn't eliminate wind issues. Big windstorm after the trees were gone brought a patio-table umbrella in from god-knows-where (I know none of my close neighbors owned it) and dented my daily again...

 

Flatheadpete,

Is that a front clip off an Alfa Romeo in the play area behind your Ford?

 

When I was a teen we had a chain hoist that mostly hung from a limb of a large white oak. however a chain ran at a 45 degree angle to the main trunk of the tree. We lifted lots of heavy stuff and that limb never failed. I still have that chain hoist. It now resides on a heavy swingset that has wheels.

 

IF.....you tell the neighbor his trees look like they might fall on your property.......and he sez "eat-me" (or whatever) The big storm that causes them to hit your stuff..the bill goes to him. IF nothing is said...then its on you to remove it.
6sally6 (Navy yard lawyer)

 

Hey Steve, remember back in the 80's/90 when "tree hugger" was not a very popular term up here in the Great Wet North?

We had the Northern Spotted Owl fiasco up here pitting the logging industry and the environmentalists against each other, there was a long period where you NEVER saw log trucks anywhere.

 

When I was a kid, my mom had a tree in the back yard that pulled many engines for me via come-a-long... Never had a issue. After reading through this post, I thank my lucky stars that the tree was healthy and strong.

BUT, while serving my nation, and while I was over seas, the big flood came from the early 1990's. It put half of my town under water. Strangely, even though my mom's house was missed, a large sinkhole appeared in the back yard. With it, it took that wonderful trees life. And I lost about a dozen cars that I had stored in a barn near the river. I will never forget that time...

I am sorry for those that lost their cars. I still am pained over the loss of those cars from the flood. I loved all of them, and built them all to haul ass!!!

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I am sorry to see what happened to all the cars and people in this thread, but it has happened to me twice. On one ocassion, a 150 Ft tree blew down during a bad storm and wiped out the roof and front end of my daily driver.
During a different bad storm, while I was away on a flight, an even larger tree came down on the roof of the house, and one branch went through the roof and the ceiling of my daughter's room, and missed her head by 1 ft.
I had to get a friend with a self loading logging truck to grab the tree with the hook, while I cut the log up in 8 ft chunks. It was covered by insurance, but I got even with the log by milling it into beautiful, clear lumber.
I wouldn't want to do that now. At 75, I would have a difficult time on the wet roof handling my 056 Stihl with a 42 inch bar. I think the only thing that protected the roof from collapsing, was that the house is a hip roof design.
During another winter storm, a guy was driving down the road in front of our house, when my neighbour's 200 ft fir tree blew down and nailed the car on the hood. The car went from travelling at 40 mph to 0 to a dead stop immediately. It would have been like hitting a concrete wall. The driver had a concussion, and even though the high tension 3 phase wires came down on the car, the insulation held and there was no further electrical damage.
The joys of life in the country.
Bob

 

I assume all of the tree haters like to breathe, trees are the worlds largest source of free oxygen, so it is foolhardy to cut down trees just because! I am not a tree hugger, by my definition of a TH, but I sure do like them for all of the benefits they provide and therefore have many trees on my property, just like any thing else they require periodic maintenance! Sorry, my rant is over.

 

And that's how I ended up in Nebraska. Jobs went away in my end of Oregon so I had to follow the work and move.
Clunker ....only good news is your damage appears to be limited to the front clip and all 60 caddys use the same sheetmetal front clip. Hope you get it fixed ok.

 

If those trees are necessary for oxygen. Why don't we run out of air in the winter when they are dormant? Why isn't there a oxygen shortage out on the prarrie & desert where trees are scarce? The fact is anything green takes in carbon dioxide and emits oxygen. So My take is a field of corn that makes more folage per square ft than a tree does is just as beneficial. even the green soup plants that are in the water of a swamp consumes carbon Dioxide and emits oxygen. Im not a tree hater. Im a tree user. I try and manage my wood land for the benefit of me. I harvest cull & mature trees. I thin down to where the trees can grow. Too many stems per acre results in spindly weak trees. I like to hunt the game that gravitates to my semi open woodlands. In the forest the old mature trees shade out the younger trees. and then when they start dying disease gets a foothold and they all die at once. Here in the Ozarks the forest had been mismanaged. The loggers harvested the best more valiable trees. and left the cull and worthless trees. So the trees left became the (parents) of the next generation. To rectify this many areas need to be clear cut and only real good trees left. or new trees planted. Sometimes even a perfect healthy tree needs to be removed. Because they fall into the category of a weed. A weed is any plant that is out of its place. This year I picked up several bushels of those Hedge Apples. Later this spring I plan to plant a thick hedge of them around the premeter of some acreage We just purchased in November. I will also plant some walnut and hickory nuts. and some Hawthorn bush . cedar and blackberry will also come up volunteer in that hedge. I want it eventually be about 10 feet wide and too thick for a human to enter. It will be great habitat for birds and other critters.