I HATE Oak Trees..

Well, not all oak trees. I guess it was really just one oak tree. And, I didn't hate it every day. I really just hated the day it fell on our car, and our SUV, and our house.

One calm evening, my husband and I were swimming outside with the girls and we kept hearing a popping sound. We thought maybe it was the neighbors hitting balls in their back yard but it in actuality, it sounded different than hitting balls. I yelled, "Look! that tree is going to fall!" And, we watched it fall. There was absolutely nothing we could have done to prevent it.... it just fell. A healthy tree fell on a calm night. It wasn't windy. It wasn't stormy. It was calm.

My son was inside and this is a glimpse of what he saw and felt:

And when we came around the house, this is what we saw:

After we got over the initial shock, the real work started. A tree service came out and removed the tree. That was the easiest and most efficient thing that happened. The guys were amazingly efficient and they used a crane so it was entertaining! In no time flat, they had the tree completely removed and the yard cleaned up. They enjoyed what they do and it showed. It is so exciting to see employees enjoying their jobs but I digress.

We had 2 cars and 1 house damaged so we had 3 claims even though they were all insured with the same company. Because of the staff "shortage", we had some huge issues with our insurance and because there is a car "shortage" replacing the SUV that was declared totaled, proved to be quite tricky. We did eventually find one. The car that is reparable isn't scheduled to go into the shop until October and the roof repair hasn't even begun yet.

It is a freak accident that a tree falls on a house and 2 cars on a clear day with not even a breeze. The tree guys said that we had dry weather for so long when it began to rain, the trees soaked the rain up like sponges. The tree had most of it's branches on one side so all the disproportionate weight made the tree just fall. Within a few days of our tree falling there were huge storms and the I have never in my life viewed as much damages as what happened near us. It went on for miles and miles.

We do hope to be all squared away before snow falls and we pray the trees stay upright!