Why I don't like Bradford Pear Trees

On August 11th I woke up just like any other day.  Grabbed my coffee and then headed to the family room to look out our back windows.  I like to look out in the morning and see if there are any critters (deer, birds, rabbits, etc).  Well, on this day it seemed so much more sunny and I couldn't figure out why.  Then, I saw it!  Our Bradford Pear tree had split in the middle of the night.  We did not have stormy weather and we didn't even hear it fall. 

Here is a picture of the damage.



That is why I don't like Bradford Pears.  No rain or storm and it just split and fell over.  Now, we had two problems.  #1:  What do we do with the 1/2 a tree that fell in the yard and #2:  What if the rest of the tree fell.  If the rest of the tree fell it would fall on our house!  I really want to remodel, but that isn't the remodel I'm hoping for.

We decided to start taking care of what fell first.  Kevan and his dad "chopped" up the tree so that we could load up the brush on the trailer and take it down to the "burn pit".  Then, the rest was cut up to use in our wood stove next winter.



Kevan's dad brough over his chainsaw and helped us out A LOT.  I am so grateful for his help!



Once they were finished cutting up most of the part that had already fell they started on the rest of it.  Below shows you how they tied a piece of rope to the tree and to the truck so that when Kevan's dad cut the limb Kevan would then start to drive the car forward.  It worked.  :o)

Here is a picture of Kevan's dad up in the tree.


 When the tree fell here is the indentation it made in the ground.  I'm glad I wasn't standing under it!


If you can believe it...we are still cleaning up after this tree.  It has been MONTHS and many fires later we are still burning the brush and cutting up the firewood. 


Burning the brush.

Some projects never end.