RIP Tree

We moved into this house in 1998. The best part was the awesome tree on the front lawn. It was tall, perfect for climbing, green from April until October and blocked the direct view of our living room from the street.

Now. Living in Newfoundland took its toll on the poor tree. In 2000, we had a record snowfall of a quadrillion centimeters of snow and ice. When everything melted by mid-June, our poor tree had cracked in half. Like literally, split down the middle as if Zeus himself struck it with a bolt of lightning.

However, Dad had a plan (as all dads do) and pulled it back together with a piece of string. Apparently string and duct tape is all you need to fix anything. Believe it or not, the string actually worked and the tree survived and for the record, the string is now part of the tree. Legit.

Skip ahead ten years to Fall of 2010. Newfoundland was struck by Hurricane Igor. Igor was not kind to us. Floods everywhere, hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, roads washed out leaving complete towns isolated from any aid and power outages for days. (4 in our case.)

The winds ripped up so many trees. It was sad to drive home and see trees that were probably close to a hundred years old toppled over and their roots torn from the ground. However, our tree was still standing the next morning. Granted, there were a few moments where we thought all was lost, but it stood strong. It could also have something to do with the extensive roots that cause a problem anytime we try and renovate our front lawn. We thought that we had won the battle, that our tree was indestructible.

Not so much.

That picture was taken today. It's July. There should be more than 12 leaves on a tree on July 23rd. Our tree is dead. In fact, it was dead last September, but we only realized the true damage recently when all of the neighbor's trees actually looked like, well, trees.

By next week, the tree will be gone. There will be a gaping hole in the front yard and even though I don't live here anymore, I'm trying to convince my parents to plant a cute maple tree. However, for all of the above weather reasons, it might be a waste of time if the first windstorm cracks it in two.

Poor Tree.