Neighbour's tree fell onto my front lawn.

Yikes, Ive got a big cotton wood tree and few years ago I was out working on a car in driveway when I heard a crack, looked around and saw about a ton of tree come crashing down in the back yard right ontop of another car of mine... somehow my car was completely buried and totally unharmed.. freaked me the hell out.

it was that same limb that nearly killed me when trying to clean it up, it was still sorta stuck in the tree, when it hit the ground, it bounced and sent me flying like a ragdoll about 30ft across the yard... be weary and carefull of cleaning that mess up! there could be a few limbs in there with alot of potential energy stored from the way there all bent out of shape.
 
Yeah, I was always looking up while cutting it away. Funny thing is, I told my wife that the branch was a prime candidate for an accident a few weeks ago. And here we are!
 
Thanks for sharing.

Interesting that was a live oak branch (not a dead one). Tree in bad shape otherwise? The dirt piled up one foot around the base isn't good by the way.

Question: any roof or other damage? It looks like you may have made out ok. Maybe some damage to the front fascia?

Luckily it didn't smash into your car / vehicles by the curb.

A couple winters back I had a deteriorating tree from a neighbor drop a limb like that onto my boat & canopy. Had to eat the damages. :/

But, great job on the cleanup, springing right into action! I like that. And repurposing a reciprocating saw. Back in the day I've had to do the same after a hurricane (with my own trees) when I didn't have a chainsaw yet, and you couldn't even buy a chainsaw (nor generator, nor roofing materials ...) in the entire state. Was a bit slow going, but got it done.
 
The limb was in spectacular condition, the wood was really fresh and my reciprocating saw had a hard time going through some the wood (hence the 18x speed up!). The limbs are growing at odd angles so the tree looks very unbalanced, so I wasn't surprised it cracked. If I had a chainsaw, I'd have been done a lot quicker.

I was actually just on my way to the gym when I heard what I thought was a dump truck outside. Turns out I was wrong and got a workout without leaving the property.

No damage except to my front stair and a bit of the eaves. My wife's garden took the brunt of the impact. I was planning on redoing the porch in the spring, so not too worried about the damage to the stairs.
 
Where were you taking all of the cut limbs/branches?
 
lapse said:
To the rightful owner.
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Did your neighbour give you permission to do that? Unless it was obvious the tree branch was unsafe, its your responsibility to dispose of it. And if you thought it was "about to come down" you should have either told your neighbour or trimmed the branch from your side of the property.
 
It's unpractical to trim branches that high. I could have left an invoice, but I felt generous.
 
pcmcg said:
Did your neighbour give you permission to do that? Unless it was obvious the tree branch was unsafe, its your responsibility to dispose of it. And if you thought it was "about to come down" you should have either told your neighbour or trimmed the branch from your side of the property.
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The general standard for the homeowner whose property the tree emanates from is negligence, which is not synonymous with obvious. Without more facts we cannot ascertain negligence. While in most states, lapse could have trimmed the portion of the tree that overhands his property, he was under no obligation to do so.
 
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