Missed the house by about 2" ...

[JoyfulNoise]

We had a severe micro-burst storm (cyclonic winds, rain and hail) descend right onto our neighborhood. Only a few square miles were affected and I think our homes were right in the middle of the storm. That mesquite tree was probably about 20-25 years old and stood probably 30-40ft tall with a very wide canopy. The storm uprooted it in seconds. Sad to see it go as it provided a lot of late afternoon shade. Many of my neighbors were less fortunate and lost their block walls as water built up behind them. We have swales and washes to direct the water but, after two weeks of monsoons saturating the ground, the water from this storm literally had nowhere to go. The forces involved are fearsome and amazing and it's no wonder when people around here play in the washes when it rains that the swift-water rescuers have their hands full ....

We Shall Rebuild

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Here's the root ball -

 

[Newdude]

We get all the warnings of the big storms that fizzle out before they get here. I am utterly terrified about whatever shows up unannounced on a Tuesday. It’s ALWAYS Tuesday for some reason.

And hey, at least it was the floofy side of the tree that almost hit the house and not the business end.

 

[Newdude]

I bet it was the phosphates.

 

[mknauss]

Lucky it did not pull up the block wall. Trees here in the desert tend to blow over alot. Most in our neighborhood have.

Glad nothing else was damaged. The storms can be wild. We only had one this last round, lasted for about 10 minutes. 3/4inch of rain but not a lot of wind.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Lucky it did not pull up the block wall. Trees here in the desert tend to blow over alot. Most in our neighborhood have.

Glad nothing else was damaged. The storms can be wild. We only had one this last round, lasted for about 10 minutes. 3/4inch of rain but not a lot of wind.

We got about 2-1/2" of water in less than an hour with frozen peas size hail. The pool filled up to the coping. I drained about 650 gallons of water off of it this morning. Mr. T is currently working on sucking up all the debris and I added acid and jug of chlorine just to kill anything that might think about growing. My neighbor at the top of the cul de sac was not so lucky - her back wall and front wall both had grates in the bottom. But the house behind her back wall is not in our HOA and they left all kinds of trash and debris there. That property slopes from all 3 sides directly at her backyard. The wall is 5ft tall and had probably 4-1/2ft of water built up behind it. It gave way and huge wall of water ran through her back yard and dumped right into her pool. Her pool looks like a cesspool right now and her front wall got knocked over too. They are lucky it diverted around their house and no one was outside when the wall let go.

All the houses are interconnected with swales and riprap. So it's like a domino effect - water at the top just keeps moving until it gets to the bottom and exits out the western wall. Anything in its path is toast.

 

[JJ_Tex]

Look at the positive, you will have enough mesquite wood for all of your BBQ needs for the next decade.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Look at the positive, you will have enough mesquite wood for all of your BBQ needs for the next decade.

Very true ... tree trimmers around here love it when the mesquites fall. They all offer wood for sale and they all get it for free when homeowners pay them to remove it ... paid to take the wood and paid to sell the wood ... not a bad deal if you have a chainsaw and a big truck ...

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I bet it was the phosphates.

Good point ... I should break out my test kit and check the pool ...

 

[JamesW]

 

[Nikilyn]

In my opinion, no loss. I am NOT a fan of mesquite trees. We had one at one of our houses because the neighborhood required it. I was so glad to move. After each storm, those and palo verdes are uprooted everywhere. They shouldn’t be planted here because they don’t water them correctly. They need deep water, not a drip. It makes the roots too shallow and the trees not stable. Plus, they don’t prune them correctly. All of that equals downed trees. Our neighborhood finally decided to replace them with other trees, one of which is my favorite, a red push pistache. Gorgeous tree that you never see uprooted. I just wish my neighbor’s palo verdes would blow over. They have 6 of them in their yard and all the flowers and leaves land in our pool . But it’s a good thing that yours didn’t hit the house. Are you going to plant something else there?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

In my opinion, no loss. I am NOT a fan of mesquite trees. We had one at one of our houses because the neighborhood required it. I was so glad to move. After each storm, those and palo verdes are uprooted everywhere. They shouldn’t be planted here because they don’t water them correctly. They need deep water, not a drip. It makes the roots too shallow and the trees not stable. Plus, they don’t prune them correctly. All of that equals downed trees. Our neighborhood finally decided to replace them with other trees, one of which is my favorite, a red push pistache. Gorgeous tree that you never see uprooted. I just wish my neighbor’s palo verdes would blow over. They have 6 of them in their yard and all the flowers and leaves land in our pool . But it’s a good thing that yours didn’t hit the house. Are you going to plant something else there?

Agreed. While I loved the shade that the tree provided (especially over by the BBQ), it created nothing but a landscape mess. Constant beans, flowers, needles, leaves ... just made a mess of everything and a royal pain in the rear to clean up. When you prune them, it instigates immediate sucker growth all along the branches that are pruned so you can never keep it properly thinned out and shaped - landscapers love them because it means a constant supply of tree trimming work for them every year. Plus, the beans are a favorite for the ground squirrels and pack rats - I've had to pull out quite a few pack rat nests over the years and I really hate that. I contracted valley fever once from messing around in the dirt and I'd rather never go through that again. And you are quite correct, they are never planted right or watered correctly and, insanely enough, they are constantly placed near block walls where they eventually attack the footers and uproot the wall. Not a good choice of landscaping tree.

As for replanting ... well, there will eventually be a giant hole there ... maybe I should plant my fig tree in it (actually, a fig would be worse - fruit to attract the pests AND shallow aggressive roots to go after the wall). Red pistache is a great tree. I also like Velvet Ash trees and Sacred Fig (non-fruiting). We are also thinking about doing some more backyard (de)construction, so I may leave it bare until we figure out what to do back by that wall.

Step one - find someone to come take it down when there is NO ONE available for the next 3 to 4 weeks ...

 

[markayash]

I bet it was the phosphates.

That’s where he poured all the water after he test the pool.

Glad no one was hurt!

 

[JamesW]

Hopefully, it will reduce the mesquito population in the area, which was probably high due to the source being so close to the house.

 

[JamesW]

Step one - find someone to come take it down when there is NO ONE available for the next 3 to 4 weeks

You can buy a chainsaw. Just sayin'.

 

[Newdude]

You can buy a chainsaw. Just sayin

+1. Matt looked plenty able on the expert vids.

Step one - find someone to come take it down

Step one was completed by the wind. It’s down. Just sayin.

 

[markayash]

+1. Matt looked plenty able on the expert vids.

Step one was completed by the wind. It’s down. Just sayin.

matt is thinking " Instead of cutting it up I could mix a few chemicals and in a couple days it will be " what tree" "

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I like playing with chainsaws as much as the next guy but the wife says I have to wait until the end of the month when the life insurance gets paid … hmmmm

I actually have a H/O insurance claim started for some other damage so I’m going to get estimates and see what my insurer is willing to cover. If they don’t want to cover “skilled arborist fees” then perhaps “shiny new 91cc MS661 Magnum Stihl chainsaw ” will be considered a covetable expense ….

 

[Newdude]

I have to wait until the end of the month when the life insurance gets paid

Pfffffffft. The wussy pitch on the homeowner chainsaw blades never kick anymore. It takes 5 times longer each cut but they’ve made them pretty darn safe. Now my old mans chainsaw was the face splitter 9000. And us kids were playing Jarts nearby so he was SO cutting on expert mode.

 

[cowboycasey]

I grew up with Stihl chainsaws with 6 foot blades that would take your arm off if it kicked.. They were CRAZZY Sharp, I know cause I made them that sharp