Downed Tree, Windfall for the Taking

A downed Tree near the road

   We had a big storm come through here almost two weeks ago.  Every time there is a big storm, we’re likely to have big trees alongside the road fall over and block the road.  This is a California Live Oak that fell over onto the road. The local custom holds that any tree that falls onto the road is fair game for any locals who have a saw and wish to take wood.  The first thing to do if you have a saw is to cut an opening for vehicles to pass… then you can cut the rest of the tree into smaller pieces to take home.  Don’t cross fences….  the ability to take these ‘windfalls’ is extended only to the edge of the road technically.  This tree probably blocked part of the road…. but it has been cut quite a bit far from the road. Perhaps the landowner permitted the extra cutting…. more likely, whoever got here first with a saw just kept cutting closer and closer to the stump, and taking all that nice ‘Red Oak’ home. The one big branch on the ground still attached is holding much of the weight of the entire tree… when it was initially knocked over it was probably a few thousand pounds.  Cutting into that branch might cause the tree to move and hit you…. the ground here is actually pretty steep, so it can become very dangerous. Doing such work one must be continually aware of everything around oneself… no place for daydreaming…. this work.   One time years ago I was coming back from work early in the AM from night-shift at the plant… and there was a huge sycamore that fell across the road…. with steep impassable banks on both sides there was no way around, and I was still five miles from home and the saws…. and I was soooo tired and wanted nothing more than to get home to bed.  Walking around the tree in the dark,  trying to find a solution I looked up as a neighbor was coming down the road on his way out to his work… we traded trucks and he went to his work in mine, and I went to my home in his.

    Another time I was coming into the canyon and there was a fellow standing in the road scratching his head looking over a giant oak tree that had fallen down from the top of the cliff above…. it extended quite a ways out over the creek which is impassable….. he was stuck. The odd thing is he was following his friends who were guiding him into the canyon to their ranch…. they were perhaps a hundred yards ahead of him, and passed before the tree fell…. it fell just in front of the visitor.  This was a tree so huge you could not wrap your arms  around the trunk…. luckily he was not going a bit closer to them… he held back so his air filter would not get so much dust from their truck.

   Once going out early in the morning to work, there was a tree down…. I went back home for a saw and went and cut a hole big enough to get through and rushed on to work…. it was 2AM and not a good time to be cutting wood under headlights while I’m supposed to be getting to work.