The closing for the purchase of the house happened in the first week of May in 2018. I was in Sao Paulo working, so the attorney went to the closing for me. I longed to be there, but that was impossible. A week after closing I was sitting in my office in Sao Paulo and saw an online weather report for Newburgh, a huge storm – including a tornado had hit the region. I was worried. My house is surrounded by trees.
My neighbors contacted me to let me know the house had not been hit. It was a relief. The bad news was I had a number of trees felled by the tornado winds. Two were blocking the driveway. One 40 foot tall pine tree had broken in half. Other trees had significant branches break off. My yard was littered with the debris from trees.
My first big expenditure was to pay thousands of dollars to a landscaping company to cut up and haul away the trees. It was not how I had hoped to be spending my money. I was lucky. Some people lost most of their yard trees. There were some old pine trees, near the house (now removed), that could have easily fallen and caused serious damage to the house.
One of my priorities over the past year was to remove some of the weakest trees. It is sad to cut down a tree. However, the trees cut down were rapidly failing. They were old and it was inevitable they would need to come down. I can now rest a little more easily knowing they are not endangering me or someone on the property.
Nature has a way of reminding us we do not get to plan everything about our lives.