At 10:50 am on 6 May 1999 I was playing around with the Chinese Turkey when I heard a great "thump" just beyond the wall in front of my face.  (The Turkey is the computer bought me by Thinkers International and made worthy by Jack Crone.)  Finishing what I was doing, I went out to investigate.

I found that the second "leg" of the Widow Maker had fallen in an impossible manner, laying itself down in the alley with minimal damage.  The Widow Maker was a maple tree growing in my back yard near the door, having three main trunks or "limbs".  The first of those limbs fell two years ago, doing little damage, across a neighbor's fence and back yard tree.  It measured 9 feet in circumference near the split-off point and was some 80 feet long.  The tree itself was more than 100 years old, a state forester told me 10 years ago, and I measured it by triangulation at 110 feet.  Ray came over and we borrowed and rented chainsaws and within a couple of days had it out of the alley, which is in fact our drive.

The second leg, which fell May 6, was also about 3 feet in diameter at the base and 85 feet long.  Estimates of its weight range from 20 tons upward.  No tree service would take down the remaining trunk, owners saying it was far too dangerous to work above the house.  Son Raymond Jezerinac volunteered, so we bought safety equipment and two chainsaws, and Ray set out to learn a new trade.  He is a stepson, his father was a university instructor of biology with a hobby of mountain-climbing.  Ray had inherited 'Big Ray's' ropes and equipment.

May 29 and 30 Ray worked in the tree-top while the rest of us did what was needed on the ground.  The brush was piled on the front lawn to be later made into mulch by a village crew (same thing happened to the brush from the fallen part).  Brad Moore tended his buddy's safety line.  The first evening we worked till dark;  the second day the last part was dropped in the early afternoon.

The back yard is full of wood, we will later rent a power splitter and make it into stove wood.  The stump remaining is 14 feet, 10 inches in circumference at shoulder height.  It also will be cut down but it is not likely we will have it dug out.

The tale of the Widow-Maker came to intermission on 30 May, 1999, with the tree becoming firewood (almost).  It lies in my backyard on 11 June, tons of hard maple wood in sections too big for two men to lift, waiting for Raymond to rent a log splitter and make it into chunks small enough to go into a stove.  The back yard is covered with sawdust and Ray came over last evening to work on the stump:  he is making it into a seat or king-sized throne.

Buddy McMahan, a local contractor I trust, brought his crew over Friday at 6 am and before the heat of the day hit had repaired the home.  It cost the insurance company some $4600 altogether.  We were incredibly lucky in that I was not squished by the limb and that though there has been rain there has been no big rain with wind.  There has been no water damage.