Earthquake, thunder, or huge planes overhead?

None of the above!! Last Wednesday I sat in my kitchen with two of my SILs--Kim & Rebecca. As we were talking, out of the blue we heard a loud booming. Becca thought it was an earthquake and rushed out the back door. Kim thought the kids had busted something upstairs and went to the stairs. I thought it could be thunder but it was just too close and inconsistent sounding. My next thought was huge bomber planes flying over Gilmer like in the movies--yeah right, an earthquake is more likely. I bolted to the front door and flung it open only to walk into this practically on my front porch:

As the three of us entered the front yard to inspect the damage our mouths just dropped. We were in total and utter shock. We made sure the kids weren't crushed underneath--they were in the playroom--and just walked around the tree over and over. Phone calls were made, neighbors walked over, people slowed as they passed on the road. A spectacle it was. We still don't know how old the tree was because as you can see from the pictures, the tree is still as tall as the house. Guesses range from 60 to 100 years. Apparently, the top of the tree split into two main branches which, in the joint, had begun to rot and hollow. The two halves just fell away landing on opposite sides. Unfortunately, one side fell on the house. There are holes in the roof, but only in the garage. Because Isaac was sending rain our way, we scrambled to get the roof cleared and holes covered. We have a friend who came over and with Becca and Ben, patched the roof well enough to hold us over until it can be repaired. We also had people come out Saturday for a miraculous clean up effort. At one point we had about thirty people, not including kids, that helped chain saw, split wood, haul branches off in trailers, and rake leaves. It. Was. Amazing. My heart was full of gratitude. We began at seven in the morning and everyone but family was gone by eleven thirty.

There are a few positives to the tree falling: 1. We have a ton of firewood for next year, 2. I can now grow flowers on my front porch-sunlight! 3. My fall raking will be dramatically reduced. Even with these things, I am still quite upset about losing the tree. It was a majestic oak and really added to the front yard. Oh well--no use crying over a fallen tree!