Bucky...and not Dent

I am going to talk fluff right now because I need to.
Yes, I realize no one but baseball fans will understand the header. 
That is just okay, I humor myself. Hey, a gal needs to find a chuckle where she can these days. (I know the boys will know and probably Patti)

There was a squirrel under our neighbor's deck. 
It made Rick and I discuss the squirrel we named Bucky.

It was 2003 (I think) when we purchased a lake house. It had good bones. 
But boy was it outdated. We spent 10 yrs fixing this house up.
On the day of closing, we took a bottle of champagne and went to our new house by boat. We were standing on our new deck and Rick said, "We must get rid of this tree, it's an accident waiting to happen"

The tree he was referring to came up through the deck and was huge.
I hated all the droppings and leaves and mess it left on the deck so I was happy to hear this. The stuff off of the tree was sticky and it made a hot mess on the deck. The older folks who built and lived in this home didn't sit on the deck. So they said to us none of that bothered them. Okay but that sticky stuff will bother us.
(these older folks were our neighbors now with an empty acre in between us)

The 2nd day we were there we awoke to a storm. It appeared to blow over by afternoon. We were meeting with our newly hired "lawn guy".
He arrived and it was beginning to look dark again as if another storm was on its way.  He said he was going to start and see how much they could get done.
Then the storm came in. He didn't get much accomplished when the lightening started so he began to pack his things onto his truck.

In the meantime, I was on the deck looking down at the water and the sky was black and it began to thunder and lighting a lot. The trees were blowing like crazy including this huge one on the deck. I went inside and just as I entered the house, the tree was hit.  It split the tree but it was still standing. Barely, but standing. The lawn guy was still there and he heard that crack of the tree and came to the door to ask if we were okay. We were. We then called our insurance company.

All this on our 2nd whole day of owning this house. You could see through the tree now right on down to the lake. It was a good size split in a huge tree. 

The insurance man arrived to see the split tree. He looked through the tree and made comments. He wasn't funny even though he thought so.
It was just a matter of time before it fell onto the house. The insurance man told us that there was nothing he could do because the tree is standing. He could pay us the cost of $500 for shrub removal.
We did not understand this at all. This was not a shrub and if not removed this was going to fall on our house and cause the insurance a helluva lot more money.
It kept saying it wasn't "damaged enough and the split wasn't bad enough to cause a problem"
We suggested having it taken down before it hits the house. He said no.
We were shocked it was going to fall we just knew it.

The insurance man who Rick has a very bad name for left our home. 
We immediately called a tree guy because Rick was convinced this was going to fall and he did not want it to fall when we were back at our primary home. We made an appointment with the tree man but the soonest he could meet us was next week. We called everyone in that small town and small towns around us.  There were not a lot of choices due to this location. It figures.  We were not thrilled at what we thought this price would be and that this cost would be out of our pocket. 
We were not happy but we could not go back north knowing this tree could fall at any time. Or so we thought we couldn't.

We spent all day Saturday trying to get help. We even thought about doing it ourselves but this tree was massive and we felt we could cause as much damage as if the tree fell on the house. So we nixed it but driving 4 hrs north was not what we wanted to do before this tree was taken down. But it looked like we had no options.

I asked Rick stupid questions like, should we move all the stuff from the windows in case it falls while we're gone? Rick would laugh at me. If it falls this way or if it falls that way. How do we know? We just have to go home and pray that this doesn't fall before we can get it down.

It was a long week. I continued to call tree places from our primary location in hopes someone could do this before we get there next weekend. Our neighbors said he'd oversee it all and when finished they would call me and get a debit/credit card. It's all we could do really. No one could do this the whole week. That many tree issues in this tiny town?

On the following Friday morning we headed to the lake house to meet with a man who was going to tell us if it had to come down and if so the cost etc. We were thrilled to see the tree still standing. We knew our neighbors would have called if it had fallen. But it still felt great to see it standing as we pulled into the driveway. While the tree was in the back of the house you could still see it high above the roof when you pulled into the drive.

We got his estimate and he told us when he could do it. Obviously not today but he would get a crew here on Saturday early morning.  (next day) The quote was thousands and we were not happy. But what choice did we have? We have owned this house for 7 days now. We felt like it was the Money Pit movie.

Within 10-15 minutes after our visit with the tree man, the tree fell onto the house.  I was outside on the deck on another side and I hear Rick yell, "Get inside away from the windows in the back"  the tree was creaking loudly and swaying from these high winds because another storm was on its way. Just as he yelled to me it came crashing down. It fell parallel to the house and shirred off the roof, removed the extension, and screened-in porch area off the master...just as I got inside. Whew. 
I missed being hit or smashed under this tree by mere seconds.

After we made sure we were okay we called the insurance company again. Nothing inside the home was damaged. Thank God. 
This time Rick asked to speak to the owner.
We explained that his employee was out at our house last Saturday after the big storm and he refused to remove the tree saying it wouldn't damage anything. He even said it will stand another 50 years.
He took photos so you can see what he saw. Guess what? It fell on the house. Oh boy, this owner was livid. This was very expensive for them. 
They could have just paid for the removal but instead, they paid for a helluva lot more.
A new roof, a new screened-in porch area, and windows, the new paint to match the exterior etc. We heard the man lost his job due to the fact that pictures showed it was dire and had to be cut down immediately. (his boss told Rick this)

Here is what we had after the tree was down. Hard to see but the stump is there.

We used the stump for many years as a side table. It was actually convenient.
But it was rotting so we eventually just took it down and filled in the hole on the deck. 
For the life of us, we couldn't figure out why they built the house around this tree. We had a ton of trees on the property and this made no sense to either of us.

Now, where do the squirrels go when their tree is gone?
We had a squirrel that was there all day every day and he was so damn confused. We named him Bucky. 
Bucky was not playing with a full squirrels deck.
I think Bucky fell on his head too many times. 
The first day we owned the place Bucky fell out of the tree, grazed my shoulder, and fell onto the deck. Rick still laughs at how fast I jumped, squealed, and ran. 
Well, I didn't know what the hell hit me. Rick about peed his pants laughing at me.
The damn squirrel shook his body like my dog does when she is wet and then ole Bucky ran off. He was the most clumsy squirrel I've ever seen. He was damn funny but the poor thing just wasn't right.

Bucky would crawl up the stump and lay on the stump for the longest time in the mornings. In the afternoons he went to the deck railing. 
He would sun himself by laying over the railing on his belly with his back legs hanging over the one side and his front feet hanging over the front side. It was funny to see. Then something would startle him or he'd see something and jump up and his little feet would scurry and he would lose his balance and fall. It was a long fall. But the ever-persistent Bucky would just climb up the tree stump and do it all over again. Some days he just laid across the railings to sun himself and sometimes he hung over the railing to sun himself. But by God Bucky visited us every day all day.

Bucky wasn't bothered by either of us. He would lay on the railing as I sat in one of those chairs on the deck. Once we put peanuts on the railing to see what he'd do. We lined them up. He ate the first one then he went to the 2nd one and he fell off the railing. Now I felt bad. I made him fall. Rick of course thought that the damn squirrel was mentally challenged so from now on nuts go on the stump where his fall to the deck was far shorter than 2 stories up.

Bucky would look at us in the chairs and make all kinds of noise and then plop back down on his belly and lay across the railing for hours. 
He acted like he was telling us to leave and then got frustrated that we didn't so he went back to just sunning himself and ignoring us.
When kids came to visit they loved watching him.
Bucky kept us entertained for 5 years and then one spring he never came back.
We assumed he went to squirrel heaven and probably from all those falls to his head. I don't know do squirrels live for a long time? 

But honest to God that damn squirrel made us laugh. He would be annoyed if we moved or did something different. I would tell him, "Bucky it's my house, you may have been here first, but it's my house." Bucky would make such noise after I said that you'd think he was talking back to me. Entertaining as hell to me. My favorite is when he would be on his back legs at my sliding doors onto the deck and just clamor away as if he was asking us to come outside. It was funny. We'd go outside and he'd go lay on his stump. I think he thought he was a dog.

So remember that story of Bucky we told our neighbor to name his pet squirrel. But I think he just wants to kill him. I hope the squirrel can get out and run away before he ends up like Bucky.

Some days I miss the ole lake house.
The peacefulness. The water. The lack of internet. And the fact that I could be entertained by a damn squirrel. This city girl no less!
😷