Goodbye, Old Friend

We lost one of our family friends last night and it brought a tear to my eye.  It happened in just a few seconds and had been coming for years, yet it was sad when it happened.  And we will be re-living it for a long time because he won't be going away soon, instead just laying there in the river, rotting and waiting for a big flood to carry him away.

Our friend was a big cottonwood tree right at the edge of the river that runs by our house.  For the last ten days we have been having rain, a lot of it, and flooding.  Even though we had protected the tree with rip-rap (large  rocks) several years ago, there just was not enough root structure there to support it in the super saturated soil.  Last night my wife and I were sitting in our "River Room" when we heard a large "crack" which sounded like thunder, but was instead our tree falling into the river.

It was a major highway for squirrels as they made their way along the river bank up in the trees.  It has been home to squirrels, racoons, other animals and a variety of birds, including baltimore orioles.  We've had bald eagles in the high branches every fall and winter and ducks in the lower branches every spring.  It has given us shade and was a large visual anchor to our view of the river

But no more.  We will miss you old friend. You will be stuck in the river for a long time to come, maybe even years, before a big flood comes to take you away. You will be a sad reminder of your former grand presence.

Our loss is minor, compared to that of many.  We have had no floods or tornadoes to tear our lives apart.  (Our house sets on a high riverbank and and only a flood much greater than the epic record breaker of 2008 would cause us problems)

We have not lost possessions or family (or friends) lives due to this "natural disaster"   We spent a few minutes putting our loss in perspective compared to that of many others.  A loss?  Yes.  But significant on the larger scale?   No.

Still, Goodbye Old Friend.