Friday afternoon Amanda reported to me that while she was outside playing in the considerably larger than normal creek, she heard a cracking noise and then this tree just fell over. I didn't make out which tree it was from her description, but it turns out that it was a large cottonwood. A very large and old cottonwood tree and perhaps the tallest one on the property. Now it's just the longest tree on the property. This tree was big when I was just a kid and I have no idea how old it is, but it was there for a long time. The wind storm that we had 3 years ago did some damage to it and that may have helped along it's downfall. But I suspect the main culprit was the 4 or 5 days of constant rushing water around the roots that made it fall. And that's exactly what it did, pulled the roots out of the ground and fell over. I have no idea how I'm going to get it cleaned up, but I'll definitely have to wait until the ground dries out. We haven't had any rain yet today, but the streak is still alive. I decided yesterday that I could get some mowing done before dark and after about 3 passes it began to sprinkle. That was about the same time that my mower stopped in its tracks, buried to the axles in the soft ground. I ran in to get some help thinking that I could rock it out or something like that, but this new zero turn I have weighs a lot more than my old mower. A lot. Then, of course, with all of us out there trying to move it the sprinkle became a downpour. Eventually I tied it to the car and pulled it while Jeff sat on it and backed it up and we got it unstuck leaving 2 pretty healthy ruts in the front yard, not to mention 2 fairly deep holes where the rear tires sunk into the ground. So it's official then, the consecutive streak of rainy days is neat and all, but for me the allure is gone, I'm prayin' for shine.
The blank area marked with the red square is not Moscow, but the portion of skyline that once was dominated by the cottonwood tree.
This is a picture of the roots the day it fell while the creek was still up. You can only see just the top portion of the roots there on the left of the picture.
This is a picture of the roots on Sunday afternoon. I am standing right next to them and they are a little over head high to me. That would make it a little over 6 feet wide at the root.
My guess of the source of the loud cracking noise would be limbs of this cedar tree being stripped off of it when the big boy fell. I'm actually standing on the tree near the roots in this picture and you can kind of get a sense of the length of the tree looking up the trunk in this picture.
Here is a picture of the trunk from the opposite direction. You can kind of judge the thickness of the trunk in this picture. It was a massive tree and all it took to bring it down was a little water. Having known this tree since I was 11 years old, it kind of feels like I've lost an old friend.
Craig
This is a picture of the roots the day it fell while the creek was still up. You can only see just the top portion of the roots there on the left of the picture. 
My guess of the source of the loud cracking noise would be limbs of this cedar tree being stripped off of it when the big boy fell. I'm actually standing on the tree near the roots in this picture and you can kind of get a sense of the length of the tree looking up the trunk in this picture.
Here is a picture of the trunk from the opposite direction. You can kind of judge the thickness of the trunk in this picture. It was a massive tree and all it took to bring it down was a little water. Having known this tree since I was 11 years old, it kind of feels like I've lost an old friend.
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