24th January 2016
Nothing Like A Kick When You Are Already Down
We returned to our property the following day to tend to the chickens and the bees. I had been readying myself to see what was once a beautiful jarrah tree that I had sat under and watched the galahs fight in, reduced to a trunk, with a big pile of branches for us to chop into wood. Instead, I arrived to just a large pile of mulch and not even a stump on which to mourn the tree that had been part of our lives for over 17 years.
The arborists had taken the tree. Our neighbour reported he had seen them truck it away in pieces (sacrilegious) the largest a little taller than he. To make matters worse it rapidly became obvious that to get the tree off of the property vehicles had been driven over the septic tank area (a no vehicle zone) and Jamie and I faced the unenviable job of digging up the plastic tank to check it for cracks.
A phone call to the arborists (hired by the insurance company not us) to politely ask for the return of our tree was met with a curious resistance. The arborists obviously have no idea who they are dealing with. If they think we will just go away they obviously haven't encountered anyone like me before. Stay posted - our tree will be coming home!