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Pay the Price – Friday Fictioneers

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It’s Wednesday!  I am afraid I don’t do fiction very well.  Of course, if I didn’t have so many stories to cull from, maybe I’d work my imagination a bit more. 😉 That being said, here is this week’s Friday Fictioneer contribution inspired by Sandra Crook‘s photo.  As always, thank you to Rochelle for hosting this here weekly partay!  Click on the frog below to add the link to your own 100-word story if you dare…

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I asked the city for permission.  They said ‘no’.

Why the hell did you do that?

It’s the right thing to do.

Ahh, shit.  Don’t care, I’m cutting it down anyway.  It’s too huge, sways like crazy in storms and the damn pinecones end up in the pool!

***

Mick’s friend Pierre, a professional, did the deed while the neighbours watched and cheered (they worried with every storm, too).  They then chopped and put the logs aside to dry. Firewood for next year!

***

Two months later, the city slapped us with an $850 fine. Plus, we had to replace the tree.  Cost: $150.

Bye-bye old tree
Hello expensive new tree

 

168 thoughts on “Pay the Price – Friday Fictioneers”

    • Dear Rochelle,

      It definitely smarted, needless to say. Oh! I’ll take that! Flash Fact-tion! Love it. And thank you.

      Shalom and lotsa less expensive love,

      Dale

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Our council in Poole were cutting trees down in our road but never told us. You might remember my post ‘What about my tits?’ when I sent a message to the council asking where my tits were going to sit. We got a hawthorn variety delivered to our door courtesy of the council to put in our front garden, and didn’t have to pay a dime.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Oh-Oh….that’s not a nice sum to pay…. If you knew this from the start, you could have chopped it and put another one in its place right away and claim that: a. aliens changed it during a night, b. a mysterious bug altered its structure or c. simply tell them that this was the original tree and that they are either blind or crazy!
    Either way, loved the writing! 😉 xoxoxoxo

    Liked by 4 people

  7. That’s nuts.
    Also, it’s worth the (kooky!) fine, because the cost of replacing the house, the roof, and/or limbs would’a been more. It IS however, completely bonkers that the city did not PAY to remove a tree that was a menace. Sheesh. I do like the little sapling, though. Lotta years before it can fall on someone’s roof … 😉

    Liked by 3 people

  10. oh boy; our neighbour in England had the very same problem – we followed their discussions with the council during at least 3 years…. the tree was a menace not for their house but for the cars parked along the steep hillslope as well as for pedestrians walking along the street. There was NO WAY they were allowed to cut that tree down. In the end they were ‘allowed’ to shorten it a bit which served to exactly nothing.
    We had to cut down several trees in France, a very costly business – but we could do it w/o the council police! If one would realise what that nice little sapling could grow to – I think many a tree would never see the light of the day!

    Liked by 3 people

    • The city has all the rights on your property – in front. The only trees you HAVE to cut down are the ash treet that have been affected by that nasty emerald ash borer – at your cost and it’s been a nightmare for many. My friend had FIVE of them in her backyard. All of them had to be cut down. Cost her a small fortune.
      And yeah, when my father planted that blue spruce, I could jump over it! By the time we cut it down it was what? 40-50 feet high?

      Liked by 2 people

  14. There were a grove of trees and some stragglers in our yard growing up. Every few years, we got requests to take one down. Sometimes my parents preemptively cut one down. There were always a few that fell of their own volition.

    We never got fined though. That’s a catch-22.

    Liked by 3 people

  17. Well, they have to finance their salaries somehow – but wow, what an eyewatering fine. Yet I’m thinking that, historically, sensible people never sat back and waited for a falling tree to damage their property or, worse still, their friends and families. There’s rules here in the UK too – and trees are one of the biggest causes of neighbours falling out – presumably in case a tree falls in!

    Liked by 3 people

    • Indeed. I’m thinking the same thing. Many an argument has been had with neighbours and their maple trees, getting so huge that their pools are never in the sun!

      Liked by 2 people

    • We were told just what to do to kill it off. And yes, they do want you to replace it! But at least you can get something more manageable… 😉

      Liked by 2 people

  19. As the saying goes, don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. My neighbour just lopped the top off my willow tree and did neither. Enjoyed your tale.

    Liked by 3 people

  23. Rules and red tape… As I recall from our days there, getting permission for anything was NOT easy.
    Here we had the opposite. Folks tell us that thirty-odd years ago the Dept of Highways came and cut down a long row of lovely trees beside the road because our little highway was going to be widened. We’re still waiting for that promised road reno.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Yep. Quebecers are great at rules and red tape. And getting nothing done. Or doing things in such an asine way, they get done twice.
      That is so sad.

      Liked by 2 people

      • A friend who was living in Mtl married, and his wife moved in with him. Of course she needed a health card, so she and I went to the Office to apply. She brought ID, their marriage cert. and their apartment lease — which was in his name only because he’d rented the place as a single.
        She got up to the counter and they told her that wasn’t enough proof. Her husband had to come in and sign a declaration that she was actually living with him. It seems the govt has to plug up every last possible loophole. Illegals seem to be ingenious at finding another one. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

        • I’ll better you one with that. I had my first baby at St. Mary’s Hospital, He was transferred a couple hours after his birth to the Children’s Hospital. Because he was not going to bear my last name (not even in hyphenated form) and because we weren’t married I could not officially sign him out. FFS.
          Guess they worried I would steal him…

          Liked by 2 people

  28. Wow! A fine! Sorry, here the utilities come along an multilate and destroy nearly every tree on the block… making what’s left a sure danger to surrounding homes and anyone walking on the sidewalks.

    Liked by 2 people

  29. I know the situation. the first thing my newly arrived neighbour did was get the three hugh tree cut down and removed. Since he works for the council, I presume he knew the rules?

    Liked by 1 person

  30. That was a majestic tree… a shame that it had to come down……Lots of thoughts on this…

    Down the road there is a huge Ash tree in someone’s back garden… actually it’s in a garden in the next road but looms over several of ours. Frank and I went to look at a garden a lady wanted some work done on( at number 51) I counted five ash trees with trunks over six inches in diameter and within 25 metres of her back door. All are self seeded from the original tree. They will have to come down and somehow be removed before the roots damage the foundations of both 51 and 53 (terraced houses). I do wonder if the council will actually allow them to be removed… knee jerk reaction…after all they are trees and we have to preserve trees. If we cannot preserve them in the Amazon basin then we will have to preserve them in the temperate regions…. but this would be ridiculous.

    Liked by 2 people

    • It really was, David. It was huge! But it did make all the neighbours nervous, too.

      The ash trees – we have such a situation here with the emerald ash borer. My friend had to have 7 of her trees cut down. 7!! At one point, it felt like every other house had a pile of cut up ash. So sad. I am actually okay with having to replace a tree that needed to be cut down. I agree we need to preserve them.

      Liked by 2 people

      • We have a fungal disease called Ash Dieback over here… as ever it came from the continent .
        Every time I look at a tree that for some reason needs to be felled I see useful timber…. Ash is a wonderful timber.. lots of uses.. I’m sure that its springiness would mean it’s suitable for loudspeaker stands and cabinets. As kids we’d (well some of us) would cut ash sticks out of the hedgerows and trim and shape them to make bows. Great for tool handles and rounders and baseball bats… oh, and cricket stumps…

        Liked by 2 people

  31. I can see how that fine was painful.
    It’s sadly wide-spread that trees were/are planted too close to houses and now there’s no light, roots damage foundations and whatnot. We always say the house needs to be removed. 😉

    Liked by 2 people

      • If it’s any consolation, I went to the DMV (the great equalizer of humanity where everyone gets treated like crap no matter what their status is in this life) this week to get my license plates from a new car purchase (they were to expire yesterday) and was told the paperwork had not been processed but for a mere $7.03 (what a weird amount, eh?) they would issue a temporary plate good to September. Wait, what?? I have to pay because you haven’t done your job in a timely fashion? What a racket!!

        Liked by 1 person

  35. We had a big old tree like that in our front yard, dying but still sturdy. Terry talked about cutting it down, but then Hurricane Sandy came along and took care of it for us. Fortunately, it was too far from our house to do any damage. Neighbors were glad to come and help cut it up for firewood.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Oh man! See? That’s what we wanted to avoid! Because, unless it fell on the diagonal into the street, it was hitting us or our neighours if it fell.

      Liked by 2 people

      • I don’t think there is a house close enough to the tree for that to happen. However, it could have fallen across power lines, or into another tree that could have harmed the house across the street. Certainly could have been a lot worse.

        Liked by 2 people

  36. Communities and trees have such a strange and complex relationship. This brings to mind an article I read last year(?) about planting efforts in Detroit being met with resistance because the city previously removed almost its whole canopy following the riots in the 1960s (it was believed to have been done so helicopters could monitor neighborhoods). Where it was once an intrusion to take the trees away, it was an intrusion to try and bring them back decades later.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Oh man… that is nuts! Trees offer so many benefits. I remember reading about this guy who removed all the trees from around his house, then wondered why his electricity bill went through the roof… But it’s crazy that the peeps of Detroit feel it is an intrusion to bring IN trees…

      Liked by 2 people

  37. I agree with limiting the number of trees we cut down, but sheesh, it seems absurd you can’t even cut down a tree you fear might damage your own property. As is often the case, it’s a hyper focus on the small stuff, not the real problem. Sorry you had such a hefty fine. Like Rochelle said, nice flash fact-tion!

    Liked by 2 people

  38. Q

    All these rules and regs and stipulations make me shake my head. I get permits for building stuff, but this was a tree! I don’t get it at all, but that’s the way of the world it seems, no matter where you go.

    B

    Liked by 2 people

  41. I have planted a few trees, they really grow big. I now wish that I could replant them, no such luck., but I do want to see more trees planted, ,

    Liked by 2 people

  43. Sorry about the fine & BS!
    Don’t get me going about “The City”!
    I’m living through GINORMOUS BS induced by their intersection construction.
    Yes, the sewage problem needed to be dealt with. However the rest is BS!
    OMG … finish date August 2022!
    I’m living in a scene from the future of Terminator!

    Liked by 2 people

    • Oh man. I really feel for you, Sorceress. That is a load of BS to put citizens through. Are you effing serious? August 2022??? That is ridonkulous. Jesus. I am so sorry you are living through this shite.

      Liked by 1 person

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