Becky Bixby started this year with two 60-foot spruce trees in her Duluth yard. Two storms proved to be too much for them.
Bixby lost one of the spruce trees at her Congdon neighborhood home during the July 21 windstorm that brought straight-line winds that toppled thousands of trees in eastern Duluth and surrounding areas - and left many other trees damaged, but still standing. The Bixby family was in Ohio at the time of the storm, but they got a call letting them know the spruce tree fell between their house and the neighbor's house.
The second 60-foot spruce tree remained standing after the July 21 storm, but the family believed the roots had been loosened in the storm; there were visible cracks in the soil around the tree.
As the winter storm began in Duluth on Friday, Bixby's family had been keeping an eye on the remaining spruce.
"All afternoon we've been watching it as every gust blew. The tree kept leaning further and further and lifting up more and more of the soil and it finally went down," she said. "So now we have another 60-foot tree in our yard. Again."
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They were worried Friday that when the tree finally came down, it would crush their house - but it only took a gutter off when the wind finally toppled it, she said.
Now they're going to try to make the best of having another tree down in the yard.
"I think we're going to take the top of the tree and use it as a Christmas tree," she said.
