We had this big 'ssed silver maple tree in our front yard just off the street that forked out into two huge branches, the tree was about sixty or so years old and about 60 ft. tall, one morning about five am my son was at the door to tell me that the tree had split in the previous night wind storm.
Looking out the front window I saw one hell of a mess, one of the huge branches had indeed split off, it missed my wife's car by a couple of feet, and in doing so snapped a pole taking out all the electric and phone lines on the street, it also took out about 30" my neighbors new PVC fence and totaled their new Dodge SUV and seriously messed up the hood and front fenders of his six month old Dodge Ram 4x4.
They were really good about it but sometimes still give me funny looks, anyhow, I had a tree co come and cut down the rest of the tree, the town got the street clean up, and the power company set a new pole and repaired the wires, the tree company left me the stump which they trimmed off to a height of about a foot above ground, the stump is about 42" in dia., this all happened about four years ago and the stump is about all rotted and ready to cut out with minimal work, so yes, letting nature take it course takes time, but it's a lot less expensive than a grinding service and a lot less hazardous than digging and pulling it out with your friends and their pick up truck.
