The day a dead oak branch nearly took out my truck in Athens, Georgia

I was doing a routine cleanup for Mrs. Calloway last Tuesday when a big hunk of that white oak she wanted saved came down sideways in a gust, missing my F-150 by about 3 feet, and now I'm second guessing every tree I've ever said was fine, so how do you all actually gauge internal rot without dropping a full core sample every time?

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alexlewis23d ago

You mentioned second guessing every tree you've ever said was fine, and honestly that's the right instinct after a close call like that. But you don't need a full core sample every time. A lot of times you can check for rot with a simple rubber mallet, tap the trunk and listen for a hollow thud versus a solid thunk. Also look for mushrooms growing at the base or carpenter ants crawling around, those are dead giveaways. The dead branch itself is a warning sign too, if it snapped clean with no green wood in the break, the whole limb was already gone, just hadn't fallen yet.