The Day the Cactus Fell

We certainly were not expecting to wake up this morning to see this:

Yes, that is our 30 foot Saguaro cactus in pieces upon falling to the ground overnight.  I woke up to feed Jackson this morning just after 5, and after putting him back to bed, I thought I heard a bang of some sort.  I listened from the comfort of my bed for a minute, thinking it was one of the kids kicking the wall by accident.  I heard nothing else, and thus went back to sleep.

Fast forward to 6:30am when the door bell rang. That's kind of an odd occurence, and both Jared and I jumped out of bed to the front door.  I peeked through the blinds and saw two older teen boys at the door.  I didn't know who they were, and given that I was still in jammies with my hair thrown up in a bun, I opted not to answer it.  As I watched them walk away, I noticed a huge clump of dirt out of the corner of my eye.  Upon focusing, I realized there were roots coming out of that dirt mound, and the cactus was no longer where it was supposed to be.

Yikes.

Jared and I rushed outside, and sure enough, the cactus had fallen-all 30 feet of it, plus 5-6 long arms.  We tentatively crept down the sidewalk, and I was shocked how syrupy the sidewalk was.  That cactus was soaked with liquid-sticky liquid that was streaming down the street.  The cactus was just in pieces all over our yard, the neighbors yard, the sidewalk, the street--it was terrible. Pictures do not do it justice.  To see this in real life is just a sight you will never see again.  We were shocked.

Jared and I spent half an hour moving the pieced in the street back to our yard.  A 3 piece section of one of the arms was so heavy, I couldn't budge it a single inch with a shovel.  After researching a bit, we estimated the cactus to weigh around 2 tons.  We brought the kids out to see the disastrous site-they were utterly impressed. A few neighbors came over to chat about it, and we learned it probably fell around 5:30 given their accounts-this matches up with the sound I heard after feeding the baby this morning. I stated calling around real quick for clean up quotes, and we think we will be able to get it cleaned up for 300-350; crossing our fingers.  For now, it will be our new eyesore that will certainly amaze any passers-by.



Just so crazy!  We had noticed the cactus was leaning more than normal just the day before, but I certainly did not expect for it to fall overnight!  Just....wow!