A couple of weeks ago we had that storm that knocked down part of the big tree in the back yard. After that, I noticed that part of the birch tree in the front yard was drooping. I couldn't see any breaks, so I figured it was just bent. Last week, after a heavy rain, it broke. It had a break where that main limb joins the trunk. I wish I had seen it. I could have cut that branch off and probably saved it from breaking at the trunk. After it broke, I cut it down, and dragged it to the back yard, where I could cut it up into firewood when I got the chance. Yesterday it rained again, and the rest of the trunk broke off. The previous break was halfway through the trunk, so there wasn't enough left to support the rest of the tree. So now we've got one regular birch tree, and one that's nine inches in diameter and eight feet tall with no branches.