Thanks for being a voice of reality and practicality here Bryan, 
Particularly the tree guy / insurance part.
Insurance companies are not dumb , they're not going to 'just watch' obvious
hazards.
You DO have to do your part to be a responsible insured. 
And lots of trees fall and do a lot of damage, especially in winter.
Scott 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
BJ Feddish
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 12:18 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: My Westy is totaled!

>> Actually trees falling on things are extremely unlikely.   <<

Huh??

I live about 40 min from Ron and I am also in the woods. Our house has about
100 trees around it.  A bad storm that took out power last summer dropped
huge trees on both of my neighbors across the street causing major damage.
Giant branches in my yard are a given after any storm here. At least 5
houses have been hit by huge trees on my street since I moved in 5 years
ago. The way the insurance works around here is you had better have a tree
guy out periodically to check all your trees. If he gives the OK then you
are fine. If you neglect the trees here the insurance will give you a really
hard time when one falls on something which is quite common around here.

My 83 is parked right next to a hickory which is least likely to fall. I'm
hoping that will be some buffer if another one falls.

Bryan