Posts Tagged ‘oak tree’
Squall Line
Cyndie was out walking Delilah on our north loop trail near the road when she captured this dramatic view of yesterday mornings’ approaching thunderstorm.
They didn’t make it back to the house without getting soaked.
We received about 2.25 inches of rain out of the storm that kept Delilah incessantly barking at the continuous big, bad bowling balls rumbling in the heavens.
Our surface soil moisture amount now seems to be enough for most of our lawn grasses and all of the weeds. There is more rain predicted for the end of this week so maybe that will do something for our root-zone soil moisture that is still sorely lacking.
I just hope we don’t get one of those dousings like Tennessee just received that caused the catastrophic flash flooding.
The trees on our property dropped so many branches they reminded me of the amount of hair constantly shedding from my head. The big oak that stretches across the driveway up by the house has started to shed acorns. After our effort last year to collect 100 viable ones for a planting experiment, I now feel guilty every time I hear a cracking sound under my boots.
“That could have been a potential new tree!”
Yesterday, it dropped so many shards of branches onto the pavement below, the acorns weren’t even noticeable among the debris.
Walking Delilah through the woods became a stuttering start/stop exercise for her as I was constantly pausing to bend over and pick up branches to toss them off the pathway. Several were big enough they required a two-handed effort.
That doozy of a squall line ushered in quite a dose of heavy weather. Maybe the next precipitation could come in the form of a slow day-long soaking, thank you very much.
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No Sound
Was there a sound made when the large limb of one of our oak trees snapped and tipped to the ground sometime yesterday? Cyndie didn’t hear anything.
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Right now, I’m feeling inclined toward leaving it as it is. The upper portion is well above my lumberjacking abilities. Maybe after all the leaves are down it will become easier to assess the tangle of small trees that were victimized by the crash. I’ll gladly delay a decision on what to do until some time in the future.
Especially if it continues to make no sound.
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Real Tree
It’s been more years than I can count since we have put up a real tree in the house when decorating for Christmas. I have a thing about cutting down trees, you know, even if it was grown specifically for that purpose. By buying our artificial tree so many years ago, I was making a statement that I no longer wanted to support the Christmas tree growing industry.
Here’s a classic example of how people change with time. When I was young, I felt Christmas trees made of plastic represented everything that was wrong with society. After a few years of seeing house after house with dead trees at the curb near the end of December, I began to have pangs of remorse over the demise of so many trees for a few weeks of holiday decoration.
Then I spotted the impressive advancements in fake trees. At the point it became difficult to tell the difference at a distance, my attitude changed and we stopped buying real trees.
This year, we will be giving our plastic tree a break.
Yesterday, Cyndie asked if we could trim some branches to bring in boughs of pine for decorating around the house. While seeking out possibilities, I spotted a spruce tree that was seriously encroaching on a new oak tree that has established itself nicely, just outside our bedroom window.
We decided to cut it down and bring it inside for this year’s Christmas tree.
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Now you see it, now you don’t. Or, if you consider it from a focus on the young oak tree, at first you don’t see it, and then you do!
Having a real tree indoors again reminds me of one of the significant advantages of the plastic replica we have used for the last umpteen years. No mess.
Just one day inside and already there is a surprising number of needles covering the floor beneath this real tree.
Well, at least we have a back up. If the real tree loses all its needles too soon, we can always bring out the old plastic one.
The fake tree has lasted long enough that we have more than gotten our money’s worth of use out of it.
At least this real tree didn’t cost us any cash. In fact, cutting it down will greatly benefit the oak tree we value even more.
It’s a win-win!
Bring on the Christmas extravaganza! Cyndie has leapt into preparations with gusto this year, and with only four weeks to spare.
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Early Success
Part of me is hesitant to claim success about a recent transplanted tree, well, trees, but we have decided to enjoy it while it lasts. The truth really won’t be revealed until next summer, as to whether the four oaks we hastily decided to dig up and move out in the open field beyond the paddock ultimately survive the transplantation.
In the weeks since we moved them, these four oak trees have barely showed a symptom of shock. Now they are displaying the best of fall color, just as if nothing had happened to disrupt normal routine.
I don’t know if this apparent good health is a valid indicator of the overall success of our bold plan. I am prepared to discover otherwise next spring, but for now, we are tickled to see the normal fall behavior playing out.
If these work out, I will definitely be emboldened to do more of this to expand the range of oak trees on our property in the years ahead. There are so many little volunteer sprouts that show up every spring where they aren’t wanted or can’t be allowed to grow to maturity, we always have many opportunities from which to choose.
It is part of a long game, dreaming someday of tall trees that will provide natural cooling shade under which our horses can benefit.
It all starts with acorns and involves a little effort to nurture young trees in new locations.
Here’s hoping for success.
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Can You?
If you look closely, can you see how much growth has occurred on the spindly little fingerling of the volunteer oak tree to the right of my balancing stone since that first picture on the left was taken back in May? I’d love it if we could get that same amount of new growth every year. We’d have shade on that side of the house in a couple of years.
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Relative Something 