Timber!

During high winds the other night, a dead red oak tree fell over in the back yard.

I heard it crack and crash about 6:15 a.m.

We have lost a lot of trees in the last 18 months. The ash borer took out all of the ash trees and several oaks died. I think the ash borer also hit the oak trees, but maybe it was something else. Maybe they were simply older trees and it was their time.

I tend to think of trees as living forever . . . if we'd only leave them alone. But of course they do not, though they may live for thousands of years. Several trees are known to live over 4,000 years, and a grove of trees in Utah is thought to have been alive for 14,000 years. (This is called a clonal colony and is not an individual tree, but a large living organism.)

The oldest known oak tree in the US is thought to be 850 years old or more.

Mine, I think, succumbed to a disease or bugs.

Losing trees makes me sad.

A Little Autumn Color

 

Losing More Trees

Thursday we lost more trees. The last of the blue spruce (dying of fungus) was removed along with some dead or dying bull pines.

I don't know what this machine is called. Some kind of excavator hoe or something.

This blue spruce was the last to catch the fungus that killed the others, and it was not as dead-looking as they were. However, the fungus weakens the trees at the roots, making them susceptible to blowing over.

I had thought we might keep this one a little longer but my husband decided it could fall into the garage roof.

The other trees were farther from the house, but all of these changes have certainly changed my line of sight. In some instances I don't mind the new view, but I do dislike the changes that leave me looking at my neighbor's homes.

We will plant something back in the spring.

The Cutting of the Trees

On Friday, Those Tree Guys, a tree-cutting firm (established by a couple of firefighters), came out to remove three trees.

One was a pine in the back that had died. The other was one of the remaining blue spruces that have a fatal fungus, and the last was a huge ash tree that had been killed by ash borers.

Lots of photos here. I have little commentary except to say that I was sorry to see the blue spruce go, but it was dying and too close to the bedroom. The fellows did a great job of clean up and removal, too, for a very decent price. (I had a lot more photos to show you, but the blogger photo loader isn't working again, so I had to do a work-around that was tedious and taking a long time.)

The big and now dead ash tree.

Guy stuff.

They tied off the trees at the top (I missed how they managed to get the ropes up there).

This is the pine tree in the back.

This machine holds the rope taut so it will fall in the right direction as it is cut.

Cutting the tree.

And it's on the ground.

This is my one-beautiful blue spruce. This one really made my heart hurt.

There's a guy in the tree tying off the rope.

Cutting.

The tree is falling.

It is on the ground.

The ash tree required extensive climbing and cutting away of huge branches. The branches on this were as big

as some trees. I have more pictures, but, loading issues.

Mr. Young Gun up in the tree.

The cute little machine doing its clean up stuff.

The tree had a hollow spot.

And it's down.

Autumn Colors

 

How Guys With Backhoes Take Down Trees

We've been having issues with trees of late. We have dead ash trees, thanks to the emerald ash borer, and we have blue spruce trees that are over 30 years old that are dying from a fungus.

The ash borer came over from Asia; the fungus showed up during a drought around 2012. One of the blue spruce's blew over last winter and I have been concerned about the two remaining on the bedroom side of the house ever since.

I'm not excited about the idea of waking up to find a tree in bed with me.

One of the blue spruces was leaning precariously. When the ground was wet and the wind would blow, I would sit at the window and watch as the ground at the roots raised up, then sucked the tree back down a bit.

My husband had asked a friend back in February to remove the trees but he has yet to show up. Last week, husband took matters into his own hands with one of the trees. I still have one to worry about, but at least this one that was really leaning is no longer a worry.

The tree was already leaning about this much, with that hump at the ground where the roots were coming up.

A few pushes wouldn't do, though. The ground is too dry at the moment.

A little digging to loosen the dirt around the roots proved helpful.

A big push.

Ally oop!

Poor tree is on the ground.

I really hate losing these trees. They were once quite beautiful. We sprayed with fungicide when we realized they were "sick," but once that fungus is on a tree there is little hope of saving it. All of our lovely blue spruces will eventually be gone. We only have two left now.