Twenty five years ago I noticed what appeared to be a large amount of broad leaf weeds growing in the front yard at our old house. What upset me about this was that I had just paid a lawn company to spray the yard a week earlier. This treatment was supposed to cover broad leaf weeds also. I took the leaf to work and asked our gardener if he knew what kind of leaf it was. He said it was an oak leaf and that young oaks have a different structure than an older oak. He said when I got home I should pull one out of the ground and see if there was an acorn attached. Since these "weeds" were under a huge oak tree I suspected he was right. That evening I pulled several up and found acorns dangling to them.
I got a bright idea to transplant some of them in the back yard, so little five year old Mel brought out her little red wagon and helped me transport a dozen little oak trees. They did well for awhile and then we started seeing them disappear. Something was chewing them off just above ground level. I put screened tomato cages over them and most of them came back. Little by little we started losing them again until we were down to two. These two grew pretty well and after a couple years I took down the cages. Soon after I saw a ground hog standing on his hind legs having lunch on one of the trees so I went toward it. He ran behind the garage so I retreated to the house to grab my groundhog repellant. A somewhat humorous story could be added here about that, but I won't go there. Anyway one tree ended up surviving.
When we moved eleven years ago we had my daughters white pine moved with us (another long story for another time). I asked the tree guy if he could move the oak. He looked at the, then, 15' oak and said he would if it wasn't so close to the garage. He couldn't get his spade around it. Reluctantly, my now high school graduate would have to be satisfied with her first grade white pine.
Well last fall we sold the house after renting it for eleven year. Since it was going to be a used car lot I had several things put in the contract. One of those things was to have rights to all the trees I could safely cut. Mel's oak was now well over thirty feet high and I was bound to bring it home. With the high lift set up we topped out as we could. When we had it down to just the trunk we tied off to it with a Jeep and cut it off flush with the ground. The Jeep made sure it fell the right way. There was only one right way, the other three ways had obstacle such as the neighbors fence and such.
It was a beautifully shaped tree and I hated to see it fall, but if I didn't take it down it would have been food for some contractors wood stove over the winter. Now, after laying in the yard for seven months it finally headed off to the saw mill to become an 8x8x16 timber for BOB and several 2 x whatevers for whatever I can use them for. The last 8x8x16 I bought for Bob was $104.00. This one, plus all of the two bys will cost less than $30.00. There won't be a ton of would there, but Mel is happy that one of her home grown trees will be holding up the barn. After all, Shallow Creek Farm will be all hers someday.
I got a bright idea to transplant some of them in the back yard, so little five year old Mel brought out her little red wagon and helped me transport a dozen little oak trees. They did well for awhile and then we started seeing them disappear. Something was chewing them off just above ground level. I put screened tomato cages over them and most of them came back. Little by little we started losing them again until we were down to two. These two grew pretty well and after a couple years I took down the cages. Soon after I saw a ground hog standing on his hind legs having lunch on one of the trees so I went toward it. He ran behind the garage so I retreated to the house to grab my groundhog repellant. A somewhat humorous story could be added here about that, but I won't go there. Anyway one tree ended up surviving.
When we moved eleven years ago we had my daughters white pine moved with us (another long story for another time). I asked the tree guy if he could move the oak. He looked at the, then, 15' oak and said he would if it wasn't so close to the garage. He couldn't get his spade around it. Reluctantly, my now high school graduate would have to be satisfied with her first grade white pine.
Well last fall we sold the house after renting it for eleven year. Since it was going to be a used car lot I had several things put in the contract. One of those things was to have rights to all the trees I could safely cut. Mel's oak was now well over thirty feet high and I was bound to bring it home. With the high lift set up we topped out as we could. When we had it down to just the trunk we tied off to it with a Jeep and cut it off flush with the ground. The Jeep made sure it fell the right way. There was only one right way, the other three ways had obstacle such as the neighbors fence and such.
It was a beautifully shaped tree and I hated to see it fall, but if I didn't take it down it would have been food for some contractors wood stove over the winter. Now, after laying in the yard for seven months it finally headed off to the saw mill to become an 8x8x16 timber for BOB and several 2 x whatevers for whatever I can use them for. The last 8x8x16 I bought for Bob was $104.00. This one, plus all of the two bys will cost less than $30.00. There won't be a ton of would there, but Mel is happy that one of her home grown trees will be holding up the barn. After all, Shallow Creek Farm will be all hers someday.
