TheBanyanTree: brr!

[paul]

The oak wilt has been moving around here for a few years.  It kills live oaks
and red oaks.  It doesn't bother post oaks or blackjack oaks.  I first noticed
it about six years ago, out in the emu chick pen.  Then I saw it actually came
from out of the pen and uphill.... so much for the theory of soil impaction or
too much "fertilizer" from the birds.

Most of the trees in the chick pen died.  The big red oak that once shaded the
incubation building is long dead.  (That's worth $20 a month for a/c in that
building.)  Many of the trees in the bird pens behind the barn are dead.  Same
for the trees around the feed shed and travel trailer.

The two huge trees just outside the side gate into the yard are 99% dead.  A
good sized red oak just inside the gate is dead.

Then the stuff went around the house.

The two big trees over the patio?  History.  The seven outside the living room
sliding door?  One lives.  The group of seven on the bathroom side of the
house?  I think only the red oak lives.

Most of the oaks in the front yard and wrapping around back to the patio?
Dammit, dead.  It's quicker to count the number of living trees.

Once upon a time I could walk from the house to the incubation building, at
solar noon in the summer, and but for a stretch of 30 feet be in the shade.
Without an umbrella, that time is gone.


So let's make firewood!  Fire up the chainsaw!

So I did yesterday with five smallish trees.  No real reason for using the
smallish first other than I don't have the equipment to split logs.  I counted
rings on one tree, not all, not with a magnifying glass, but at least 42.  On
a six inch trunk.  A small tree.  It doesn't seem like a big deal until you
look at some of the other trees and realize they must be almost 200 years old.

I'm glad I cut wood yesterday instead of waiting until today.  Yesterday was
mostly cloudy and breezy and the high was all of 45F (7C).  Not real pleasant.
But I do have a nice new pile of good firewood.

Today?  Well, it's noon, the temp is 30F on one side of the house and 28F on
the other side.  And when it's not sleeting, it's snowing.


Bleh.


paul : heading out to tote water to the critters because everything is frozen.
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