An Old Swing (and a New Electric Chain Saw)

My oldest son bought a home in a nearby town.  It is an older home, but was in great shape.  He's been working on it, making small repairs, painting, and working on landscaping.  He really enjoys home ownership.  He called us and asked if we could come give him some help on a couple of projects that he needed assistance on.  There are a few things that need an extra person or two. 

We drove over Sunday afternoon after church on a beautiful afternoon to assist.  The first project was hanging a swing on his back patio.  The swing has a story.  Tricia recently made a trip to Corpus Christi, Texas to visit her mom and attend her high school class reunion.  While there she brought a swing back that her mom gave her to give to Russ.

The swing was in an old cardboard shipping box that was deteriorated.  Tricia's Dad passed away many years ago.  Before his death, he had bought a swing that he intended to hang.  It is still unclear whether he wanted to hang it at the Garcia home in Corpus Christi or at the ranch.  Regardless, it never got hung and has resided in a box on the floor of my mother-in-law's garage for years.  Tricia's mom decided that she'd like Russ to have it.  He put it together and we hung it on Russ' back patio.  I took the photo below of Russ and Tricia, sitting on the old swing.  After many years, it got hung and will provide relaxation and enjoyment for years to come. 

"Just a swingin'"

Russ had asked me to bring my pole saw.  I have a nifty electric chain saw on a pole that extends out to catch limbs way up high.  Russ had some limbs that he wanted to prune to get away from the roof as well as to thin out excess branches to allow more sunlight to filter in to allow grass to grow better on his shady property.

It was the first time I'd taken the electric chainsaw out of the box.  I have to admit, I was a little leery of an electric chainsaw.  I wanted an electric one because I felt that it was so rare that I used it, if I got a gasoline powered saw, it wouldn't crank when I needed it, but it just doesn't seem like it would be strong enough to do the job.  It did have good ratings on Amazon, but I wanted to see if it warranted those "stars" on the review.  It did!  Russ climbed on top of his garage roof and trimmed limbs from his magnolia tree.  I dragged the cut limbs to the road where his town provides pick-up.

He told me that he was working up on his roof the other day and the ladder fell off the side of his house when he was up on the roof.  I asked him how he got down.  He told me he jumped off the side of the garage and into the magnolia tree and climbed down the tree.  Magnolia trees are great for climbing.  While he trimmed his magnolia tree, I told him to leave limbs to give him a back-up plan should he get stranded on the roof again.

In his front yard facing the road, he has a water oak tree that shades the yard.  The limbs block sunlight and prohibit grass growth on certain parts of the yard.  Russ trimmed limbs until he felt things had opened up a bit.  He is facing east in the photo below and the morning sun will now shine into his yard.

When we were done, Russ asked us to come inside.  He paid us for the work with a slice of chocolate cake and strawberry ice cream.  That sounded like pretty good wages to me!

Timberrrrrr! (And the Water Oak Came Down)

It was a little more than a month ago that we talked about yet another water oak tree that has died in the little grove in the pasture.  We've had several that have succumbed to the red oak borer, but this was the biggest yet.  It was an old tree and was the tree that the kids had a zip line in and a tree house.  This tree had a lot of memories.  Every time that neighbors' kids or our kids' friends came over, they'd ride on the zip line all the way down to the goat barn with the American flag on the side.

This spring it budded green leaves in anticipation of yet another year of growth, but the damage to the tree was just too much to overcome.  Sometime in June we noticed part of the tree had turned yellow.  Then in July all of the other leaves died.  In August limbs began falling and then the bark started shedding.  We knew that we had to act fast. 

I called an old classmate's brother who has a tree cutting business on the side and he came and looked at it as there was no way that we were going to cut this one down on our own.  He charged a very reasonable rate and came out within a week and cut it down.  He told me these water oaks have a lifespan of about 70 years.  He was unsure if the borer beetle did the damage or if a disease called wilt set in and killed it.

Fortunately he had the equipment (large chain saws, crane and bucket truck) to fell the tree.  It was a big tree.  I placed my Croc leaning against the tree to give perspective. 

We now have quite a large stump to get rid of.  A co-worker of mine was showing me some home remedies of removing stumps and one with a drill, vegetable oil, and charcoal caught my eye.  I just may try it.

Part of the tree on the ground contained the cable from the zip line.  You can see how the tree grew around it in the last 17 years.  Time flies!  It was a reminder of how quickly things change.

We have quite a pile of firewood that we'll need to cut up and split, but we'll wait for some cooler weather for that!

Russ got up early on Saturday, however, and had a huge fire blazing when I walked out to milk Rosie.  He was burning all the tree tops.

The cows really appreciated the fire.  As hot as it was, the smoke from the fire, kept the mosquitoes and flies away, at least momentarily.  The old tree that made so many memories is no longer standing, but I have a plan for a new tree to put in its place.  I'll have to tell you about that later.

The Red Oak Borer Strikes Again!

There was a telltale sign sitting at the base of the big water oak tree in the pasture.  A big branch had broken off and fallen to the ground.

I looked up and saw more limbs without leaves on them!  Water oak trees without leaves in the middle of summer is a bad sign.

Looking over the canopy of the tree, there were leaves, but they were turning brown.  Not a good sign at all.

I walked around the tree and could see bark falling off the big tree in big sheets.  This tree is not dying.  It's dead.

At the very base of the tree, I could see holes.  This is evidence like you would find at a crime scene.  The holes are the fingerprint of the killer.  The borer beetle!  He strikes again.  He's killed several trees in our side pasture.

To give you an idea of the size of this tree, it measures 3 feet across.

This tree has some sentimental value.  Seventeen years ago when we moved into this house, we built a tree house around the tree using the wood from a pine tree from mom & dad's house that had been struck by lightning.  We fastened a cable around the tree about 15 feet up.  You can see that the tree has grown around the cable in places.

The cable runs down in a southward direction toward the barn.

It meets a horizontal crossbeam and there is a pulley and a handle that is our zip line.  Our kids, their friends and the neighbor kids have spent countless hours playing on the zip line, laughing, screaming, and enjoying themselves.

Here is a look from the bottom of the zip line back up to the dead tree.

The tree at the bottom of the zip line has completely grown around the landscape timber crossbeam behind the tubing of an old John Deere plow.

I'll have to call someone to take this tree down.  It is just too large for us to try to do it ourselves.  Bringing it down will be a sad time in many ways as I'll think about all the good times had under the shade of that old tree.  We'll get a lot of firewood from the tree, but we already have a pretty good inventory of firewood thanks to the work of the borer beetle on other water oaks we had!

Looking on the bright side, we were looking for a place to plant our Anniversary Live Oak.  I told Tricia when we take the old water oak down, we'll plant our Anniversary Live Oak right near where the old water oak stood.  Perhaps it can provide shade and fun for our future grandchildren and great-grandchildren one day.

Posthumous Tree Treatment

In a previous post (Click Here to Read It) we showed you that four more Red Oak trees in the shady area by the barn have succumbed to the red oak borers.  They may not be red oak borers, since one infestation map does not include our parish in their current known territory, but it is some type of boring insect that is killing our trees.  Over the past several years those boogers have really done a number on our trees.  I figured it was time to do something about it.  In an effort that illustrates the old saying, “Closing the barn door after the horses have bolted,” I began researching to see what, if anything, I could do to save the remaining red oaks/water oaks on the property.

I stumbled across this site: How to treat oak borers that gave a few steps of what could be done to help control the insects and save the tree.  A few of the trees are past the point of saving.  Like this one in which you can already see a dead branch has fallen at the base of the tree:

And these three, one of which has been dead for a couple of months, while two recently gave up the ghost:

The treatment protocol calls for spraying the bark of the trunk with Permethrin.  I just happened to have some of this on hand.  I mixed up 2 gallons of the recommended mixture in my sprayer.

All around the base of the tree you can see sawdust from where the boring beetle has tunneled into the tree.  Although this tree is dead and beyond saving as you can tell by the dead leaves in the canopy, I still sprayed it along with the 3 other dead trees.

My reasoning is this.  I hope to do my best to kill as many of the borers as I can before they pack their bags and move into neighboring trees.  Obviously I am not equipped to spray the entire tree, but I sprayed what I could get to and hopefully it will help.

I’ll also borrow a chainsaw and cut down the dead trees and split them up for firewood, so it isn’t a total loss, but I’d still rather have the trees alive.  Cutting down the trees is a lot easier said and done, especially this one that leans at a precarious angle over the garden.

I’ll have to use a come-along to pull that one in the direction that I want it to fall as it would be disastrous to have it flatten my fence and garden.

Finally, I sprayed all of the water oak trees in the area with permethrin, including this big one that I would hate to lose:

I’m no arborist and don’t pretend to be one.  I’m just trying to do something to save the trees from additional damage and death.  The only tree that seems to be affected is the red oak/water oak.  Our live oaks and pecans don’t seem to be susceptible to their damage.  Maybe my treatment will take care of the problem and maybe we’ll just stack up lots of firewood.  Only time will tell.  On the bright side, I told Tricia that the pecan trees in the shady area will now be able to branch out with the competition out of the way.

The Borers Return With a Vengeance

When walking out to the barn the other day, I glanced up in the canopy of trees that border the eastern edge of our property and immediately noticed a troubling sight - the leaves to three of our oak trees have turned brown and are dead.  This happened so fast it made out heads swim.

Let's back up a bit.  We've lost four water oaks in that same location over the past several years.  The eastern edge of our property was once a shady grove and now, well, it's not so shady any more.  There are some pecan trees in the "grove" that should enlarge their canopy now without the competition, but I don't like to lose trees.  We'll use the wood for firewood and all, but still, I'd rather have a live tree providing shade for the animals in our hot summers.

If you look around the bases of all the affected trees, you can see sawdust.  I Googled it and found that the culprit is something called the Red Oak Borer and the water oak is in the red oak family.  I've blogged about it previously HERE.  It doesn't seem to bother other trees from what can gather.  From talking to a knowledgeable tree expert, I learned that water oaks live for only 70 years.  I've read elsewhere that they live for 30 years and then die for the next 40!!  That's a more accurate way to state it, I guess.  Well you can see the dead/dying trees below.  It looks like fall, but it's not.

It ain't fall.

So here's my plan.  First, I'm going to borrow a chainsaw from my Dad and cut the trees down.  It will be mighty tricky, though, as the tree on the left in the picture below leans precariously over the garden fence.  The tall one on the right below is right near the barn.  I think I'll have to use a come-along to pull the tree in the direction that I want it to fall.  This project is not going to be for the faint of heart. I'll tackle that within the next month before limbs begin falling.

I'll then cut the trees into firewood sized pieces and then split it all and stack it for firewood to be used over the next several winters.  It is hard to even think about firewood at the tail-end of June, though.

Finally, I read that to treat borers you should spray permethrin all over the bark of the base of the tree. I'll have to purchase some of that and spray the remaining water oak trees in the grove to keep from losing any more of them.  I should have done this before, but there's always something else going on and I was negligent in not taking care of business.

Borer Damage

Hopefully, once the remaining trees are treated, we won't lose any more as those trees cast a shadow over the garden until almost noon, allowing me to enjoy shady mornings in the garden on the weekends.  Darned Borers!!

Chopping Down the Cherry Tree

There's a lot of bad news out there in the world.  So much so that it can make you fearful or paralyze you into inaction if you aren't careful.  Tricia and I were talking about the fact that humor is so important.  It is nice to laugh, even in the midst of tough times.  In fact, being joyful is good medicine.

A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.  Proverbs 17:22

I like to laugh and the following is (to me) a funny joke.  This is actually a joke that you can tell at church despite the fact that it is a "dirty" joke.  You'll understand what I mean once you read it.

There was once a country boy who hated using the outhouse because it was hot in the summer and freezing in the winter...plus it stank all the time. The outhouse was situated on the bank of a creek and the boy determined that one day he would push that outhouse into the creek. 

So one day after a spring rain the creek was swollen so the little boy decided today was the day to push the outhouse into the creek. He got a large stick and started pushing. Finally, the outhouse toppled into the creek and floated away.

That night his dad told him they were going to the woodshed after supper. Knowing this meant a spanking, the little boy asked why. The dad replied, "Someone pushed the outhouse into the creek today. It was you, wasn't it, son?"

The boy answered yes. Then he thought a moment and said, "Dad, I read in school today that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and didn't get into trouble because he told the truth."

The dad replied, "Well, son, George Washington's father wasn't in that cherry tree."

See what I mean?  Don't you feel better already?

Another thing that can help you get your mind off of the Worry Du Jour is to just get out there and do something.  Something that causes you to exert energy. Something for which you can see the results of your efforts relatively quickly. That's just what I purposed to do this weekend.  In THIS POST from 2014 we talked about how a beetle infestation is killing some of our water oak trees and how we've had to cut them down.  Although I hate to lose these trees, the pecan trees will branch out with their canopy and occupy the space that these trees once held.

Well another water oak tree has succumbed to the same fate and it was time to bring it down.  This time I decided to chop it down with an axe - the way that George Washington did it, even if this wasn't a cherry tree.  Russ helped me get started.  I'd take swings until I was tired and then he'd take over.  Finally, the tree weakened by the chopping, started leaning and I was able to take a final swing and push in a direction to ensure it wouldn't topple over on the barn or garden fence. TIMBER!!!

Like a beaver chewed it up

Now it would have been much simpler to do this with a chainsaw, to be sure, but taking this tree down with an ax ended up being exercise for the mind and the body.  It also provided some tasty morsels for the hens.  The larvae of the beetle is a big, fat white worm.  While cutting through the tree, I pulled several of these worms from tunnels in the wood.  I threw them to the chickens and the lucky hen that snatched each one ran off with delight, trying to run away from the others before they pried it from her beak.  I was also able to chop the tree very close to the ground, to avoid having a stump sticking up out of the ground that one could trip on.

Farewell to the water oak tree

I held my breath a little as it fell as it came pretty close to hitting the garden fence. It hit the muddy, rain-saturated ground with a thud.  Now is where the fun part comes in.

Benjamin came outside and his job will be to cut the tree into smaller pieces and move it out of the way.  He began swinging away with the ax.  I told him that tasks like this eliminate the need for gym memberships or weight lifting.  He can build muscle mass and get in shape without paying a gym or purchasing equipment.  I recall splitting firewood when I was his age.

Benjamin bringing the ax down on the wood

"Chop, chop, chop," was all I heard as I walked off.  No rush.  I told him if he cuts up one or two pieces a day, the tree will be gone before he knows it.

Chop, Chop, Chop

Once the log is gone, I'll start looking for some grass seed to plant in the barren muddy area around the barn.  For now, I'll leave ol' "George" to finish cutting up the 'cherry' tree.  And lo and behold after just a little chopping, I had forgotten all about the bad news that fills every news report!

Tree Trouble

While I was in the back yard the other day, I looked to the small patch of trees that borders the eastern side of our property and spotted trouble.  All of the leaves on two water oaks were dead or dying.  I thought that perhaps they had been struck by lightning as we've had some monstrous storms here lately.  This little patch of woods serves as shade for all of our animals and is important to the ecosystem on on our little farm.

During the peak of the heat during summer days, you'll find the dairy cows lounging in the shade, chewing their cud lazily while the chickens dig holes in the cool dirt and sit in them to cool themselves.  We have the paddocks set up in such a way where the animals can always go to the shade trees and water at will and then return to their grass eating once it cools in the late afternoons and early mornings.  The Nubian goats, since they are indigenous to Africa, don't appear to be affected as much as the Jersey Cows.

Anyway, the trees that were dying are what we call Water Oaks.  They are in the Red Oak family.  These trees all have scars in the side of them that appear to be fire damage from when they were much younger, but they have healed over.  The trees further to the east, but still on our property are pecan trees and those trees have grown and are crowding out the water oaks.  In response, the water oaks bend and grow westward.

When I went to check out the trees, upon closer examination, I see that they were not struck by lightning as evidenced by a couple of things I observed:

Two trees in the process of dying

Notice this odd damage to the bark:

Bark damage

And notice the 'sawdust' at the base of each of the affected trees:

"Sawdust"

I did a little research and determined that this damage matches that of the Red Oak Borer.  Here is a picture of this bad boy below:

Image Credit

And here is the larvae of the red oak borer.  I've seen these many times when splitting firewood and it is amazing how they can chew tunnels into mature hardwood.  While splitting firewood, I'll toss these to the chickens and they devour them.  I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I've seen them 3 inches long and as big around as your index finger.

Image Credit

So what do we do?  Well, I'm going to have to cut those trees down, split them and we'll stack the firewood for use later.  They are tall trees, so I'll have to be really careful so they don't fall over our garden or pasture perimeter fence.  It's not the end of the world.  We'll get a lot of use out of the firewood and the pecan trees will grow and make up for the shade that we've lost.  I guess this is a good example of why plant and animal diversity is important.  Having different trees on the property ensures that if one variety is attacked by disease or insects, you've got others that will be unaffected and that's a good thing, because on hot summer days, the cows need their shade.  And so do I!