Timber on Target!

 

We've feared for a while that the White Oak in the front yard was dying.  We didn't want to remove he tree because we didn't want to loose such a big tree and because of the cost.  However, another perk of our arboretum membership is to get free consultation from an arborist.  The arborist came by in the fall and confirmed what we feared; the tree was already half dead from a fungus.  Thankfully the fungus wasn't contagious to our other oaks (it must have been injured at some point and it enter the trunk that way).  We were hoping we could do something to save the tree, but alas we could not.  One of the many things I enjoyed about the arborist, is they don't remove trees as part of their business, so their opinion to remove, is not compromised by a conflict of interest.  I asked for a recommendation of who should remove the tree and he gave me a name.  Funny part is when I had them come out for an estimate, the owner of the company was surprised they had recommended them.  Apparently he didn't know the arborist was no longer competition.  We dickered back and forth a bit and he gave me a very reasonable deal (half what neighbors had paid) "since business is slow in January

When they came to take it down on Wednesday it was quite the event, school came a screeching halt, as did Chris' work day.  The tree is about 120ft tall and they had to use a large crane; taking it down in three 40ft segments.  The most amazing to me was they came, set-up the crane, took down the tree, mulched or carted it away in only two hours.  Toward the end, the gentleman you see up in the tree came over to us and asked "Why did you decide to remove the tree?".  We told him because we knew it was dying, then he said "It was so rotten my spikes were sinking in like it was mud.  I think it would have come down next wind storm."  Ironically, a week later we had that big wind storm, the tree had been only 15 ft. from the house.

Saturday, Amber's American Heritage Girl Troop went to First Flight Archery to earn their Archery badges.  Coach John and Leslie has tweaked the "Introduction to Archery" class to meet their badge requirements.  Since there was an open line, Titus was able to join in as well and get his introduction class done*.  All the girls had fun and earned their badges, we'll see if anyone wants to continue.

*No surprise, he shot the best out of the group, earned an ice cream bar but chivalrously gave it to the girl in second.