I wrote a diary a couple of days ago about Gravity Wave Winds. In the course of the storm,
we lost the large pine on the west side of the house. Today the tree men came, cut it up,
fed most of into a large chipper. Which I kept, providing a large pile of pine mulch, although
the tree man advised me to wait until the fall to actually use the stuff.
It surprised me to feel kind of sad to see the tree go, we built the house in
1988, next to the tree, because it was the only one in the pasture. I counted
the rings, 26 of them. So I guess the tree was about 5 when we built our house.
For the next 20 years the tree grew. It held a tire swing, which all 3 of my children
enjoyed. Every birthday pinata was whacked from this tree. It provided shade in
the summer. We tied the dog(long dead before the tree) to this tree, to keep him
from running after the lawn mower. It kept the yard from washing away, since
we are on a hill.
Really a great tree. In 45 minutes it was gone. The only thing left was a big hole,
where the roots used to be. So I went to the local K-mart and bought the
tallest, healthiest apple tree I could find, all 5 feet of it.
The apple tree fit in the hole nicely, plenty of room to put good soil,
for a good start. An apple tree of the Golden Delicious type.
It will be years before the apple tree grows tall and thick. I hope it
grows fast, because right now it looks pretty sad out there. I think
it going to take some getting used to, no more large pine to
shade my house from the hot Alabama summer sun.
So hug your tree today, or at least thank it for being beautiful,
and green, and shady, and wavy in the wind. Yeah, I like
trees, but I loved this tree, because it held my children,
it joined our birthday celebrations. It never complained,
just hurt our feet with many pine cones, but never whacked
anyone on the head with a limb.
Now, we shall pin our hopes on a sweet apple tree, and will be
someday, someday soon or not, you can't rush a tree, you just
gotta let them be.