The Lullabye League 
The Lollipop Guild
How do you get rid of an 85-year old pine? The summer storms have arrived.
Sheared off
Smooshed
The weather here has been cool and rainy for so long, we were thinking it would never end. Last weekend, we got a little break, and Dennis and I spent last weekend working outside. It was cool (about 60), with no real rain forecast, so it was a perfect time to get out there.
This mother robin sits among the rose buds, watching her babies.
Ready to eat
We had put in a sandstone planting bed a few weeks ago, which came out very nice. The bed is beneath a hard maple tree, so it’s mostly shady. We planted hostas and ferns and covered with mulch. We built a smaller planting bed with the leftover stone at the front of the back yard. It too is in a shady area and so we put in shade loving plants.
Sandstone planting bed – back of backyard
Sandstone planting bed – front of backyard. We had helpers too.
So last weekend we put a planting bed in the front side yard. We had put a smaller bed in last year, but it was too small in scale. So we moved some plants and expanded the bed. We planted several roses, iris, hostas, stonecrop, sun loving ferns, salvia, heather, baby’s breath, lamb’s ear, some ornamental grasses, etc. The next day (Sunday), we added a dry stone wall to finish it up. Our hope was it would become a nice prairie style bed in a year or so. We probably jinxed ourselves by remarking on how we had gotten a jump on the bigger outdoor projects this year.
We recycled some plants and added others.
We were happy to finally have a place to put the rocks we dragged with us when we moved.
We had storm here today. We weren’t home when it came, but as we drove down the street, it was obvious it had been a pretty significant windstorm. Almost every house had branches out of their trees. As we came up to our house, we could see that something was just not right. Dennis was the first one to figure it out.
“Where’s our pine tree? Oh my God, it’s gone.”
He was right. It was gone. So was the pear tree that sat right behind it. Just gone. As we got closer, there they were. Snapped off, and laying in our new planting bed and pushing through the privacy fence into the backyard.
These are 85 year old trees. They were healthy, not rotted or diseased. They were fully 40 – 50 foot trees. And whatever hit them, hit them hard. Thankfully, the house and dogs were okay.
Spring 2004
We ripped out some old yew bushes from the front of the house. Twin pines flank the house. A pear tree sits behind the pine tree on the left side of the house.
Long view of the storm damage.
The pear tree is pancaked beneath the pine.
The pine tree looks sheared off.
You can just see what remains of the pear tree’s trunk in front of the first side window of the house. The pine tree boughs were intertwined with the the pear’s and it probably pulled it down as it fell.
It will probably take a couple of days to get all of the mess cleaned up. I’m hoping we can salvage something.
We took next week off on vacation to refinish our living room & dining room floors. It appears we will be working outside. I know we are lucky that the house is in one piece and the dogs are fine, but still…we feeling mighty low right now.
Whew! That’s a close one. Might make you think of removing the other?
Gregory: The area where the pine and pear were is the windy side of the house. It’s on an exposed corner. The other pine is nestled just between our house and the neighbors. There are also houses across the street, so it doesn’t get the same full force winds that the other side does. It’s a concern, and I would bet we’ll think about dropping that other pine soon. Karen
Had a similar experience with a dead elm.. Drove home after some intense spring storms and while driving up to the house said… hmmmmm something is different but I dont know what.. Well I know after I walked into the backyard and saw the 30 foot dead elm resting on my house.. luckily it was very dead and so very dry and did not weigh much and did not do much damage…
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