# SAYING GOODBYE TO OUR TREE



## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

We have a large Pin Oak just outside of our kitchen window. I mean only 16' from the house. It stands about 70' tall, and is a beautiful specimen. In the summer it shades a good portion of the house. Thats a good thing.







However, for most of the year it causes us to clean up after it each and every day.







Whether it is the string seeds in the spring, the ever falling leaves and twigs, or the acorns that start during August and continue until November. All that does not include the leaves that it sheds in the Fall and well into the month of January.







All in all I'd say that we may get two months, tops, without much cleaning to do from "The Tree". Well, after 35 years we have decided to have it removed. We have wrestled with the idea for a few years, and have chickened out each year. However, this year we have reached the point of no return, it's coming down at the end of this month. I thought that I would like to have the trunk saved and have it milled into lumber. That way the tree would live on, so to speak, in the form of whatever the kids or we want to make out of it. Whether it is milled by a lumber company or I slice it up myself depends on the cost of having it done professionally.







This summer my son and I sliced a Hickory log into boards in the hopes of making a new kitchen table. That trunk was about 16" in diameter. This oak is about 30". I'll need a larger chain saw. In a last ditch feeling of guilt







about taking this tree down, I thought of having it cut way back. I've seen this done on other types of trees where the branches are cut way back, close to the trunk. Then in the following years new branches grow from the ends of the cut branches. I'm not sure if that can be done to a Pin Oak though. I am not even sure that it's the correct way to go. Trees grow very fast in our soil, so I would be faced with the same problem as I am getting older.







This tree was 4" in diameter 35 years ago and barely 15' high. I guess I am looking for moral support in taking it down.


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Wack it and Stack it is what we say in NY................


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## Bills (Feb 20, 2008)

That's a hard one, that tree grew with your family. There's a lot to consider, if you don't like the way your house looks without it, you will have to wait another 35 years.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Dan,
I used to have FOUR shammel Ash trees right next to the house-within two to three feet. These were all along the rear of the house. Three were about three to four feet in diameter and stood over one hundred feet tall. We are down to two trees now. My wife wants these two out and I said no way. They were planted when the house was new in 1953-we bought the place in 1974. They're staying! They both keep the house very cool in the summer because the rear faces to the west. It costs $2K to $3K dollars every year to have them thinned and topped. I WILL NEVER take them out. Think long and hard about it Dan. My guys have grown with our family just as yours have.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Well that is like saying good bye to your best buddy. I am just a tree hugger. I am not sure I could cut it down. I am not tuff enough to be a cactus hugger. Those thorns are what get ya.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Here is a view of the tree and house. The pine tree is blocking a good view of the oak, but you can still see the situation. The one thing I did not mention was that running my railway is getting more and more of a chore, because the acorns and leaves and everything else must be cleaned up daily. 
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&amp...gle%20mapshttp://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&utm...a-us-bk-gm&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google maps


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

I couldn't see your house with the link. 

All the foliage from the two remaiming trees is just left and up from the "my house" pin. Size comparison: the pool at the rear of the yard is 15X30 ft. The spidery shadows are caused by two 100 ft. tall King and Queen palm trees.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Gary, I tried to edit the post and thought I was posting a link, on the edit, of a front view of the house from the street. I used Live Search, but I just keep getting a map of the entire country. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. If this was my desktop computer, I would just take a picture and load it onto the computer. But this is a borrowed laptop, since my computer is out for repair.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp...6,,0,-1.82


Maybe this will work.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Beautiful home-beautiful trees! Keep it, please.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Dan,

About 25 years ago I planted a sycamore tree to the west of our house. It looked like a twig with a leaf. We have the only neighbors on earth who don't like trees, and I wanted shade for the west end.

It's now bigger around than I can reach. It sheds twigs, puffballs, dinner-plate sized leaves and the occasional squirrel. I named it Amos.

It stays. It's a Godsend: in the late summer I can work under it while splitting my winter's supply of wood. In the winter I get lots of sticks for the fireplace, and leaves for mulch. I enjoy looking at it, contemplating it. Remembering the one down on the farm that I used to shoot puffballs off of with my BB gun, and later a .22.

It cools the house to a good degree, but actually needs to be on the other western corner. (SW). But it's a big, scabarous-looking lovely tree that I and the kids planted when my youngest was a toddler.

I'm keeping it.

Les


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

A tree or a Railroad? 
Fellas where's your moral support???? 

Take a picture of the tree and get rid of it before it falls on your house! Storms are getting stronger...y'know? 

All Aboard! 

Priorities! You can always plant new ones where you want them! 

Maybe some nice artificial Christmas trees...they come in colors! 

John


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

John posted:
Fellas where's your moral support???? 


I have no morals left to support.









Ol' Vulp


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't think I could cut it down. We bought our lot for its mature trees, and then planted some more. I sympathize with the fallout from the trees. I have a bit of that myself.










JimC.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Well I'd say take it out. You will be happer down the road and not still talking about it. I took out two of them several years ago and never regretted it as the mess the trees left. These where gum trees so also had to look out that I did not derail a train. I do not believe I could put up with the hedge apple trees and the damage to rolling equipment. Later RJD


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By aceinspp on 12 Oct 2009 11:30 AM 
Well I'd say take it out. You will be happer down the road and not still talking about it. I took out two of them several years ago and never regretted it as the mess the trees left. These where gum trees so also had to look out that I did not derail a train. I do not believe I could put up with the hedge apple trees and the damage to rolling equipment. Later RJD We had two more Pin Oaks in the back yard that we took out five years ago. Both of them were over the pond and railroad. Never missed them. And the yard is alot nicer without them. Not to mention the pond being much cleaner.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

I sure don't miss the one that the ice storm took out for us. It was one of those fast growing types, basically a willow and it dropped little 
limbs all over ALL the time! Our Smoke Tree is real nice though.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Here is a better shot of "THE TREE" I don't know what happened with the third photo. I resized all three, or so I thought I did. However, you get the idea. When I built the barn in 1985, the trunk was a few inches away from the roof. Over the years I have cut the roof back in a shape to match the trunk. Also, back then, the walkway was directly in the front of the barn, and passed between the tree and the barn wall. It can't be seen in the pictures, but it runs around the front of the tree now. 



















http://www.mylargescale.com/1stclass/Madman/100_4341.JPG[/b]


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## AzRob (Sep 14, 2009)

Looks like a fire hazard, that close to the house. Then again, you probably don't have much wildfire danger there, do you?


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

Cut it down, make boards outta it and build something nice with them to remember it. Then, plant two more to replace it. You won't miss the mess but you will miss the shade. I had a giant maple tree come down last winter. It shaded the house very well, this summer the AC ran far more than normal driving up electrical costs.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

No, no fire hazards in this area. 

I do plan on slicing it into boards for future projects to do just that, make things to remember the tree by.


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## Richard Weatherby (Jan 3, 2008)

We bought our property 37 years ago. We built our house a few years later. We took great pains not to cut down trees. We built in between them. Even with a 9:12 pitch on the roof, 30 years later we had 3 inches of moss on the north side and branches dropping causing major leaks. We removed the trees and reroofed. I don't regret taking any trees down. Trees grow back. The most renewable resource we have. 

Eventually you can begin to hate every tree. Poplar trees drop pods and seeds which hurt when you step on them. Oaks drop acorns and pointed leaves that come down from fall to spring. Maples drop propeller seeds. Walnuts drop big green balls and a million thin branches which hold the leaves (a big multi-leaf stem). Butter nuts are opened by squirrels and leave halves between the track ties. And on and on... 

I spend months blowing leaves. I can't cut the whole woods down and would not, but when trees truly endanger your house CUT THEM DOWN. One storm could ruin your life, be it ice or wind. This does not even conside what the roots are doing. The roots extend out at least as far as the drip line of the branches. I can't speak to how deep they are but I have seen oaks fall over. 

If you think that tree is worth more than your life, then let it do what it wants to.


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## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

Trees can wear out their welcome. Yours looks like it overwhelms your house. Unless you desperately need the shade, it sounds and looks like it's time has come. 
Yes it will be sad to see it come down but look at the possibilities for that area when it does. It provided you with lots of shade and character for many years but once it is down, your yard will fresh and open for new ideas and new memories. 

We took out a 70ft swamp maple couple of years ago. It's trunk was about 30" dia. Every storm we waited for it or it's branches to fall and destroy our or our neighbor's sheds and/or house. No more worries now and I am still burning the firewood. Our grass is now healthier and the surrounding trees are healthier. I was able to put in a train shed and expand my railroad. We are not sorry we took it down. 

You got our support.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Thanks Ward. Yes, that is the best way to put it, "It's time has come". It did provide shade for the house all of those years. Now that we are in a position to consider central air conditioning, the diecision has been made with less guilt.


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