as much as I hate the idea of it. Always stood off on the idea of cutting trees. But I don’t want to deal with it anymore. Too many to close to the house. Butternut trees draw squirrels, spiderwebs floating in the breeze so you walk around wiping them off your skin. Continual excess of leaves in gutters and branch and twig on roof. But the final straw was when working upstairs on the renovation when the jams ended and in the prevailing silence I hear the soft scratchy sound of munching from within the cathedral ceiling I so laboriously built with precious time. It’s amazing what a rodent can do with teeth. So I find and repair hole openings they must have entered in. Perhaps I now know why all these new homes are built without a tree in site. But if it had to be a choice one or the other I’ll fight chipmunks and squirrels and spiders any day over the unshaded box at the side of the road right next to another and another and another.
Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Replies
Are you sure? Once done, you can't go back, you know. The squirrels keep the butternuts from clogging the gutters. You can hire a guy to clean out the gutters in the fall, and floating spiderwebs are pretty. How about a few spring traps in the attic? Here, this ought to help:
Trees
I THINK that I shall never see
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer. 1886–1918
There, better? Need a tissue?
"A completed home is a listed home."
I know Lisa but they are a yard away from the house. Please let me cut my trees.
And easy on the poetry or I'll recite 'Casey at the Bat' for you:)Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Under the spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands.
A large and clumsy man is he
Who often strikes his hands.
With apologies,Andy Engel, The Accidental Moderator
Roar!Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
We looked at a house for sale once along the northern California coast. A redwood tree had grown up alongside the house, just under 3 feet from the house. As the years passed no one ever cut it down. By the time we saw the house, the tree had lifted the corner of the slab of the bedroom nearly a foot, cracking the exterior siding clear through, breaking windows and letting rainwater in. It was a mess. It was so close to neighboring houses everyone was afraid to take the (now huge) redwood down, so they ended up demolishing the house.
Upon further reflection, rez, I guess we'll let you take down your trees. But tough luck on the poetry...
I've never seen a purple tree,I hope I never see one.But I can tell you, certainly,I'd rather see than be one.
(My apologies to Odgen Nash)
"A completed home is a listed home."
o.k....O.K. O.K. !
Here's MY poem..
Out in the yard is a big oak tree
A place my dog, loves to pee
and if, to it you take a saw,
my dog will punch you in the jaw.no turn left unstoned
verse two
in the tree ther lives a sguirril
it's nest is right above the burl
across the street it just went
here comes a car to squash the little rodentno turn left unstoned
three:
go ahead and cut me down
use my lumber for a house
a "happy homeowner", she don't frown
untill she see's a mouseno turn left unstoned
Lisa- to be truthful in the scenario you just described with the redwood and the house. I'd have been tempted to rework the house and make the tree part of the charm. Old redwoods are king. BTW, Old growth redwood can have a violet/purple tone to it.
Ok-I'll take a shot of the cuff in honor of panama...
"A Redwood's Story"
Mighty limbs would shield the sky, for rock-a-by baby in treetops high
Tho' mighty tempest winds would blow, it sheltered the cradle's move to and fro
It had to, you know, for it wrecked the room where the infant lived and thus saved it from doom
And now the child lives up in that tree, I know with no doubt, cause that child is me.
ok I confess... I got a little green-building in me.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
Well, now, that was just bee-you-tee-ful. So there's a poet in your spirit after all! OK, cut down the dratted trees, but make a clock for the mantle out of one of them as a memorial. Then I'll let you off the hook. :-)
"A completed home is a listed home."
Don't listen to him, he's just trying to butter you up.Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good w/ketchup, cheese - especially applewood smoked gouda, a decent sized kosher/garlic pickle and let's not forget the 70% bittersweet Scharfenberger. Still working on the liquid refreshment.
I'd like to have the time to make a clock but this house has got me running ragged. I have nicknamed it 'the house that stole my forties'.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
I live in a woods of 3 acres. I have trees all around my house. Some days I curse them. Other days I feel blessed. The trees I know is why I bought the house and the trees I also know will help it sell for what I need to sell it for. But the cutting of downed trees(lots of locusts), mulching the leaves over and over in the fall and the clogged gutters are a terrific burden. Not to mention the cedar siding(stain), two decks(stain), riverrock chimney(sealer), T-111 siding on workshop(stain), exposed aggregate sidewalk(sealer) and on and on. But as long as I am healthy and have the energy it is worth it. I too could never live (at least be happy) in a crowded subdivision even though around here they are all bricked with vinyl trim with low maintenance. Having said all this I do feel like rez that TREES are not meant to be so close to the house they are hanging over it with the moss, and debris. With a wood sided house they don't let it breathe enough etc. Thus,I am also deliberating cutting some sassafrass and cherry right next (trunk within 10ft.) of the house.
AAAAHHHHHH! You are contemplating cutting down SASSAFRAS AND BLACK CHERRY??!!! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to grow Sassafras here(the black cherry seeds itself nicely so I'm not gonna have a heart attack about that one)? I only know of one nursery that sells Sassafras and I don't remember any of them selling Black Cherry. Too bad they are practically impossible to dig up when that large, else I would volunteer to come over in my VW, open the sunroof and we could pop those puppies in my car <g>.
Edited to add that I got too excited and directed the post to Tony, instead of rez. Sorry about that.
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good w/ketchup, cheese - especially applewood smoked gouda, a decent sized kosher/garlic pickle and let's not forget the 70% bittersweet Scharfenberger. Still working on the liquid refreshment.
Edited 9/6/2002 7:25:23 PM ET by PLANTLUST
Edited 9/6/2002 7:25:57 PM ET by PLANTLUST
>> Do you have any idea how difficult it is to grow Sassafras here?
Really? They sprout like crabgrass at my place. I've got 160 acres that was wall to wall sassafras until I bulldozed about 30 acres of it to put my garden in. Sweetest bonfire I ever smelled.
Cut what you have to but plant three for each you cut. Be sure to maintain them until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Nothing wrong with cutting trees we just have to cut them slightly slower than they grow. While your at try to plant diverse native species to avoid the vulnerabilities, lack of disease resistance and poor wildlife habitat, of monoculture plantings.
Sound advice, but I was just yanking PLANTLUST's chain. She wails with jealousy every time somebody talks about having enough land to plant a real garden on. So when she got jealous about the sassafras tree, I couldn't resist the double whammy.
Man am I craving sassafras tea.Quittin' Time
I really, really hate you about now.
Edited to add gulp, just read and UNDERSTOOD the rest of your post. You BULLDOZED(with an ACTUAL bulldozer?) THIRTY ACRES of SASSAFRAS???!!!???
Thud. That was me fainting.
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good w/ketchup, cheese - especially applewood smoked gouda, a decent sized kosher/garlic pickle and let's not forget the 70% bittersweet Scharfenberger. Still working on the liquid refreshment.
Edited 9/7/2002 3:21:51 AM ET by PLANTLUST
Hook, line and sinker.
Tony was the right poster. Black Cherry I'd let live in my living room. Sassafras out the gazoos here. I have two trees a yard away from house. See the picture. Old home renovation on uncared for building of many years. Some large limbs from others that must go before they go on their own on the roof. Some others will soon threaten the electric lines. Just waiting for my yearly jaunt to New Hampshire to buy a chain saw and load up on my other tools of this years necessity since I can save a bundle on sales tax. If you drive an old VW you can't be all bad:)Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Tony- Careful! Some guys will kill for Black Cherry lumber.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.