Trees.........

We saw a news story tonight of a man up north being killed by a tree falling during the winter storm going on right now. This got us to thinking.......... We have fallen trees that we haven't even seen yet because there are too many fallen trees in the way! We got to talking, power outages, cars destroyed, houses ruined, business, churches, schools, you named it. All from trees falling. Now there are groups and charities offering free trees for anyone to re-plant!! They must be crazy!! The three counties in this area, Bay - Leon - Gasden- all lost from 89 - 98 % of electricity during hurricane Michael and most was all caused by fallen trees. And it took a while to all be repaired.

We actually got to laughing about it ......... especially about the free tree give-aways............
Had our own ideas.........

You should have to be 21 and pass a background check to buy a tree...
You cannot plant a tree within 200 feet of a church...
You cannot plant a tree within 200 feet of a school...
You cannot plant a tree within 200 feet of a playground or buss-stop...
These are all protected areas in the state of Florida.

You cannot plant a tree within falling distance of a residence.........

I wish some tree-huggers would come to my place and hug the 2 half-trees I have left!!

On a good note our lemon and orange trees made it through with such fruit left that we still have given away a dozen or more shopping bags full of fruit.

I bet tree huggers would get lonely in the counties around here trying to find a whole tree to hug.

Just our thoughts...................................

 

I am kind of fond of the oxygen trees provide.

 

Everyone does! But I bet the family of that man killed don't feel so close with trees right now!
Notice I said we got to laughing about the things we thought of. 1000 trees given away today and more to come -


https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/-r...given-away-in-panama-city-marianna/1710578895

I won't replant any that fell. Oaks, pines, cedars, sycamore.

I still have oranges. lemons, apple, plum and pear. And flower and berry plants also. I still have my half-trees. So maybe they give me a little breathing power.

In the article it says some varieties are geared toward hurricane resistance. I can go look at many large acre tracts where every kind of tree there is down! There is no Cat 5 or Ef 3 resistant variety. I would not trust any close to my structure ever again.

 

I prefer to manage the risks that trees pose and still have them around. Trees bring a tranquil peace that I really enjoy and the bird life is also interesting. My new house had a very sparse backyard garden so I have planted over 70 trees so far and when I have built my new workshop later this month another 20 or 30 trees will be planted.......it will be my little oasis with lovely trees and shrubs to attract native birds, lots of varieties of fruit trees so we have fresh fruit to eat and on my new workshop walls there will be grape vines at one end, kiwi fruit vines on the other end and passion fruit vines on the side. the fruit trees already planted are two of each:- blood oranges, mandarins, tahitian limes, red grapefruit, yellow grapefruit, kumquat, myer lemon, lisbon lemon and kaffir lime. Still to plant are apricot, white nectarine, peach, blood plum, greengage plum, dark cherry, granny smith apple, red delicious apple, pear tree, quince and a pair of avocado trees.
My house is in a designated bushfire zone so I will also install a high pressure spray system connected to some very large rainwater tanks to reduce the risk of fire spreading to the house and help save the trees.

In a few years when the trees have grown a bit more, we will be able to have a BBQ and sit in the shade under the trees sipping on a cool beer or two

 

I had about 12 large oaks, 5 tall pines and 3 cedar. Now I have 2 half oaks. The neighboring property had about 6 pines that came over my way. They also had too many oaks to come down to count. I used to have a green canopy out back from the tree to tree spread. I couldn't live long enough to see it that way again. Used to have many squirrels but they have mostly disappeared. Some bluebirds and cardinals still hanging around. Possums and turtles will never leave. Yeah - more fruit trees is the way to go.

2 of the oaks came on the house. Luckily one was real close so it didn't get any momentum before hitting and the other was just far enough away to get tangled with the first when a cross wind tangled the two falling sideways. My oaks were about 50-60 ft and probably 20 ft across. Red oak. I've seen many down that were huge. 5 ft across with root balls standing up 8 feet in the air when they toppled over. Too close is dangerous.

 

This is barely a quarter shot. Back right half. Imagine all that falling toward the camera. The orange tree in the middle bottom is still standing. Naval orange about 12 feet tall.

 

Opposite view. Critters don't mind. Hurricane Smuricanne! Where's those pesky squirrels now?!

 

Hey IM, what lovely trees A bit denser foliage than the place I sold last year although we had a clear lawn area under the tree branches. I really like oak trees but jeez........those darn acorns and the mower My new place didn't have a single plant in the backyard and there was only short grass on a third of an acre of clear space.
Hmmm......looks like your trees have a bit of age which is really nice. Do you get them checked by an arborist? We used to get the trees checked once a year to make sure all the branches were strong.......that way we can sleep peacefully on windy nights
Do you find nothing much grows underneath the cypress trees? Over here cypress trees drop some kind of resin in hot weather and it seems to kill off other plants.
That tree that is down looks like it will become firewood.....Luckily we don't get too many cyclones/hurricanes in my area but two trees at my old place got hit by lightning which split the trunk. Luckily the arborist fixed them with some sort of glue compound and metal plates. The trees were right beside our bedroom window and we were in bed listening to the thunderstorm when the lightning struck 10 feet from our bedroom window. CRIKEY.........it was a miracle I didn't need to change my underpants

 

We HAD dead branches which I cut the ones I could get to with a 22 ft extension ladder. Some eventually fell from higher reaches. Now all are on the ground 'cept for a couple that are the tops dangling and out of reach. The cedar usually were blank under their limb spread area. I found when I lived in Mississippi that chickens love to roost in thick cedar trees. All night. And the poop under the tree made for some of the best fertilizer you could get! After years it would be a shovel deep or more. Using it on plants you would see the fastest largest stalk and leaf growth ever!

Our biggest oak fell directly on the master bedroom wall. I looked out the back door and saw it leaning there. I was thinking, 'this is 60 feet in the air. How am i gonna get it down? '. Then a stronger cross wind blew it sideways along that edge and it got to a more manageable position. These were healthy trees all. Just not a match for 150 mph wind.

We have a new saying here-

What does a 150 mph wind do when it comes to town?
.........Anything it wants to!

 

Joffa, you talked of grapes on you new workshop walls. Ever dabble in making wine?

 

Yep but not with my own grapes.....I have a mate, Mark, who has many contacts in the wine industry and sometimes a group of us will all chip in and buy a couple of 225 litre barrels of premium red wine that is already aged in oak for a year or two and ready for bottling plus we buy another couple of small 20 litre containers of different varieties for blending. Once Mark takes delivery we all get together early on a Saturday at his factory and we have a blending and bottling party and BBQ. Mark has some commercial bottling and corking equipment and he organises a couple of pallets of brand new wine bottles. We usually do cabernet sauvignon or shiraz which are red wines and the blending wines are usually cabernet franc or grenache or mourvedre varietals. After everyone agrees on the final blend ratio, we mix the wine and bottle it. There is quite a bit of quality control along the way and then after cleaning up Mark's factory we have a late BBQ dinner after which we take our boxes of wine home to be cellared for the next few years.

I also have a 15 litre port cask that was seeded in 1989 with fine liqueur muscat that was already 25 years old. Whenever 5 litres is consumed I fill it back up with a 5 litre bulk container of 12 year old liqueur muscat. It has been maturing for 30 years and it is very smooth. It goes down nicely after a nice meal and it is also good to warm you up on those cold 12º C days in winter.

The grapes I will grow on the shed will be seedless eating grapes although I could make white wine if I grew enough

I would really like to get a still and start making some bourbon but that is another story......

 

Port Elizabeth is South Africa's windiest city. But, thankfully we don't have hurricanes. The highest wind speed recorded is 86 mph.

Look if you can find a 'Spekboom' at your local nursery.

https://www.brandsouthafrica.com/play-your-part-category/spekboom

 

Found this listing on ebay. Says it ships from the usa, so no import problems. Seems it's in many recipes. A real 'wonder plant'!! Thanks for sharing!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Elephant-Bush-Spekboom-Portulacaria-afra-/281936825000

 

Shop around. You'll get them for half the price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Elephant-B...d:g:1aEAAOSwbsBXkWm8:rk:2:pf:1&frcectupt=true

 

Yeah but some are plants and some are cutting. Depends on your luck with root grow and potting after the root forms. Some might have better luck. Still an attractive idea. And maybe not as fast or high grower as some of the more 'dangerous' alternatives. I still follow along with joffa's idea of plenty of fruit trees. Funny. All my fruit trees survived. Except maybe 2 peach trees that I haven't been able to get to yet.

Have you any experience in using the leaves or flowers of the spekboom in drinks or cooking or such?

 

I got a six inch cutting from a friend, stuck it into the ground, and it grew!

Unfortunately not. I'm very fussy when it comes to eating (or drinking) 'greens'.

 

Ah man, greens collards turnips cabbage are good and good for you. Just can't imagine what this would be like. Read a couple places said it was lemonly. To me lemons go the best in beer and with fish. The wife squeezes our lemons and freezes the juice to mix with honey for cough syrup!

 

The forestry service says this area lost 2.5 million log trucks of timber. And that was timber that was intended to be harvested. Doesn't include all the residential property where the trees were never going to be cut! That's a lot of trees gone.

https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/ti...loss-caused-from-hurricane-michael/1726519429