Aw Ravencajun, I hate that, too. I don't mind the pines as much as I do the oak trees. Maybe you can have new ones planted.

As for the guy lifting the logs, I hope it doesn't come back and bite him in the butt years from now when he's older. Back pain is a pain, alright!

I had two huge water oak cut down. Hated to seem them go, but I loved having a nice gassy lawn after they were gone.

I am the biggest tree lover you could know, so I sympathize with you. Trees are so valuable to our quality of life and provide much needed habitat to animals and birds. Those continuous high temps are murder on trees combined with drought. Maybe you can plant some new ones to replace them.

It is always sad to see them go, but glad that you feel more safe.

Oh, I know how heartbroken you must be. Every time we have a hurricane or micro bursts and I see trees down, it saddens me so. Even if it isn't on my property. Yes, you can plant more trees, but you just cannot replace a 100 year old one. Some where down the line though, some one will appreciate your efforts.

I can empathize with you even though in my case it was only one tree.

We had a beautiful, very tall, very old pine tree in our yard. It had grown there "forever."

After my DH died and I sold the house some 6 years later, I woke up one morning with the song "They cut down the old pine tree" running in my mind.

I went to work and the manager, who lived across the street from that house told me the new owners had cut down the tree. I couldn't believe it. The tree was perfectly healthy, gave wonderful shade to the porch which covered the length of the front of the house plus the windows on the side.

I drove by that afternoon and I saw the stump about two feet high there in the yard. Later they put a pot of flowers on it. They should have put a funeral wreath!!

So sad, and I still marvel that that song was in my head that day.

I'm glad you still have other trees and hope they can survive all these weather changes.

Sue

I would too, RC, watching an old tree go is like losing an old friend, an old soul. They witness so much of the history, if only they could talk.

I know the feeling, its sad and you'll miss them for a while, but you did the right thing. When we bought our house 28 years ago, we had five huge, very old, oaks, along with an assortment of other trees, including a one younger oak. The first one had to come down early on and two came down to make way for an addition about 20 years ago. The worst was the very prettiest, in the front yard about 15 feet from the front right side of the house, with massed azealas between it and the house. We had a thunderstorm one night, heard a BIG clap of thunder,commented "boy, that was close," and went to sleep. The next morning, a Saturday, DH went out for the paper and when he came back in said (I clearly remember his strange choice of words), "we've had an event, look outside." The large oak had been struck by lightning, split in half, and fell precisely the only way it could possibly fall without damaging anything. It knocked one limb off of a nearby youngish maple and limbs crushed about half of an azeala, but both pulled through without any lasting damage. The azealas were so well established and still had enough shade from the house and other trees nearby, that they've continued to do well.

We had the last ancient oak cut down two springs ago. It, too, was close to the house and we've seen a number of trees its age in our neighborhood come down on houses over the last few years. It was a sad thing to do and it was still in good shape, but it was/is a relief to know that it wasn't going to fall on the house.

Luckily, by the time we lost the last two old guys, the younger oak, a few pines, along with many of the trees we planted when we first bought the house had matured, so our yard is still well treed. I do miss our old friends though (and so do the squirrels).

obviously I understand having to cut down a dead tree, but these stupid idiot people up here in OHIO just love to chop down trees. I have seen more beautiful HUGE trees being cut down in our neighborhood in the two years I have lived here than any other place I have lived my whole entire life. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? HAVE THEY NO BRAINS? UGH!!!! I cannot imagine choosing stupid green grass over a huge tree? What kind of sense does that make? UGH! Oh yes because we love to mow so much? Whatever?

I hear you arkansas girl I do not understand it either and I bet they will miss that wonderful shade too.

Our Dallas house had very few trees and we would jus
die from the heat all summer, I planted trees , so I hope some day some one does get to enjoy them.

We will definitely plant replacements for these. The first year we were here we had to cut down 3 but only one had been alive, the previous ownerfailed to remove 2 dead ones, guess he wanted us to face that cost, it is not cheap!!

I was so heartbroken to see do many of the majestic oaks that were lost in Louisiana from the hurricanes. How true the stories they could tell!! At least mine was not that big.
Mojomom that is amazing how it fell without causing damages.
Sue I know the feeling even though it was no longer yours you still treasured for its long life. And even worse when done for no good reason.

I am so thankful that we now live in a forest area. People who hate trees, I do not get.

Now I have to decide what kind I want to plant. We had planted type of elm in Dallas, it was almost weeping looking was beautiful in a breeze. It grew fast too. Might do that by the sun room. I also really like the river birch with the peeling bark. I guess I have some research to do, must be able to live in this climate for sure.

Thanks

that is too bad. I like those big trees.
The LEYLAND CYPRESS is a FAST growing pretty tree.

then again... maybe not! hahahaa

I also heard, from a Seattle gardner radio host, that it takes a tree as many years to start growing as it is old. Wow,,,, that makes no sense! lol

We transplanted a 3 year old tree, and it didn't start showing any growth until it's third year in the ground!

Here is a link that might be useful: bad tree. lol

i don't understand tree haters either..and my dd2 is one and needs them so badly on one side of her house. it's all 2 story brick with one tiny window and does nothing but asorb heat in the summer and cold in the winter..and her backyard faces an older home and aweful fence..

I just found the most amazing tree, extremely drought tolerant, has won the earth kind award, is perfect for Texas and the forestry department is recommending them, plus they have fabulous fall colors which is rare here. It is called the Chinese Pistache tree.
Google it for pictures, it gets quite large, and grows several feet a year.

I do not have a magnolia here, I have planted one at every home so that is on my list. I have a pink Tulip Magnolia about 7 feet tall in my atrium in a planter.

Raven, speaking of birches, I was cleaning out a large planter of old annuals and found a 2-3 inch twig of something. I left it in the planter and brought it when I moved here. I asked the nursery guy who was planting shrubs if he knew what it might be. He looked it over and said it was a Birch, but he couldn't tell whether it was a River or a White Birch. I asked him to plant it in my back yard to see if it would grow. That was 8 years ago and now it is a beautiful five foot+ tall Birch, and I still don't know whether it is River or White. I've googled images and can't tell the difference. Just glad I had him to look at it.

Kat, my neighbor planted a row of starter Leyland Cypress 8 years ago. (We moved here at the same time.) Now they are about 8-9 feet tall, and healthy.

Sue

I know how you feel. I have lost a few ancient trees over the years - very, very sad. Most recent was a 100+ year old Norway pine - I about cried. Fortunately I wasn't there to watch when it was taken down. It left a huge void that I still haven't gotten used to. We have a lot of seedlings so I'm into reforestation - transplanting, etc. They'll never be huge in my lifetime but hopefully someone else will one day enjoy that.