Houston had a really bad drought last year. Several million trees died, primarily pines and magnolias, but a lot of oaks, too. About 6 pines on my block are dead (that's 100% of the pines on my block). A lot of houses that lost trees are rent houses, and believe me, most renters don't give a fig about the landscaping. I told the renter next door to me that he needed to water or the trees would die and he blew me off. Now there are 2 dead pines in his yard, and supposedly he's buying the house, but doesn't have enough money to get the dead trees cut down. I hope they don't fall anytime soon. It takes a LOT of water to keep a pine alive, since they have a really deep tap root. Also, people on limited incomes (like me) can't afford a huge water bill. I was saving water from my a/c just to keep my roses and other plants alive. These trees weren't just in peoples' yards, but were on city rights-of-way, city parks, and large natural parks that don't have any water unless it rains. The 200 acre arboretum, which is mostly forest, has thousands of dead trees and looks terrible now. Plus, we had water restrictions. And the city quit watering trees on their property to conserve water. Plus, water lines broke all over the city because concrete and asphalt buckled, and a lot of water was lost that way, too. Crews had to come from other cities to help repair the leaks. It isn't as easy as just dragging the water hose around.

I post on the Fruit and Orchards forum and the people over there are forever taking about the best ways to net blueberries so the birds don't eat them all. I know that when I was first looking into bird attracting berries no one ever mentioned blueberries but the birds go nuts over them. Anyway, before I planted the 12 new blueberries I already had about 20 in my yard but many of those are not mature so only afew are giving fruit. I just kept planting more blueberries so that there might be enough for everyone. When these two newer batches of Blueberry shrubs mature, there surely should be enough. I like to go out in the morning and eat ripe blueberries straight off the shrubs. So far there has never been enough to actually pick some to bring inside. Good timing on my planting as it raining today so they should get a good soaking, along with the hardy and fragrant lily bulbs I planted this week and lots of rose shrubs because they are pretty.

In 1955 we had a 4 year old and an 8 year old. Never took them to a McDonald's. Don't think there even was one where we lived. A treat was the Ice Cream truck. Even the dog waited for that when he heard the ding-a-ling. In those days, DH was working and pursuing a college degree in order to be a school teacher, and you can imagine what our finances were! Always had my eye on a (blue) Chevy Bel Aire, never got it, . but many years later got a used '65 Chevy Malibu Classic Station Wagon with glass pack mufflers! Yeah, those days were tough, but great! Sue

Hi Brad, yes tree removal companies are very expensive and that was part of the reason the tree is still standing . We were trying to sort out which company to use . All we really need is for them to take the tree tops off , we can deal with the rest ourselves but hard to find a company that will agree to that for a decent price . We had 2 other approximately 80 to 90 foot trees come down the same day . They are dead ash trees thanks to the Emerald Ash Borer .however the other 2 trees are at the far end of the property . Both came down during the store and broke right at the base of the trees . Fortunately they didn't do any damage . One just missed an old heritage apple tree and the other came down on a patch of hawthorn so no great loss there . Both were about 3 or 4 feet in circumference at the base and snapped off as if they were twigs . That is how violent the storm was. Sp I am guessing we are lucky that only part of the tree in the back yard came down. As for my pictures I am not sure exactly what you are seeing in my pictures. I take them with my Iphone and download to my computer to be able to post here.