Tuesday Tree-hugger post

Tomorrow will be a sad day. The two stately trees that are in the front of our house will be coming down due to the dreaded Emerald Ash Borer. The smaller of the two is pretty much dead with a few leaves here and there. The taller one is alive, but is infected pretty bad. From a distance, you can’t see the holes the bugs make, but when you get up close and look into the bark, you can see what damage the little buggers have done. Two of our scientist type friends have diagnosed the problem, so we’re not just making this stuff up to get some new trees.

If these trees were on our property, and not the city’s property, I’d be crapping my pants, as the cost to cut these down will not be cheap. But, since they are on the easement and it’s the city’s property, I will rest easy tonight. At 9:00 tomorrow morning, our street will be closed so the crews can come in and take them down. Due to the larger one’s size, and age, they are closing the street in case anything goes wrong. If the trees do go down, I hope they point them EAST and not WEST towards our house.

The taller of the two trees towers over our house, it’s visible from down the street both ways, and is easily the tallest tree on our triangle. It is also filled with a bee’s nest. I have alerted the city crew to this fact and hope that they take me serious. The hole in the tree, which is at our second storey window level, is teeming with bees, honey bees, the good kind. A discussion of what to do involved all kinds of Pooh-ish stunts to gather the honey. Since I have a mild allergic reaction to bee stings, I think I will stay away from all that.

Tod has found a time-lapse app for the webcam, so we’ll set it up in Eli’s room to record the day’s events. Who knows, there may be some hot lumberjacks.