Not to long ago I post some quick pictures of this old tree in the area that I hike.
Now that the snow is gone, I was able to get some images of how bad the trunk is rotting away
and the steps the tree is creating to survive. Viewed from the main trail the trunk looks
fine but as you walk around it you realize it's half eaten away by rot. There are two , I will call,
above ground roots that have grown and are carrying a huge tensile load keeping the tree up.
The branches are massive and the weight is biased in the righthand direction as seen in the last few photos.
Sooner or later the rotted side of the trunk will buckle and that will be it. Depending on the age it's
been around and 'seen' a lot in it's life.
Lightning
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was thinking
DeleteWood struck by lightning doesn't burn very good for some reason. Southerners call it Lightning wood. I got some free from a farmer. He hoo dooed me I build a great fire in minutes but I couldn't keep that wood burning. I cleaned up and hauled off 2 huge loads of worthless wood. He got me to clean it up for him for free.
DeleteThe stories it could tell.
ReplyDelete-lg
When it falls make fire wood, give it a Viking end then take the ashes to a river and scatter them.
ReplyDeleteMix the ashes with animal fat...
DeletePut the wood ash onto the garden plot.
DeleteDon’t waste it.
TMF Bert
Had a huge wind storm take down 8 trees on my property 4 months ago. Two more down a month ago from the wind.
ReplyDeleteOf course pine trees are more likely to do that.
A month ago 2 huge 100' white pines blew over in our side yard and both are hung up on a 45 degree angle in a large beech tree. If the beech snaps our powerline and the neighborhood fiber optic will be taken out. I can't fix this myself. A dood came out and told me he wants $4k to get em out of here. That's a BIG pill to swallow.
DeleteThat first major scar to the right looks like the big limb suffered serious damage in the distant past, grew around it to save it, and now has a immensely complicated grain structure. That would make a wonderful piece for the lathe if it could be harvested. That tree will be mushroom food soon.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the "vein" root would make a fantastically figured stock for a front stuffer. If only he could talk...
ReplyDeleteTom762
I have a Maple about twice as wide with the same affliction. Half of it succumbed to lightning or wind, and the other half is clinging to life. When I first moved here, the dead side was pretty solid. After 22 years, it is getting pretty punky. I am going to move equipment in the side yard so that it doesn't squash something when it finally decides to give up.
ReplyDeleteLeigh
Whitehall, NY
We had a pine tree across the road at camp that got hit by lightning. Its trunk looked almost like this one, not quit as thick. It came down in the winter a few years after it was struck. The bolt that killed it must have been immense as there was a crack running up the whole length from the ground up to about thirty feet. The top ten feet of the tree was vaporized. We were lucky it didn't catch fire.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of a tree is it? Looks like an oak.
Nemo
Had a white ash 20 ft from dead center front of my 185 yr old farmhouse. It was totally hollowed out and had the bark growing all the way around inside the trunk. The trunk was over 5ft in diameter at shoulder height. 50 years ago it was a beautiful nearly perfect ball of branches and leaves. Then it slowly started dropping off branches. I couldn’t cut it down it was part of the land and it’s history just kept a wary eye on it Against every desire we sold the farm 2 years ago to a weekender The tree was cut down and trashed. Money but no reverence for anything. Sad
ReplyDeleteDon’t know why every site reverts me to anon and I usually don’t catch it
ReplyDeleteWidow maker, watch your ass Irish
ReplyDelete