February 23, 2005
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Rain Ends Reign
The old pine may have ruled the back yard for fifty years. Starting Christmas of 1954, we used live trees decorated for the season, then planted them in the back yard. Only one of those trees survived more than a couple of years. The remainder were probably destroyed by gophers eating their roots in the late winter and early spring. Something killed them, though, leaving one lone pine in the back yard.
That four-foot tall ex-Christmas tree soon became the largest, tallest tree in the back yard. The Chinese elm tree in the front yard may be as tall as the pine in back was, but I don't think so.
During the years I was away, out of the country, two new trees sprouted, one on either side, to flank the old pine. I have been told they are either cottonwood or silk oak but I've made no attempt at certain identification. They are pests, having a pollen that gives all of us severe allergic reactions. I wanted to remove them but Delia wanted them left in place.
The pine tree had a double trunk, one half of which fell in heavy winds about a dozen years ago. I damaged the rotator cuffs of both shoulders when I rushed down the following morning to haul away the damaged limbs and other trash that resulted from the windfall. I never got back to removing the fallen trunk itself.
Now the remainder of the tree has come down, to lie on top of the first half-trunk. The tree fell completely on our property. Had it fallen on the neighbor's house, it could have done considerable damage. The constant rains of the past few weeks softened the normally concrete-hard adobe soil enough that the roots could no longer hold the tall tree against the heavily gusting winds that came with the storm.
The falling giant took the top third of one of its companion trees with it. The other companion suffered lighter damage, mostly to one side.
All of our eucaliptus trees are gone, removed because they were dead or dying and a danger to the neighbor's garage and house. There had been fifty tiny seedlings but gophers took more than half almost immediately. Eucaliptus trees grow too fast and are fragile, falling apart when it is too dry, too windy or too wet. They also developed a beetle infestation, a common problem in this area, that led to their early demise. As tall as they became, they never reached the height of the pine tree.
There is one more large tree in the back yard, a California pepper that was here before we bought the property in 1952. It isn't tall but it has spread out. The more of it I cut off, the bigger it gets. I want to have it removed. Delia doesn't. I guess it'll still be here when we aren't.
Whether it was there for fifty years or slightly less, the old pine had a long run.
Now I should break out my saws and convert it to firewood.
