We\u2019ve been losing a lot of pines that were damaged by the ice storm in 2009 and then stressed even more by last years\u2019 hot dry weather and then the extended drought and heat of this summer.\u00a0 I first noticed some dead<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"http:\/\/bearpenfarm.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/IMG_6641.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>The big pine just outside our front gate is dead.<\/p><\/div>\n
branches on it last spring, which I removed with the help of a boom truck.\u00a0 Lately, though, the rest of the tree has turned brown and I knew there was no hope last week when I heard the unmistakable scritch scritch<\/em> of southern pine borers under the bark.\u00a0 They only attack dead trees.<\/p>\n With a heavy heart I set out to bring the big pine down while it is still in good enough shape to make some quality lumber.\u00a0 First I shot an arrow with a long nylon string attached over the lowest branch, about 30 feet up.\u00a0 I used the line to pull a larger rope up so we could pull the tree in the direction I wanted it to fall. There was a fair chance that it would fall on our picket fence or house if I<\/p>\n Cutting the tree<\/p><\/div>\n didn\u2019t direct the fall.\u00a0 With Austin ready to pull on the rope I fired up the old Husky and went to cutting.\u00a0 When cut almost all the way through the tree settled back and pinched the blade, even with Austin and Maria pulling has hard as they could.\u00a0 I drove an axe head into the kerf to unstuck the bar, cut pretty much all the way through, then ran over to Austin and Maria and helped them pull it over.\u00a0 It made quite a crash when it fell.\u00a0 After limbing it I cut two BIG 14-1\/2 foot logs plus another good-sized 12-footer.\u00a0 The top 12 feet had lots of big knots, so it went to the brush pile.<\/p>\n From vertical to horizontal in two minutes<\/p><\/div>\n At 24 inches above ground level the stump measured 23-1\/2 inches.\u00a0 The small end of the first 14-foot log measured 18 inches.\u00a0 This was a big ol\u2019 tree.<\/p>\n I marked the stump with three tacks.\u00a0 The one in the middle represents the year 1936, when this tree was just a sprout.\u00a0 The next tack is 1951, the year I was born.\u00a0 At that time the tree was about seven inches in diameter.\u00a0 The tack on the far left was 1973, the year I bought this land.\u00a0 It would have<\/p>\n The stump as a timeline<\/p><\/div>\n been about a 14-inch tree at that time.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll miss that tree.\u00a0 We are going to put a really big flat rock on the stump for a while, then when it is too rotten to support it I\u2019ll dig it out and plant some new tree in it\u2019s place\u2014maybe an ash or other good shade tree.\u00a0 Hopefully some day a big beautiful tree will stand again in that spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" August 19th, 2012\u2014Today I cut down one of the Grandfather trees on our farm.\u00a0 This giant yellow pine must have been one of the first to sprout when the sorghum field that is now our pine grove went … Continue reading <\/a><\/a><\/a>