Embarrassed For Our Tree

I am a little embarrassed for our tree. I'm sure it never imagined laying in the yard with its private parts exposed to the whole world. No tree would want to be seen this way.

It's my job to go visit the tree every day and hose the caked on dirt off its roots. I feel like I'm performing a tree-enema or colonoscopy or something equally evasive and embarrassing I just tell the tree, "I'm doing this for your own good"… which really I'm not… it's totally selfish… it's so we can get rid of it altogether. I'm not telling the poor tree that though.

Jay wants to burn that root structure right there where it is… it's too big to chop up or move. He is afraid it won't burn unless we get most of the dirt off of it first. The dirt isn't just "on" it…. It's packed between all the little roots and crevices like concrete. So I take the hose and high power nozzle and spray into all its secret parts daily, gradually washing away the decades of packed in dirt. Once it's clean, it will take forever to dry out enough to burn, but that's not my problem. I suggested planting ivy on it and turning it into a yard ornament, but Jay didn't like that idea.

Mostly what remains to be done besides that is a lot of splitting and hauling. Some of those chunks of trunk are very large!

The pile of small branches with leaves is drying and compressing nicely. It's been way too windy to burn anything lately, but it can wait. There will be more to add to it if we ever get around to that tree behind Amon's trailer. That will have to wait... we're heading out of town for the weekend. More rain is coming on Monday...