The trees kept voting for the ax. Taking down some trees and why I hate to do this.

 If it were up to me, I would let trees go through their natural lifecycle and never cut one down.

 Our forests have stood for thousands of years before us, and will outlast us.   They serve as homes for a multitude of birds, insects and little furry friends throughout their life.  Trees not only capture and store carbon from the air but help cool the ground and air around us.

Even after a tree falls and begins to rot it provided food and shelter to a variety of different life forms.  The phrase "Tree of Life" is more than just metaphor.

Sadly however, I have to take down somewhere between three to five of these beautiful trees because they pose a threat to my property.  Two of them threaten my home while the third threatens my neighbor's barn.  It's on my side of the property line and is therefore my responsibility.  

Each windstorm causes them to groan and ache and it's not uncommon for large branches to come crashing down.  

The reason why I hate to take down these trees is because they do provide a nice bit of shade in the summer; our house does not have any sort of central heat or air conditioning, but does catch the breeze that comes through the valley nicely.  These three trees, while sadly rotting from the inside out, do still provide some wonderful and much need shade over the kitchen area of our home.  

You can pull dead wood from this hole

Rotting from the bottom

Yes, we can and are planning on replanting them but we would be looking at anywhere between 10 to 30 years for those trees to mature and provide shade and or fruit.   It's for this reason that calling trees a "renewable resource" is only half true.

The type of tree you plant matters as well, in my thinking it has to be edible in some way but have a root system that does not disturb the homes foundation.  I need them to be native to the area as well.

Well I can start seedlings; it may be a little better to buy saplings.   I want to ensure that the tree survives and I'm not sure if the Kousa dogwood seedlings I planted last year did (although they are finally starting to sprout leaves today).  We are talking roughly $100 - $150 per sapling and I feel that I can only afford to plant two trees a year at this time.

The last two trees I have to take down on simple decisions.  One of them has been strangled to death by some sort of vine, and although it's not posing an immediate threat to my storage shed/barn.  It will eventually and taking it out just makes sense.  

We have a lone pine standing on my property.  It's not big.  It's not that pretty, but it is alive and not causing a threat to anyone.   My neighbor just hates it.

I like my neighbor and he's a redneck but in the best sense of the word.  He's mowed my lawn and plowed my driveway just because he's my neighbor.  He's helped with lots of little acts of kindness.  When one of his horses got out we managed to wrangle it and bring him home.

So...in an act of friendship and keeping my neighbor happy, I'm thinking about removing out this tall and mature pine.

I don't see any reason to, other than keeping him happy.  Honestly it pains me to do so.

I was not expecting the estimates for this work to be as high as they were.   Basically we were looking at anywhere between $3000 to $5000 dollars depending on the number of trees cut and if we wanted the wood chips and logs hauled off.

We could possibly sell the firewood, in an effort to recoup some of this loss, but based on the rot that might be more trouble than it was worth.   We could use the chips as mulch. Perhaps grow some mushrooms on a log or stump (although I'm not sure if that is a project I wish to pursue).  This is all about reduce, reuse and recycle in some way right?

When planning on planting a tree, you have to do some research.  Some trees like oaks will grow pretty quickly and store a bunch of carbon over their lifetimes, others are not really that great of a carbon sink nor are they quick growers.  A persimmon tree, for example, is one of the trees that I'm planning on planting on the property; will only sequester about 400 pounds of carbon in 25 years.  That's less than a gallon of gas per year.

Every little bit helps and this is all about the future so it looks like I'll be planting a minimum of two trees this year no matter what I do.  Now I just need to decide where I want to plant them and what I want to plant.  Do I stick with the fruit trees?  Or go for the carbon capture?

It's becoming apparent to me that I really do need a long term plan and not just bounce from project to project.  I really should reach out to someone...the question is who?  Having a plan now just makes more sense so I avoid mistakes in the future.