Drought and Trees

We finally had some nice rains since August, but the drought of the past few years has taken a terrible toll on the trees.  One of the things that attracted my wife and I to this place almost 20 years ago were the many large oak trees surrounding the house in the two acres of yard and scattered about in the pastures.  Many of the trees were 40 to 60 feet tall and up to 24 inches in diameter.  We had plenty of shade from the grueling hot Texas sun in the summer time.  We've lost nine large trees out front and four in the backyard.  I haven't counted, but there is at least a dozen standing dead large trees in the pastures.  One magnificent oak 60 feet high was struck by lightening shattering all the bark off the entire tree and splitting the huge trunk into several standing vertical  pieces.

Since the weather has cooled a little I've spent the better part of the last three weeks using my chainsaw to fell trees, trim brush from fallen trees and large limbs and stacking in huge burn piles.  I sawed the large trunks into 8 to 10 feet lengths.  A good neighbor used his big John Deere front-end loader to push the large trunks into stacks.  I've also cut firewood for my neighbor.

Since we've had the rains the county government lifted a long standing burn ban, so I've spent a good bit of time burning before the burn ban is reinstated.  It's a shame to see so many large dead trees around the countryside.  It will be years before, if ever, they are replaced by new growth.  It won't be in my lifetime.