Goodbye to an old friend

The ancient cherry tree in our back yard was magnificent. The biggest one I have ever seen. Every year it produced masses of flowers and cherries we gave away by the bagload. The kids climbed in it, swung from it's branches and the yard and house were cooled by it's generous shade. We have lived in this house for over 25 years and the tree was huge back then. We are unsure of it's age. Squirrels lived in one of the branches that had died and had been hollowed out. We knew that part of the tree was weakening, but had no idea of the extent of damage until the storm...
A warning of high winds was announced on the tv, so we went outside in the back yard to watch. At first, all was completely still. Then slowly the winds picked up and began to blow the white blossoms off the cherry tree that was in full bloom. The wind picked up quickly and the petals swirled around us like a blizzard. We took refuge under the patio cover.

Jeff commented, "I hope the cherry tree holds up in this wind." And half a minute later, there was a loud crack, and a huge branch snapped and fell toward the house. The upper branches caught on the rain gutter and the trunk swung down and came to rest as you see it in the picture. The entire center of the branch was rotten and pulpy. The branch was being supported by a mere 3 inch thick living portion around the outer edge. We became aware that the tree was no longer safe. How many other branches were rotten and waiting for a big wind to snap them off?






We came to the sad conclusion that the tree must come down. Jeff whittled away methodicly at the branches with the chainsaw. The one he is using here, has an extended arm for trimming. It came in very handy. He and I spent the better part of a day, carefully taking it down, one branch at a time. Some had to have a rope looped over them. Jeff cut, while I pulled the rope to control the fall of the branch so it didn't hit the house.



The results were sad to see.

All that remains now is the stump. Jeff is going to try to carve the rest into a chair if it isn't too rotted out at the base. We bought a honey locust to plant nearby. It is a fast grower and a good shade tree, but we will never see in our lifetime another tree that will replace that good old cherry tree.

Every cloud has it's silver lining though. We were able to salvage quite a bit of the rotten trunk and make planters out of it. They will serve as a reminder of the great tree that once was.

Thank you old friend, you will be missed.