Demise of My Friend the Birch

    A few days ago I had to do the honorable thing and cut down my friend the paper birch. I moved to this place in 1970 and the birch was a nicely established young tree. Over the years I have enjoyed it's color , shade, shelter and company. Birch have very bright yellow fall leaves and a good pleasant summer green leaf. Birch have dense branches and leaves so provide excellent shade. Shelter from winds and rain have been provided by my birch. The company of my birch has been enjoyed for 42 years. Whenever I came home the birch was standing tall to welcome me.

     Over the years the birch has fought off  leaf miners and gone through a few droughts. Birch do not have a long life span and this one had lived past its normal life span. In other words it was a very elderly tree. Lastly the birch leaf borer attached the tree and this time the tree did not have the strength to fight off the infestation. Bit by bit , branch by branch the birch lurched into a decrepit state until it was time to take it down. This is the tree that had a branch break off and break my car window and trunk.

Last minutes of a long life

    So recently my friend David came over to take down the birch. David was supposed to get the wood but he declined as he didn't want to get the birch borer in his tree. Fortunately neighbors across the street came to my rescue and took the wood and most of the bigger branches for their outside stove. They were extremely helpful and helped in the total clean up of the tree,

More branches to clean up

    So there we are cleaning up the branches and wood.

Branches to be cleaned up

    The tall stump is left so that we can carve a simple sculpture on it and put our house number on it. 

Good neighbor Barb and the stump

    So another old friend has passed and gone.