Saturday, April 21, 2012

I am a winner ….but I feel sad!

We have a plant nursery in Fairview, about 15 minutes from my home, that is under new management. Eric and I went to visit it last weekend during their grand opening. They were offering different prize drawings in celebration, and we entered. Monday I got a phone call that I had won my choice of apple trees! Where oh where was I going to plant an apple tree in my yard! We have 5 mature maples already, and our white pine….

GEDC7413 Later that same day Eric called and asked me if I had seen his back yard . I babysit Dylan at his home right across the street from Eric. I said no, why? Well the big winds we had on Sunday night had caused a huge limb in Eric’s Tree of Heaven to fall, hitting his porch awning and the fence! Gerald and I went over to survey the damage and Eric called his insurance agent and got the name of a tree removal company. The removal company quoted Eric a very good price and it got Gerald and I thinking that we had put off doing something about our pine too long, and we called them also. They quoted us an excellent price to come and remove half of our pine tree. You see, about 20 years ago Gerald’s daughter had brought the pine tree home from school on Arbor Day. It used to be that on Arbor Day the schools always sent the children home white pines. A silly tree to plant in most yards in town as they just get huge! Well, our tree had been planted waaaaay too close to the house and it’s roots have started to damage our basement wall and its limbs have caused us to do roof repair before. We had just been putting it off and putting it off as it is so expensive to do tree removal work, plus the sentimental value. I had become so close to this tree and have wrote about her many times in previous posts. But here we had a free tree that would suit the spot size wise, a reasonably priced tree remover, and so the time seemed right.

Our pine before. The tree guy said it could have easily grown another 50 feet before full growth!

We decided to just take it half way down so it could still shade the house, while the apple tree grew a bit. In a year or two we will take it the rest of the way down, if it lives from this butchery :( 

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I gathered the green pinecones to tincture and the dried last year ones to make fire starters

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 I chose a Golden Delicious apple tree as my prize, as with research, it seems to be the best one for self pollinating, and its apples are wonderful just to eat, and they hold up well for canning and cooking:)  So you understand the title of this blog post now. I might have won… but, I am sad that it is the beginning of the end for my special white pine :(

Honey and Herbal hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages xx

9 comments:

Lemon Verbena Lady said...

Unbelievable, CC! My favorite apple as well! Something is going on here, Herbal karma or fate. A sister from another herbal mother, perhaps? The only thing keeping us apart is your cat love! I love them through the computer! I'm sneezing from here!:) xxoo Nancy

Comfrey Cottages said...

I agree Nancy! We are herbal sisters! lol! here, let me get you a hanky;-) lol!! big hugs to you sweetheart! xoxoxox

Shirl said...

What a lovely prize to win. I bought a mini apple tree this year - small enough to keep in a pot on the patio but with proper size fruit later on in the year.

Comfrey Cottages said...

I kind of wish I would have won a mini tree too Shirl. But I really have no where to overwinter potted plants. Do you leave your out all winter? xxx

ladyb said...

Oh, I DO hear ya. I know how hard it has been to honor all the trees we lost in the freak spring snowstorm, I can't imagine watching (and paying for)the butchery. But yeah. WAY too close to the house for such a massive beast. I'm intrigued by the tincture of the green cones. Is this a mere experiment? I'm still working to honor my fallen Ponderosa Pine as much as I can....

Leanne said...

Shame the school didn't send home apple trees.. but yes the pine is very close to your home.Loved your idea about the tincture looking forward to seeing it develop.

Bridget said...

It always sad to have to chop trees...but necessity sometimes dictates...and another...more useful will grow instead.

Anke said...

I remember you writing about the tree and I'm sorry you had to have so much of it removed. I felt really bad about having our pine trees cut down in the front yard, but I always worried about them during bad weather. They were growing into the power lines as well and as sad as it was, it was the best thing to remove them. But then again our's weren't planted by a family member...

AnkeB said...

I still think you should have moved the house instead ;)

Very jealous that you can grow apples:( It's much too hot here unfortunately, but I guess I get to grow exotics instead.