He could, possibly, be learning not to make major changes to the house/yard when his sweetie is away. Or maybe not. Time will tell...

Topping a tree with a chain saw is dangerous work. It really calls for a skilled crew with the right equipment. Even then, there are accidents...

It is safer to remove the entire tree, using a very heavy rope to direct the fall away from the house and other trees.
Once its on the ground, you can cut it up, if you are careful.

dirtgirl
Husbands can be something else. I guess I should be thankful mine only mowed my daylilies. They were behind a concrete border too. Hopefully your husband has learned his lesson. I told mine to remember I am part Indian and when I get mad he had better get out of the way. He has managed to do just that so far. Just try to remember the good things he does!
Martha

dirtgirl,
I understand your situation. We are a similiar couple. My interests lie along the lines yours do, and dear husband wants his grass to stand at attention at five AM, and has his arsenal of chemicals. I'll think of some of the useful ways we have come to be able to work together, and post as I think of them.

Do try to think of a list of the good things he does right now, try to focus on those for a bit.

When you are feeling more.... well, maybe less frustrated, you might be able to come up with a solution to help feel all is not lost. Perhaps he could be convinced to keep some of the logs as nurse logs? I wouldn't bring this up too strongly though, and I wouldn't try to keep more than one or two. (That would be how I'd approach it with my husband.)

One issue I am finding I have with my husband lately, is he has been doing 'stupid' things when I'm away. Many times they are things he knows I wouldn't want done, but other times it's not neccessarily things I'd object to, but ones that still have potential to cause great injury. That was one of the things I thought of when I read your post. Removing trees, trimming large branches, or doing any of that stuff, is dangerous work. It should not be done without another adult there to call 911 if needed. (Or better yet, to helps spot potential danger, and prevent an accident.)

My darn husband hasn't even gotten the medical bills paid from when he fell off the roof this winter (nothing too serious, thank goodness!!) And two weeks ago, I heard him clumping up on the roof, but he hadn't told me he was going up there.
I just quietly walked out and said, "I'd appreciate it if you let me know when you will be on the roof, so I can help." Then I walked back in the house before I could listen to his excuses, as I knew that would drive me nuts. (But I did listen to make sure I could still here him walking up there, and spied out the window as he came down.) He did quietly come in and say he would tell me next time.

Grr, spouses, can't live with them, and composting them is messy. (ewww, sorry. That was bad! Funny, but bad!) Go make your list of what is good about him. And try to spend some time laughing with him. When you both are calmer, you'll be in a better frame of mind to think about and discuss things. I'll have more thoughts on this, as we surely go through this in my household too. But, I think we are around the bend of ugliness, and are learning to work it out.

Jean

Ah Shucks Dirtgirl!!
I think you should be rewarded for not doing your DH physical harm. I'm into the "Women are from Venus, Men from Mars" thing. I don't want to insult any of you fellas........but our brains ARE different.
Dirtgirl, I can't tell you the number of times I have spelled out and spelled out and spelled out EXACTLY how I wanted something done. DH verbalizes that he understands exactly what I'm saying. Then, before I know it, he's done exactly what I've told him to NOT do. I've tried to explain to him the good there is in a natural, undisturbed yard and he shakes his head that he understands, then before I know it, he's totally messed things up. I don't think they necessarily do it on purpose.........I think they get so focused on something they're working on, or near, that they just forget everything.
I don't want to insult your husband here........but what was he doing to start with, if he ended up not taking down the ones you'd talked about? Was he playing with a new toy (tractor)? He knows your feelings on things........how did this happen? Has he registered any remorse at all?
I'm so sorry Dirtgirl. I know the feelings you're having, and they're no fun. The only hope I can give you is that after the dust settles, you'll get used to your new view, and maybe even find good things about it....??
But also........I think a good talk with DH is in order. And as with my DH, I would make him verbalize back to you exactly what he thinks you said, and what you believe. Hopefully, that might avoid similar problems in the future. I'm so sorry Dirtgirl! (((((((((((hugs)))))))))

Good point Catherine- new toy. Yup, that'd do it. My dear husband gets all glassy-eyed when he gets thinking about big machinery and ripping out things.

Would you like a husband's perspective?

We occasionally get stupid ideas and even more stupidly refrain from telling our wives about them so as not to have the ideas shot down before we have a chance to try them. It's just the way we are. This might be the case with your husband and his tractor approach to tree trimming, DG. He might have even been afraid to tackle the dangerous job of topping dead trees by himself and thought the tractor method was a safer way to get rid of both the tree problem and the fear associated with it. And then when things went badly and you got mad he might have simply reacted defensively rather than apologetically - as that's something else we do from time to time.

Another possibility is that he belatedly told you the truth about not wanting the snags all along and figured that taking decisive action to get his way rather than arguing with you over the matter was the best course. Obviously if that's the case then he was wrong, and I'm sure you're doing a good job of pointing that out to him.

When you're calm enough to discuss it with him rather dispassionately (definitely no yelling or throwing things), I'd suggest starting out by trying to find out which of the two it is. If it's the first then you might as well make up your mind to either forgive him or get rid of him; I repeat, we do suffer occasional bouts of stupidity and neither how mad our wives get nor how long they stay mad will change that fact. If it's the second then you need to agree between you that in the future you'll both strive for some form of compromise on things that both of you deem important (e.g. in this case part of your property could be managed to suit you, and part to suit him); and if he is unaccepting of compromise then I suggest dragging him to marriage counseling, as I honestly can't imagine a good marriage without compromise and sometimes it takes an unbiased third party to point that out to one's spouse (and in my experience wives are as prone to being uncompromising as are husbands).

My sympathies on the loss of your wildlife habitat, and my best wishes on the improvement of your relationship!

Gerry

Dirtgirl:
I think you deserve compensation. This isn't going to be made right until the yard is made right.

Make an arrangement to remove what needs removing, and then plant new trees, the exact ones you want, exactly where you want them. Heal your yard - there's probably no fixing your husband.
O

Gerry,
Great advice! You sound like a counselor yourself!
I agree, that Dirtgirl might find out what really happened, when tempers cool off. I'm amazed, as I go through life, how many people have emotional knee-jerk reactions to doing something wrong and being yelled at. Usually, at first, all you get is defensive behavior. After the dust settles, and you let the person know that you probably aren't going to kill them, you find out what really happened and how they really feel about it.
Dirtgirl, maybe after DH feels less threatened, you might find out that he feels badly about what he did, and that he realizes that he was pretty reckless.........I hope that happens! I'm glad he wasn't hurt doing all this. It's usually not a good idea to work alone on things like this. Good luck with everything.

Thanks for the kind words, CatherineT. Really I'm just a guy who has been married almost 16 years, most of it happily but some of it decidedly not, and who is gradually growing mature enough to look at himself objectively from time to time. :^]

On the dangerous nature of doing such yard work alone, I have to agree. I've only been into gardening/wildscaping myself for a few months now, but I've already met two people who have permanent back injuries that occurred while trying to trim trees by themselves; both have told me, too, that they're in nearly constant pain. Not good!

Gerry

DG: First of all so sorry, not just about the yard, but about the loss that you are feeling. I'm sure firstly, you are feeling like you lost your yard, secondly, lost your image of your husband as understanding your passion about nature and thirdly about losing the battle with his mom. That is a lot to deal with all at once.. When you pass through the grief, I do think you need to sit down and discuss just how you are feeling and why he did it. Maybe he was feeling defensive because he messed up? Maybe he didn't want to argue. Maybe he just got sick of mom nagging him to clean up the yard and maybe brothers telling him that it was his yard? Who knows. Good luck getting him to get in touch with all the feelings and reasons for his actions. I have been told that men and boys find it easier to talk if they are moving (walking or doing something). I think it is supposed to have something to do with the neural connections. It seems that maybe you need to compromise....you get the back yard while he gets the front. Still seems as though the chemicals are a rub that may be hard to get beyond.

Lastly, please tell me that the trees didn't have any nesting birds in them.

Hubby and I have our arguments, but thankfully, he hasn't pulled anything that major. But we have divvied up the yard somewhat - he has the veggie garden (not that he ever has time for it) and "his" hillside. I don't make suggestions, I don't help, I just insist that the plants be native and he can get behind that. In return, I have pretty much full reign elsewhere.

But we still disagree vehemently over the "need" to have a lawn. I want to rip out every last grass blade, he seems to think that not having a green patch of monoculture somewhere is unthinkable. It's amazing how worked up we can get over this ultimately rather stupid topic.

I know just how mad you must be, DG. But the yard will heal, and this may give you some opportunities to put in some new trees/shrubs/etc that will be even better for the habitat that what was there. Work through this with your hubby. The anger may feel good, but it's not worth a marriage.

A neighbor of mine talked divorce for a few days after her husband cut all her roses to the ground without consulting her. They were both about 80 years old. She got new roses instead.

What in the world is it about lawns? Why do people worship grass? I have a theory that there's a connection between male baldness and the need for a thick, luxurious lawn.

lol Organica!
I don't understand it either. I see big houses with acres of mowed grass around them. Why? Maybe they just love using those fossil fuels!?

I must admit I don't understand America's love affair with the grassy expanse, either. I've been ripping out sections of our lawn to replace the St. Augustine/Bermuda turf mix with native plants, and it feels great!

But then, I still have a full head of hair... :^]

Gerry

Whew! Didn't mean to start a "reason guys and gals don't always get along" thread...I think Vonyon hit it squarely on the head: my hurt was mainly centered around the fact that after 13 years of happiness (remember that I said I had a hard time staying mad at him)and a shared respect for all things natural, he still doesn't quite grasp that things like this are EXTREMELY important to me.
I think I finally got through to him last night when I put it to him this way: what if I decided his much-cherished-many-work hours-invested race car (boy toy:] ) needed some things done, went out to the garage with good intentions and tried to fix it myself, and despite doing what I thought in my own judgement was right, I screwed it up horribly? I think that made an impression.
It's all ok-- mad as I was, the divorce comment was only a joke and it would take a lot more than some skinned up trees to make me love him any less.
It's just that right about the moment you think you are on the exact same wavelength...blammo. I guess I should focus, as someone wisely posted, on the successes instead of the places where we stumble. He does think his mom has an unhealthy obsession with yard grass. He does brake for snakes and turtles. He likes feeling partly responsible for the fact that we have two fully-operational wood duck boxes in our woods. He shares my secret desire to know that bobcats, eagles and maybe someday a mountain lion would call our property their home, and he also agrees that certain people around here should never know it if they did.

But dang...we had discussed it!
And the "threat" trees are still there!

Ok, I will turn the page, but it might not be until tomorrow.

If we had room in our yard, I would really like to plant an American Elm. There are new varieties that are supposed to be resistant to Dutch Elm Disease, something called "Valley Forge Elm." But the only available spot is out front, and currently occupied by a 30 year old Norway Maple...

Maybe you could finish the project of tree removal, grade and reseed the lawn as required, and plant some new trees. You'll just have to use bird feeders for a few years, and maybe a brush pile, to attract the critters to your yard.

DG: Good for you. Nothing wrong with being mad. Regardless of the why's and wherefore's in the end the mess is still there to be cleaned up. I think you gave him a really good example. I'm impressed. If I'm ever in a jam, I'm calling you. And darn it, you always have the most interesting threads!!

Trust me, Vonyon, if you want interesting then I should have left that first posting in the form it was originally typed in:
#%$%%$#%&&^%($(%(breathe) %$%*$((#)@*$)#$)@* (breathe)
*$$@###$%*$((@!!!

If you can drive a tractor, you can handle a chain saw. Do the job yourself, without consulting him.

DG,
Just remember the other name for those kinds of trees........."widow-makers". I personally would hire a tree service to cut them down to the size you want. Then you can cut up the stuff after it's on the ground. Pay someone else to risk their lives!

John- shame on you! (I know you may have been speaking miscieviously ;-)
Never use a chain saw without another adult around. My father cut off the ends of two fingers with a chain saw. He was just lucky my brother was right there, and that the cuts weren't worse. The surgeon was able to re-attach one finger.

Dirtgirl- we don't want to lose you. No risky stuff without a partner. DH and I have taken out many trees, but we work as a team, and for really large trees, his brother, a retired arborist, helps.

Before you take any more action on the trees, calmly have discussions with dh. (The definition of DH might be different than my usual meaning in this instance ;-) Some folks have a much greater need to fit into societal norms than others. Those of us who enjoy 'the road less travelled,' tend to be very comfortable with ignoring what other's might think of us. My husband still isn't over his discomfort with anything that might get others to notice him in a negative way. So, when I landscape, I do have to address his need for a very conventional landscape. I do use the fact that he has learned to really enjoy wildlife to help him get more comfortable with more than just yews and grass. I also try to point out examples of well landscaped yards that are using natives, and have wildlife habitat. The is one yard near us, however, that I make sure he doesn't see very often. The homeowner is supposedly a landscape designer, active in native plant group, and the place is awful. I don't think many wildlife would find it terribly appealing either ;-) It is a poor representation of what a habitat landscape can be.

You have a wonderful sense of humor, but patience is required too. Even though he did agree, he got caught up in the moment. It happens. You sound like you are a great person, and will forgive him. Keep your dialogue going, when both are more calm.

Perhaps working on making some of the more conventional areas of your yard real show-stoppers would help him feel he has the 'normal' yard that makes him 'fit in.' Then he might relax a bit, and feel more comfortable with 'experimenting,' or 'living on the edge.' (However he views the wildlife habitat.) My husband has come a long way. (Maybe you already do have 'showstoppers,' I don't mean to imply you don't.)

My DH still uses chemicals on the yard, but when I mentioned I didn't want the pet bunnies grazing on the grass, he said maybe he wouldn't weed 'n feed this year. He has been listening when I tell him about using corn gluten meal and alfalfa meal. He has been more careful with his use of weed and feed as well, reading up on the proper time to apply it, rather than just applying it when it is least effective. He also stopped using salt on the driveway in winter, after I pointed out the damage it did to the plants. Slowly but surely, he is coming around.

My husband does respond best to economic incentives, such as saving money on weed 'n feed by applying it at the most effective times. So, perhaps there is an economic benefit to having snags (other than the cost to take them down-that argument wouldn't work on my husband. In fact, that would make him more likely to have them taken down, just to oppose me.)

Try to focus on his interests for a while. Maybe help him get his workshop fixed up better. Or go to more races with him. Show him support and encouragement for his interests. He'll be more ready to respond favorably to yours, and the two of you will be closer.

Oh, and we do have the 'No tub, no door' argument to look back on in our marriage.

Jean, going on 22 years of marriage, and it is good. Not always fun, but always worth it.

that you didn't pay attention to his interests. Just give him more time. He'll feel more inclined to support your interests too. And he'll feel appreciated. That's always good.

(And you do sound like you have gotten a good handle on this already. :-)

Don't leave him alone to do anything.
First, because chain saw and other heavy work is dangerous alone. Second, becasue he cannot be trusted. Pure and simple. Whether he:
didn't understand you, or
understood you but didn't care, or
just plain stupid.
Fact is, he can't be trusted at this time to share stewardship of your land. He's probably got other good points, or you wouldn't be with him for 13 years. Enjoy the good stuff and supervise your 'little-boy-when-it-comes-to-tractor-toys' or 'passive-aggressive-when-to-comes-to-dicussing-different-landscaping-views-openly.' Remember, you probably have something that you approach without maturity or good sense as well - we all do. I got rid of my first one after 13 years, but his 'little-boy' and 'passive-aggressive' ways leaned more to nurses and secretaries than trees. Tress can no doubt be lived with.

Hey DG, I like your screen name!!! LOL.

I'm very, very sorry to hear about the loss of the trees (and the remaining threat trees). I would have had kittens had something similar happened!! And yeah, I might have resorted to throwing things...I have a temper too! I won't repeat what the other posters said about safety with chainsaws and trees, or the good relationship thoughts.

However, I did have a thought--have you looked at this as an opportunity to plant a new forest with some wonderful natives? You probably have...not sure what's native to So. Ill., and not sure what was in your yard, but I would imagine you can improve on what was there BT (Before Tractor). :) Or maybe plant a meadow garden now that the trees are gone? Or a rock garden with lots of habitat for little critters? There could be a wide range of alternative gardens waiting for you...

I do wish you and DH the best of luck. Sounds like he's on the right track (esp. about the wildlife!! yeay!)...I'm slowly training mine :)

Never heard of a divorce because of trees, but my friend was divorced because of Barbies!!!

Guess I should add a few details....our front yard is absolutely full of trees--even with the loss of these dead ones there won't be any new gaping sunny hole. The end result will simply be that the remaining trees will quickly spread out to take advantage of the surlpus light. I do have some very refreshing news...about this time of year our place is carpeted with the usual spring wildflowers AND (drum roll)all of last year's squirrel plantings of acorns. There are even a few yearling hickories leafing out, so I will have more than enough to choose from for the yard.
I got out with a grub hoe and a rake before the last round of rain came through and managed to smooth things up a bit, and the moss will only need a few years to complete the repair work. Once the phlox that is now blooming sets seed I might try to scatter a bit around to dress it up next spring. Oh and the toads...they have discivered the looser dirt and have wasted no time securing good spots to hide up in by day. I will have to watch and see if the turkeys like it as well once it gets really powdery this summer.

On a more troubling note...the oaks are now finally leafing out here and I am realizing that we have lost nearly all of them in the yard and in the surrounding areas. The pin oaks and shingle oaks are full of galls although I am thinking this is an effect and not a cause. I do believe I read that they are usually only unsightly and not detrimental to the overall health of the tree, but something is going on here to have killed this many of them.

Having read some of your responses, part of me regrets having posted impulsively like I did and bring up the subject of marital differences concerning environmental choices. It's a valid argument and having this forum for an outlet was SOOOO HELPFUL but for those of you who have obviously been through much rockier times it may only serve to dredge up bitterness.

Yeah Dirtgirl, Because of your post, I went out and got a divorce! Darn. If only you hadn't posted being so upset, our marriage might have had a chance. hahahaha
Just giving you a hard time!!
Are you saying you lost alot of your oaks just this year?
I have galls on some of my maples, but it never kills them.
Keep us posted on how things unfold. (with your yard, that is).

Hey, DG--I hate to say this, but I was actually feeling a little better knowing that I'm not the only one who has "environmental differences" with their DH. I'm new to the boards, but I didn't feel like it was out of line at all. :) Do keep posting on how the yard turns out--it sounds like you have a ton to work with!!

Oak wilt is also a problem in Wisconsin, and I am told that it spreads from tree to tree in the ground, where the roots touch. I'm glad to hear that your yard is perking up.

Give the oaks some more time - maybe they will be slow to leaf out this year because of their trauma. But if not, I'd get up there with a drill and a big bit and start some future woodpecker homes :)

Cantstop - go, go, go on the corn gluten! I just ordered 100# of it and I will probably need twice as much. I'll admit to rounding up a few areas this year (carefully surveyed previously, to discover NO native plants whatsoever - sad, but true) - now I'll spread the gluten and then plant adults of the natives I'd like there. I would love to see if any natives would sprout from seed, but the garlic mustard and mile-a-minute vine seedlings come back so thick that I can't take the risk.

Dirtgirl, just wanted you to know that my parents have the same problem. My Mom calls my Dad the "samuri pruner". He sets out to prune a shrub and the entire thing is gone as well as the surrounding greenery. He has been known to rent a chainsaw while she is gone for the day to take care of a tree with a dead limb. Instead of taking down one limb, the entire tree is gone and all cut up for firewood. I don't know what it is about men and saws, they just don't know when to quit. VAL

ok I gotta take hubby's side a bit.

what are the zoning regs regarding snags in the front.
unsightly can drive down home prices.(grrr..... for instance the whole i have a compost pile seems to affect the fact of people buying the house. i've just posted on freecycle that adn the yard is messy ie not formal looking) grrrrrrrr..

He has compromised for you in your years of marriage. You have duck boxes, he breaks for turtles etc. Are their good reasons for him wanting to take out the trees?

Mind you we don't hear his side of the story so i gotta play devils advocate a bit. sigh.

That and i can empathise. hubby is a practical enviromentalist spiritual person. me i'm impractical and emotional about it all. I would want all those snags and trees but he'd point out house values, mold problems with no sunlight(ok i point that out myself, a house we were looking at i thought i needed to take out one tree he asked how that would impact religion wise) vermin problems and a whole host of things that would be needed to consider.

Go get a professional tree service, that way you shouldn't have more problems with bark being stripped and have them take out the trouble trees. ANd probably to save yourself take out those you think now are going to die. Donate them to a woodworker who can make something beautiful out of them plus bird nest boxes, so its not totally a loss.

But back to checking my email to see who wants my compost. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.. darn it.

Its not just the husbands that get carried away. My brother's wife decided to trim the bushes in their yard one day, while my brother was gone. By the time my brother got back the wisteria, which had been climbing up the side of the house, was a stump. The English boxwoods had also been turned into stumps. The yews didn't fare as badly as the others, they still had some branches left. My sister-in-law got an earful when my brother saw the damage.

Richard

Hi Moonwolf...good to hear from you again!

Now you have to know that I giggled a bit when I read the first of your post...zoning regulations? Unsightly things driving down property values??
What? I wish everybody could take a drive through this county-this township. My nearest neighbor, who is thankfully over a half-mile from here and undetectable on most days unless the wind is just right, has something like 9 scrap cars out back and an old Winnebago strapped on to the house to add a bit more living space to the old abode. The cars would have been up on blocks but I doubt he could afford them and still feed the ratty old beagles he keeps staked out by the LP tank. So most people are not going to drive past that hole and then arrive at our place and spot a dead tree among the dozens of living ones and say "Ooooh, that just detracts somehow..."

I won't say zoning regs don't exist here, but they might as well save that space on the books for other stuff because A) nobody follows them (or knows them, most likely) and B) nobody comes around to check up on things and enforce them anyway. It's what you are stuck with when you live in the county that over the last 5 or so years has held the distiction of having the state's highest rate of unemployment. No wait, I may be wrong....we may have dropped to no. 3 or so lately...
Anyway, I should not complain. part of the reason we have lucked into owning the natural areas that we do and for so little is due to the fact that property values for "un-improved" (ha)land in our county at the time were relatively low--I think we gave less than 600$ an acre for the twenty we live on, and the other 100 acres was a little bit higher due to part of it being tillable.This all is changing though. Seems the trend now is towards getting your hands on 5-10 acres of trees away form town but still on good roads so that you can get away from the noise and neighbors, throwing up a huge house with way too much square footage and three car garage, and then complaining when eveyone else follows suit and you find yourself surrounded by noise and hateful neighbors again.

Dirtgirl,
Moonwolf has good advice about getting the professional tree service. One step better look for an arborist listed in the phone book. I hired one last year to take down a tree, inside prune two others and give a dose of a growth retardant to a tree that was growing too darn fast and becoming diseased because of it.
A professional arborist really knows trees, and is so proud of their work. Did a wonderful work, left not even a leaf or a splinter of wood behind, ground the stump, filled in the hole, fixed my sick tree. Was worth every penny.
VAL

ummm i may be one of those that run off to the small town:) and after having 3 kids i like having more sq footage than is reasonable:) ok enough dreaming....

ok......... But more than likely we'll be moving to the suburbs, our offer was accepted. Now gotta sell our house.

ok winebago on top of the house............. I'm having a hard time picturing it. ok picture please lol.

mind you i'm jealous of all that space you have:)

"Ooooh, that just detracts somehow..."
Too funny!!! Dirtgirl, I love your humor :-)

I'm so glad you were able to get those acres of trees.

cantstop...
in my best mad scientist accent (think Gene Wilder from Young Frankenstein)
more trees...i must have more treeeeees.....!
I only wish I could somehow take the two parcels we own which are several miles apart and put them all together into one giant tract of unfragmented forest.

Moonwolf.... I have mistakenly slandered the good name of my redneck neighbors: the Winnebago is sitting off to one side quite unattached to the house. What IS attached is a salvaged construction-site singlewide office building, although the only thing truly attaching it to the house is a canopy of plastic sheeting strung between the two doors and a piece of plywood for a catwalk. F. L. Wright might have termed it "Boondock Revival".

In reference to my original theme (rant) I have some new bits to relate:
the biggest tree, a large shingle oak which would have a hard time missing the place when it finally falls, is going to come down with the help of a tree removal service. Now I am going to see if they will be able to leave a section of trunk standing, something like 10 feet or so, and despite the fact that this may be a weird question for them, if it's safely doable and I'm paying them for it then that's what I want. I am not so adamant about the other trees since they are smaller and maybe not as suitable for potential den sites. Everything in the way of chips or branches or what might be called by some "debris" will be staying here as refuge piles off to the side. We already have a few of these and they are magnets for wildlife.

All there is to do now is make a few calls, ask some questions, and hope we can get this done before the big storms of the summer get here and do our remodeling for us.

errrrr, ok what type of den sites? The reason i ask is if your thinking black bear, ummm that close to your habitation ummmmmmmmmmm. well i'd have misgivings. Just my word of caution their.(not that i'm the most cautious or practical person on earth oh no not me, rolls eyes, what think before leaping what a thought anyway...........)

ok now that you've given me a better visual of the winnebago i can stop quizzically wondering how on earth that could possibly work, be safe, or well increase space. lol

Sorry, no black bears here nowadays unless you count the stuffed one that used to be on display in the basement of our courthouse...last known bear in the county, shot (of course) in the earlier half of the 1900s.

But anyway, no my thoughts are geared more towards the smaller things such as hole-nesting birds, flying squirrels, maybe some bees if they see fit. Nothing has more interesting possibilities than an old dead tree!
Of course a gaping hole in our roof is also a distinct possibility with old dead trees!

A bit off the track, but did you hear about the black bear in Milwaukee, Wisconsin yesterday? Held up traffic, for sure. And someone saw one recently in Cedarburg, Wisconsin (just north of Milwaukee.)

Back on track- I'm so glad you are going to get that tree taken care of, before it makes the decision for you. I hope all is well with DH and you. (Marriage is such a pain sometimes, but so worth it all the time ;-) For me and my sweetie, anyways.

Jean

I haven't read the whole thread, but I really sympathize. Trees being harmed is the worst, since they take so long to grow.

I do think repairing the area as much as possible to get it the way you want it is very important, so it isn't a constant angst.

Every so often I am really glad I am not married. This is one of those times :-)

I have SO enjoyed reading this entire thread! OMG, I laughed so hard my DH, who was watching Wimbledon, kept saying, "What?! What?!" I told him I'd read bits to him afterwardsSounds so familiarÂI am the "hacker"Âgive me the clippers (I wear a belt that says "Be Good to Bugs" and has kid Fiskars, by-pass pruners, ratchet pruners, and this wild rose pruner thingie on it along with flower tape) and I am a wild woman. :) BUT, I will get every leaf that has disease on itÂbelieve me. Plus, I'm the one who reads up on all the disease and bugs andÂhehehe!

Oh, this was a GREAT read and I will be sharing it, for sure.

DirtGirl and othersÂMen ARE from Mars and women ARE from Venus. We just have to learn to live together in peace. Sometimes, the spoken word (and having him repeat it) doesn't workÂyou need to write it down. :) hehehe

Well, it seems there is something larger and more ominous at work here. The trees in our yard, almost all of the oaks, are dead or dying. There must be something like 8 or 9 totally dead and that many more now in various stages of disease. They all seem infested with galls once they finally keel over, but I have read that galls don't kill a tree and assume then that this is a consequence of the disease and not a cause. We procrastinated about having the service come in and take the hazard trees out and now I am glad we did because it's going to be an ongoing thing. I guess the only recourse is to call someone from the agricultural extension office about coming out to check for blight or oak wilt or something, and from what I have read about these diseases there is really not much that can be done. Like I have mentioned before, our yard is not like a tree here and a tree there interspersed with grass---it's nothing BUT trees. 20 acres of them to be exact. But that's getting ready to change because regardless of the cause, when these dying ones are down the canopy is sure going to be different. I've become a shade-loving creature and that will certainly be a big change.
I wonder what is happening here. And if it's oak wilt,any diseased tree can pass the pathogen on to the next through the roots, so we could possibly be looking at a huge loss of trees here.

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about the tree loss. How awful.

My husband decided that the mature azaleas which took 10 years to get to the big, beautiful size they were (which were also giving us a nice privacy screen from the neighbors) were "overgrown." He chopped them down to within an inch of their lives. Now, of course we get to see everything that goes on next door, and vice versa. I feel my blood pressure rising everytime I look at them (the azaleas, not the neighbors - well, maybe them too). Grrrrrrrrrrr.....

Hi,
Can someone suggest me a good resource to get divorced? I am on budget and cannot spend more.

Hi edwinsjoseph,

Do not worry. I think a right choice of an attorney will help you if you have the budget! I am not sarcastic but my friend lost his savings just to get divorced. There are many things to review before hiring an attorney. Like, look out for a friend or relative who have been divorced and ask for their recommendation. My friend got divorced but he was smart enough to seek the help of www.nobsdivorceguide.com. Well if he can do it I think there is a possibility.