Old Growth Pines

Trees back in May.

It has been mere months ago that I last blogged about the pine trees in our yard. Standing well over 60 feet we have been blessed by 5 of these beauties in our front yard. They are Loblolly pines and until today I had no idea how old they were or how much I was going to miss them…

Back in May we were struck by lighting and lost our freezer, pump to the well and my husbands laptop, I felt sure it had hit one of the trees but could never tell, that is until about a month ago when its needles began to turn brown. Within a week or two it was dead and the one next to it was now dying.

Today as they are dying.

Seems that they have a huge root system that can span 50 feet or so and if the lighting hits anywhere the root system is well it can kill the tree… how sad.

 

I took my measuring tape today and carefully wrapped it around the biggest tree; 100 inches! I could not believe my eyes, so I did it again and took a picture. According to my husbands calculations using a program online this tree is between 79 and 100 years old. Imagine that.

100 inches = 100 years?

I will miss them when they are finally cut down tomorrow and I only hope the woodpeckers will make a new home in one of the tree we have left.

Trimming the limbs off.

The scent of pines is everywhere... so are the branches.