Splitting Tree

The tree closest to the house is splitting and leaning. It leans on the wall in one direction and our house in the other. We've been taking it down a trunk at a time ('cuz it fills the bucket and it's hard work).

It's really sad. I've always liked that stand of trees. They shaded the living room and really helped cool the house. But they've been there practically forever. They were one of the first volunteers to come up (that we didn't mow down).

We've lost a number of them recently -- they've come to the end of their life span I gather and are becoming susceptible to boring weevils. Also their root systems are probably pretty tangled and taxed by now. They've been leaning away from each other for a number of years. If we realized what was happening, we might have culled the herd, as it were. But it's too late now.

A few of them are still ok, and hopefully as we take down the bad ones they'll improve or at least not get any worse. We shall see.

I got a little water on the lens taking pics of Loki out back while he helped us fix the sprinkler system. He's always so eager to help. ;-j