Goodbye tree

Right around the time we were paying a fortune for our new AC, we got news of another costly problem. You may remember that I asked recently for a tree identification. That's because the big beautiful white oak at the front of the house has to go.

In fact, two branches vanished already - the town decided that they were at risk of falling on the street (or some cars).

We got two opinions because we really wanted to be certain before we took it down - it is the only shade tree in our front yard and probably as old as the house (or older).

But alas, the diagnosis is confirmed - fatal root rot.

 And so, this giant tree has got to go.

Apparently its placement between the driveway and the sidewalk put the roots under a lot of stress. And when they replaced the curb a few years ago, it may have made the roots more vulnerable.

Our plan for now is to wait until fall so that we can take advantage of the shade at least for the rest of the summer. Plus one of the landscape people who helped diagnose the tree suggested waiting until firewood season, so that we can use or even sell the oak.

And so, here we are shopping for a new tree and getting estimates to take this one down. We can't put the new tree where the old tree is, both because of the root rot and because of the stressful location. So we have to look for where we would put it, too.