Storms this past week have left us with some cleanup work that needs to be done. A couple of large limbs snapped in one of our wild black cherry trees. Fortunately the limbs didn’t fall on anyone or anything.
limbs from wild cherry tree (click on any image to enlarge)
This cherry tree is close by the bluebird nesting boxes, and the tree is a favorite resting spot for the bluebirds. They flew in while I was getting photos of the downed limbs. Of course, I was standing in close proximity to the nest box, and they keep a close watch on it.
wild black cherry tree
They have good reason to keep a close eye on the nest, because as of this morning it has three eggs in it. I’m not sure if the female will lay any more eggs or not. For a third nest in one year, three or four eggs would be common. We will see.
three bluebird eggs in nest
We also lost one of our overgrown apple trees due to the winds. We were excited about the existing fruit plantings when we bought this place, but we quickly found out the apple and peach trees had been neglected. They had never been pruned to any recognizable shape. The apples were huge standard sized trees, and most of the fruit that did set on was unreachable for thinning, spraying or harvest. They also were not getting enough sunlight due to nearby shade trees. This apple tree was uprooted by high winds. Now it’s chainsaw fodder.
downed apple tree
So once we moved in we set about replanting fruit trees of our own choosing. So far we have planted pie cherries, peaches, Asian persimmons, and pawpaws. This tree also avoided damaging anything on the way down. It could have fallen on the nearby pie cherry or pawpaw trees, but it missed them.
bluebirds sitting in wild black cherry tree
So now we need to schedule a chainsaw session. Which will be followed by a chipper shredder session. But not this weekend!
Happy 4th of July to all of my American readers, and a belated happy Canada Day to any Canadians out there. We’re going to celebrate the 4th by grilling some burgers, slapping them on some of Moomies Famous Burger Buns, and then we’ll listen to all the fireworks going off around us!
My goodness, you must have had some wicked storms! You were very lucky that nothing else was damaged. Hopefully you will have a few nice days without high temps and humidity to get your clean up done!
Have a nice Holiday weekend!
You must have had some really nasty winds to result in so much damage. Glad nothing was harmed by falling trees or limbs. It is sad to see the apple tree down though.
Dang, so sorry, must be tough seeing the old fruit trees damaged like that.:( How far along is your Paw Paw, is it producing yet? My wife and I have been considering trying to grow a few ourselves.
We just planted the two pawpaws this year, so it will be a while. Yes, it is hard to see any old trees go down.
Those must have been some strong gusts to bring down the wild cherry branches. The cherry and apple wood might be good for smoking and grilling. I took down a large black cherry tree near the house early this spring as a preemptive measure, it was about 3/4 dead. It can really dull a chain saw blade fast!
I was thinking about using some of the fruit wood for smoking. Cherry and apple are two of my favorites for smoking meats. I might also see if our neighbor the woodworker wants the trunk of the apple tree. It would be a shame to waste it!
Yes, that must have been some storm indeed! I’m sorry that the cherry tree was injured but very glad no one was hurt, including the bluebirds and any of the other critters taking up residence on your property. Bummer about the apple tree!
I love your idea to look into using some of the wood for smoking or giving to your neighbor – it would be great to use as much of the tree as you possibly can. You sure are going to have your sawing and chipping work cut out for you! You’d have no shortage of mulch if you wanted to go that route!
Hello, I’m new to your blog and am so sorry to hear of your storm damage. We have a three hundred tree apple orchard plus pears and cherries. Many of the apple trees that were planted before we bought the orchard were standard trees. It has taken major pruning to get them to where they should be. You can take about a third of the branches each year. The main thing is to get the trees opened up. It helps get the sun to the apples and eliminates at lot of wind damage. Our biggest damage was an ice storm two years ago. The wood is great for using on a grill…I gave it to a lot of our friends for smoking meats.