Losing My Oldest Friend
- Elizabeth Hosmanek
- Sep 21, 2021
- 5 min read
In October, the old burl oak tree in our dog yard will be taken down by a professional arborist and his team of employees. Three eight foot logs will be set on wood pallets in the dog yard to season for a year. The logs will be too large and heavy to be moved out of the dog yard without removing an entire section of fencing. The largest log, starting approximately two feet from the ground, will weigh well over 1,500 pounds, with a diameter of nearly four feet. Once the logs are seasoned, they will be milled on site to seven foot long quarter sawn boards. About one foot of each log is lost to cracking on both sides, part of the natural seasoning process. We will transport the boards to southeast Iowa, where they will be kiln dried for a few months, then built into furniture for our house. The exact furniture that we will have made will depend upon how much wood is usable, but we should have enough for at least one large dresser and one medium sized dresser.
In 2019 we purchased a quarter sawn oak king sized Chippewa Sleigh Bed from Yoder's Indian Creek Furniture in southern Iowa, in Asbury stain finish. This is the exact bed: https://www.dutchcrafters.com/Amish-Chippewa-Sleigh-Bed/p/58224 . The Amish share designs throughout the country, so if I use the Dutch Crafters website as my base of reference for additional items I can add. The Chippewa line has many different options for bedroom and general household furniture; purchasing in person is significantly less expensive than ordering online. I measured the area where I currently have an oak dresser and mirror. I can fit the Chippewa Two Piece Deluxe Mule Chest in that area: https://www.dutchcrafters.com/Amish-Chippewa-Sleigh-Two-Piece-Deluxe-Mule-Chest/p/59679 . The Chippewa Sleigh Gentleman's Chest of Drawers will fit in the area in front of the fireplace, where we moved the large oak nightstand from our first bedroom furniture set: https://www.dutchcrafters.com/Amish-Chippewa-Sleigh-Gentlemans-Chest-of-Drawers/p/59673 . When we commissioned the sleigh bed, our plan was to slowly add additional furniture pieces as we could afford them. The plan didn't involve using wood from one of our own oak trees, but plans change all the time, don't they? If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.
I took a few pictures today in the dog yard, trying to capture what that old tree means to me. Celine gets it. She is so emotionally sensitive, coupled with deep intelligence that surpasses every dog I have ever known. I was sitting in my Adirondack chair, made from recycled plastic (also purchased in 2019 from Yoder's), looking at the oak tree, with my swing chair still in place. I have not taken it down yet, but I need to do that soon. Since the arborist was here a week ago, it really drove home that the tree will be transformed. It never leafed out this year, not one single leaf. Last year it was really thinly leafed. Then the derecho hit in late summer, and it defoliated the tree. It never recovered, and died perhaps a few years earlier than if the derecho never happened. We had shade from the trunk in the dog yard, but no leaves. We have a huge spruce tree in the southeast corner of the dog yard, next to the deck, and a large black pine tree just outside the southwest corner of the fence. So, we still have shade available all times of the day, but it's different than the shade we had for the previous five years.
I have pictures I need to find of baby Celine on the burl at the base of the tree. Skadi liked to stand on that burl as well, before she lost her vision. Dove is not particularly athletic, so I don't have any pictures of her standing there, since she would normally climb up and then get shoved off by Celine. I don't think Prins ever used the burl, since he arrived in February this year and his favorite hangout when not playing is under my chair. When the arborist was here last week, I told him that I want around two feet of the trunk to be left in place, about a foot over the burl, so that the Vallhunds could still enjoy their natural platform. I am going to put a stain of clear coat over the base and look forward to all kinds of Vallhund antics in the future. We have a friend who is a wood worker, and he asked about having that burl when he visited us for a few days in June. I explained to him that it belongs to the Vallhunds, and being a dog lover he completely understood. He's on our waitlist for a puppy from Dove. I wonder if I should purchase wood burning equipment and write the names of our dogs on the base, or should I leave it blank? Should I carve Lycklig Farm into the base?
One of the unique features of our little farm is that we have one of the few standing live oak savannah's in Iowa. We have a dozen oak trees that were intentionally planted at around the same time, with a decent guess being late 1800's. There was undoubtedly a farm house somewhere around here that is long gone, probably quite large and impressive. The oak trees were spaced far apart so that their canopies fully extend without touching each other, as opposed to the close planting done for reforesting. These trees were planted to become specimens. There are two large hickory trees planted 20-30 years after the oaks, also well spaced from the oak trees. At a time when conservation was far from the average person's mind, some person went through a deal of trouble to arrange these trees. The land was used for crops and then for livestock pasture, but the trees endured. Several came down over the years, as we know from talking to neighbors and the previous owners of this property, but the majority endured and are healthy. There is one oak in the pasture that has been struck by lightning multiple times. That tree is in decline. The oak directly south of our house is also showing some signs of decline. The arborist told me that oaks grow fast for 50 years, then maintain slow growth for 50 years, then decline for 50 years. It's possible that both of the declining oaks will still outlive me, though I just turned 41 years old on September 11.
I pulled the weeds from around the base of the oak tree after some time in the yard. I thought that it will be the last time pulling those weeds, but with the base remaining after the tree is felled I will have many years of weed pulling ahead of me. There were hostas planted at the base of the tree when we moved here in July 2015. Skadi and Lenka made short work of those hostas. Benji enjoyed eating the hosta flowers.
Andy found a seedling from an acorn of the oak tree earlier this summer, when he mowed while I was showing dogs in West Bend, Wisconsin. Andy put up two metal posts and a generous wrapping of chicken wire, to protect the seedling. It's still there, persisting through a summer of record drought, and will hopefully continue to grow over the coming years.
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