The Felling of a Giant

****ADENDUM**** When my brother-in-law came back this afternoon to fetch the remaining wood, he showed us where the tree had already split straight down and was ready to fall. We had no idea it was already split. I'm glad we didn't give it the chance to fall.****

Having a nemesis can be a great thing. It fuels your ire, thwarts all your well honed plans and jumps up and bites you when you least expect it.

When your nemesis is below you on the Chain of Being, you may just have a chance.

Back in April I posted about my nemesis, a massive oak that overhangs the garden, and, subsequently, the house. There's one limb in particular that fuels my ire because it overhangs the garden and delights in dropping bushels of acorns on my beds which must be primed to sprout and dig in for glory as soon as they hit the earth for those suckers sure do root fast. This same limb thwarts all my plans for garden design since shade is a fierce antagonist to growth. Well, we saw the limb's ante and raised it the full tree, for as you see below, the tree was growing out from behind another large oak, just reaching for the sun,


and the sun just happened to be in the direction of the house. So, the story goes that we had a dead pine in the forest that needed culling, and my brother-in-law knew a good tree climber who took care of it right quick.


We pointed him in the direction of the offending limb, and it went the way of the pine.

However, once cut, we could truly see that it was the tree, itself, that was the danger to the house, so down it came.

And now there's a blank spot where the beautiful oak used to be.

When we moved into the house, the oak was one of our favorite things, yet we've had numerous trees fall all around us and knew this one to be a danger in our soil. Yes, it's straight Georgia clay, but with all the rain we've had, the oaks are toppling one by one. It's better to be safe than sorry. I'm thinking it may have granted the garden a half an hour to an hour more sun....that is if it doesn't do as a good nemesis should and bite me in the end by giving the other trees more room to spread out and hinder the sun if not as much, then certainly more so than the original branch did. You know, I'd almost be disappointed if it didn't.

Until then, we've got a cool little two tiered stump from which the kids can play, "King of the Hill."

I'm thinking our holiday cards from now on will be taken right here, in honor of my nemesis.