Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:11:44 -0800
From: “N.A. Booko”
Subject: Just how Big is Grand? I mean like the Grand Trees of Chatham . .
Today, at a point in my busy schedule, I had 18 minutes with nothing to do- Took the cats out for a stroll and with that little stinging breeze, they wanted nothing to do with it. So, I did something that I have wanted to do for a long time- Measure a couple of the big trees growing along the side ditch of old Highway 64- Since I don’t know the rules for measuring (to be considered grand) I measured as close to the ground as possible. Two of the trees were growing half in the ditch and half on the steep hill side, making it impossible to measure properly. Anyway, I took the elliptical circumference angle into consideration and came up with this-
The old maple is a multi-trunk deal and measures eight feet, ten inches- The popular growing in the same ditch just 6 feet away, also measured just about the same as the maple.
Further down the line is a grove of old pines- The largest one really has a base on it not to be believed. It seems to have built itself a mound of dirt around the base- So this one measures, to the best of my ability (and working alone- like I said, the cats wanted no part of it) – that pine at the base measured about eleven and half feet.
Interesting story about that pine and several others- When the hyway department was working on the new four lane hyway, in 1995, a worker said to me one day “You should have those trees cut down- them old bugs already got in ‘um”. I assumed he meant pine beetles- So I looked and sure enough, there were many round holes, with sap running out and black beetle like bugs going in and out. I was really heart broken and at a loss as to what action to take. Long story short, I got my self some “Neem-Away”- a solution made from the Neem tree- Every day for a month or so, I sprayed each and every hole I could find or reach- To my astonishment, the trees did not die. They seem to be very healthy to this day.
O.K.- your turn- but keep it real, please . . .
N.A. Booko