I'll sure miss this oak tree...

[Fuddyduddy1952]

As for what you might do with these, is there something that would be a meaningful reminder of something special about your grandfather? He planted it. Did he have a particular hobby or would he have used this oak to build something?

I was lucky growing up on the farm having grandparents next door. He was a Renaissance man, interested in everything. He had quite a library and always reading. He had 17 years of college after trade schools, a machinist, mechanical engineer, an MD, surgeon, Osteopath. Loved flying his Cessna, Airstream trailers, then motor homes. Loved travel, he taught my Dad construction and they built house I was raised in. Interested in everything.
He worked for Winchester Repeating Arms and set up an assembly line, Hudson Motors designing hollow pushrods (stronger and they oiled valvetrain). Loved Packard cars.

 

[ovrszd]

I used to be very sentimental about old oaks. They were witnesses to so much. But here, one would die, and we would mourn, then another, and we would mourn, then a dozen, then two dozen. It's sad to take a chainsaw to a 200yr old oak, but the sadness is now more like a sense of utility - all those that passed beneath it would want it put to something useful. It doesn't look like oak wilt has made it very far into Missouri, time will tell. In Wisconsin it's become common all over.

First I've heard of Oak Wilt?? What are the signs? Doesn't seem to be any natural enemy to large oaks here. Except humans.

 

[5030]

First I've heard of Oak Wilt?? What are the signs? Doesn't seem to be any natural enemy to large oaks here. Except humans.

We have it here. You spray for it in the spring.

 

[ovrszd]

3TS That rate of growth is just amazing to me. I can only guess if they are that wide they may not get too tall. Some of my walnuts in the woods are nearly 40 feet to the first branch. That is a best guess, I did not climb up to measure them.

40ft vertical is very, very high. The canopy in your timber would have to be extremely dense to cause a Walnut to reach that height before putting out a limb.

Trying to think of something common to all of us for comparison. The roof peak on my 14ft eave shop building is only 20ft. That Sky Trak might reach 40ft.

 

[dodge man]

Oak wilt the leaves will start to turn brown, maybe just part of the tree. In my trees it kills it pretty quick, say two years.

 

[ovrszd]

Oak wilt the leaves will start to turn brown, maybe just part of the tree. In my trees it kills it pretty quick, say two years.

Oh wow!!! Maybe we have it and I just don't know what's going on. I've saw Oak trees "thin" their foliage over a period of 3-5 years and then die. I never knew the cause. Sometimes I've found ant infestation in the base but sometimes not.

 

[BnRidge]

The growth rings tell a story about how the tree grew, and under what conditions. Sometimes the first 100yrs it was in shade, hardly grew year by year, maybe only 10" dia, then the canopy opens and it grows to 36" in the next 50. It's interesting to me, so I always count the rings. I noticed on the dead oaks for the last 10 years it was alive, the growth rings slowly got less and less, then --- dead. If I look at the existing oaks out there - some look very healthy, lush green all year, all of the branches have buds. On sick trees, some of the branches are dead, some of the branch tips have not budded out, late summer leaves look sick and may dry up and drop early, water sprouts are starting to form in odd places. But it may leaf out next year, and go through more decline. Then one year it doesn't leaf out at all. Late fall, mushrooms on the bark means it's done.

 

[dodge man]

I have found carpenter ants in just about every dead tree at my place. From reading about the oak wilt, the ants get in there because the tree is sick but aren’t the cause of them dying.

 

[2manyrocks]

I wonder if carpenter ants aren't worse than termites because termites will leave visible tunnels where carpenter ants seem to eat the interior of wood framing before you even know they are there?

 

[/pine]

I wonder if carpenter ants aren't worse than termites because termites will leave visible tunnels where carpenter ants seem to eat the interior of wood framing before you even know they are there?

Carpenter ants don't eat wood...they make cavities in rotten or diseased wood by removing the rotten cells...
If you have carpenter ants in your house it is most likely because of water causing rot...!