Here in March/April 2020 Italy has been in the news. So sad that the Covid-19 virus has killed so many Italians and shut down their country. I thought I would do a post about our trip to Rome in March of 2017. I traveled with my Wife and youngest daughter to Rome. We flew from…
Author: gothictrees
White Oaks
My favorite trees are White Oaks. Now the term White Oak can mean a specific tree or a whole class of trees. I usually use White Oak to describe the whole family of trees. I wanted to post the feature image which is a picture I took at the Green Lake Conference Center in Green…
Stump Tour
After our timber sale it is interesting to see the stumps and which trees had rot and which trees were solid. The above stump was a large Bur Oak located low on a hillside. It was really growing out to the south toward sunshine and would fail at sometime in the future because of that…
Tree Tube Spring Cleaning
Over the past 10 – 15 years I have used tree tubes to protect and assist young trees. I could go into a lot of history and scientific claims which various tree tube manufacturers have about the benefits of their tubes. But after all these years with both success and failure I have come to…
Timber Harvest
Our timber was cut in late December of 2019. We wanted to limit the possible damage to our land. The big log skidder and dragging logs can cause ruts. So the ground needs to freeze pretty deep – maybe 5 inches down. Also if there is too much snow the skidder can’t get around. So…
Tree Sale Decision
In the fall of 2019 I worked with a private forester and decided to do a timber sale. With Brad the forester we walked all 30 acres and we agreed that a thinning of the forest was needed. The above picture was taken in the fall when leaves had been dropping. You can still see…
Washington’s Crossing
Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer, Oxford University Press, 2004. This book takes us from Boston in March of 1776 to Princeton in January 1777. I found it detailed, yet interesting. The struggle to form and keep an army fighting against the best army in the world at that time is the overriding theme of…
Murren to Gimmelwald
Murren and Gimmelwald are two small villages located high above the Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland. The downhill hike from Murren to Gimmelwald is many times mentioned as one of the best walks/hikes in the world. I have done this walk 3 times. In 1998 with my brother Clark. Then in 2015 with my wife Laura,…
New Life for Chinkapin
Last year I posted on a “Lack of Courage” about a Chinkapin Oak. I cut the tree down to about 3 inches last fall and hoped for the best. This spring to prevent deer browse I put two tree protectors around the tree. Now in Mid-July there is a lot of new growth. Some of…
Baby Bettlereiche
Bettlereiche was the very large and old oak that I visited in Switzerland in May 2019. Somehow a few acorns from that tree jumped in my luggage and found their way back to Minnesota. In late May I planted them in seed starter soil and kept them watered outside. And surprisingly they have grown. I…
GothicTrees 