Dead Oaks are Gone!

I have mentioned before that we have Oak Wilt on our property. Oak Wilt is a fungus that invades the tree's xylem, clogging the water-conducting vessels. Simply-put..... the water cannot reach the canopy, causing the tree to die. When we first bought the property in 2012, there was a guy who stopped by with a contractor we were working with, and he said "you have oak wilt", as he looked up at the oak tree near the highway. Never heard of it. But it is real, and it moves via the intertwined root systems of the trees.

I am not sure how many "oak wilt trees" we had in 2012. I do know in 2019, we had a tree contractor remove some for us, but I don't remember how many because he was also working on the larger clearing near the water. But on the trip I made with Dave and Bryan last September, we had marked almost 20 trees that needed to come down. A few were close enough to the building to warrant some concern. The likely-hood is high that we will lose all of our oak trees over time. but we are hoping that the fire lane, that has been there for years, might be enough of a break where the roots are not intertwined from the east side (where the oak wilt exists) to the west side (towards the water). At the same time, I have seen small oak trees growing, so maybe they will rejuvenate the oaks in the forest.

Our excavation contractor came in last week to do the clearing of those trees. I like to see the work before I pay the bill, so Lorraine and I decided to make a 1-night trip to the property. We went up on Saturday, and came back on Sunday. We tried to keep it a simple trip with no food except for the breakfast burritos that have become a standard staple for the morning of departure.

We both over-slept, but were still on the road by 7:00, arriving in Black River Falls a little after 10:30. Gas and Taco John's, and then out to the property. We could immediately see the results of the work, and there is a ton of cleared space now. This cleared space will allow us to further clear out that area of the property that is between the highway and our driveway. Now that we have space, we can drop the other trees and clear it all out so it is ready for us to plant a pine-tree barrier from the highway. This will both block the view from the road, but also tamp-down the noise. We will do the same between the building and the driveway.

The building was in good shape, regarding cleanliness. We did our normal cleaning, but it was not bad. I went to move the ATV out of the building, but it would not start. We need it to help us clean up debris, so into town to see our options at Walmart. Jumper cables and a trickle charger fit the bill. Was able to jump-start it from the truck, but note: truck must be turned off to jump-start this ATV battery.

It stopped later, making me believe I need to get a new one. I think it had run long enough to have the alternator fully-charge it. But we were able to get most of our work done when we parked it for the trip.

We had a lot of debris back by the campsite near the water, so we picked that all up and burned it there. I then started up the brush mower to widen the driveway from the split to the clearing.

We were planning to shower at the campground at Lake Arbutus and go out to eat. But we wanted to work longer and just pick something up. So we finally went into town, to Hansen's, and got our fried chicken/coleslaw/potato-salad supper. It was yummy after a hard day of work.

Decided to brush mow the island (where our fire pit resides), the split, and the area between the building and the driveway.

Then it was time for showers and winding-down.

Nighttime fire was great, but we were beat. It was a good night of sleep.

I was up the next morning at 6:00. I sprayed weeds around the building with my vinegar/salt/soap mixture. I was able to get the front and both sides done.

Breakfast burritos, cleanup and head for home around 10:00 AM. It was a great trip, even if somewhat short.