Last Man Standing

 Until last Friday evening, we had a grove of three big trees in the pasture above the house.  The sheep loved to lie in their shade on hot summer afternoons.   Now just one walnut remains; the other two falling victim to the derecho winds.  I'll miss looking out and seeing them each morning as I leave the house for work.

 This big walnut stood beside the road at the fence where the hayfield intersected one of our main spring lambing pastures.  Although it did not provide much shade to the pasture, it was a beautiful landmark for the farm.  Now its gone, a pile of brush and firewood to keep us warm this winter.

You can see why it came down in the wind, as it was completely hollow from the base quite a way into the larger branches.  After seeing this, its hard to imagine its looked as healthy and stayed upright as long as it has. 
There were other large trees that came down in the storm.  Chuck spend most of an afternoon driving the tractor along the lanes through the wooded ravines on the farm, removing 5 trees that had fallen across them.  There is still one HUGE old beech that blocks one of the lanes.  He'll have to go up and cut an opening through it so the tractor can pass through the trunk.   We lost some nice timber quality walnuts in the back of the farm, behind the ridge.