When I read about the damage being inflicted on the Northeast by Hurricane Irene this September, I was reminded of Hurricane Ike which brought Category 1 hurricane winds to Ohio in September of 2008. A few weeks ago, I remembered Hurricane Ike again. I was mowing our lawn and noticed, as I drove by our cherry tree, that it was split at the upper "Y" branching..
The cherry tree has not been strong and healthy since it lost a major limb when Ike blew through. The limb split off and tore down the trunk almost to its base. Tom talked to his nursery friend who suggested plastering the trunk with concrete so water couldn't get down into the base and rot it away. You can see that patch at the base of the tree.
The next spring, Tom planted another cherry tree, just in case our big one died. It is the little tree in the foreground with the white wrapping around the base. The old tree is to the left.
With the new split we gave up. Hurricane Ike has won. We had the tree cut down.
And now a few logs from the tree are seasoning beside our fire pit. We'll raise a toast to it next year when we have a hot dog and marshmellow roast.
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