Our Palm Died

We have lots of palm trees at our house.  12 or so.  We love them all, but our favorite was the Canary Island Date Palm.  You can see it in the left of this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

I took this pic of the duck, but this is the only picture that I could find of the palm in question when it was healthy.  It was a beautiful tree and we loved it.

This is when I began to know that something was

 wrong.

The palm was drying up and new branches [fronds] were dying.

It finally lost all of it's fronds.  Neighbors suggested that it had a palm disease called fulsarium wilt.  They pressed me to get it down and out because the disease is airborne and they did not want their palms infected.  So I tied a chain around it and hooked it onto the bumper of my truck.

The old f-150 snapped that tree right off.  Now I have a 1,000lb tree carcass in the yard.

I love a truck!!!

I pulled it around with the truck until it chopped it in half.  The small part I got into the trash can and the trash men took it.

One of the 1/2's I was able to roll up a ramp into the back of the truck.  The other part was too heavy.

I still love a truck.

During the process of downing the palm I discovered that the culprit was not a disease but beetles.  Palm heart beetles.  Lots of them.  Yuck.  I captured one and put it in a baggie.

A neighbor was having a septic tank put in and so their contractor came down, dug out the stump and put the rest of the pieces in the truck for me.  I took it to the dump and pulled, drug, kicked and rolled the stuff out.

I am posting this blog for two reasons... The first is because we lost something that we loved.  It hurt to lose that tree.

Second, to suggest that ingenuity can find a way.  The tree company wanted $1,400 to get the tree down and out.  I did it for nothing.

Third, I guess there are three reasons... When I tried to pay the contractor for loading the tree into my truck, he said, "No.  Pay it forward.  The good Lord has been good to me.  Do something for someone else."

I loved that.  

A new palm will be coming in the near future.  That will bring a happy story back to this part of our world.   From death comes new life.  To be continued...

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

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