My Tree

Are you ‘blessed’ with a window in your office? In the early years of my teaching career at Nemaha Valley, my classroom had windows. Those two small windows got ‘covered up’ by construction. When I moved across the hall to the library, I was in the center of the building — with no view of the outside.

Thus, I cherish my windows in my genealogy office. Not only do I have a window, but I have a tree. This tree is full of life, especially in the winter. The squirrels climb all over the tree and jump from it to neighboring trees as they figure out ways to get to the bird feeders. Since we fill the feeders with peanuts, there are several kinds of wood peckers that can be found in and around the tree. Blue jays, cardinals, and finches can also be found ‘hanging out’ in the tree. And of course, our neighbor’s cat loves to climb the tree in search of those birds.

My tree has had a hard life. It suffered significant damage during the 2007 ice storms.

Not wanting to lose the tree, we had it ‘bolted’ back together. And it thrived.

Until the evening of Friday, August 20th. During a thunderstorm, the wind took out several branches in the center of the tree.

By the time we cut back the branches that hang over the street and those approaching our roof, very little of this tree will be left. Thus, the tree will be coming down in the next few weeks.