Just realized I've climbed the same oak tree 100 times

It's this massive white oak in a client's backyard, and I've been doing its annual pruning for a decade. Hit the century mark this morning and it felt weirdly like visiting an old friend who never talks back. Anyone else have a tree they've worked on so many times it feels like part of the crew?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas_johnson352mo ago

Funny you mention that. I've got a sugar maple I've been trimming for a local park for about eight years now. You start to notice the little things, like how one particular branch always puts out a crazy amount of new growth, or the way the bark has changed texture near the old pruning cuts. It stops being just a job and you get this quiet respect for the thing.

wadeyoung2mo ago

That quiet respect you mentioned, that's the real deal. I keep a small notebook in my kit just for notes on my regular trees. Jotting down stuff like which limbs I left as sacrifice branches or how the tree reacted to a dry summer. It helps me make better cuts next time because I remember what that specific tree did last year. You start to see the long game, not just the single season.

miller.susan3d ago

And @wadeyoung, that notebook idea reminds me of how I started tracking the birds that visit my garden after a hard prune. It's funny, my neighbor thought I was crazy logging a blue jay's schedule, but now I know exactly when to steer clear of the plum tree so I don't spook the nesting pair.