Death of a Live Oak
When we moved to Florida 24 years ago, one of the first things we noticed was the beautiful live oak tree. These trees are plentiful in our neighborhood, and we had a magnificent one in our backyard. It was very tall, and had Spanish Moss hanging from its huge branches. The branches seemed to reach all the way to the sun. Once we became accustomed to seeing these gorgeous trees every day, we didn't really pay too much attention to our live oak until its beautiful branches spread well over our house as well as the neighbor's yard and swimming pool. This wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't live in a hurricane plagued part of the country, and if the huge tree wasn't showing signs of damage. One of the most obvious signs: a palm tree growing in one of the large forks between two branches. Yeah, probably a problem... The trees guys said that our oak was probably about 120 years old. I nearly cried at the thought of losing this treasure. The choice was betwe