Back in 1937...

Last winter, a huge old oak tree fell down in our woods. It toppled over, pulling roots and all out of the ground, but no one noticed until I found it some days later while taking my morning walk with the dog.



JP and my Dad marveled at the potentials for this wood for woodworking, etc. JP would like a table made of a cross section of it. This summer, they cut it into managable lengths, and moved it out of the woods to where we can keep an eye on it while it cures and dries.

I have been wondering how long this tree had been growing in our woods. This morning, J had a science lesson entitled "Methods of Studying Ecosystems of the Past." We talked about tree rings, and did a little activity trying to find the oldest tree from a group of tree ring sections. I decided that the time had come to find out exactly how old the oak tree was! We stuck a pin in every 10 rings, and counted 74 rings in all.



Back in 1937, this enormous tree was just a tiny sapling in our woods. Today, a piece of it served as a lesson in Science for my girls. Next year, part of it may be a small table in our house.