Here's the tree that fell. As you can see it took this house with it! In front is the porch roof! My wife, and Jesse in the photo to show perspective.

Another photo. As you can see, the front door is about 7 feet in the air!

Yet another photo

WOW..... I guess thats what happens when you plant a tree like that so close to a house with no foundation....

I have a feeling tree was already there.

That is an amazing tree. Maybe it can be used for lumber instead of fire wood if you have a mill reasonably close.

I would guess the tree to be about 300 years old. Yes, it is prime furniture wood, but it is on an island. No bridge, no cars allowed to be kept there. It is going to be fire wood. About 25 of this size oak trees are on the island, this was probably the biggest or 2nd biggest one. The others though are all very big! Hundreds of smaller ones also on the island. Here is a photo of ash tree rounds that the emerald ash borer took out. The oak is bigger but these are still impressive.

To plant acorns, harvest them, place them in moist but not wet medium in a plastic bag, and place in the garage. Ideally, they should not freeze. You can plant them in spring, late if there are rodents about, as soon as the ground can be worked otherwise. Then wait 100 years.

Those are some very impressive trees...must get plenty of rain/good climate/good soil...although if they are on an island, the water table must be somewhat shallow?

Just read an article in a Madison, WI newspaper about a company out of Oregon that takes trees from your yard that you don't want turned into firewood/etc and they turn them into cabinets/tables/etc. One person had a dining room table built from a slab of 250+ year old Burr Oak. Another person had cabinets made out of walnut from their front yard!

I've actually planted out a few oaks in the yard. I love fruit trees, but hardwoods also have their place (and their shade!).

"the water table must be somewhat shallow? "

Correct you can put a shallow well in at 13 feet.

I have had a number of fallen limbs. My electrical service has been knocked off my house 5 times! I have massive red maples. The tallest at 120 feet. Here is a photo of them topping a 120 footer that rotted from carpenter ants. This is my yard. In the photo the top was cut and held by a crane. they're positioning it to let it down.

The red maple has landed. Look at the damage from the carpenter ants! (hollow end) The top is almost as thick at that pin oak in my front yard. This was 2009. The tree is still alve. I only had the damaged top of the tree removed. It's a 70 foot stub now. New growth has taken off though. The tree this came from can be seen. it is behind my house to the right. You can't see the cut, it's too tall.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 15:01

A closer picture where you can see the rot caused by the ants. That tree was extremely dangerous and would have taken my house out. The tree trimmer didn't want to do it. Too afraid as hollow trees don't always fall away correctly when cut. The guy had two saftey ropes tied to him and made the cut at 70 feet high in the tree. His balls must be the size of bowling balls! :)

Here's a photo of the guy who made the cut.

Not a good photo, but the dude, is using the crane ball to get him to 70 feet to make the cut! The guy's name is Kevin, and he told me he always has sex with his wife the night before, as it might be his last time. He made it btw :)
Extremely good at what he does! A well spent $1200.00.
Much of it went to the crane operator. A barge had to be rented to get it to the island. Navigating dirt roads to get to my house is not easy either. Overall a great price considering the circumstances. Nothing is easy to get done on the island. I often go shed shopping for parts. It takes 2 hours to get back via the ferry, so if a neighbor has the part you need, you use it!

This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 15:35

Not sure how much time you have on your hands, but processing acorns into food is kind of fun. Basically just peel, mash/chop, leach until palatable, then mash again and dry or cook. They are really tough so an old food processor (one you don't care about) can be pretty useful here. To leach, the easiest way is to put them in a sack and submerge it in a stream or other moving water. Alternatively you can put it at the end of a hose and let it drip a few days or soak/decant/repeat but that can take forever. I've heard the red oaks have higher tannin levels so they might be even more work...

SF,

For whatever reason I found them to have little if any tannin. They taste ok raw. I roasted them and no bitterness at all. Even so the island is in the middle of a mile wide river that has a 4 knot current. So basically I could put them in any porous sack tied to a dock. Leeching would be no work at all. I'm not kidding that the trees produce thousands. I could collect a couple hundred pounds in an hour. You would need to rake them up, often people fall when trying to walk on so many.
Here is a photo of the river. It is tradition to float down from the head of the island to the swimming dock. Once a year we all do it together and have an ice cream social afterward. The photo is from that day.

Wow, what a pretty place to live!

"Wow, what a pretty place to live!"

Thanks, I'm only there 8 months of the year. The island is blocked by ice jams in the winter. No cars, people use golf carts and bicycles. They use carts to haul stuff off the passenger ferry to their cottages.

You should post this on a forum for sustainable agriculture. You may possess a valuable strain of oaks if they are consistently low tannin. That would make them a more valuable food crop, I think, although I'm no expert on acorns.

Harvestman,

Thanks for the tip, I will explore the acorns more. As really the ones I sampled are now from a dead tree! Although another is right behind the place. And yeah, they tasted very edible raw out of the shell. I did not detect any bitterness, they tasted rather bland, no flavor I was hoping roasting would add flavor, and it did a little. I only roasted a few right on my wood burning stove.
For the record none of these trees are on my property. But I certainly could collect thousands of acorns , nobody cares. And pass the strain on. Good idea!
Other trees might not have this characteristic,Let's hope so. It could be my liking of tart fruit that suppresses the taste. So others would need to try them.

I will collect some. My wife tried them too, I will talk to her about it. It might be that I grabbed old ones that rain rinsed them, but they were sealed nuts when I grabbed them.
Red oaks are all over the island, but they might not be the same. In that last picture you can see two at the end of the carts. Smaller ones only about 80 feet high.

I followed Euell Gibbons instructions for processing acorns. It was labor intensive and they tasted terrible. Since oaks grow like weeds around here and there are red oaks, white oaks, scrub oaks, post oaks, chestnut oaks and maybe others some may taste better than others. I may try it again this year. It would be nice to have a use for them besides fire wood and feeding the squirrels,

I need to confirm what type of oak. It could be a bur oak or a northern red oak.

Beautiful trees and a beautiful island Drew.

"A well spent $1200.00."

I'm amazed you got it done that cheap. Around here, tree services charge a grand (minimum) to fell a tree, and that's if there are no complications.

You have some interesting acorns. Ours are bitter (and small) but the squirrels seem to like them.

Enjoyed the photos!

OK, now I'm thinking the trees are really white oaks. the acorns are sweet on white oaks. It fits. We always called them red oaks as the wood is a beautiful red. Well so are white oaks. I think I need to buy a book on oaks!
Thanks Olpea. We rush there and when we make it to the boat we all breath a huge sigh of relief. We once again are on island time. I have been there 48 years, and little has changed. In 2001 the tall ships came from Europe to celebrate the 300th birthday of Detroit. I have many close-ups, even of a restored Niña that first came to our land with Columbus. Here is a broad view down river of ancient and modern ships. All on the river at the same time.
Islanders are on the docks watching the ships go by. The air was humid, and the color is washed in the photo, still I like it.

Drew - post a few pics of the oak leaves, bark, intact acorns and buds here - we should be able to identify the type of oaks fairly easily.

I will Eboone when i go up this weekend. Be back Monday to post. No computer access up there.

the oaks are a promiscuous bunch with lots of varieties and interbreeding among them.

generally speaking, those in the white oak family have leaves whose tips end in rounded lobes, those in the red oak group have tips that end in points.

both have nice wood, red oak does tend to have more red and pink in it and white oak to be more blonde,but color varies widely by soil and variety.
The largest difference in the wood is that the grain of white oak gets sealed off as it grows by tyloses, while that in red oak does not....you will see folks demonstrate this by blowing bubbles through a short stick of red oak. The change in porosity has a remarkable impact on the woods overall rot resistance which is one reason white is preferred for boat work and outdoor applications.

It is probably white oak, as I do think the leaves are rounded. Many oaks on the island. Many grow rather large.
Wild mulberries too. I know of 5 trees on the island. The berries are small on the mulberry trees, but they are super good. Deep flavor. Wild red and black raspberries. They are awesome. Wild blackberries too. I foraged about 5 quarts. At least 3 peach trees, 7 apple trees are planted on the island. I have 3 cherry trees and know of 3 others. A few paw paw trees too. During the week nobody is there, so one can do a little undercover picking :)
It's mushroom heaven with many types of edible mushrooms. I also planted 15 Cornus Mas trees, and a few currants and goosberries. Lot's of walnut too. With the fish, mushrooms, fruit and nuts, you could live off the land easy.

I've been told that the red oaks extra tannin functions as a preservative in its acorns and this makes it especially important forage in late winter.

I don't know if white oaks here have enough tannin to make them bitter but I will try some. I have never tried any that weren't bitter and half the oaks here are whites.

"generally speaking, those in the white oak family have leaves whose tips end in rounded lobes, those in the red oak group have tips that end in points."

That's something I didn't know. Thanks Rob. I mentioned it to my wife and she knew it since grade school.

She said they taught her the fact in grade school by way of imagery (cowboys and indians). To wit, red oaks have pointed leaves which resembles the pointed arrow (indian/red man weapon). The white oak has rounded tips resembling rounded bullets of the white man. I'm sure they don't teach it that way in grade school anymore!

Drew,

I've a couple questions about your island (totally unrelated to fruit) I'm curious about.

Does the island ever flood? It's not uncommon for a lot of rivers in the lower Midwest to come out of their banks and flood bottomland. That ever happen on the island?

Also curious if anyone ever tries to swim from the island to the mainland or vice versa, or is it too dangerous with the current?

Re: acorns - I remember learning at 'Conservation Camp' I attended as a teen that both Native Americans (for whom acorns were a staple) and pioneers (for whom acorns were usually more of a emergency food in times of want) who used acorns to make a flour or other food uses preferred the sweeter / less bitter white oaks. And deer certainly prefer white oak acorns over the red/black/scarlet oak family alternatives.

Drew - that is a big ship in the background of your picture above, is that the Detroit River between Lakes St Clair and Erie?

Eboone stated:
"Drew - that is a big ship in the background of your picture above, is that the Detroit River between Lakes St Clair and Erie?
"
No it's the St. Clair River. As mighty as the Detroit, maybe more so.
Olpea stated:
"Does the island ever flood?"

It did in the 70's. The river is huge being fed by Lake Huron which is over 50 miles wide and over 200 feet deep. Even 3 inches of rain barely raise levels The river mouth where they join under the Blue Water Bridge is an awesome sight. The locks at Sault ste Marie control levels. We all have steel break walls now, high above the water level.

People used to swim across but it is too dangerous with river traffic, and the Sheriff will ticket you if he catches you.
The island is between the north and south channel of the St Clair River. Each channel is about 3000 feet, over a 1/2 mile. Here is a photo of our swimming dock. The lens compresses everything so it looks closer. The other side is Canada! Actually Wapole Island, an Indian reservation in Canada.

Here is a photo from the swimming dock looking onto shore. You can see the break walls we now have to stop any flooding.

Acorn use by the natives depended, to some degree, on the oak species present in their area.
The white oak group, as a whole, has lower tannin levels than the red/black group - but lower fat content, and the white oak acorns don't 'store' as well as the red/blacks; some white oaks will begin to germinate soon after they drop. Red/blacks not until the next spring.
Western tribes, like the Yosemite/Paiute, etc., actually constructed 'granaries' and stored acorns from Q.kelloggi, sometimes for years.
There are also some significant differences in the tannins between the two groups that necessitate some differences in methods of processing.

There are at least a couple of good books on acorn utilization:
It Will Live Forever; Traditional Yosemite Indian Acorn Preparation - by Bev Ortiz, as told by Julia Parker
Acorns and Eat 'em - by Suellen Ocean

Here is a link that might be useful: It Will Live Forever

This post was edited by lucky_p on Thu, Sep 19, 13 at 15:22

Here's one of the main roads on the island. One bar, no cars. No public facilities. The swimming dock is private. You can use if a member of the property association, which we all are, but it keeps the general public off the island. If not a member you can't ride the ferry to the island either.

Lucky, thanks for the post. I have to get that book, I should be utilizing this resource. Free food, what the hey!

Wow, you are really close to Canada. Like one mile or less.

Here is a photo of the leaves from the downed tree. It is a white oak. Which one?? We have many oaks on the island. Various whites and reds.

Drew,

Your island looks amazing, so tranquil. Do some residents tough it out and stay all winter?

I am not an expert on oaks, but that looks like a bur oak (also known as mossy cup oak) - the acorn and leaves are typical for that. There may be related species that look similar, as I said I am not an expert.
The bur oak is in the white oak family, and has non-bitter acorns (low tannin)

Here is a link that might be useful: Bur oak description

This post was edited by eboone on Wed, Oct 2, 13 at 12:15

"Your island looks amazing, so tranquil. Do some residents tough it out and stay all winter? "

Only a couple of people. One we call "Mountain Woman" She lives alone. Hermit like behavior. She has one of those wind boats with the huge prop on back. You know an everglades type boat. It will go over ice, broken ice, or water. Without it you could be stuck there for a month or more. Those acorns might come in handy!! :)

Next weekend it's my turn to organize the car ferry from another island. We bring our cars over twice a year to haul stuff. I'm bringing over some landscaping bricks, and a metal burn barrel. I really want to haul off an old refrigerator. It is tranquil and super relaxing. No cars is a huge bonus. Everybody has to slow down, you have no choice. .

This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, Oct 2, 13 at 12:47

Agree. Looks most like Q.macrocarpa, but its hybrid offspring, Schuettes oak (Q.macrocarpaXbicolor) is also a possibility.

I have, in the past played around with and swapped plant materials with some folks who've been exploring the 'edible-acorn' deal. Have grafts and seedlings of a number of 'low-tannin' selections - but I'm not convinced that genetics is the whole deal - growing conditions may influence 'bitterness/sweetness' from year to year.

This post was edited by lucky_p on Wed, Oct 2, 13 at 12:41

Under an oak tree....

A picture of the bark on these beasts...

I've been trying to think of better memory device (other than the bullets vs. arrows thing) for white vs. red oak leaves... We have red (including black) and white (including blue) out here plus some intermediates. I've read that the reds have furry material between the nut and shell and confirmed this the other day w/a local black oak. Our oaks are not tall with a main trunk like yours. I'm just so used to our heavily branched squat ones.

Any thoughts on a better memory device? Red like a bloody arrow? White like an egg? Those don't really go together...

"Any thoughts on a better memory device?"

No the cowboys and Indians or White man and Red man is so perfect I'll never forget it. The island is across from an Indian reservation too, making it that much easier for me to remember. I didn't see the furry material. I do think with this tree it is a giant Burr Oak. Other oaks are rather large too. At least one other white is just about as big. here are the leaves. I took them from a seedling. As the huge ones were too high to get a close up. Although many of these oaks have low hanging leaves. I need to take more and better photos. Is that even an oak?