Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

I was promised a recession.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Let there be snark.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / The Willow is Too Close to the Mourning Dove

The Willow is Too Close to the Mourning Dove

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I was doing my weekly trimming of the willow tree, which I do so that I can still have a little bit of the back yard and for the health of the tree, when I found something that tickled me.  I have to get all up in the tree’s kilt to properly maintain it, which requires me cutting all the branches to about 6 feet tall, then getting up underneath and cutting out all the dead stuff, when i looked up and what did I spyy with my little eye:

I went around to the other side for a better picture:

 

He or she kept a very watchful eye on me, and I left as soon as I got the picture so as to not distress them.  That explains why I kept hearing the calls and it felt like they were right on top of me when I sat on the deck.  They were!

I should also add that the willow tree brings me joy every time I look at it.  It’s such a splendid tree.

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  4. 4.

    Spanky

    I should also add that the willow tree brings me joy every time I look at it.  It’s such a splendid tree.

    Now you’re just trolling us.

  5. 5.

    Ken

    @Spanky: No, that’s what happens after the willow roots grow into the water supply and start releasing the chemicals. It’s like toxoplasmosis with cats.

  6. 6.

    ant

    mhm

    you should wack it off at about five to six feet tall while you still can without having to pay someone to do it.

    let it grow back.

     

    that tree needs its size manged.

  7. 7.

    Joy in FL

    I love the tree and the birds. I love knowing those things are having their lives right now.

  9. 9.

    germy shoemangler

    I should also add that the willow tree brings me joy every time I look at it. 

    And fortunately it’s right up next to the house for easier viewing pleasure.

  11. 11.

    Scout211

    My neighbor’s 3 huge willow trees are right behind their house and provide a lot of much-needed shade. But the bill to fix their septic tank was not cheap. The roots grew right through the concrete walls of the tank. They still love the trees, though, and refuse to remove them. They are very pretty trees.

  12. 12.

    Madeleine

    OT: I just heard a brief bulletin on NPR national news about  4 Directions organizing a conference between Nevada tribal leaders and state political leaders to forge a partnership. Tribal leaders from other states are also there. Great news!

    typo edited

  14. 14.

    kindness

    We had a big willow in our back yard growing up.  It shed like mad.  It wasn’t near pipes or the house so the only problem with the roots was over time the roots grew up.  Eventually there was a mound about 8 feet in diameter rising up about 2 or 3 feet above the ground.  My father eventually cut it down.

  17. 17.

    bluefish

    West Va in summer house and tree porn. Enjoy. Lovely. You are cruel. Bird song. Recipe time.

    Plus, no more sex for anyone ever. Thanks.

  19. 19.

    R-Jud

    I like mourning doves, I just wish they wouldn’t bully every other bird that visits my feeders (except the magpies: nobody messes with the magpies).

  20. 20.

    CaseyL

    More birbs!  How wonderful!

    Did the chickadees, or finches, or whoever they were, ever return to the nest on your porch?

  21. 21.

    Gravenstone

    @Scout211: When I bought my home (mistake), the pre-sale inspection of the septic found that one of the native willows had grown into the tank. Idiot original homeowner had planted one of the many cuts he took from the mother willow literally right on top of the fucking septic tank. They had to pull the thing out roots and all to pass the inspection. Had the guy who cleaned it out in to pump mine out some years later (mandated every three years here) and he said they were pulling roots out by the wheelbarrow full.

    Add insult to injury, the progenitor willow decided to rot and drop one of its big branches onto an adjacent spruce, shattering the top. Ended up having to remove both of them.

  23. 23.

    persistentillusion

    Out here in sunny Colorado, mourning doves have been forced out by ring-necked doves.  Look and sounds similar, but apparently the ring-necks are invasive.

  25. 25.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    This post reminds me, whatever happened to the Find Mr. Frog posts, John? I enjoyed those

  27. 27.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @sab:

    Oh no, I wasn’t taking about the old posts, I was talking about how he used to post new Mr Frog pictures his parents would send him. I was wondering why he stopped

  29. 29.

    Dangerman

    @Alison Rose : Obligatory posting about the saga of Nellie the Night Heron; Google away if you are a bird person. She was something to witness in person.

  31. 31.

    JMG

    Willow trees are indeed very beautiful, but there are few of them on Cape Cod. Nor’easters are the reason. Back in suburban Boston, our neighbor two houses up had a beautiful old willow, but a blizzard did for it a decade ago.

  34. 34.

    joel hanes

    @R-Jud:

    Throw some of the cheapest corn/millet food on the ground; the mourning doves will prefer to eat there, and mostly leave the feeders to the other birds.

  35. 35.

    Leto

    We had a pair of robins nest in the tree right outside our sunroom. We were able to watch as they constructed the nest, laid eggs, then watched those eggs hatch into noisy beaks sticking up just out of the rim of the nest. It was a really fun 3-4 weeks.

  36. 36.

    sab

    @C Stars: I think you are right. Aspirin’s scientific name and willows’  are very close, and every healer in every historical novel makes willowbark tea.

    Salix is the plant family. Salicylic acid is ancestor of aspirin.

  40. 40.

    Sky

    @C Stars: The original commercial aspirin produced by Bayer was made from Spiraea, which also contains salicylic acid (hence the name aSPIRin).

  41. 41.

    Ann Marie

    @R-Jud: My father thought the same way about them.  He would get so annoyed when they would eat all the seeds.  But I loved their call.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sab:

    We should lean on him to bring back that frog. It was a good idea then, and we certainly tension relievers now. 

    Agreed.

  46. 46.

    Sherparick

    @Spanky: in the two stories where a willow tree is a character, they were definitely trees with attitude (“Ol’ Man Willow in LOTR & Womping Willow in “Harry Potter.”

  48. 48.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    Thank you for the lovely tale of the doves. I have some that live in my backyard sometimes. Always makes me happy to hear them.

  49. 49.

    joel hanes

    @Sky:

     

    But aspirin has not been made from a plant feedstock for quite a while.
    Salicylic acid is synthesized directly from bulk chemicals.

    alicylic acid is produced commercially via the Kolbe-Schmitt process. Here phenol and sodium hydroxide are reacted to make sodium phenoxide. The phenoxide is contacted with CO2 to form sodium salicylate. The salicylate is acidified to give salicylic acid. The acid is usually crystallized from aqueous solution to give a technical grade 99.5% salicylic acid product. For a pharmaceutical grade product a further purification step is required. Typically this is achieved by sublimation.

    The Kolbe-Schmitt synthesis is very old and a number of manufacturing methods have been used. The old Wacker process was carried out in phenol solution. Later processes have used ball mill autoclaves, counter-bladed kneader/mixers, and other batch reaction means.

  50. 50.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat: ​

    “Lily in the rain”

    That is beautiful!

    Also, sorrow for what’s happening in your home nation. I worked with so many Indian software geniuses back in my working days, I’m sure most of them are as crushed as you are.

  51. 51.

    Hilfy

    John Cole, please give us some pictures of your willow tree as it looks now,  been a long time since we’ve seen your back yard..  Contemplating widow trees is restful to the soul.

  52. 52.

    Cmorenc

    ‘@john cole:
    Our house at the nc coast has had a resident pair of doves every spring using a nest on top of one of the pilings supporting the house (barrier island houses are on story-high pilings to allow any storm surge to pass underneath the house).  I welcome the female’s return every spring, patiently sitting atop her nest, secure from the many outdoor cats living next door.  I am always careful to not disturb her, or permit anyone else to do so.

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