Ficus=Pine

[woodworkingboy]

That is a documentary right there!

 

[Bermy]

The rest gets done later this week, there's only a third left now, the TIP and three more trunks to the left are gone...the weather is blustery and rainy and those things get slippery.
The main contractor is going to crane out the rootball, which goes from the top of the wall up to just below where those big trunks come out, 8' high before you even get to the trunks.
He's got his work cut out, prop roots going everywhere, stones caught up in it, rotten bits, glad I don't have to deal with it!

Good luck with your move HT, county life is good life!

 

[stig]

4 acres is a fine size, Willard. I have 4½ and I believe Burnham has 5.
Just enough to make a nice buffer zone, but not enough that one feels compelled to actually do something with it(s'posed to be a smiley here!)

I can't believe the size of that ficus, Bermie.
Seems like a pity to cut it down ( oops, wrong thing to say to a fellow arbie/logger, sorry!) or is that size common on Bermuda?

 

[Bermy]

It is a big one, but as I said, they are invasive and destructive of infrastructure (since the 1980's when the pollinator wasp made its way here)...and the condo association were concerned it might finish its topple one day and rollover into the unit.
It has put out quite a lot of new roots, snaking out behind into the bank, and aerial roots straight down, but the bank is construction fill and not the most stable rooting medium...and the tree just gets taller and taller...they've wanted to do it for like 15 yrs.

Interestingly enough, Ficus in exposed locations are not faring well, the winter storms and drought of the last three years have knocked them back badly, they get burned with the salt laden wind, then try to flush new growth and the cycle repeats over and over, throw in a hurricane now and then...getting lots of dieback and they look scruffy and tired.

 

[HolmenTree]

When I think of Ficus I think of a tree with its trunk covered with 1 inch long very sharp horns or spikes. I saw this tree along a street in Luxor, Eygpt. I asked a local what this tree is called and in his strong Eygptian accent he said " fee cuss".
Beautiful tree. I have pictures of it in 35mm, so I'll have to scan it and will post it here after work tonight.

Well here it is guys, I finally found a picture of this Eygptian tree that I shot in Luxor in 2002. Its a little grainy thanks to the 35mm being scanned , but look close and you can see the sharp horns on the trunk.
Also notice the yellow flowers. This tree was about 40 feet tall and about 30" dbh. Climbing this tree you do not want to spur out and do a face plant.
The local Eygptians called it a ficus.

 

[HolmenTree]

Adding to my last post, now that I have my new laptop and scanner figured out, here is something else interesting from Egypt.
Here is some 3 strand rope that is almost 5000 years old. From one of Pharaoh Khufu's sailing ships.

Here is a better picture of the horny tree also.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Is that the exhibit that has the whole ship they found buried made of cedar I believe?
I watched a documentary on it once recent and it was wild how they pieced the thing all together like a puzzle. That and how they found rope that old still intact.

 

[HolmenTree]

Is that the exhibit that has the whole ship they found buried made of cedar I believe?
I watched a documentary on it once recent and it was wild how they pieced the thing all together like a puzzle. That and how they found rope that old still intact.

Yes it is. this museum exhibit with the whole cedar ship is inside a large glass building [ Solar Barque Museum] right next to the great pyramid at Giza nearby Cairo. The dry conditions are just right for these artifacts to last almost 5000 yrs.
This ship was unearthed in 1954.
One day I have to go back to Egypt before I die. One amazing cool country.

 

[MasterBlaster]

One amazing cool country.

The Land of Sand? Whodahthunkit???

 

[HolmenTree]

The Land of Sand? Whodahthunkit???

History....... this is where it all started [ the Greeks can argue], mathematics, medicine, engineering, literature..........
=You don't know how big the great pyramids are until your taxi driver drops you off right next to them. That taxi cab only costs you $20 US for all day all over Cairo and area.
=Sitting on top of a $50 nite 4 star hotel roof next to the pool at sunset, sipping on one of the best tasting beers in the world, Stella. While being entertained by belly dancers and a cobra snake charmer.
=Riding in a Toyota micro bus 4am in the morning at a 110 mph for 4 hrs with a car load of young Danish women across the desert to get to Abu Simbal hoping to avoid desert bandits.
-4 day Nile river cruise on a 5 star cruise ship for only $50 a nite.
-see the largest library in the world where the worlds oldest library once stood in beautiful Alexandria on the Mediterrian sea.
-Ride on a zodiac boat with only yourself and your wife on it to a ancient temple on Lake Aswan escorted by 6-300 lb soldiers armed with AK47s.
-Get a picture of yourself sitting on a camel with the 3 great pyramids in the background.
-Ride a high speed Norwegian built ferry across the Red Sea to Sharm El Sheikh resort and spend a week on the beach and enjoy some of the best if not the best snorkeling in the world.
-Valley of the kings tombs and Luxor.... another story.
-

 

[MasterBlaster]

OK, take away the pyramids/religious aspect and then...

 

[HolmenTree]

OK, take away the pyramids/religious aspect and then...

I could keep going, the pyramids are only a small part.
The whole country livens your senses.
Take a stroll down a Cairo street and markets with chaotic traffic and 20 million people and still feel very safe. My advice sew a Canadian flag on your backpack and enjoy the friendly hospitility of the locals.
We toured an old British train museum left just the way it was when the British abandoned the country in the 1950s.
Oddest thing I saw was a bright yellow 1970- 73 Chevy Camaro Z28 sitting up on blocks in a poor neighborhood with a goat standing on the hood.

re read my post #35.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I guess I just need to be there.

 

[Bermy]

Stella, like Stella Artois?

That sure IS a thorny tree, one we'd commonly call monkey puzzle...never seen a ficus with such big flowers.
The Kapok tree here has thorns like that, but not quite so many!

 

[canadiantreeman]

IOddest thing I saw was a bright yellow 1970- 73 Chevy Camaro Z28 sitting up on blocks in a poor neighborhood with a goat standing on the hood.

Screen clean time.

 

[HolmenTree]

Is that the exhibit that has the whole ship they found buried made of cedar I believe?
I watched a documentary on it once recent and it was wild how they pieced the thing all together like a puzzle. That and how they found rope that old still intact.

Stephen here is a couple of photos my wife and I took of the ship by the great pyramids.

 

[HolmenTree]

Stella, like Stella Artois?

That sure IS a thorny tree, one we'd commonly call monkey puzzle...never seen a ficus with such big flowers.
The Kapok tree here has thorns like that, but not quite so many!

No not Stella Artois, just Stella,it has been brewed in Giza, Egypt since 1897. Beer has been made in Egypt since ancient times. Heineken International bought out the Stella company Al Ahram Beverages in 2002 the year I was there.
I googled Egyptian trees and came up with a flowering ficus fig and a horny mulberry tree. But I can't get any definent descriprtion of them.

Here is a photo of my best memories of drinking Stella beer by the hotel pool watching snake charmers and belly dancers.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Amazing piece of ancient wood working and shipbuilding

 

[HolmenTree]

Screen clean time.

Hey Dylan your not calling me a bullshitter now are you?
I didn't get a picture of the Camaro, but I did have time to take a picture of the taxi cab we were riding in on the way to the step pyramids in Saqqara when I noticed the Camaro along the way.
All I had time to say to my wife was WTF and pointed at the car, a few seconds later our speeding cab ran over a dog and we just kept on going like nothing happened.

 

[HolmenTree]

Here is the once in a lifetime photo my wife and I had taken of us on our honeymoon in Egypt riding out into the desert, she was terrified and I was cool with it.
Last picture my wife took of me drinking a 7 UP with the locals.

 

[pantheraba]

Heirloom scrapbook pictures...great for family discussions and wonderings for descendants.

 

[treeman75]

Those are some cool pics! I would love to go check out the pyramids. Was the trip spendy?

 

[canadiantreeman]

Willard, thats too funny to make up, I believe ya. And the bit about the dog made me go get the screen clean again.

I have always been fascinated by Egypt...definitely on me bucket list.

Thanks for sharing the pics, heck of a derail!!!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Egypt....frig that!

 

[Bermy]

I hosted one of the best derails so far! Treehouse hallmark!

The ficus has sucumbed to the Fiona...all that is left is a huge stump, like 25'x 10'x 8'...not my problem!
The last bits had to be rigged down, Sqwerl's squeaky pulley earned me some money today, and the groundies LOVED my port-a-wrap. The tenants were 'tres' happy.
Ahhh, now for the paycheque!