We had a beautiful walk on the Lake Trail at Lake Minnewashta Regional Park. We skipped the dog park and opted to follow the wide-mowed path from the main swimming beach to the boat launch and back. It was a Midwestern muggy day with the temps reaching over 90 degrees. Hence the smudgy look to the photo of Pepe and my husband by an old growth bur oak tree.
Many trees felt as if they had seen more than a couple of generations of walkers stroll beneath their canopies. This makes one wonder just how old some of these shade-makers are.
It turns out there are Tree Age Calculators. Oak trees grow with a fair degree of regularity, so all you need to know is the type of tree and its circumference at breast height. I’m eyeballing it, but I think ten feet is a fair guess for the one in the photo. Plug in the data and- voila- the site says this baby is 191 years old.
Now I just have to add a measuring tape to my walking purse.
Home Economics 