Once again I’ll be participating in the Bonny Doon open studio event.
This is a free event where 30 artists of all mediums open their artistic spaces to the public.
This year I have some new gaffs, shields, pub signs,…and a bunch of other things.
I’ll post up a link to our official website and map shortly.
Here are a couple of teasers from last year:

I'm just a weekend guy for a while, but I look forward to hearing what's happening out there.

I happened to inspect a tan oak on the edge of the yard the other day and found it is sick with SOD
Here’s what the tell tale fungus looks like

I'm certainly no arborist, but the fungus thing is pretty easy to spot. Generally they are about the size of quarter or a little bigger. Dead branches with moss or lichen is another sign.
Lots of oaks with "the blight" in my area. The tree basically dries from the inside out, but since the trunks of big oaks can hold massive amounts of water, it can take many years for the tree to become unstable.

My area in Bonny Doon was last logged around the early 1900's-1930s.
The removal of those big redwoods allowed some firs and tanoaks to get overgrown with the increased sunlight. In an undisturbed forest the redwood canopy would have limited their overall growth.

we removed a few big tan oaks back in 2021.
On the initial inspection Josh, from Element Arbor Care pointed out the hard black fungus on the trunks of all three of them.

It presents as hard black blobs with a bit of texture on the surface. Appearance of this fungus means the tree is indeed compromised, though actual collapse is tough to predict obviously.

The largest we had removed was about 2' in diameter and leaned towards our neighbor's garage. Once cut it had about a 1' diameter dead core inside of it. It could have come down any time or lasted for another 2-3 years dead on it's roots.
I'm still cutting up pieces of the trunk of that tree today.

5 days was our record from the snowstorm as well.
We've lost 5 smaller trees this winter, but other than some minor fence damage and some dents to my old pickup we've fared OK.

Anybody know a good arborist, who might be able to judge the likelihood of a tree falling?

Ugh, we've gotten rid of all our Doug firs, just too much liability were they were.
Not sure if they would go to Los Gatos, but the two best tree guys we've used are:
North County Tree service
Element Arbor Care

Both of these guys are  located in Bonny Doon, and I suspect they both have a lot of work right now.
Even back in 2021 Josh from Element was booked up 3 months out due to Post CZU fire work.

I haven't used these guys, but my neighbors have and give them a good recommendation:
http://www.huertastreeservice.com/

Best wishes to everyone, I'm ready for spring.

Time to get prepped for the next AR, coming to Santa Cruz Co tomorrow afternoon through Friday.

NWS has the SC mountains receiving between 5"-8" in a 48 hr period, mostly in a concentrated rain band Friday/Friday eve. Winds gusting over 40 mph.

Stay safe everyone.