Out of curiosity, I polished up a section of one of the dead trunks to see if I could count the rings and get an idea of how old the tree was. The rings aren't real easy to count, but I did my best and came up with a bit over 60 years.
Then I took a look at my Big Oak - the six-trunk beauty that's the centerpiece of Sábado and the main reason I bought the property (photo at the top of this post). Eyeballing the difference in trunk size compared to my 62-year-old dead one, I came to the conclusion that the Grand Dame is 74 years old, exactly the same as me. The tree was born in the same year as yours truly. Call me unscientific and sentimental, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
And from the Full-Circle Department, consider this: The event that started me on the path to being able to have this place was my first job in publishing, 30 years ago, when the company that published my book on grandfather clocks suddenly and miraculously moved to San Diego after being in New Jersey for 142 years. And just at the moment when I badly needed a job.
The name of the company: Oak Tree Press.
