Desert Tortoise has me in disbelief after climbing block wall

JoesMum

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My biggest concern with climbing is not that they do it, but more the tumble and the risk of flipping on the way down.

Please don't rely on your tort to use a nicely made ramp. They tend to go in straight lines. Over or through is the tort's way... going round things is for wimps.

If you're going to make an easy way up, you also need to prevent shortcuts down.
 

JohnnyB65

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Does the tree neighbor know how much their trees location is affecting your yard? Sounds like a headache to deal with.

There have been a lot of people living there over the years and I don’t know what the deal is, but each family seems to only stay about a year and have lots of kids. The last ones to move out were the neighbors from hell who threw diapers and trash over the wall. There were a lot of young adult males hanging out all through the night yelling obscenities and getting rowdy so I kept my distance not wanting to take a chance on else they would do.

Anyway the trees were topped off about 7 or 8 years ago when one of the then 80 ft trees completely knocked over a wall on another neighbor’s side during a wind storm. The tree held its ground but destroyed that block wall and I’ve been worried about it ever since. They are about 40 ft tall now and I hope I can move away from here before they reach 80 ft again.

The pine cones and needles are a huge problem so I put up a shade fabric years ago to keep them from filling up my pond
DSCN1163_zpsef8493b3.jpg
 

JohnnyB65

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.........
Please don't rely on your tort to use a nicely made ramp. They tend to go in straight lines. Over or through is the tort's way... going round things is for wimps.....
I had to chuckle while reading your comment because you are correct about them taking the short cut. My tort always makes me laugh when he's finished eating because instead of walking around his food bowl, he just walks right over it whether it has food in it or not. :)
 

Big Charlie

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There have been a lot of people living there over the years and I don’t know what the deal is, but each family seems to only stay about a year and have lots of kids. The last ones to move out were the neighbors from hell who threw diapers and trash over the wall. There were a lot of young adult males hanging out all through the night yelling obscenities and getting rowdy so I kept my distance not wanting to take a chance on else they would do.

Anyway the trees were topped off about 7 or 8 years ago when one of the then 80 ft trees completely knocked over a wall on another neighbor’s side during a wind storm. The tree held its ground but destroyed that block wall and I’ve been worried about it ever since. They are about 40 ft tall now and I hope I can move away from here before they reach 80 ft again.

The pine cones and needles are a huge problem so I put up a shade fabric years ago to keep them from filling up my pond
DSCN1163_zpsef8493b3.jpg
That's a great idea!

Around here, everyone plants redwood trees in new landscaping because they are fast growers. After a few years, they are too big to ever be removed. The electric company offered to remove our palm trees for free and we took them up on it.
 

JohnnyB65

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That's a great idea!

Around here, everyone plants redwood trees in new landscaping because they are fast growers. After a few years, they are too big to ever be removed. The electric company offered to remove our palm trees for free and we took them up on it.

Wow that was pretty nice of them to remove the palm tree. I had a palm tree next to my electric & gas meter that really got big. I was worried that it might tear up the underground utilities and smash the house in a heavy wind storm. It cost me $800 to have it removed.

I had a friend in northern Cal who bought a house years ago with a large Red Wood tree next to it. Everyone thought it was cool until a wind storm popped up and blew the tree over right down the middle of the house.
 

Big Charlie

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Wow that was pretty nice of them to remove the palm tree. I had a palm tree next to my electric & gas meter that really got big. I was worried that it might tear up the underground utilities and smash the house in a heavy wind storm. It cost me $800 to have it removed.

I had a friend in northern Cal who bought a house years ago with a large Red Wood tree next to it. Everyone thought it was cool until a wind storm popped up and blew the tree over right down the middle of the house.
That's my fear. We have redwood trees on all sides. There was some program with the electric company where they were removing palm trees if they might interfere with electric wires. We had one that might grow up tall enough to reach the wires in a year or so and another that was not near the wires at all. We said you either take both or none, and after some back and forth, they agreed to take both.
 

JohnnyB65

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I just hook up a chain to Chomper and his full-time 4WD pulls those pesky palms and redwoods right out of the ground.:eek:
LOL Well I tried doing it myself, but after climbing up my 24' ladder to cut the fans and getting cut to pieces by the razor sharp barbs, I realized that I could be seriously hurt if not killed.
 

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