The rotten plum tree

For much of today, I was over at my grandparents' house, completing more garden work for them. Today's biggest task was cutting down the nearly-dead plum tree near their back shed. My grandfather said that the tree died to a lack of sunlight, as caused by the trees around it in other yards growing. A few years ago, the tree produced these delicious plums - now, it can only manage a few scattered leaves.

The tree has been dying for a while, for when I cut into some of the branches, they were thoroughly rotten. In some cases, I didn't even need to use any sort of tool to cut the tree because the branches would snap once enough pressure was applied.

This is at least the second time I can recall cutting down a major tree. The first was when a willow tree on our property back in Oregon died in 2009; Mum and Dad asked me to cut it down and I did.