12SEP08 - When Ike looked like it was headed our way, I decided to do what I could to try and protect my Live Oak trees. Since the soil is mainly sand down to four feet or so, I decided I needed some stout stakes so we drove over to the plumbing supply place and bought a half dozen 21-foot inch and a half galvanized pipe sticks. I cut those into four sections for the stakes and we initially used two stakes per tree in the side yard with quarter inch vinyl-jacketed cable.

Despite the sandy soil, it took some extended arm power to pound those babies into the ground and I'm not looking forward to the approach of the next storm when I'll have to do as many of the remaining 10-12 trees as I can.