I’ve had the tree behind my in-laws looked at by a tree service. My first question was the most obvious: what the hell kind of tree is that?

Well it turns out to be an Osage Orange, here is what Wikipedia has to say:

The Osage orange (sometimes hyphenated) or Osage apple or simply Osage (Maclura pomifera) is an ornamental plant in the mulberry family Moraceae. It is also locally known as mock orange, “wild orange”, hedge-apple, horse-apple, hedge ball, bois d’arc, bodark (mainly in Oklahoma and Texas), bodart (in northwest Louisiana), bodock (mainly in Tennessee and Alabama), and bow wood. “Osage” derives from the Native American people inhabiting the valley of the river of the same name in Missouri. Slang terms for its inedible fruit include monkey brain, monkey ball, monkey orange, and brain fruit, due to its brain-like appearance.

This tree is 100 – 120 years old, which changes its status from “how do we get rid of this damn mess” to “cool, let’s clean it up a bit and be proud of it”.  I’m surprised that it was not removed by either the people who built the sub-development or the people who ran the gas pipeline.  Sure makes me think about the history of this place, what that tree might have seen over the years.

Note the photinas on the side of the house.  I hacked those down to what you see, they were about to tip the house over.  Those shall be removed… someday.