First of all I want to tell you folks I am in Iowa, Lake Okoboji / Wapehton specifically. Family cottage here and it celebrated 100 years in 2015. What I wish to do is just show you the cottage and the trees that surround it. For the majority of my child life, I had come here mostly in July but never really bothered about the trees. Until now. This morning...this cottage is old school. In fact the outhouse is now used as a boat shed for gear and lifejackets. Plumbing was put in about 55-60 years ago. From what I can garner from the tree identification this is a white oak and more specifically, Bur Oak? The acorns have been dropping like mad, I actually chuckle because when it hits a car, it sounds like a gun shot. Now making a weird connection with the number acorns, deer and the upcominf hunting season, I could get the idea of what the sound could be like. Haha! Anyways this oak is everywhere here. The majority of any property has at least several of these trees. I've also observed that the ground soil here is ridiculously wet, very clay like and dark and silty. I could understand why oak here would take 3 years <Paging The Savage> to come to satisfactory MC% to burn. The shade around here is fantastic but in the summer it can pour more here in a day than Washington gets all summer. The relative humidy rarely goes below 60% in the summer and today where I am at, its 57%, just comfortable. Other days I feel your pain those of you who deal with the humidity so high, it makes you wanna jump back in the shower again! Either way its been a nice vacation and while I didn't have a fire here, there is a place for it and saw bundles of oak kiln dried for 5-7 bucks and decently sized too.
Good that you get to visit in the different area and Iowa can be a lot different from Washington for sure. You're not in the heavily forested areas yet there but not far from it. We don't have any bur oak here but there is some not too far from us. Yes, that is in the white oak family. And yes, 3 years makes oak great.
This cottage is one of the last remaining originals on this lake, Ive spotted only a few while fishing. Everyone else has a high falutin' house with what seems like 800 bedrooms and every bathroom with a bidet now. There's no tv. Just card games and boating and fishing. Bringing your cell phone is the highest technology this cottage will see.... we did have wifi put in the house just recently so this is sufficient enough for the dozens that come to stay.
Looks like a bur oak leaf to me, definitely in the white oak family. If you check the acorns they would have a large cup that goes over the nut part hence the alternate name of overcup oak. Quercus macrocarpa - Plant Finder
