We said goodbye and Thank You to an old tree friend today.
It was saved in the construction of our home 30 years ago. The contractor wanted to axe it. Instead, we carefully hand sawed only the trees that would be in the way of the actual foundation footprint of our home, one-by-one.
This large and majestic hickory was at the corner, 12 feet from our house. We left it to be and all the construction crews worked around that large majestic tree.
For many years that tree served our family. It protected our home with shade in summer, and caught limbs from other trees in storms helping to keep them from hitting the house. It fed many squirrels and families of squirrels and their heirs for many years and provided perch and nesting for birds as well.
After 30 years or so, that great old friend was ailing, with half its body paralyzed (dead), and with the risk of it falling onto our house. It was in a dangerous place for arborists to manage, so it ended up needing an expensive rig that remotely operates a saw-and-claw to gradually cut the tree down without peril to human life and limb.
So we hired a special tree crew and they did a fantastic job.
An old friend — a hickory tree — was laid to rest today.
It has served us (and the squirrels and birds) for many years.
The smaller limbs were sent into their wood chipper which funneled wood chips directly into our garden area for use there.
The trunk sections have been laid to the side for Coleman and Nikolai to saw down and split for firewood.
We have a water stove that burns wood to heat the house and hot water that we use as an alternate system to gas heat.
We said goodbye to an old friend today, and thanked it for continuing to serve beyond its life. May we all be so fortunate.
GOOD TIMBER
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
PROMPT IDEAS:
Create whatever comes to mind in your preferred medium.
E.g. You might write a poem or essay, or an illustration around a tree/s, about gaining strength through adversity and/or whatever else comes to mind for you.
“Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.”
Transformation through creation.
☀️🌙 ⭐️
~ LeAura
The day is the way.
❤️🙏🏻🌹
