The Leaving Trees

The Leaving Trees

What do trees have to do with The Process of Family? After all, Family infers an inherent Human subject matter or at least topic. The innate conceit of Homo Centricus, I suppose. Nothing wrong with it on the surface – we have been given Dominion over the Earth, right?
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Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."
Genesis 1:
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God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.
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God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth."
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God also said: "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
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and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food." And so it happened. New American Bible

So, it can be said that we are Family with all the creations of the Father, & as Heads of Household we have dominion over all others within this house. With dominion comes responsibility & stewardship within our capabilities & the limitations of society.

The grounds of WolfLodge are changing. In the last year I have felled 8-10 large pines & 3 big oaks. The pines were no big surprise, as the advance of the nasty red pine borer beetle has followed my little farm road for a number of years. The Lost Pines are indeed becoming more lost, if that is possible. Just last weekend we were startled to find a large limb broken off a 50-foot tall oak just a few feet from the house. Now, pines lay down & oaks shed limbs as a natural matter of course, but large areas or formerly dense canopy are opening to the sun & becoming more habitat for yaupons & vines. Lingering (& critically necessary) burn bans allow infested wood to remain on site, ensuring retrenchment.

The culprit? Exceptional drought, widespread & unrelenting. Our area just experienced the 3rd-driest October-June since 1856. Now, when shooting hoops with The Knucklehead in the evenings is an exercise in staring & squinting into the setting summer sun. 18 days in June with triple-digit temperatures included 10 in a row.

Our sandy ground does not hold moisture when it comes so rarely. The junipers seem to be holding their own so far, with a light crop of berries this year. Grapes ripened 30-40’ up in the oaks, so no pickable crop this year unless we learn to levitate…

I grew up in the forests of the Alleghenies, spending ignorant days in the cool mossiness among the mayapples. Oases in a desert of environmental devastations, these were my sanctuaries. Then all those forests were gone (again), given over to mining after the shafts beneath became unusable. Decades-long mine shaft fires kept snow accumulation down across the lane from my childhood home: at least they are out now, extinguished by massive strip mining operations.

So, what should/can we do? Watering slow & deep around must-stay trees, taking extreme care not to damage emerging seedlings & saplings, & locating the accoutrements of modern life in harmony (so to speak) with nature’s layout. My old friend Wanbli Tante only plants his veggies in naturally-open ground. My CaveWife Laura gives watery love to my massive & beloved Beautyberry (Callicarpa Americana) whenever she waters her raised-bed garden.

The trees are leaving WolfLodge & her neighbors: a new construction home on our North edge removed nearly an acre of cover, which further stressed our forest (and, I might add, our North roof as predicted by our home inspector.) by increasing wind loads. What will replace the 45+ year-old pines? Thicket? Brambles? Even with our sand, cacti are rare & venerated. I assume it is due to the acidic soil which favors the pines so well.

Many folks coming to our yard sales remarked that they were unaware of the existence of our house: not such a secret anymore.

All the living things which move through our tiny forest are Family. Raccoons, possums, deer (rare now), foxes (even rarer), woodpeckers, huge Bluejays & cardinals, monstrously large & revered ravens, red-tailed hawks (which torment my poor 20-year old cockatiel Bandit), even the lizards that occasionally stroll in.

So this fuzzy old romantic mourns the Leaving of the Trees as he felt the Vanishing of the Bees...