We went up to ur property on the Mogollon Rim yesterday, for the first time since about January. The death toll, from bark beetles and drought is two large pines and three of four small ones. I hate cutting down trees. Even when they're thoroughly dead, it's like going to a funeral. And these were thoroughly dead and very dry, so they were easy to cut and jam into my pickup.
In the past we've had to cut some that were only dying (because it was inevitable -- there's no cure for bark beetles and we don't like to leave dry tinder up there between our visits. That feels like pulling life support.
Still, it was nice to get up there where the air smells like pine and there's always wind, where we can watch airplanes taking off, where the neighbors stop to talk to us and the temperature is comfortable for sitting outside. I wish we could figure out how to have careers that would allow us to live up there, that would be lucrative enough so we could build the house we want, with lots of balconies and a cupola to watch the trees blowing and the planes landing.
Posted by dichroic at June 13, 2004 07:41 PM