The highly anticipated project involving a stand of Douglas firs on the north and east sides of our lot is finally under way. Daughter Erica and I hung tags on the first six of the bunch yesterday. I hope to tag a few more today. Once I have the tagging chore taken care of I will start documenting various aspects of their day-to-day existence.
The tagging itself is as challenging as I thought it was going to be. Only a few of the trunks are easily accessible from a wheelchair, which means I will have to involve others. That’s not always easy given personal schedules; but several friends and family members have offered to help when they can. I should be able to make progress, although it’s hard to know right now what that will look like. It’s fair to say I’m mostly making this up while it’s going along.
For context #5 (L) and #6 and the underbrush and general lay of the land between me and the trees.
Part of the problem is that I’m not at all sure exactly what I’m after, if anything. Cataloging is the best single-word description I’ve been able to come up with, when I’ve tried to explain it to others, and that seems as useful a term as anything else. But really, in a way I’m just trying to “hang” a little more tightly and closely with these magnificent “beings.”
One of the more accessible trees in the section completed today.
Trees are amazing and wonderful things, no matter how you approach the subject, and worthy of as much respect and interest you can give them. We’ve handled them brutally for much of our wretched, resource-driven existence – much in the same brutal and careless manner with which we’ve handled every other “thing” on Earth I might add. That’s why we ought to try thinking in terms of verbs rather than nouns…it’s refreshing to stop and reconsider the possibilities.
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Note: When I first composed the last line of the third paragraph above I used the word ‘creatures.’ Only later did I decide to use the word ‘creations’ instead. I’m ok with either term, but in actual fact a third term seems more accurate for the particular context I have in mind. Hence the final word-choice ‘beings.’ But I’m still thinking it over….