If A Tree Falls in the Forest and Nobody Hears It...

We built our house two years ago. Two years... hardly seems possible. We built it on the edge of an 80-some acre field surrounded by timber and a creek running behind the house. In the summer time when all the leaves are out you can't even see our house from the road. You see the mailbox, and the drive, and you have to follow the drive to see the house. Either that, or you go to the road that runs the next mile over and look at it through binoculars.

In the winter, it's a different story. The trees get bare and you can see the back of our house from the road. I've planted some evergreen trees along the road that will block the view of our house in the winter time... in about thirty years.

This winter and spring have been hard ones on our timber. We've had several storms come through with 50-60 mph winds. What once looked like a very full and vibrant timber is suddenly looking like, well, crap. Trees are down willy-nilly. We think most of them are elm trees that were already dead from disease... we'll know when the rest of them leaf out and we see where the gaps are. We have no shortage of firewood!

Spring is here and the buds are coming. The 70 or so bulbs I planted last fall are starting to come up. The grass is greening. The male goldfinch have come back with their bright yellow plumage. I even saw the one remaining chipmunk the other day. I only hope that the timber will be as lovely as ever when it gets it's summer "coat" on.