You would think maybe I could show a little of our part of the world here wouldn't ya? Well, I guess I can, since I do have a few photos uploaded and stored on the proper sites for such doins! Henceforth and (hopefully) from now on, I'll try to add at least one picture, either from the past, present, or 'way back yonder.' Just a warning/reminder, (chose the word that fits here and read it into the sentence) if I may. I am NOT a professional photographer, nor am I a professional writer. Therefore you will see some rather 'shapshot' like pictures. Then there are the 'oops', or surprise shots that came along recently. The reason for the better quality, is, naturally, a better quality of camera. One designed for the unstable hand of this Old Owl! Enough of this. As to the writings, you get what I have on my mind at the time I write it. My opinions, my thoughts ..... Enough said about that.
This evening I'm taking advantage of an extended morning's sleep (another note here: we sleep way late each morning, usually until noon!) to do a little extra Blogging (I call it Blathering) here and on our Cat Blog called Buddy Bear's Cats' World. Today's Cat blather having been posted, here's my offering for my blather here.
I, being a country bird, have little in the way of citified entertainment. It's all country born and bred. Sometimes it makes sense to those living in in a Metropolis type environment, sometimes not. I'll try to make it understandable for one and all. I said "I'll TRY!"
Spring moving in causes those things called trees, bushes, shrubs and other assorted pretties Mother Nature has in her loverly Earth wide garden, to sprout leaves, flowers, to grow taller, to spread out the limbs, and generally take more and more space around themselves. Annual trimming/pruning of the aforementioned growth is a once a year job the local power (hydro) company takes very seriously.
Today just happened to be the day the tree cutters showed up with the fancy monster truck with attached long arm saw and the cargo truck pulling the very noisy 'chipper' that grinds full sized trees into very small chunks and spits them out into the cargo truck. I think you get the message here.
A little history here: Roughly 20 years ago, M'Lady Lisa, the cats and I bought and moved onto the acre here, located in NE Mississippi, into our own little home we call Five Oaks Manor. The full name given is Five Oaks Manor, SouthWoodsUSA. It's not on the map that way, but we will discuss that later. As I started to say, when we moved in the acre was sporting 5 Oak trees along the front of the acre along the edge of the country road. (there is where the name 5 Oaks came from. Original, Huh?) The rest of the acre had two large pines, and one hardwood shade tree (breed and type still unknown). Summers were quite hot in the beginning without shade.
Having plans to retire here, hang my hammock in the back yard under the maple and white ash trees, I had one problem from the start. NO maple or ash there. So I lucked out, caught the local Agriculture Dept. the day they were to throw out the left over tree seedlings they offer each year to landowners in the district. I offered to remove the remaining bales of pine and white ash they had in stock. The trunk of my old Lincoln Continental (since deceased) was swiftly and fully loaded, and I went tooling merrily on my way to work. Break time saw the parking lot full of friends and fellow workers splitting up the bales I had purloined.
I came home with enough pine seedlings to do a double row of 'wind breakers' on the east and the west side of the acre. I chose my double hand full of white ash to be planted over the rest of the acre and called the neighbors. Over 1000 pine seedlings were picked up, and most were planted down the north side of the road going west from my house. I've been told 'my trees are all over the SouthWoods area. Makes me feel good. At least we did what the majority of the folk moving out here do NOT do. We planted. Most city folk moving out will raze the property to the ground, then build dwelling and utility sheds and call it finished. I was always taught to, when at all possible, to replace the trees that are cut. I guess we did.
Now my own private little forest is growing nicely, I'm now wondering what I'm going to do now that I'm almost to the point of not being able to rake those leaves and needles up so the weeds and such can be cut regularly! Well, this is the country. I don't have the City Mothers and the Home Owner's Association down on me to 'cut and clean and heed the rules.' My acre in the woods. My woods. Go get your own.
What am I blathering about? What am I leading up to? Read on. The background has been laid. We carry on.
Simply put, when I planted my trees there were no overhead power lines running out into the wilderness overhead. I came home from work one day a couple months after the plantings to find a power pole and a mobile home parked on the quarter acre next door. The lines ran at an angle across the pines on the east side of the acre. I didn't think much of it, just wondering what we were in for what with the trailer home crowded between the to properties. Well, the trouble we ran into before the trailer was abandoned years later is fodder for another day.
Today, the crew came to cut my trees. This would be the second year they did this, merely topping them off and leaving the stunted and rather odd looking. And then there was the next year to think of and the next year and the next ..... what with prices on everything rising down here like the water behind the damn with all the drains closed, the thought is WHY trim every year when they should by all right be taken down to the ground. I broached the subject to the 'boss' and the deed was did.
My heart hurt to see my 'babies' being felled and ground into ground cover before my very eyes. Whatever. It had to be done. Still, I planted, I nursed, I watered, I staked and painstakingly pampered those trees, dodging carefully when mowing the lawn, careful not to score the bark around the tree when I did the weeds and grass the mower would not get to so the tree would not die. I lost 4 in roughly 20 years.
Then they come and drop half the row.
I know, I know, they have the right. The people need their power and it is against the law to refuse access to my property for the running of power lines. Still .....
I'm not one to raise hell about something like this, but .....
And that was my day! What did you do today?
Oh, before I quit, here's something to let you know I DO live 'out there in the sticks', and honestly, love the hell out of it. We even have hardtop roads. Just imagine!
Five Oaks Manor, SouthWoodsUSA,
home of the 6 Mouskateers,
their Small One, Lisa
and their Big One, Roy, Sr
Having problems with the storage site, 'the Bucket' tonight, so I pulled this one from the front page of our private web site on the WWW. Next episode we'll take a look at before and after the Owl (me) and the Ladybug (Lisa) took proud possession of our acre in the SouthWoods of NE Mississippi, USA.
Y'all come back again. We're just getting started on this tale.I'm gone .....
Later .....
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Must have been really hard to watch those trees being cut down that u planted and nurtured all those years. Only time I planted trees was when volunteering for a local garden and at college when I studied horticulture many years ago. It's great to see something grow that you've planted yourself. I get excited in seeing things as simple as daffodils open flower, that I've planted.
ReplyDeleteMany people, today, have no thought to the beauty, and usefulness of the trees and too, the flowers we see around us. Most are thinking only of personal possessions, comfort, and the accumulation of both. What ever gets in the way of their 'progress' goes by way of the trash, one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteAh, I could go on and on .... but not here and not now. More later.
Thanks Ellie, for stopping by and making the first comment to my newly revived Blather Blog. I've been lax with the postings, spending more time on new happenings in RL (real life), most of which are not all that important, but actually just plain FUN. It's Spring, and it's time to see the 'new' Mother Nature has designed and put into place for us.
Y'all come when you can. Give your friends the link to the place here.
Everyone remember, you can comment, answer, add to, and generally carry on a conversation with me, and others, right here in the comment section.
So TALK to me!