Samhain New Thanksgiving Moon
Took down the nicest lodgepole we have on our property, about 40 feet tall and healthy. It hit the driveway with such a thump that Kate thought I’d hit the house. When she came out and saw it, Kate said, “Mother earth is crying now.”
Over the last week I’d begun to have mild guilt feelings about cutting down trees. The ones that were deformed or diseased I had no problem felling since the act was similar to weeding in a garden, or more accurately, thinning. And, the rationale for most is fire mitigation, something necessary because of where we choose to live. The other rationale, the one that led to cutting down the 40 feet lodgepole, is the solar installation.
40 feet high means casting a long shadow and it hits the panels, taking each one it touches out of commission for as long as it covers any part of a panel. So, it was a tradeoff. A fine tree for solar generation of electricity. Not everything you do for what you believe in will feel good. And this one didn’t feel good.
Cutting it down, limbing it, stacking the branches and the top, then moving the large logs I cut the lodgepole into took almost an hour. I got one more tree down and hung a third. It’s still up because I had to take my chainsaw to Chainsaw Bob’s. More on Chainsaw Bob and his unusual business model in the next post.
