Kids

Control yourself.
Take only what you need from it.
A family of trees wantin',
To be haunted.
Kids, MGMT

I love this song.  It's great.  The beat is great; the lyrics are great, it makes me feel great.  And with a title like "Kids," it makes me think of the one greatest thing on earth, my kid.  Whenever we are together in the car, and I pass a place where trees have been logged, I think "control yourself, take only what you need from it.  A family of trees wanted to be haunted."  And I think how different his life will be if all of us don't start controlling ourselves.  Trees are a very important part of  his life.  I didn't plan it that way, nature did. 

The weekend before I found out that I was pregnant, I planted ten free trees from Arbor Day in our yard.  One, a silver maple, has grown faster and stronger than any other, and just by some strange stroke of luck, it is the shade tree that I planted in front of my son's play area.  It's Jack's tree. 

We plant trees frequently.  It just wouldn't be a season of planting if we didn't.  But for the past two years, we've done something a little different in the still season.  We have bought a Christmas tree from a tree farm.  I wasn't sure if this was a good practice or not.  As we can't fit one into our house that contains the root ball, we've purchased those that were grown specifically to be cut down.  But the tree does continue to live every year, and we get so much out of it beyond the Christmas season that I think it might be an okay practice. 

My husband who is so gifted and talented that it really is not fair, seriously, makes arrangements out of the small branches that fall off of the tree during transport.  He mixes pine cones that we collect from our woods into the arragement and creates something gorgeous that lasts from November until spring flower cuttings or fruit and veggies from the Daily Farmer's Market take their place.

Not only does he use any little peice of the tree that falls off; he also reuses the tree.  In the winter, we sit it out back on the patio and it serves as a landing tree for birds that fly through the yard.  Then finally when the weather breaks and the days are warmer, he and my son transport it one last time to the pond, where it becomes a habitat for the fish. 



The tree makes a new home for the fish.