Trees, and How I Love Them
Apr. 28th, 2009 01:00 amIn my last post, I mentioned a giant log I've been holding for Fox, so he can use it for his woodworking projects. To an outside observer, it looks like something Fox is burdening me with, and I don't think anyone really understands why I'm doing it. Even Thrash, who graciously helped me move it to a better spot, didn't seem to understand why I cared. So, this is a Learn Something About Natasha post :-)
In case it's not painfully obvious, I love trees. I proudly call myself a tree-hugger, and it very aptly describes how I feel about these wonderful creatures. I don't think I need to tell anyone who's been to elementary school why trees are so wonderful, but not many people took that information to heart quite as strongly as I did; I spent a solid day crying after reading The Lorax.
Fast-forward to now, where I've had to become a bit de-sensitized to the slaughtering of forests to keep from getting wrapped up in unwinnable battles against development. It still brings a tear to my eye to see local wooded lots clear-cut to make way for generic townhouses (one area in particular really bothered me, they destroyed a forest I used to play in), but there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. Plus, I'm almost within walking distance of federally-protected wilderness that spans a dozen states, which softens the blow. Still, for me, cutting down trees is like euthanizing pets; I know it happens all the time with no real impact on the overall population, and there's nothing I can do about it on a large scale, but it's still really upsetting to think about. Especially when I see direct evidence of it; a dense development where I used to see a forest, the lumber section of a hardware store, and so forth.
Anyway, when Fox was still living here, he started a project to harvest trees cut down by developers, and use them for his woodworking projects (furniture, lathe-turned creations, etc). I was a little uncomfortable with the idea at first, but I came around eventually, since using the dead carcasses for something productive is less disturbing than what would actually happen to them; getting ground up into mulch, or chopped for firewood by the crews that slaughtered them. So, ok, this is a good thing, just as long as I don't have to spend too much time around development sites littered with stumps.
Unfortunately, Fox moved before he could mill most of what he collected. To make a long story short, he's only been able to retrieve a few pieces at a time, and most of what's left is too damaged to be usable. However, there's one piece in particular that is simultaneously the most useful and the most difficult to work with, the aforementioned log. It's over 8 feet long, 2 feet wide, and from a very heavy hardwood species (oak? walnut?), making it about as difficult to work with as a boulder of similar dimensions. I don't remember how exactly he acquired it, but I think it involved a tilt-bed trailer with a winch and/or a large team of fellow Domino's employees. So, it's not something that can just be put in a car and driven somewhere.
Originally, the plan was for him to bring his milling equipment (a specialized chainsaw with rails) down here and mill it in place, but he hasn't had the opportunity yet. Option 2 is to transport it to Pittsburgh, which is much easier said than done without a forklift. Our attempt to put it in Thrash's truck is well-documented in my last post, so I don't need to re-hash it here. Suffice to say, it's still here, and I'm under renewed pressure by my mom to "get rid of it".
Ahh, yes, mom. The inspiration for this post. From the start, she wasn't too keen on Fox's wood harvesting project, with no real explanation for why. Her excuses were pretty flimsy, and the only one that actually made sense, that it cluttered the lawn and made it hard to mow, was negated by the fact that she never actually mows her own lawn. After Fox moved, she was all too eager to tell all her redneck coworkers' husbands that they could get truckloads of free firewood in our yard, but I refused to let her. I tried a variety of tactics, including explaining my true feelings on the matter (she said I was weird and didn't take me seriously at all), but we've been unable to see eye-to-eye on it. So, since our failed efforts to move the log this weekend called attention to it, chopping it up has been all I've heard about this week, along with her twisting my words to find some excuse to write it off as worthless litter. I'm running out of ways to tell her that this is important to me.
And, that's about all I have to say in this post. I'm a little concerned about the fate of the log, because I wouldn't put it past mom to go behind my back to have an acquaintance destroy it while I'm not around, then feign ignorance about it. But mostly, I just wanted to articulate my feelings on the matter. Despite the amount of art I've gotten of my character in scenes that make Smokey the Bear look like a logging-industry lobbyist, I don't think anyone really knew just how strongly I felt about forest preservation. So, now you know; I'm a freak who'd tear down a building to plant trees sooner than even thinking about harming a single live tree. And the giant log that everyone seems to think is some inconsiderate burden on me is, in my mind, a puppy rescued from the euthenasia table, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep it from suffering the cruel, wasteful fate of its brethren.
In case it's not painfully obvious, I love trees. I proudly call myself a tree-hugger, and it very aptly describes how I feel about these wonderful creatures. I don't think I need to tell anyone who's been to elementary school why trees are so wonderful, but not many people took that information to heart quite as strongly as I did; I spent a solid day crying after reading The Lorax.
Fast-forward to now, where I've had to become a bit de-sensitized to the slaughtering of forests to keep from getting wrapped up in unwinnable battles against development. It still brings a tear to my eye to see local wooded lots clear-cut to make way for generic townhouses (one area in particular really bothered me, they destroyed a forest I used to play in), but there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. Plus, I'm almost within walking distance of federally-protected wilderness that spans a dozen states, which softens the blow. Still, for me, cutting down trees is like euthanizing pets; I know it happens all the time with no real impact on the overall population, and there's nothing I can do about it on a large scale, but it's still really upsetting to think about. Especially when I see direct evidence of it; a dense development where I used to see a forest, the lumber section of a hardware store, and so forth.
Anyway, when Fox was still living here, he started a project to harvest trees cut down by developers, and use them for his woodworking projects (furniture, lathe-turned creations, etc). I was a little uncomfortable with the idea at first, but I came around eventually, since using the dead carcasses for something productive is less disturbing than what would actually happen to them; getting ground up into mulch, or chopped for firewood by the crews that slaughtered them. So, ok, this is a good thing, just as long as I don't have to spend too much time around development sites littered with stumps.
Unfortunately, Fox moved before he could mill most of what he collected. To make a long story short, he's only been able to retrieve a few pieces at a time, and most of what's left is too damaged to be usable. However, there's one piece in particular that is simultaneously the most useful and the most difficult to work with, the aforementioned log. It's over 8 feet long, 2 feet wide, and from a very heavy hardwood species (oak? walnut?), making it about as difficult to work with as a boulder of similar dimensions. I don't remember how exactly he acquired it, but I think it involved a tilt-bed trailer with a winch and/or a large team of fellow Domino's employees. So, it's not something that can just be put in a car and driven somewhere.
Originally, the plan was for him to bring his milling equipment (a specialized chainsaw with rails) down here and mill it in place, but he hasn't had the opportunity yet. Option 2 is to transport it to Pittsburgh, which is much easier said than done without a forklift. Our attempt to put it in Thrash's truck is well-documented in my last post, so I don't need to re-hash it here. Suffice to say, it's still here, and I'm under renewed pressure by my mom to "get rid of it".
Ahh, yes, mom. The inspiration for this post. From the start, she wasn't too keen on Fox's wood harvesting project, with no real explanation for why. Her excuses were pretty flimsy, and the only one that actually made sense, that it cluttered the lawn and made it hard to mow, was negated by the fact that she never actually mows her own lawn. After Fox moved, she was all too eager to tell all her redneck coworkers' husbands that they could get truckloads of free firewood in our yard, but I refused to let her. I tried a variety of tactics, including explaining my true feelings on the matter (she said I was weird and didn't take me seriously at all), but we've been unable to see eye-to-eye on it. So, since our failed efforts to move the log this weekend called attention to it, chopping it up has been all I've heard about this week, along with her twisting my words to find some excuse to write it off as worthless litter. I'm running out of ways to tell her that this is important to me.
And, that's about all I have to say in this post. I'm a little concerned about the fate of the log, because I wouldn't put it past mom to go behind my back to have an acquaintance destroy it while I'm not around, then feign ignorance about it. But mostly, I just wanted to articulate my feelings on the matter. Despite the amount of art I've gotten of my character in scenes that make Smokey the Bear look like a logging-industry lobbyist, I don't think anyone really knew just how strongly I felt about forest preservation. So, now you know; I'm a freak who'd tear down a building to plant trees sooner than even thinking about harming a single live tree. And the giant log that everyone seems to think is some inconsiderate burden on me is, in my mind, a puppy rescued from the euthenasia table, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep it from suffering the cruel, wasteful fate of its brethren.