Category: Nature

My thoughts on nature and how we interact with it.

Our Home In The Woods

TAG NatureI have lived in my home in the woods for 50 years! People told me I shouldn’t buy that house  because it was a scary place to live with all those big trees, but I loved it and love it still. I prayed that God would protect me and my children and he has. I was a single mother when I bought it and after I remarried we raised four children here. Most of them have returned to live here during their troubled times. My husband has died and I still live on in my home in the woods. I don’t live here alone though, my son lives with me.

About 20 years ago our world, at least in my mind, changed. No longer did we just have abortion, we now used it as a form of birth control and even used the little baby’s torn body in our face cream! Men began to lust more and more after men and woman lusted after woman. Our schools changed too. There was no more Christmas and our history books took out a lot of our history. I still lived in my home in the woods.

When our city decided to extend 87th avenue, I was in favor because even though they had to take out a bunch of trees, it would give people living north of our city greater access to our hospital, but I wasn’t prepared for street number 15. I guess the city thought that the new 87th avenue gave them the right to take out more trees and build a completely new housing area in the woods, only they took out the woods. They put in more streets and over a hundred homes! It didn’t effect us much because the trees were still there to the east of us. It wasn’t as quiet as before and we could see a little bit of one house.

We felt comforted as they couldn’t go any further into the woods. There was a deep ravine running north and south which they couldn’t penetrate. Well, two weeks ago they penetrated! They built a bridge over the ravine and yesterday our woods disappeared! We felt the earth shake as one by one the big, over 150 feet tall,fir trees fell to  the ground. It was a sad day. They told my son that they will still cut eight trees and the builders will first build one house. Oh we still have woods to the west of us. but it isn’t the same. It won’t be long until our area north of us will have hundreds of homes and no trees!

My son says, “Won’t it be great when we will have a view of Mt. St. Helens?” but our home in the woods is on a hill. I”m sure that all we will see is rooftops. I thought we were to keep all these old trees. They have disappeared along with the deer, raccoons and coyotes as these have disappeared more and more as the city has infringed on their property.

I suppose I too will disappear but I hope I can still live here in my home in the woods while the remaining woods remains. I pray that no more trees will be cut while I live. God is good!

My Pond

I am building a pond in my back yard. You might be thinking, “Why in the world is she building a pond, she’s in her 80s! After hauling rocks up a hill I’m beginning to wonder that myself. but let me tell you a story:

My husband and I worked long and hard at building a pond with a deck around it down a hill and in the forest at the lower portion of our property. It was completely secluded and became the place where we could talk things over. It was nice, bringing our coffee down there. We would not talk for a while, just sat listening to our hand made waterfall as the water tripped over the stones and the birds singing in the forest. Then we would talk over the things we needed to do and the things we were thinking about. I have many happy memories of those days. He died in 2008 and the pond area became precious to me almost like an altar.

I loved to go down there and sit in my lawn swing and pretend I was talking to my husband. I talked to God too and I sang both hymns and popular in the 40’s songs. One time I said out loud, “Boy I wish my sister could come and harmonize with me. I began singing “Love’s Old Sweet Song” and a voice behind me sang the harmony! I can’t tell you who was singing because there is no way a person could come up behind me but I can tell you someone was singing with me! My sister died over 44 years ago, but the voice sounded like hers! I finished the song with tear in my eyes.

Perhaps I was praying when I wished for my sister to come and harmonize with me and an angel came.  At least that is what I think. Anyhow the planks on the deck have rotted. My son went through one of them and hurt his back. It is difficult for me to walk down the hill too and the kids don’t want me to walk down there alone. That is just what I want to do. Anyhow, the days I spent down at the pond area are over.

That’s why I am building a pond close to our house. I hope to have some of the same feelings there. Aren’t we funny sometimes though? We try to bring back some things that we can never bring back. We should always enjoy what we have today and plan ahead what we want to do. I am doing that too. I will leave next week to go to Rio Rancho, New Mexico to see my first Great Grandchild and to visit with my son, Jim, and his family. So, there will be no blog next week. I hope to have the pond finished before I go.