the garden-roof coop: The fall of a Giant...

Friday, February 18, 2011

The fall of a Giant...

The recent snowstorm that affected much of Midwest America has brought the local electric company out in full force... Sure, I hate loosing power because of a fallen limb, but it's difficult to watch the pruning my trees. I have a large-giant-pine tree that a previous owner regretfully planted in the path of the power lines probably 30 years ago. It has stood tall and proud even as it endured limbs routinely removed as it continued to grow into the lines. This year we had no choice-it had to go. It's hard to watch a tree that took 30 years to reach it's height fall within a few minutes and the void that it has left in my yard is heartbreaking...

I guess this post is a tribute to giants, and my love of trees...

We took a trip to San Fransisco three years ago and decided to take a two day detour to the Sequoia National Forest.. to view the largest trees on earth. When you enter the park, the world becomes surreal, almost magical. I felt as if I was in another land, something that C.S Lewis might have created for a scene in Narnia...

The trees are so incomprehensibly huge, it's hard to take a photo that accurately captures their size. The Giant Sequoias have the largest volume of mass of any tree on earth.. The General Sherman tree, which is roughly 2200 years old, has the record of being the biggest tree on the planet with the following measurements: trunk circumference-103 feet, base diameter-40 feet, weight-1385 tons! Think of the dimensions of the room that you're in right now and try to wrap your mind around a tree 40 feet wide...