As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
TL and I today were digging in Faith, as I had noticed in a road ditch from my youth, what has now become a rare tree in a green willow in this area. I remember these trees growing in sloughs, all gnarled and huge. They seemed eternal like a Holy Land olive tree, but without the right buffalo tearing up the ground with flood and drought cycles, these trees do not seem to reseed rapidly like cottonwoods do.
In this area our soil is like concrete. It is a massive undertaking to dig a hole or a tree out, so I was prepared for a complete work day in sixty minutes as trees do not just pop out of the ground. That changed though when I sank my tile spade in as one push sent it to the hilt. The entire spading around the tree was like I hit China in every thrust.
I had never dug out a green willow before, so when I did not hit roots on the side, I figured it for a deep tap root, but the tree cut off and we had it out of the ground and into the plastic pot about as fast as I am typing this.
It is now sitting in the plastic planter in a big plastic laundry container with water in it and looks right pleased with itself, along with a black walnut I found growing in back of the house here, which has been cut off what looks like three years straight, but that one is droopy as black walnuts have a deep tap root.
This spring TL and I started planning for our place. We have been praying a long time for it, but nothing ever went forward with God, but I just was moved to start digging up some aspens as the parent tree had died, and I just like aspen trees.....so do beaver.
That is where all of this is going in I am digging in Faith in TL found a too large Hackberry about 6 weeks ago and we dug to China for it, and it came out like trying to pull an elephant tusk out as that was alot of work.
The leaves basically all burned off, but TL kept watering that six foot tall stick and I noticed today that it was starting to sprout new leaves and branches out of the limbs. Hackberry are from Kansas, a real cactus tree, as they will take punishment which will kill most trees. I like them as their leaves look like velvet and they are kind of exotic looking. It was dug up for a shade tree on our home. The aspens were dug for our pond. The willow is going to be planted by a slough so I can enjoy original vista as I like the luxurious leaves they have and of course, the Honeygold apple we did purchase is going to be in our orchard. They are all trees of Faith as I type this without a grave plot to my name.
I have done this previously in the metro in digging, planting, pulling out Cottonwood, Oak and sprouting a myriad of apple seeds, which all were pretty trees, as they are all dead, as the big donation did not appear. It is a matter of Faith I did these things in Hope, and while they are dead, it was still a matter of Faith as God is not dead and I never know when He will be merciful to me. So I keep with God and in this year I was moved to start potting up trees for a home with land which I trust the Lord will provide, as with God all things are possible, as the dead trees before was not the right time apparently in God's Time.
Everyone likes to hear the stories of great miracles, but there are far more stories of dead trees and shattered dreams. A Christian can no stop though as it is always a matter of things can not happen 10,000 times, but it only requires 1 time for a dream to come true.
One of my favorite early childhood memories is being in a pick up with whoever and they were checking cattle for calves in that grey March weather which is dead as the grave, and the two big willows in the slough north of where we lived, in stopping and being shown that a duck hen was nesting in the U shaped cavity of that tree. I have had a fondness for those trees ever since, and when the cattle tromped on the roots too much as that slough was a feedlot and the trees died, I did not forget, and when I planted corn in that bottom and noticed that eight willows had sprouted from seed long after the parent trees were dead, I saved them, and now in that slough there are three willows. One looks gnarled, one is not so gnarled and one is a huge upright tree which willows do not ever look like, but I adore those trees and marvel how old the originals really were, because these trees are small compared to the massive specimens I still find driving around.
I dig in Faith, as to dig otherwise has absolutely no purpose. It is not the Faith of a mustard seed this time, but the faith of a willow and the future where she will be planted.
Nuff Said
agtG
