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Dec. 29th, 2011
Bear Lake property
Dec. 29th, 2011 09:59 pmLast Tuesday, Mike and I were up at Manistee and took a drive to the Bear Lake property. Mike's mom owns about 50 acres up there; Mike's dad bought it some 30 years ago and took a stab at a Christmas tree farm, but now it's gone to hardwoods.
We stomped around for about an hour -- there was maybe four inches of snow on the ground. A bald eagle flew low, checking us out. Beautiful, of course, but I gave a shiver because he would have eaten me if he could've.
We found a lovely grove of beech. The mother tree was at least 12 feet in circumference; at least 500 years old. Talking to my mother-in-law about it, she said, "Well, our lumber man said that the beeches weren't any good and that we should cut all the beech out of the woods and burn it (for firewood/woodstoves). It's a fast growing tree that will take over a woods if unmanaged -- it'll crowd out the valuable maples."
And I thought, I dunno. There is value and value.
We stomped around for about an hour -- there was maybe four inches of snow on the ground. A bald eagle flew low, checking us out. Beautiful, of course, but I gave a shiver because he would have eaten me if he could've.
We found a lovely grove of beech. The mother tree was at least 12 feet in circumference; at least 500 years old. Talking to my mother-in-law about it, she said, "Well, our lumber man said that the beeches weren't any good and that we should cut all the beech out of the woods and burn it (for firewood/woodstoves). It's a fast growing tree that will take over a woods if unmanaged -- it'll crowd out the valuable maples."
And I thought, I dunno. There is value and value.