Cutting Down Alder Trees

Last weekend I helped cut down about six Alder trees. It's the most Alder tree cutting I've done since I was a teenager. This photo is proof that I am still able to stand up straight afterwards... ...and it's a nice three-generation photo.

Competition For Maria Parker

Here is evidence that a mermaid can ride a front wheel drive recumbent bicycle. All persons in attendance agreed that she looked a lot like Maria Parker. Maria, by the way, set another course record yesterday at Bessie's Creek, going 457.7 miles in 24 hours. I can hardly wait to see what this mermaid can do when she gets shoes for the clipless pedals.

Home Made Bow and Arrows

The bow in this photo was originally a reject during some experimental bow making that happened a few years ago. I found it in my wood scrap heap the other day and added some nylon twine to make a fairly decent archery bow. We needed arrows so we cut some Maple branches and whittled them down. We added some wing feathers that we found in the yard and they turned out to be fairly decent arrows.

Here's proof that even the Wee One can handle the bow and arrow. She struggled at first but eventually was able to shoot the arrow about thirty yards and make it stick into the ground.

Maple Tree Flowers

Did you ever notice the flowers in a Bigleaf Maple tree? They're green so they don't really look like flowers. They hang like a cluster of grapes. The actual flowers are about the size of blueberries but they're green. In this photo you can see how big they are relative to the size of my hand.

In this close-up photo you can see some of the detail of the flower. It has pistils protruding and a fuzzy grey ball inside the outer green shell.

Here you can see the whole cluster and how it hangs from the branch. This specimen is a little leggy since it is growing under the shade of a large Douglas Fir tree. Later, in the Summer and Fall, these flowers will turn into those winged seeds that fly like helicopters. As a child I would spend hours climbing in Maple trees and picking those seeds to watch them fly down.