STUMPS V

That's right sports fans, the ole fat boy spent seven hours yesterday (no break) wrasslin' them damnable stumps again. (In case you are keeping score, they have been mortally kicking my butt)

I got to thinkin' yesterday bout God's eternal everlasting Plan, evolution versus divine creation, and the price of gasoline (ignore that last comment, although I really was cogitating on that).

The trees my stumps supported were ancient survivors.

Cedars (or junipers, if you will) are generally a large obnoxious "bush". They are seldom more than 15 foot high and the limbs grow ever which way from the ground out. The "ancients" actually become trees and will grow to 40 foot tall and have a base that will have a three foot circumference (hence my ongoing "stump" saga).

The bane of the cedars for central Texas is that even the small bush variety is purported to consume up to 40 gallons per day of ground water (with no redeeming value)(kinda like the TSRH blog?). Other than fence posts, the cedar just really has no aesthetic or commercial value. Hence, the "bane" categorization and the war constantly fought by ranchers to eliminate (cut down) the varmits!

Now go back about 5-6 years and you will find that the good Dr. Moore (former owner of my beloved ranch) had most of the "ancients" cut down to "improve" the property.

Now go back 4 years ago and Wright City Willie buys the place and gives it the heartfelt moniker of "Tin Star Ranch". I didn't name it Cedar Stump Ranch, not Destroy Your Tractor/Shredder Ranch, not anything having to do with ugly stumps sticking up about every three feet.

How many stumps were there? Not sure. I bought three hundred flags on little stiff wires to put in the ground and mark the villains. Used all the flags. Some places I put one flag in the middle of 5-10 stumps rather than have to buy more flags.

Let's just say that that after remediation, there were MORE THAN 300 big stumps sitting on top of the ground beside a rather large hole in the ground.

Were all the tractor shredder land mines now rendered powerless, NO! I am still finding them lurking about in innocuous places (BUT I SHALL PREVAIL, THE POWER OF MACHINERY WILL OVERPOWER THE............)

You know what, here is where I started cogitating about the Lord's plan.

Our Lord and Savior designed those "ancient" cedars in such a way that they would survive the decades/centuries in order to grow tall and majestic in their own way. He grew their roots in a manner that clung to the earth and rocks and withstood wind, rain, tornado, whatever weather had to offer.

Now who the hell was puny "I" to remove all evidence of their passing as I piled and burned the stumps and filled the remaining holes with top soil?

Then I saw the answer of everlasting life.

Surrounding each area where I had removed a stump there were dozens of small cedar seedlings springing to life and reaching to the sky.

I don't know if I will ever win the "stump wars", but I do know that long after I am mere earthly fertilizer, there will be cedars on my beloved ranch that will be the future generation of STUMPS.