"MIGHTY OAKS"…..RED IN AUTUMN!

Courtesy W.L.M.

WITH THOSE MARVELOUS GNARLED ROOTS!
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For my new retirement ranch house...
    "with acreage..."
Some botanists say I have the choice of any 
    one of ten thousand species of trees...
Others say there are a hundred thousand
    in the world....

They won't be the only trees I have, but my
    place will be covered with OAKS...
Scarlet oaks, white oaks, Northern Red oaks,,
    American Oaks, black oaks...
In a hundred-fifty years, they'll be something
    to see!

(Planning and creating the trees of the world
    was a mammoth task within itself---
Did the Creator have an angel planning
    committee to help?)

But first of all, on my new place...say ten acres---
    I'd have some fruit trees:
A crabapple for jelly,
An apricot for preserves...
An apple tree for apple pies, caramel apples, 
    and gifts for the little kids...
An orange tree for my own juice;

An avocado tree for plenty of "guacamole" dip,
A peach tree, one of the most important, for
    peach ice cream for church picnics...
A cherry tree for cherry jam...

And a GRAPE ARBOR, not only for jelly, jam,
    and juice...but a fragrant place to sit
in the shade and read and write and doze---
    those hot August afternoons, and watch 
the wrens, sparrows, and chickadees cavort.

Also, for shade, and variety---
    Mulberries spread out and grow big
and are nice for picnics...
    Cottonwoods would go good if I
have a creek....and they are golden
    in autumn;
Willows weep, and are shiny and 
    shimmery....

By the windmill, I'll have a chestnut, maple,
    and an American larch,
Also maybe an ash for pick handles, later;
    and no home place is complete
without a good old hickory tree!

Over the pigsty there definitely will be
    an American Hophorn Bean spreading
it's shade over my pigs...making their
   brief lives pleasant.

My son has one hundred forty-six trees
    on his place...
A friend has over a hundred...
    theirs are all kinds...

I will fill in the spaciousness of my new
    place, with dozens, maybe hundreds
of little oaks...someday, after a hundred
    years to become "mighty oaks,"
with big gnarled roots and trunks, denoting
    strength, which reaches down to 
deep foundations, and secret sources of 
    water...

Who knows, OAKS maybe the favorite trees of
    the Creator... and autumn,
already my favorite season, will become
    even moreso with my home
surrounded by mighty RED OAK TREES!

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BY MIL
10/20/14