Ponderosas

RSS note: Republished to remove photo

Jennifer from Penguin Unearthed did that green meme about a tree in her yard, the Port Jackson fig. It sounds like a noisy, boisterous, fecund tree and I would love to see it in person. It is not at all like a ponderosa. I was thinking about this around 4am, after I'd coughed myself awake and couldn't fall asleep again.

Ponderosa trees grow very tall and very straight. Their branches start up high, typically higher than my one-storey house*, so we humans experience them more as trunks than as trees. If you are in a neighborhood rather than a forest, they're like poles; they're background; you barely notice them.


Here's a picture of wee Sasha in our front yard, May 2006. The tree trunk you see in the background is a ponderosa.

[picture removed]

And these are baby trees.

I live pretty close to where the mill used to be, so I figure this place was logged in the 1920s, maybe 1930s, which would make the eldest ponderosas about 85 years old. Infants! You can see a more mature ponderosa forest around the Camp Sherman area, which wasn't logged in the same way. Here's Blake alongside Jack Creek in 2002:

The needles of ponderosa starts are the same size as the needles on an "adult" ponderosa, which makes the starts look ridiculous. I mean, in some cases the needles are as long as the tree itself. Young ponderosas -- those my age, for example -- have a black trunk; as they grow older, the bark turns an orange brown. When the morning sun strikes them, they look like gold.

Anyway. That's what I was thinking about at 4am this morning.

*The trees in my neighborhood have been limbed. But still. A person could never climb a ponderosa by grasping onto its lowest branch. (And now a whole lotta Bendites are going to write me with exceptions. But! You know what I mean!)

The green meme, var. 1

I'm editing this to link to a few other bloggers who wrote about trees they love. These trees have layers of meaning for them which I find fascinating.

Jennifer from Penguin Unearthed: on the Port Jackson fig which takes up her whole yard and her grandmother's pohutukawa tree, which grows on the beach in New Zealand

Sandy from Imponderabilia of Actual Life: the elm tree in her yard which died and yet continued to nourish several species, including human

Anthromama: the maple from which she made leaf crowns for the children

And then I elaborated on the ponderosa.

*

Think of the plants (trees, flowers, etc) which grow within 50 yards of your home. Which is your favorite?

Ponderosa pine tree, pinus ponderosa.

Is any portion of this plant edible in any form? Can you boil the root, eat the berries, make tea from the leaves?

I haven't ever done this, but one could eat the seeds raw. They're small, it would be a lot of work to get a handful. Also one could grind them and use them as flour.

Can you use any portion of this plant to make something that would be truly useful for you? Alternately, can you use any portion of this plant to make something just for fun, just one time?

One could make a basket from the pine needles. They teach classes on it at COCC. I personally could use such a basket for holding dirty laundry, if it were big enough. Or to hold the children's toys.

If I were willing to cut my trees down (and allowed to by law) and had them processed at a mill, I could sell the wood; or I could give the wood to a craftsman and have him make some funiture.

The pitch is awfully sticky, I'm sure I could use that for something.

Can this plant survive on the groundwater available to it, or does it need to be watered?

It can survive on its own. In fact my trees would probably do better if I stopped watering my lawn.

Do you see any other creatures -- birds or bees or squirrels -- using this plant?

Squirrels break open the pinecones and eat the seeds. The blue jays might eat the seeds, too, I'm not sure. Woodpeckers (the flicker) eat the bugs out of it. Black ants live off it.

What does this plant look like right now, during this season and at the time of day you're writing?

It's January 17 around 3pm. The tree out my study window is sick, I think, because it has a lot of dead needles and there's pitch oozing out one side. It looks the same as it does at any time of year; it's not seasonally variable, as far as I can tell.

The green meme, var. 2

Just for fun, I'm doing it again. I modified the date stamp so this would appear after var. 1.

Think of the plants (trees, flowers, etc) which grow within 50 yards of your home. Which is your favorite?

Runner up: Columbine. I love the flower.

Is any portion of this plant edible in any form? Can you boil the root, eat the berries, make tea from the leaves?

According to the internet (second source here) the flowers are good in salads. Huh. I didn't know that. They say you can chew the boiled roots, too, but it doesn't sound enjoyable.

Can you use any portion of this plant to make something that would be truly useful for you? Alternately, can you use any portion of this plant to make something just for fun, just one time?

One-time use: Make a chain for the kids from the stem.

Can this plant survive on the groundwater available to it, or does it need to be watered?

The particular plant I have in mind is in my yard and would probably die if I didn't water it. However, an orange columbine does grow wild along the Deschutes and Tumalo rivers, mostly on the hillsides, and all over the Camp Sherman area.

Do you see any other creatures -- birds or bees or squirrels -- using this plant?

I have never seen this happen, but mustn't bees and butterflies use it?

What does this plant look like right now, during this season and at the time of day you're writing?

It's January 17 around 3pm. You can't even tell it's there. In the fall I cut back the dried stems, so at the moment it's just a small pile of potential!

Ski season arriveth

Two mornings a week I bring my kids to daycare, so two mornings a week I drive a short ways along Century Drive. Before me: a vehicle with snowboards or skis strapped to the roof. Behind me: a rig packed with people in ski hats, goggles dangling from the rearview mirror.

Then I turn and they continue on to Mt. Bachelor.

*sigh*

Last Friday my husband took the morning off work to join me and Artist Sister-in-law on the mountain. "I am entirely too well to work," he said.

Friday morning snowboarding

Sunny today and so clear the sky is everywhere. On the mountain I felt like I was in it. Artist Sister-in-law and my husband and I sat in the middle of one of the northwest runs to admire Sparks Lake, frozen way down below, and across from us -- at arm's length -- South Sister and Broken Top.

My sister-in-law was giddy with happiness. "I'm just glad to be here!" she said. "I'm just so glad to be alive!"

But it was cold. Eeee ya! The wind howled at the top of the Outback chair, -20 degrees with the wind chill. The only way to stay warm was to get stuck in the deep, chalky powder in the trees, which I did a few times. Oh, yeah.

Hwy 372* closed

My water-loving brother-in-law says that one winter day many many years ago ODOT closed the road to Mt. Bachelor. I can't remember why. They closed the road after about 500 people had arrived in the parking lot. It was like the 500 had their own private mountain. The weather was fine, the snow was new. Fresh tracks for everyone!

*

This morning -- for only the second time in the family's memory -- ODOT again closed the road to Mt. Bachelor. My husband didn't believe it. He saw the note on both ODOT and Mt. Bachelor's web sites, but it hadn't been updated for two hours. We could see clouds to the west but at our house the sky was clear, the wind silent. So we did as we had planned, rushing through breakfast and gearing up and then dropping Sasha at her grandmother's house at exactly 7:50 and then heading up for Blake's first ski lesson...

...and were stymied by a huge digital sign just past the final Century Drive traffic circle: HWY CLOSED 5 MI AHEAD.

Hrm. Amazing. It's still closed.

Artist Sister-in-law lives in one of those new subdivisions along Century Dr., so we stopped by. It's really closed! Isn't it amazing? Why is it closed? What does the web site say?

Artist Sister's husband cooked breakfast while we exclaimed and watched the ODOT channel and hit "refresh" on Mt. Bachelor's web site. Artist Sister fielded calls on her phone, my husband on his cell phone. Is it still closed? You're in line at the roadblock? The line is how long? Well come by! So Artist Sister's husband made more coffee as various colleagues U-turned out of line and stopped by to give us updates, rumors. They said the wind blew so hard last night that the groomers had trouble grooming. They said the wind blew so hard it covered the roads as fast as the snowplows could plow. They said the sky was white, that in places along the road visibility was close to nothing.

Finally at 9:30 the web site said GET READY and some of our visitors dashed to their cars. We waited for them to report back. At 9:45 the web site said LIFTS ON STANDBY -- the three most insignificant lifts on the mountain. Just past 10am our friends reported that another lift seemed to have opened, but that the parking lot was not at all well-cleared, and we sat for awhile speculating on what a godawful mess it must be up there. Should we brave it? I don't know, I don't know...

*

No, no, we didn't take Blake up there. His class was cancelled. We went ice skating instead. And no, the ice skating did not stop him from whining about how much he would rather be skiing!

* Surprisingly fascinating article about Hwy 372 on Wikipedia.