Green 4-Evah (March 28, 2012)

Here lie the mortal remains of Piney, the evergreen chopped down by Wind River Environmental last fall to make way for our septic tank—and chopped up by us last month to rid our front yard of the whale-sized pine carcass on it (Oh, Tannenbaum). Last Monday, our park supervisor, Richard Scott, kindly hauled over the DCR’s wood chipper and helped us clear our consciences by making mulch of the trunk and dismembered limbs. We won’t have time for gardening this year, so we’ll let the chips fall along the perimeter of the property, where Piney will live on amidst its kin at the edge of the forest. We have lots of dead trees to clear out from the woods that surround our yard. We plan to use the deciduous varieties for firewood, but the pines burn too hot for use indoors because of all the resin in them. We’re relieved to have found a way to recycle them too, as we have at least seven standing-dead evergreens to chop down and clear out from the property this summer.