Pine and Fir Trees

 I was born in Seattle and spent my first 4 years in Lake Forest Park which is a suburb of Seattle. I found that during this period of my life I bonded with especially pine and fir trees. Throughout my life I have gravitated towards them and pines also live on the coast where I now live along with Oaks and Redwoods as well as planted trees from other areas. Also, Manzanita which is often somewhere between a bush and a tree (however, in tree form I think it's called something else like Madrone or something) is also in California a lot of places especially in foothills or mountains under around 5000 feet or 6000 feet in elevation.

But, I find a special experience often around all trees but sometimes Pine I can relate to the easiest. I have two trees in the backyard that are of the local variety that I planted 10 or 15 years ago. They were volunteers that blew in the wind from local pine cones I guess and landed in a planter next to my hot tub. So, I planted them once they grew to a foot or two high above the planter they had found root in.

Also, when I lived in Mt. Shasta I picked Pine cones one season in the early 1980s. I think because we had a contract and it was a bumper crop for pine and fir and port Orford Cedar cones that we made a good profit because we were selling cones to the state for replanting and not working by the hour.

However, I do remember that the only real way to harvest cones from Douglas Fir trees is pretty dangerous because first you bring a big 25 foot tarp and lay it on the ground below a big Douglas Fir tree. (It's what most homes are built with in their 2 by 4 studs because they tend to have the most strength and yet are easier to work with. Even though oak would be the strongest it also can be brittle and break sometimes too. So, oak is better for flooring and tables and things like this but not for framing a house. Also, oak wood is not that straight mostly so making 2 by 4s of Oak isn't something that's practical beyond flooring for it's strength regarding people walking upon it without dents or scratches.

But, the point I was trying to make here is I have an affinity for Pine and Fir Trees starting with being born in Seattle where they were all around me when I was really little.

I have always felt unconditionally loved by trees in my life. Trees are completely symbiotic to humans by the way on many different levels. We give them the carbon dioxide we breathe out and they give us oxygen that they breathe out. So, this is just one level of how symbiotic that humans are with trees.

In the mid 1800s there was a time about during the gold rush where native Americans that were dead from a local plague were leaning against Oak trees from San Francisco to Sacramento. So, being with a tree during the death process also comforts native Americans traditionally even among the California Tribes of native Americans historically.

Trees are really amazing things that help human survive here on earth from the oxygen that they give us to the wood that helps us survive in the homes we build to the dead wood that we often burn or have burned in fireplaces or campfires or wood stoves that kept us alive through cold winters.

So, on many many different levels humans are symbiotic (interdependent) with Trees and have been for thousands and thousands of years.