Alhambra Valley Tree Farm revisited

Has it already been 12 months since our last visit to the cut-your-own tree farm at the top corner of Briones Regional Park? This year, we took roommate Clare's truck. She's a gardener, so I knew she'd be useful in getting the tree back to the vehicle. I was hoping for a much easier time than Nicholas and I had, last year in the rain and mud.


The view is, of course, bucolic and idyllic. And invigorating. The Bay Area has got to have the lock on greatest diversity of microclimates per unit area.


We found a tree that no one else had chosen in its entire life. It had clearly gotten too large for most people to imagine it in their homes. It was so big, Clare begin to weep a little for it. "It's big enough to be a people," I agreed.

Timmmber!


Oh, okay, I felt a twinge, too, and before I actually laid the blade to the trunk I said a quick prayer of gratitude and request for forgiveness. Furthermore, since I cut the tree so high up its trunk, it's not dead at all, merely coppiced. It'll grow a new crown over the next few years. New crowns tend to have a better christmas tree shape, and are one of our civilization's few truly sustainable resources that we understand and value.