Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

   Night after night I'm foolish enough to tune in to the nightly news. I don't know why. As the old saying goes, misery loves company so I guess I must get some bizarre pleasure out of hearing what is going on in the world and perhaps I'm secretly glad that I'm not going through some of what others are facing. There is no two ways about it though, we've all been impacted by this ridiculous virus. What I don't understand is why is there such a panic over something that impacts something like two percent of the population? Personally I think it's a complete overreaction and I'm paranoid enough to believe that it's a kind of social experiment to see how far we in America are willing to go to be "safe".  How many of our constitutional freedoms are we willing to part with?  Anyway, I don't want to get on my soapbox. We hear enough opinions and bad news every night without my two cents worth. What I wanted to mention was something that

   This past week my daughter Jen came home from work only to be greeted with a view of her beautiful Noble Fir tree decimated by IPEC, the local power company. Without warning or an opportunity to be on site when the cutting was happening, and without any input, she was totally caught off guard. She was both devastated and angry when she saw the destruction. The Noble Fir, which was totally on her property, was the only one in town. In a place where Sitka Spruce, Hemlock and Alder trees are as common as rocks on a beach, this tree stood out as a thing of beauty. Noble is an apt name for these firs, although as you can see from these pictures, it's anything but  now. She isn't the only one angry or disappointed in the short sided decision to eliminate one whole side of branches. The previous owner of the house had received the tree from her now deceased father and it was a lasting reminder of him whenever she passed by. I understand the need to trim branches from