Not all days are perfect here on on homestead. There are days that make me wish we were living much deeper in the woods, further from people.

Some of the things that humans do make me want to scream! In fact I did scream and then I cried. I am really mad and I always cry when I get angry.

Yesterday started as a very lovely day. I spent hours picking raspberries, harvested some veggies, picked bugs off plants and spent a lot of time deep in thought as I worked in the gardens. The dogs rolled around in the grass and everyone was happy.

This perfect afternoon was shattered by obnoxious machinery noises. It sounded like a lot of earth rumbling machines and sawing. The forest echoes around the property amplifying all of this. Our homestead is normally a place where you can hear the bees buzzing, the squirrels chattering and the birds chirping. The road is extremely quiet and It is rare that you hear any vehicles or machinery.

I walked into the woods concerned and came upon orange tape marking trees along one of our property lines. Someone has been in the woods, not 45 paces from our driveway marking trees without a word to us. My heart sank because I have seen what people do to forests around here.

The dreadful take what you want with no concern for the earth, the wildlife, the plants, the environment, the FUTURE is right in my back yard and I resent it. I feel disgust and rage. Just as I was suffering through these feelings someone shared a quote from an article that resonated with me deeply. I wanted to share this message, it is so deeply important that humans learn to see this this.

Robin Wall Kimmerer expresses exactly how I feel in: 'Returning the Gift'. I highly suggest you read the complete piece.

We are showered every day with the gifts of the Earth, gifts we have neither earned nor paid for: air to breathe, nurturing rain, black soil, berries and honeybees, the tree that became this page, a bag of rice, and the exuberance of a field of goldenrod and asters at full bloom.

My economics colleagues speak of these everyday miracles as “natural resources,” as if they were our property, just waiting to be transformed. In the ecological sciences we call them “ecosystem services,” as if they were the inevitable outcomes of the ongoing function of the ecological machine. But, to me, simply as a human person filling my basket with berries and my belly with pie, they feel like gifts, bestowed by the other beings whose lives throb around us. source

Stewards of the land

We have purchased a 90 acre property and most of it is deeply forested. Although we hold a piece of paper, we are only just borrowing this land until we die. It will be here long after we have gone. We are doing all we can to nurture and care for this land. We selectively cut trees to help the forest, remove dead wood and practice responsible foraging. WE do our best and the forest remains for the most part untouched.

I spoke to my neighbour and told him about what I had discovered. He suspected that he knows who is behind the noise and went to investigate for me. He found plenty of logging equipment on site. The people involved in this own 100 acres and clear cut all 100 acres of it back in the late 70's.

I took a deep breath and silently cursed these people. Sometimes I really dislike humans.

History shows that a lot of people do not care about this planet. They will plunder and pillage for quick profits given the chance. The noise is consistent, and that is a sign that many trees have gone down already today. There is a chance we will have to listen to this massacre all summer long.

When we bought this home I was enchanted by the rolling hills and deep green lush forest that I saw everywhere. It seemed quite magical to me. I only learned this year that in the 50's there was no forest in this view. It had all been cut down and cleared for profit. We keep planting trees trying to fill in the open space as did the people that lived here before us.

You can see all of the young evergreens planted to re-forest this land. They run all along the road front. A good portion of our property is deep untouched forest.

For many years cattle grazed this land and then it was left to grow back. What has grown back is not the same diverse forest that once grew here. In fact, the original woods that covered this area is quite scarce and much if it is now considered protected land.

Only 1% of the historical Appalachian Hardwood forest are still standing. Gone are the basswood and butternut trees, gone are the now rare plant species such as the round-leaved hepatica, yellow lady’s slipper, showy orchis, Canada violet and maidenhair fernand and many other species that once thrived here.

There are irreversible consequences to everything that we do. These actions are eradicating entire species, changing animal migration patterns, destroying entire ecosystems, causing animals to starve and die, killing bees and changing the climate.

What will it take for people to change? When will people start to see the gifts that grow before us? I will try to hold hope in my heart (well maybe tomorrow - tonight I am just plain angry). Instead of leaving on a grumpy note I'll leave you with this:

The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyong reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see. ~ Edward Abbey

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