Just Trying To Green Up The Place...

 Five years ago the plot of land where we now live was covered with weeds and just under the surface of the dirt, tons (literally...) of rocks. Fifty years ago no homes existed on our little hill...

And not a tree in sight.

Utah is the second-driest state in the country. It's not like there's no trees in our happy little state--they do exist. The key is water...water is the source of all life. Where there's water, there's trees. Our hill has water underneath contained in natural springs, but it took people to look on the hill and think, "That might be a nice area to build a house" for the trees to appear. With houses came yards, and one thing people like in their yards are trees.

Since we moved in a few years ago, we've tried to beautify the place. We have several trees--all fruit trees. This past week we planted a shrub, something we hope will grow and add color and oxygen-given life to us and other oxygen-breathing animals. If it lives and we take care of it, it will grow up strong.

A few weeks ago, I had an in-office meeting. I sat next to a former team member who lives in a different part of the valley. We talked about where we lived, both of us having moved from highly populated areas of the state and resettled in the north. On his property he has a brook and a pond and they're surrounded by trees. I told him our mountain has no trees, except those planted by those of us who live there. He was shocked.

It's strange...almost every tree I've seen in our state where people live were planted and cared for by humans. If no humans lived here, it would look the same as it did for thousand upon thousands of years. Nowadays it's cool to blame humans on everything bad.

Every once in a while, there's good stuff that happens, too.