Firewood cutting day.  Turns out, I made Willow’s most favorite tree on the farm into this:

Willow’s favorite tree

It was a traumatic discovery for me find Willow aghast at my cutting down a nice red oak for firewood.  Perhaps witnessing the tree getting cut down sealed it’s place as her “most favorite tree on the whole farm,” but it was already too late by the time I knew what was up. We had to have a long talk about cutting trees and forest management, well, the 5 year old version anyway.

Willow & Atlanta then made pictures in honor of the tree while I split the wood.  Later, we decided that we should each choose a special tree on the farm to call our own, one that we could watch grow and never cut.  Willow proceeded to walk around much of the farm on her own to look for her next favorite tree.  She selected a red maple that sits along the main farm road, allowing us to visit it frequently.  We marked the spot with a stake so that we’d always know for sure which tree is Willow’s.

After that, we all took a walk through the forest so that I could show everyone some of my favorite trees, many of which I have already marked.  I have lots of favorites, ranging from an old white pine, a red pine, a yellow birch , a cherry, a red oak, and a white oak to a sugar maple.