The pine tree I was in front of in yesterday’s post is beautiful and one of about 10 that live in front of my house.

But guarding the northwest corner of my property are 2 very old, very beautiful Ponderosa Pines.  My friend, Kris, who looked at the property for me when I was in Michigan went on and on about the “grandfather” pine on the property corner – that it was worth buying the property for that tree. 

“He” is a beauty – the photos cannot capture the size, the feeling of power and longevity – the patriarch…  But equally beautiful and interesting is a smaller tree to the right.  It is a bit hard to see in the photo but it is to the far right in the upper left photo – smaller, but same reddish-brown bark.  I say that this is a husband and wife pair – the long married couple standing side-by-side against all nature has to throw at them.  And they are gatekeepers – there is a game trail that passes right between them. 

Bob Love, Confluence Timber, who logged the property estimates that the large tree is over 200 years old – maybe 250.  That is incredible to me to think that this tree has lived through 4 or 5 generations of humans.  Bob guesses that the only reason the tree was still standing, i.e. not cut for timber by someone – was that it was so close to the property boundaries that no one knew exactly whose it was.  So… he belongs to no one…

There are 2 slash marks on the trunk at about my eye level.  Bob says the marks are Grizzly marks – Grizzlies use the Ponderosa to mark their territory and warn other Griz off.  I like to think that this place is “guarded” by a Griz and the trees…