{"id":9822,"date":"2025-03-15T10:50:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/?p=9822"},"modified":"2025-03-15T10:50:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:50:52","slug":"fractally-branched-and-oozing-sap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/15\/fractally-branched-and-oozing-sap\/","title":{"rendered":"Fractally Branched and Oozing Sap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A month ago, around February 13, SW Virginia sagged under an ice blanket, everything coniferous leaning or buckling or some combination thereof. Roads blocked, downed lines, a pop rocks concert throughout the long dark of night. We lost power for 48 hours, only to have it restored just as steady rains rinsed through the region dumping more water than we’d gauged in one day in these three plus years. The holler washed, toggling from soil course to water course, to what I would guess was a depth of at least 10 inches. And the creek spilled over the driveway, another first, though the washout was minor in the end. Not that there is any such thing as an end. A weather event lashes down. We clean up. And so that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to for the past several weeks, aside from joining Is. and her roommate E. on short trip to San Diego, and then being sick for a solid week at the end of that trip. Friday I was back in the yard again for some tree cleanup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Figure
Figure 1. Shed and coops at mid-holler, facing north, where a tall stand of white pines populates the ridgeline. During a mid-February ice storm, 5-7 pines split and fell over, littering the terraced slope with branches and trunks. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A mature stand of white pines towers weak and leanerly over the north side of the holler. It has ‘we are soon about to fall down’ energy. Are they thirty or forty years old? I’d guess so. Fifty or 100 trees dropped in the ground in, say, 1985. They are bedraggled, showing lots of signs of shedding whole trees or major parts of trees in recent years. I am older than them; I get it. February’s conditions brought down four or five of them, and elsewhere throughout the holler as many as ten more trees snapped off their tops or leaned over kaput. I have a decent Echo chainsaw. It’s plastic, nothing to brag about it’s bar length, so just one notch up the model numbers from a child’s chainsaw. But just this once, I decided I could use an extra hand. I texted a landscaping crew we’d used a couple of times to weed eat the creak bed last summer, and they were interested, said they would stop by, then didn’t. No show. No message. Just blew it off. So I crawled back to the drawing board, a new query posted to Everything Christiansburg, and found a generalist willing to cut the trunks into 15-inch pieces, wood burner sized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have brushed a few of the trunks so as to introduce a gradual, incremental method to the cleanup. I’d told myself this week, spring break week for VT, would be good for two hours a day in springlike weather, late afternoon breaks from the computer to chip away, saw away, branch dragging into piles, the slow clearings not long behind. Two hours on the Echo chainsaw is about two refuels, allowing for interruptions to clear branches and make space. But then I got drawn waders deep into detailing the pond, and that cascaded into bigger pond retaining wall problems than I was bargaining for, so there went a day, and I still don’t know enough about hydraulic cements but the pond wall still stands. And it will be repaired, eventually, or even likelier, it will crumble. Masonry not being high on my short list of competencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I look at the trees in various states of brokenness and leaning along the banks, I size up their cleanup and think it will quick, manageable, even basic. They look small, no more heavy or complex than a nub of steamed broccoli. I’m really ready. Gloves on. Water bottle. Appropriate footwear. I let the chickens out and get to it, sawing then hauling, bigger branches then smaller ones. I am not getting better at guessing correctly the work involved. I always underestimate. The cleanup is slower; the work is more; the wood is heavier. The chickens, if they notice at all, quietly celebrate that there will be more snail’s-paced afternoons free-ranging as I trundle along, small branches in this pile, medium limbs still needing chainsaw work here, the rest stacked in the woodshed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Figure 2. A blue Ford Maverick loaded with 12′ sheets of corrugated metal, sandwiched between a few framing planks, flagged with pink plastic, and secured with nylon straps. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tree cleanup notwithstanding, dubious labor estimates favor me now and then, meaning that sometimes I imagine something will be arduous and it turns out to be a cinch. This happened to be the case when, after weeks of overthinking the tools I would need to cut sheet metal, I got started on the chicken coop roof. I’d read around about needing right and left curving sheers, about grinder blades, about using a circular saw with a cheap wood blade on backwards, about nibblers, and so on. Phone calls to my dad and to my brother. How would you cut it? And then I ordered the metal, picked it up, and got started, figuring it would be the hardest part of the job. I was convinced I was going to screw up a few cuts. But then I tried it, and it was nothing, a breeze. Measure twice, Sharpie line, and tin snips eased through it swiftly, straight lines, not much hazardous waste (I was worried about curls of sharp metal too small to clean up effectively and right-sized for harming the chickens). This kind of being wrong about labor feels light and the holler saturates again with hues of hope and possibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Figure 3. Photograph of a chicken coop and run, an 8′ by 8′ metal structure wrapped in hardware cloth and covered with a shiny metal roof.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Such is wayfinding in projects. Venture in and rarely is it as I imagined it would be. I’m routinely off at guessing how many hours it will take to clear a tree. Yet, in another project, like the coop roof, a task I imagine to be immensely complicated turns out to be as easy as cutting a sheet of construction paper. As grand inconclusion goes, these puzzles are a lot like scholarship, grounded formations beholden to the unpredictability of labor and materials and time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A month ago, around February 13, SW Virginia sagged under an ice blanket, everything coniferous leaning or buckling or some combination thereof. Roads blocked, downed lines, a pop rocks concert throughout the long dark of night. We lost power for 48 hours, only to have it restored just as steady rains rinsed through the region…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[170,3314],"tags":[3566,3564,3183,3565,2785,1055,3568,3567,698,779,2566],"class_list":["post-9822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-method","category-wonder-hollow","tag-branches","tag-cleanup","tag-coop","tag-estimates","tag-ice","tag-labor","tag-projects","tag-roof","tag-scholarship","tag-time","tag-trees"],"yoast_head":"\nFractally Branched and Oozing Sap - Earth Wide Moth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/15\/fractally-branched-and-oozing-sap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fractally Branched and Oozing Sap - Earth Wide Moth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A month ago, around February 13, SW Virginia sagged under an ice blanket, everything coniferous leaning or buckling or some combination thereof. 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What is that sound? | Many of the HU211 students are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Under a Bushel"","block_context":{"text":"Under a Bushel","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/under_a_bushel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6773,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/26\/buffalo-route\/","url_meta":{"origin":9822,"position":1},"title":"Buffalo Route","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"June 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting at 8 a.m. this morning, I was behind the wheel of the Element, high-tailing it from St. Clair Shores to Syracuse, north along the construction-jacked I-94 in moon patrol gear, eastward over the Blue Water Bridge into Canadia and then across peninsular Ontario to the southernmost point of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travelog"","block_context":{"text":"Travelog","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/travelog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6799,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/29\/one\/","url_meta":{"origin":9822,"position":2},"title":"One","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"July 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Is. hosted her one-year birthday bash this afternoon--a sunny garden party with swimming, balloons, grilled foods, friends and more friends, sandbox play, and cake with ice cream. 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At that point she will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Under a Bushel"","block_context":{"text":"Under a Bushel","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/under_a_bushel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Swim Party","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1207\/945279980_2b933f314c_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9732,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/05\/michigan-pot-hole-durability-myths\/","url_meta":{"origin":9822,"position":3},"title":"Michigan Pot Hole & Durability Myths","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"December 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash It wasn't always the case that you could breeze into Sugar Magnolia, the confectionary and stationery shop in downtown Blacksburg, for an ice cream cone and find among their eight or ten regular rotation flavors one called \"Michigan Pot Hole.\" The store opened in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/jason-leung-Q6uTgpjlE7A-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/jason-leung-Q6uTgpjlE7A-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/jason-leung-Q6uTgpjlE7A-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/jason-leung-Q6uTgpjlE7A-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/jason-leung-Q6uTgpjlE7A-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/jason-leung-Q6uTgpjlE7A-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6213,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2005\/01\/18\/tr\/","url_meta":{"origin":9822,"position":4},"title":"TR","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"January 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Met 205ers this evening.\u00a0 I'll probably jinx the whole dy-nam, but all in all, it was one of the more encouraging first classes I can remember teaching (which might only indicate that my memory is on the fritz).\u00a0 We broke the ice, socialized until it was too noisy, rolled through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dry Ogre Chalking"","block_context":{"text":"Dry Ogre Chalking","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/dry_ogre_chalking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7287,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/documenting-the\/","url_meta":{"origin":9822,"position":5},"title":"Documenting The Week That Was In A Single Photo","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"September 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The week? Well, as you can see, there was ice cream. As for the ice cream, I neither stepped in it while trying to get into the car nor had a taste of it before it was discarded so carelessly as you see it here. In fact, I don't even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Slouching Toward"","block_context":{"text":"Slouching Toward","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/slouching_toward\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ice Cream","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4146\/4974572181_b3294f42c5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9822"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9834,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9822\/revisions\/9834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}