Feeling a little vulnerable

Preparing for catastrophe

The wind took down another tree yesterday, a wild cherry from the little grove at the edge of the road. We came home to find it all cut up in firewood size lengths. Presumably by someone who needed to drive up the road. Hope nobody’s car got squished this time.

As my car just got squashed by a larger tree, now I’m looking up at the trees all around our property and thinking they have it in for us. And the gift my brother gave me for my birthday on Sunday has taken on a sinister aspect.

Dale is sales manager of a cigar company. He plays golf with big shots, brings great wines and cheeses to family parties and gifts from him tend to be beautiful blown glass pieces or spectacular hanging plants.

A gift of preparedness

Imagine my surprise when this year he filled a crumpled paper bag with two beeswax candles, a length of jute (for fire starting) three jars of home canned veggies, three bars of handmade soap, a box of Douglas Fir Tip Tea, and two books. One called Backyard Medicine and the other Just in Case, how to be self-sufficient when the unexpected happens. He also casually dropped into the conversation the cozy fact that Concepcion, Chile is now ten feet farther from Argentina than it used to be.

For my cosmopolitan brother to behave this way is a sure sign of world cataclysm, so I’m paying attention and preparing for catastrophe to strike. I looked in the medicine book and found that wild cherry bark makes a good cough syrup. I now have a lifetime supply, so guess what a certain someone will find in his Christmas stocking?

And when the big fir I’ve been worrying about finally comes down on our heads I’ll be able to replenish my stock of fir tip tea. There’s plenty of cherry firewood to boil the water.