Hold Tight Little Roots

Arbor Day was at the end of April. An organization sent my first graders each an oak tree sapling. By sapling they meant a stick in some dirt with a paper around it promising that it was a tree. I'm sure that most of my students threw them away (or their parents did because they don't want an oak tree dominating their yards). But we happened to be buying a house that week and I couldn't bear to throw mine away; I wanted to plant it in our dirt of a yard. So I kept it in a cup of water and there it has sat for nearly a month.

Now it has four little leaves and some awesome looking roots growing out of the planter. It amazes me that the little stick really is a baby tree. I haven't had the guts to plant it yet because we have high-level winds in Riverton. We have also been laying a sprinkler system and spreading top-soil (which the dump truck put exactly where my tree is going to live - it would have been tragic).

The time has come to plant my baby tree. I think it's awesome to have a tree the same age as our house. But now the consequences are weighing on my mind a bit (mostly because Jon is making me very aware of them). Do we want to rake leaves from a huge tree every year? Will the roots take over the yard? Will our neighbors be mad about that? Will it fall and kill us all in our sleep? :)

Okay, I'm being a little overdramatic. But I seriously have to decide if a tree is really for me. Since I don't have a pet or a child, I think I could handle it. Besides, it will be 10 years or so before it has enough leaves to be consequential in the fall. And 20 years until it will be big enough to fall and crush us. And, it's the least I can do to help produce more oxygen!