Seeing the Full Cycle

Early Saturday morning I was awakened by loud sounds of rumbling thunder that shook the windows and walls.  It was incredibly loud and its vibrations were powerful.  Later that afternoon I walked around the yard and observed that the thunder must have caused a large rotten limb in one of our live oak trees to fall down to the ground.

The combination of the height from which it fell and the decomposed condition of the limb caused it to shatter once it hit the ground.

There's no telling how old this tree is - well over a hundred years old for sure.  While the tree lives on, limbs die from time to time and fall like this.  Before it falls, however, a metamorphosis is taking place up in the tree.  When the limb dies, it rots and the wood softens.  It becomes a haven for bugs and worms and those attract woodpeckers that come and hammer away at the wood, seeking the tasty morsels contained within.

These holes caused by woodpeckers and exacerbated by continued rot, enlarge and become nesting places for all sort of critters like squirrels, birds, rats and who knows what else.  They poop in the hole in the wood and speed the decay and decomposition of the wood.  Finally, it falls and if I was to kick this limb, it would pretty much turn to sawdust.  Actually, parts of it looks just like soil.

What's interesting to me about this is the cycle that this 'compost' that I'm holding in my hand has taken.  The compost in my hand is primarily rotten wood and (I think) some sort of fecal matter from some animal mixed in.  That's not very pleasant to talk about, I know, but it is nature at work.

This is a handful of fertility that I'll reincorporate into my garden soil.  It is interesting for me to think about the long trip that this handful of compost has traveled.  You see, it's not just people that recycle things.  God has created nature to do the same.

Many, many years ago this live oak tree pulled nutrients and minerals from the soil. This enabled the acorn to grow into a mighty oak, stretching its limbs skyward. Now many years later those nutrients and minerals are returning to the soil, falling downward and are broadcast around the base of the tree.  If I was to leave the remains of the rotten limb where it lies, the compost would create rich topsoil that would continue to nourish the tree from which it fell.  I think I'll move the rotten material into the garden to nourish my garden soil and grow some good vegetables for our table.

The Old Picket Fence

Years ago we hired a friend to build our barn.  It is the red barn you see in the banner above and in the background of the picture below.  Rather than purchase new materials, our friend had some left over lumber from a construction project and then he sought out someone who wanted to tear down a shed.  He proceeded to demolish the building and reclaimed some of the old tin, lumber and tongue in groove siding to construct our barn.  This kept costs down and added a little character to our barn.

When he had completed erecting our barn, there was a pile of leftover tongue and groove siding that remained.  In keeping with the reclaiming theme, I made a pattern and used an old jig saw to make pickets and constructed a picket fence in front of the garden.  The boys and I then whitewashed the picket fence as shown in this post: Whitewashing  I always wanted a picket fence and the fence served both an aesthetic purpose as well as a functional one – it looked good and kept critters out of the garden.

A white green picket fence?

Well, fast forward a few years and our picket fence has fallen on rough times.  It no longer serves an aesthetic purpose.  There is a green tinge of algae that covers the pickets and while this could be remedied with a good spraying with a pressure washer and gentle scrubbing with bleach, it would be a waste of time.  The fence is too far gone.

Pickett's Charge...

The pickets, made from old tongue and groove siding, are not made from treated lumber and out in the elements, the fence quickly rots.  If I was to use a pressure washer to clean it, the pickets would break off, much like the ones you see on the gate.

Where moth and rust (and rot) destroys...

I hate to see things in disrepair like this and I have it on my project list for this fall to replace it.  Over lunch today I was researching to see if it might not be a better idea to go with white vinyl picket fence panels instead of a wooden one as I’d only have to clean the fence with bleach and water versus replacing the fence again.  An eight foot panel runs roughly $90 and I’ve got about a 24 foot stretch not counting the gate.  It’s not cheap, but more permanent.

Wooden picket fences are sort of like people.  We were created for a purpose.  Although we may like to think we look good, our time on earth is fleeting and our physical bodies are not immune to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  We get stained each day by the world and worn down and slowly decay.

James 4:14

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

How sad.  However, that’s not the end of the story.  Our old picket fence will probably be taken down and get burned in a bonfire this fall.  We don’t have to be exactly like the picket fence.  Unlike the picket fence, we have souls that will live for eternity.  Although our bodies wear out, our souls live on.  Although our picket fence will burn, our spirit lives on and yearns.

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."