When our good friend Hank first walked the property with us, and we walked to the high hill on the back acreage, he said, “I would build an observation tower here.” A tower to climb up into, to survey the hills, as storms blew in.

We cut down a beautiful, more-than-fifty-year old cedar tree the other day. It had grown too large, right next to the house, and was damaging the roof. And, unfortunately, it was blocking out much-desired sun along the south side of the house, and furthermore, the satellite internet dish would be best located just behind the tree on the roof. So we decided it was time for the tree to come down.

The cedar tree had four trunks, and after we cut the first one down, Paula suggested we use the tree for the observation tower, which would be built sometime in the future. That afternoon we tied two 16-foot cedar trunks to the back of Dad’s big red-and-white truck and hauled them up to the top of the hill, where they await the other two trunks from the same tree, and where they will wait for months (years?) until we get inspired to start the storm-viewing observation tower.