Treemendous

100 saplings. That was the mission for our local nature park. They put out the call and we knew we wanted to be a part of it. We assumed that if we signed up early, we would be guaranteed a spot to plant at least one tree, perhaps a few more if there were no shows.

We never expected to plant all 100. Yes, we were the only volunteers who showed up. There was a call for a little rain in the forecast, you know the 30% usual, drizzly here and there. But that was enough to scare everyone else back indoors. It broke my heart but raised my spirits to get dirty and start working.

I called on the neighbor girls and aside from the organizers that was it. There is nothing like the power of pre-teen girls and one wild little boy to get a job done!

In short, they rocked it. Digging holes, setting the saplings just right, and covering them with tubes so the local deer won't devour them before they have a chance to grow big and strong. Sure it drizzled. Sure we got filthy. Sure it was hard work. But we giggled and collected spiders and threw pine cones and picked brightly colored leaves and before we knew it, 100 knew saplings were feeling the warm embrace of the earth.

One of the girls said, "It's amazing to think that I can bring my kids here and these trees will still be here and I can tell them I planted them."

  I can't think of a better way to spend a rainy day.