Monthly Board Meetings are the FIRST Tuesday of the month in Room 310 at the Douglas County Courthouse at 5:00 pm.
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Tami Braz 541-773-0402 bntjbraz@gmail.com
Though I’m So Old
My friends quite often ask of me
Why does an old man plant a tree?
It grows so slow, it will not pay
A profit for you anyway.
Then why in winter storm and cold
Do you plant when you’re so old?
The answers seem hard to define
When muscles ache and they are mine.
But I just cannot stand to see
A place where there should be a tree.
So that, in part, as years unfold
Is why I plant when I’m so old.
I know that animals, bugs and things,
Love trees, so do such as go on wings.
So, creatures wild that benefit
Is one more reason I can’t quit
From planting trees while I can hold
My planting hoe, though I’m so old.
Then there is my family
Young folks who will follow me.
I’d like to leave them with some land
Stocked with trees and looking grand.
These gifts I value more than gold
So, I plant a tree, though I’m so old
And taxes too for schools and roads
With jobs and lumber for abodes.
I won’t see these things, I won’t be here
But in my mind, it’s very clear.
The words of some who could be polled
Might thank a man who is so old.
Man should be proud of what’s his own
And how he’s managed what he’s grown.
But management must be begun
By planting seedlings one by one.
And so, my pride I will uphold,
I’ll plant a tree though I’m so old.
Author: Seventy-Seven-year-old Robert Mealey, Oregon Tree Farmer of the Year for 1989
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