How I Ruined My Camera

I spent a month logging with my dad this summer.  Working as a substitute teacher didn't really leave me with enough extra cash to make it through the summer without working, and I knew that my dad could have used the help.  So I spent a few weeks cutting bear-damaged cedar and various odds and ends.

He's been logging that same piece of property since before I was born.  Since he does selective cutting, there is more timber on his property now than when he started.

At any rate, it was kind of cool to be able to hunt for plants while I was working.  While I didn't find anything spectacular, I found this interesting weeping cedar- Thuja plicata.  This is a really big, long-lived forest tree that lives in the western United States.  The fragrant wood resists rot, so it is the material of choice for fences.

The form is upright (this is a tall, nearly full-grown tree), but the upper branches are a bit pendulous.  Below is a more typical crown of another tree for comparison:

As always...  this is something that I'll have to evaluate in cultivation to see if it is worth growing.

On the last day of logging, I took the 12 gauge and the camera up on the skidder (the machine that you use to drag the logs out of the woods).  That gun kicks like you wouldn't believe.  I shot out a couple of pieces, and then figured it wasn't worth getting bruises by trying to get more.  I stuck the cuttings when I got home, so we'll see how they do.

Thuja plicata is in the Cypress family.  The great thing about this family is that most of the species in it are really easy to propagate.  You can take cuttings in the late summer or fall- instead of doing grafting in the middle of the winter.  It is so much nicer when you don't have to worry about a long trek in the middle of January :)

The bad part of this story is that I left my camera on the skidder.  It would have been fine during a normal August (we don't get rain in late summer very often), but this year we had some thunder showers.  My poor camera got wet and hasn't been the same since.  I've put it in front of a fan for several days- and it will take pictures now.  But the zoom button and the menu controls don't work.  I might have to try putting it in a bag of rice- I hear that sometimes work.

Since I'm on a limited budget these days, I can't just run out and buy a new one.  At least it still works a bit.  I can still take pictures- but they may not be zoomed in as much as I'd like.

That isn't really going to stop me from going out and finding new plants, though :)