Nebraska: The Good LIfe

There was a time that I thought I would simply die if I didn't get to move back to the Black Hills. Being away from Harding County was agonizing. The older I get the more I realize that I had better get used to the idea of being transplanted in Omaha and I too have taken root, like the 35 trees we have sucking up water in our own yard.

He Who Must Be Obeyed put in a swimming pool about 30 years ago, built a nice redwood privacy fence around it and planted 13 Scotch Pine trees in the back yard. It is ever so pleasant, but it isn't the Black Hills.

There is something about planting trees and staying long enough to see them tower above the roof to make you feel you that you belong. I am not sure a person can own a tree. You can plant one and rake up the leaves and pick the pears; but other than cut a limb here or there, you can't really control a tree unless you cut it down. I think the tree really owns you. We found that out when we had to dig out the sewer line from the house to the street and discovered the tree owned that as well.

So we tried to make our own little Black Hills in the back yard. Pines, water, birds and a few flowers. It isn't. It is nice and I like it but it doesn't smell of petrichor when it rains, it just smells like earthworms.