Passover at Fosson Family Trails

Its been over 45 years but I can still hear her scream echoing through the hollow, "Gene, Gene, Gene!! You cut down one of my little pink dogwoods!" In 1965, dad may have been the king of the farm but mom was the queen and she was the guardian of the little dogwoods and redbuds. When we first moved to Fosson Family Trails, the old farm was beautiful with an abundance of flowering dogwoods and redbuds. Unfortunately, over the years, the stroke of a scythe, the slip of an axe or an overzealous chainsaw slowly eradicated the vast population in spite of mom's efforts to protect them. The latent errors were often committed on cold late fall days while clearing brush and cutting firewood long after the signature blooms had fallen. Only my brother Don possessed the keen eye to pick out a bare dogwood in the woods; to dad and me, they were just brush. Our errors in judgement were often overlooked until Spring when mom would realize her favorite little trees were gone. Dad had an obsession with pushing the woods north to open up vast areas of new pasture land. His dream was to have a herd of champion Hereford cattle just as his own father had raised 85 miles south on Lost Creek in Carter County, Kentucky. As a result, for decades, there were no longer any dogwood or redbud on the farm. Over the past few years, through some focused effort they are slowly coming back. I am now the self appointed caretaker and new guardian of the dogwoods and redbuds. Every Spring, I walk the farm with fluorescent nylon ties and affix to the trees as they bloom in April. This is 'passover' at Fosson Family Trails as the ties provide a visual indicator to avoid cutting these special little trees down when bush hogging or clearing brush. Walking the farm this evening for over 3 hours, its as if my parents were accompanying me as I know this is what they both would want. This year, thanks to the warm weather, I tagged over a dozen new trees that were not identified last year. One day, the farm will once again bloom with pink and white dogwood and redbuds as it did in 1965.