At a conference on the Wet Coast in 1993, we all got a nice little sapling in our goodie bags. I don't know what other people did with them, but I planted mine. As it grew from year to year, I imagined it filling out to its full 300' potential, until people no longer said, "That house with the tree benind it," but "Ya know, that corner with the big tree, and the little house in front of it...." I identified it positively as Western Red Cedar when it was about 4' tall.

Actually, I figured one of my grandchildren could cut it down when it hit 50 or 60', and make something of it, like a boat.

It had reached about eight feet, and over the last year began to turn more and more brown, in spite of my efforts to care for it. Finally, I had to admit defeat, and cut it down, which is not a terribly bad thing, because I would like to build a garage in that corner, and I wasn't going to cut or move that tree while it was alive.

It had a diameter of about 5" when we cut it down. It's a nice piece of firewood, and I may be able to cut some rounds out of the trunk, varnish them, and use them as coasters.

That was probably the best goodie bag I ever got at a conference... Just wanted to share my pain.